Mackie SDR 24/96 - Hard Drive upgrade?

[Oily]

Hi,
I've just bought an SDR, it comes with a 20GB internal drive which I would
like to replace with something much larger. Has anyone done anything similar
or have any idea what's the largest drive that an SDR will 'see' ?
I will be recording live bands playing for 1Hr x2, so the 20GB (90min) drive
isn't really big enough. I know I could buy another 20GB drive to plug in
the spare drive bay, but if I am going to buy another drive, I would like to
be sure to fit the largest size possible.
I tried asking Mackie but have yet to receive a reply.

Thanks,

Dave.

[WillStG]

>davematthews(AAATTT)bigfoot(DOTTT)com
> I've just bought an SDR, it comes with a 20GB internal drive which I would
like to replace with something much larger. Has anyone done anything similar or
have any idea what's the largest drive that an SDR will 'see' ? >

I beleive the SDR will take up to a 120 gig drive, it's not a 30 gig limit
like the MDR's have (or had, I think there's some kind of bios update for the
MDR available that wil allow them to "see" bigger drives.) You do realize if
you replace the internal harddrive you will void your warranty?

>I will be recording live bands playing for 1Hr x2, so the 20GB (90min) drive
isn't really big enough. I know I could buy another 20GB drive to plug in the
spare drive bay, but if I am going to buy another drive, I would like to be
sure to fit the largest size possible.>

You _need_ to go to the Mackie website and check out the MDR/SDR user's
forum. You will find info there that Mackie won't give you, like that the
internal harddrive has to jumpered as a slave drive and the removable has to be
jumpered as a master drive, where guys are buying the removable "Lian" hard
drive caddies from for under $30, and what hard drives being blown out where
they have experienced work well in practice.

BTW if you want to transfer your audio files to a computer the SDR's usb
connection is ridiculously slow. But you can buy a "firewire dock", and it
will accept the removable drive in it's caddie for quick file access in your
computer. These guys make them http://www.npstudios.com/firedock/

Cheers,

Will Miho
NY Music & TV Audio Guy
Off the Morning Show! & sleepin' In... / Fox News
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits

[Mike Rivers]

In article > "Oily" writes:

> I've just bought an SDR, it comes with a 20GB internal drive which I would
> like to replace with something much larger. Has anyone done anything similar
> or have any idea what's the largest drive that an SDR will 'see' ?

Mackie says "a couple of terabytes" but most people who are putting in
a large drive are using 120 or 160 gigabytes now. Don't put all your
eggs in one basket. It will be tempting if your drive is too large.

It's fairly easy to replace the internal drive on the SDR because
there's plenty of room inside the box. I believe that it needs to be
set to either "slave" or "cable select" (reports are that both work,
but it probably depends on the drive) in order to be recognized.

> I tried asking Mackie but have yet to receive a reply.

Mackie is very slow in responding to e-mail, and you probably won't
get a very satisfactory answer other than telling you what you can use
as an external drive (since they don't want to officially condone
making changes inside the box). You could ask on their support forum
though. I'm sure there are a few people who will come back with the
size and make of drive they're using successfully.



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[Leoaw3]

As others have said - big drives are no problem in the SDR.

I would strongly suggest using a drive plugged into the open drive bay. That
way, you still have the internal drive as well.

You don't have to go with Mackie's expensive drive - use the Lian-Li RH-58
drive carrier and a reasonable IDE drive. I've used a few different ones - I
always go for the ones with the 8meg buffer for speed. You can get the RH-58
from Directron.com for about $20. This gives you a rack as well that you can
mount in your PC if you want to access the data quickly from there.

Keep your warranty - get max flexibility - go external! ;>)

-lee-

[Oily]

Mike Rivers > wrote in message
news:znr1069167935k@trad...

>
> Mackie says "a couple of terabytes" but most people who are putting in
> a large drive are using 120 or 160 gigabytes now. Don't put all your
> eggs in one basket. It will be tempting if your drive is too large.
>
> It's fairly easy to replace the internal drive on the SDR because
> there's plenty of room inside the box. I believe that it needs to be
> set to either "slave" or "cable select" (reports are that both work,
> but it probably depends on the drive) in order to be recognized.
>

That's great, I was thinking I might only be able to go to about 30GB.
I also had a look at the Mackie Forum too. I thought I'd seen everything on
that site but somehow I must have skipped over that?
Anyway, great info!

Thanks Mike

Leoaw3 > wrote

>You don't have to go with Mackie's expensive drive - use the Lian-Li RH-58
>drive carrier and a reasonable IDE drive. I've used a few different ones -
I
>always go for the ones with the 8meg buffer for speed. You can get the
RH-58
>from Directron.com for about $20. This gives you a rack as well that you
can
>mount in your PC if you want to access the data quickly from there.
>
>Keep your warranty - get max flexibility - go external! ;>)
>

Just what I needed to hear, as I was told (by the shop) that Mackie have
stopped selling empty drive caddies.


Thanks Lee.

:-))

[kooch]

I assume this is compatible with the MDR as well?


Leoaw3 > wrote in message
...
> As others have said - big drives are no problem in the SDR.
>
> I would strongly suggest using a drive plugged into the open drive bay.
That
> way, you still have the internal drive as well.
>
> You don't have to go with Mackie's expensive drive - use the Lian-Li RH-58
> drive carrier and a reasonable IDE drive. I've used a few different
ones - I
> always go for the ones with the 8meg buffer for speed. You can get the
RH-58
> from Directron.com for about $20. This gives you a rack as well that you
can
> mount in your PC if you want to access the data quickly from there.
>
> Keep your warranty - get max flexibility - go external! ;>)
>
> -lee-

[Mike Rivers]

In article > "Oily" writes:

> Just what I needed to hear, as I was told (by the shop) that Mackie have
> stopped selling empty drive caddies.

They never really did sell them. It was in the original plan, and
there was a stock number and a dealer price for the empty carrier in
black with the cool box, but then they decided that too many people
would screw themselves by buying drives that didn't work well and
didn't want the word to get around that "The HDR (that was the
original, and remaining model in the line) only works with Mackie
drives." Much to the disappointment (and vocal outrage) of HDR
customers, the empty carrier was dropped from the line. Mackie said
you could buy one M-90 (drive in a carrier) and then put your own
drives in it, which was kind of a cop-out, but it didn't take people
very long to find the retail version of the RH-50 or RH-40 carrier.

The first year or so, some drives were iffy but people who didn't
want to pay $300 for a 20 GB Mackie branded drive dealt with it.
Nowadays just about any drive you get will work in an HDR - and then
drives 30 GB and smaller virtually disappeared from the retail market.
The stock HDR won't recognize a smaller drive at the BIOS level. They
just came up with a BIOS update this past summer that lets it
recognize drives up to 120 GB. That should hold us HDR owners for
another year or so.



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I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
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[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> I assume this is compatible with the MDR as well?

All Mackie drives and carriers are interchangeable. HDR and MDR
version 1.3 software and above has the same file hirearchy and project
structure as the SDR (this was different for earlier versions of the
HDR/MDR software). The only incompatibility is that without the BIOS
upgrade, the HDR/MDR won't support drives larger than 32 GB, so if
the SDR user is using a larger removable drive, it won't work in an
un-upgraded MDR.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
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[Leoaw3]

Mike Rivers wrote:
>but it didn't take people
>very long to find the retail version of the RH-50 or RH-40 carrier.

The Mackie SDR slot is compatible with RH-06, 10, 12, 20, 40, 47 carriers
(don't know about -50), but I prefer the RH-58 because it has two small cooling
fans to keep the hard disk a little cooler. I believe its what Mackie chose.
Directron.com sells it in beige or black (the version Mackie sells is black).
For $20. it seems like a no-brainer to me.

-lee-

While the other carriers work - they'll plug in and be OK - I prefer the RH-58,
because it has a couple of tiny fans to keep the hard disk cooler.

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> The Mackie SDR slot is compatible with RH-06, 10, 12, 20, 40, 47 carriers
> (don't know about -50)

Neither do I. That was a typo. I meant to type RH-58 which you already
now about. While any of those carriers may fit the slot, I don't know
for sure if all of them will actually work in the Mackie. I have read
some reports of people using other than RH-58 and RH-40 carriers that
fit, but did not work. I don't know why they didn't, and Mackie hasn't
investigated. They know what works and that's all they recommend.

> I prefer the RH-58 because it has two small cooling
> fans to keep the hard disk a little cooler.

The fans make noise. I don't like noise. I don't care how little they
are. And doesn't the beating (because they don't run at exactly the
same speed, and the speed wanders a bit) drive you nuts? You don't
need the cooling. Disconnect the fans and enjoy a quieter HDR.

> I believe its what Mackie chose.

Mackie buys a modified version of the RH-58. At the time the HDR came
out, you couldn't buy them in black (now you can) so Mackie had that
customized. In addition, the Mackie version doesn't have the fans, and
has a perforated metal plate (an RF shield) in its place.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
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