New DMT-8 hard disk?

[FrLonely]

Hello all. I have an old DMT-8vl Multitrack that I'd like to replace the hard disk for. It still contains the original (which I believe is 1.3 gigs - but the manual is a bit shady on that matter, so I'm really not sure) - which gives me about an hour or so to work with. My goal is to roughly triple that if possible. At any rate - I've been to the standard retailers in my area (Best Buy & Circ. City) and the smallest they seem to carry is about 40 gigs! A bit more than I need I think. In addition they all seem to have a slightly different cable... The multitrack has a 40 pin connector with a 40 conductor cable, while the hard disks that I've been looking at all have a 40 pin connector with an 80 pin cable. I tried one out just to see what would happen and I got an error message (something to the effect that there was no hard disk installed - no options to format or anything...) Is old Bessy just too out-dated to upgrade? Or am I just looking in the wrong places? Any advice would be greatly apreciated. Thanx!

~Maxx

[Dom Franco]

I just search ebay for Quantum, Fireball etc.. Western digital...

2.55 Gigs give you 1 hour of recording. I have 2 DMT8VL's that I sync together for 16 tracks, and I have several extra hard drives that work great!

You should be able to pick up a few older hard drives for 15- 20 $ each.

E mail me and I will send you more information.

Dom Franco

[FrLonely]

Thanx a bunch for the input Dom! I'm not an E-Bay shopper, so the thought never crossed my mind! I just bid on a brand new Fireball SE with 6.4 gigs, which (according to an old link I found for a DMT-8 promotion page) is a Fostex factory tested drive. So I shouldn't have to worry about compatibility. The list says that that should get me about 2 1/2 hours of recording time! It's good to hear that someone's still using these old-timers. And not just one, but two! I had considered trying to track down a second one myself a year or so ago, but never did get any further than kicking the idea around in my head. It would be nice to have a few more tracks to play around with. In fact I ran a quick search while I was at E-Bay and found a couple there in the $300 - $350 range. I was tempted, but my budget kicked me in the ass and changed my mind. Oh well... Maybe another day. I'm probably better off finding something without a built in mixer anyway. I already have a 16 channel Tascam mixer that runs circles around the mixer in the DMT-8. And it sends MMC too, so I really don't even have to touch the Fostex aside from creating tempo maps (one of my most favorite features!), and flipping the power switch. Any way . . . I've gone off on a bit of a borish rant, so I'd better wrap it up. Thanx again Dom. I almost had to wipe my bands old set just to make room for the new one. You've saved us all!

~Maxx

P.S. - There were 3 of those drives for sale from the same company. All brand new (pre-formatted with fat32 - whatever that is!), checked but never used. $14.99 starting bid, and I was the only bidder for any of them last time I checked. The sale ends Friday night, but the company's page said that they had hundreds in stock. Just in case you're interested . . .