skippy
New member
I finally found the time to update the drives in my pair of Masterlinks. I backed everything off to CD24, and ripped into them. Here's how it went:
First, unplug the power. No, really! Then, pull the rack ears (3 screws each). Then, remove the cover (5 screws). Not much in there, eh? The case is 60% empty space... Using a 7/32" nutdriver, remove the 4 captive-lockwasher nuts that hold the drive assembly down. You can then remove the lock plate on the inner side that keeps them from sliding, and slide the entire drive assembly towards the rear of the chassis until the face of the CDROM drive clears the front panel, and the "slot" in the drive mount lines up with the threaded stud that clamps it down. You can then slide the drive assembly towards the middle of the chassis to slip it out from under the power supply. Remove the data and power cables from the hard drive, located under the CDROM drive. Pull the 4 screws that hold the hard drive mount plate, and then the 4 screws that mount the drive to the plate. The drive is then free to swap.
Installation is, as they say, the reverse of disassembly. (;-)
The original hard drives in mine were Seagate ST34313A 5400rpm 4.3 Gb drives. I replaced them with Seagate ST340810A 5400rpm 40Gb drives for the princely sum of $100 each. When I first powered up and tried to reload, the machine crashed: the hardware cannot actually support any drive bigger than 32Gb, as it turns out, so I overbought. The front panel blanks, and the machine just sulks. But these drives just happen to have a convenient jumper that will limit their capacity to 32Gb, so I installed it... Power up, and the machine will ask if you want to load the OS. Insert the CDR that you have prepared in advance with the new MLOS on it (I used 2.11, thanks to Bruce- although it is now available from the web site as well). The Masterlink will ask you if you want to install the OS, and then if you want to format the drive. Answer yes to both, and you're done.
It'd be hard pressed to be any easier, especially if you buy 32Gb or smaller drives to start with. Don't go to 40, because it just flat can't use it. Total time to upgrade two machines: 45 minutes. Would have been less if I hadn't had to pull the first one apart again to put in the 32Gb-limit jumper.
It's fun to power up and see the display say *51 hours* of recording time is available at 16/44.1, 34 hours at 24/44.1, and 17 hours at 24/88.2... I ain't a-gonna run out of recording time on live dates anymore, nosirree.
Piece of cake. If you have a Masterlink, this is a worthwhile upgrade!
First, unplug the power. No, really! Then, pull the rack ears (3 screws each). Then, remove the cover (5 screws). Not much in there, eh? The case is 60% empty space... Using a 7/32" nutdriver, remove the 4 captive-lockwasher nuts that hold the drive assembly down. You can then remove the lock plate on the inner side that keeps them from sliding, and slide the entire drive assembly towards the rear of the chassis until the face of the CDROM drive clears the front panel, and the "slot" in the drive mount lines up with the threaded stud that clamps it down. You can then slide the drive assembly towards the middle of the chassis to slip it out from under the power supply. Remove the data and power cables from the hard drive, located under the CDROM drive. Pull the 4 screws that hold the hard drive mount plate, and then the 4 screws that mount the drive to the plate. The drive is then free to swap.
Installation is, as they say, the reverse of disassembly. (;-)
The original hard drives in mine were Seagate ST34313A 5400rpm 4.3 Gb drives. I replaced them with Seagate ST340810A 5400rpm 40Gb drives for the princely sum of $100 each. When I first powered up and tried to reload, the machine crashed: the hardware cannot actually support any drive bigger than 32Gb, as it turns out, so I overbought. The front panel blanks, and the machine just sulks. But these drives just happen to have a convenient jumper that will limit their capacity to 32Gb, so I installed it... Power up, and the machine will ask if you want to load the OS. Insert the CDR that you have prepared in advance with the new MLOS on it (I used 2.11, thanks to Bruce- although it is now available from the web site as well). The Masterlink will ask you if you want to install the OS, and then if you want to format the drive. Answer yes to both, and you're done.
It'd be hard pressed to be any easier, especially if you buy 32Gb or smaller drives to start with. Don't go to 40, because it just flat can't use it. Total time to upgrade two machines: 45 minutes. Would have been less if I hadn't had to pull the first one apart again to put in the 32Gb-limit jumper.
It's fun to power up and see the display say *51 hours* of recording time is available at 16/44.1, 34 hours at 24/44.1, and 17 hours at 24/88.2... I ain't a-gonna run out of recording time on live dates anymore, nosirree.
Piece of cake. If you have a Masterlink, this is a worthwhile upgrade!
Last edited: