Have any of you had Fostex install a hard drive into your FD4 or FD8?

[cvd]

Somehow my Zip Drive blew up, and I'm considering getting Fostex to go ahead and install a hard drive. Have any of you had this done? If so, how much did it cost? I went to the web site, but all they had was a list of drives that are compatible. Thanks in advance for any help.

Chris

 

[micmac]

hi Chris,

if they have a list of compatible drives at their site, i'm pretty sure it's easy to do yourself. what does the manual say? the new fostex VF machines are really easy when it comes to changing the HD. it's an IDE drive so there's only a few screws to unscrew, a power cable and the data cable to unplug/plug in. you're in and out in under 5 min. check the bottom of your machine, if it says like on the VF's "Be careful when changing HD blah blah blah" (or something like that), you might as well do it yourself and save time and money. i haven't seen the FD4 or FD8, but thought i'd tell you just in case.

hope this helps,

micmac

 

[adam]

Not so fast...

I understand that the FD series is also missing some other proprietary part needed to connect the hard drive, making it immpossible to install it yourself. I've thought about doing it since the scsi connection seems to be kinda dodgy -- crashes quite often on me.

 

[adam]

there are some threads from a few months back that discuss this issue -- if you want more detail

 

[CrayPhish]

If you don't already have a hard drive connection in your FD4 then it is quite costly to have it added especially when you consider shipping and everything, probably cheaper to find an FD4 on Ebay that already has a hard drive, but you're still investing a lot of $$ in outdated technology (16 bit). Once you have an IDE connection in your FD4 it is fairly easy to swap out the HD for a larger one.

You may want to consider a syjet drive or an orb drive (both scsi), I have a syjet 1.5 GB and it works fine and the drives and cartridges are pretty easy to get from Ebay, you need to avoid retailers since these drives are no longer made they really mark them up. Orb drives cost much more and are ultra-scsi which is wasted technology on an FD4.

Zip drives just don't give you enough to work with in this format IMHO.

 

[adam]

crayphsih -- you are right, it is investing in outdated technology. I remember the cost being in the realm of reasonableness, there is a thread with procing but I think it was inthe $200-300 range. I have an external hard drive, a fast seagate medalist, and it crashes ALL the time. I just turn it on and off and it is usually ok, so more or a hassle than anything else.

 

[cvd]

outdated technology??

Heck, I guess I"m in pretty bad shape then I just spent too much money on some drums, so I know that I can't run out and get another multi track right now. I did give fostex a call, and to get a 6 gig hard drive installed runs $200, which I believe includes everything except getting it out there. That sounds like a reasonable rate to me, but is there another option that is perhaps cheaper and more reasonable?

Thanks again,

Chris

 

[adam]

Well, it isn't outdated per se. I still use it and plan to integrate it into a computer based system. It is just that if you have a computer already, for between $300-800 you can get a pretty good DAW system. Actually, I read a review of Fostex's new 8 track and I still prefer the FD8, as it has an ADAT out, which the new one doesn't have. I am thinking about the internal option as well, just to make it more reliable and more compact.

 

[cvd]

Well, I just went on to ebay, and found a syjet 1.5 gig, so I think that I"m going to make a bid on that, and give it a try. If I don't get it, I guess I may be sending the old 4 track off to fostex...

 

[adam]

DON"T DO IT

 

[adam]

Look, Syquest is OUT OF BUSINESS, talk about investing in outdated technology. If you want to constantly go to ebay for new media, and not have any support if something breaks, then go ahead. Also, the SCSI port on the fd8 is not that reliable (my experience and others too who have posted). For what you pay for that syquest drive and a disk or 2, you could have an all in one unit that is more stable.

 

[cvd]

Good point there Adam

Yeah, it sounded like a good idea for a minute. The auction price was pretty low, but someone else has already outbid me. I think I may go ahead and get the hard drive installed. With a 6 gig har drive, I don't think I have to worry about running out of space anytime soon. I think that it gets around 3-350 minutes using all 4 tracks. So I guess that means that I could store my first 10 albums on there....the only thing that worries me about getting the hard drive installed is if the system crashes, and then I'm screwed.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[adam]

Well, you aren't that screwed, if it crashes then you can always go back to Fostex. You can also back-up to other media through SCSI or to a computer using the digital out. Also, once they install the drive, even if it fries and Fostex won't help you, now you can replace the drive yourself with any drive, b/c the drive connection will be installed.

 

[cvd]

How can I back it up into my pooter?

Would I prepare it like I"m going to dump it down to a dat? I think the manual said something about not being able to use CD-R's for some reason or another. My soundcard does have digital outputs, so I guess I need to figure out how in the heck to use this thing.

 

[adam]

Well, you can use the scsi to back up to any media like a hard drive or something like a jaz drive, not sure about the CD-R. It might make more sense to go the computer route though, if you have one and don't have some scsi media. You can you the digital out to digital in on your soundcard - S/PDIF will allow you to do 2 tracks at a time, ADAT, all 8 at a time. Alternately, you can use the analog out (2 at a time).

 

[bradleyb]

I picked up a Sysjet 1.5 drive and 3 cartridges for $35 on E-bay. I needed a 50 to 25 pin adapter to make it work, but I was lucky and a co-worker had one and gave it to me. Works great with my FD-8 (also from E-bay).