buying extra IDE drives for HD24...help

[Seeker of Rock]

Help me understand please. IDE...is this the pin format for connecting? I know I need IDE drives and they need to run at least 5400 rpm, which I will end up buying 7200 rpm, but on newegg.com I find Seagate IDE drives that have all kinds of other lettering in with the IDE like ATA100 etc. Any help on what exactly I need or need to avoid would be greatly appreciated

 

[cpl_crud]

THere are three types of PC drives- IDE, SCSI and SATA/RAID
You're right, you need to buy the IDE types.
If you go into a copmtuer store and ask for one, they'll know exactly what you're looking for and get you the right type.
If you're buying one online, then just email the seller to confirm that it is an IDE drive.
As for pinouts, IDE uses 25 pins in 2 rows for data, and a 4-pin stright power connector. SATA drives use some funky L-shaped thingy for both power and data- 7 pin for data and 4 for power.
I kinda slept through the whole SCSI thing, so I can't give you details.

But if a drive says that it's IDE, then the rest of the letters usually jsut indicate things like speed and capacity.

 

[Crash ©]

Dug around the Alesis FAQ's for the HD24 and found this.. Not much of a help, but I'd bet the ATA/100 drives would work... I can't recall now what ATA means though.. Might call Alesis tech support and see if they know if it's a problem...

And FWIW, Best Buy has a 160GB Western Digital 7200RPM drive for about $90... Dell was running a deal on them yesterday for $70 after a couple of coupons...

Is there a size limit for hard drives in HD24?
The ADAT/FST file system can support drives up to 2TB (2000 GB). Having said that, consider that an 80GB drive (available today for about $150.) holds 6 hours of 24-track audio (that's 8,640 track minutes), the equivalent of 24 forty minute 8-track ADAT tapes (which are more expensive at about $350.).

What type of drives can be used?
More currently manufactured IDE drive (Note that all "IDE" drives are actually "EIDE" now) with a spindle rate of 5400 rpm of higher will work with the ADAT HD24. Higher-speed IDE drives are acceptable as well. The only requirement is that it be ATA-4 compatible. Almost all drives currently sold meet this requirement, and most exceed it by a significant margin. Costs are low: 20GB drives are available for under $100, which makes them as inexpensive per megabyte as tape.

--
Rob

 

[Seeker of Rock]

Thanks for the help. It sounds to me that if it has IDE in the title and is higher RPM than 5400 I will be alright.
Thanks again

 

[Gilliland]

It sounds to me that if it has IDE in the title and is higher RPM than 5400 I will be alright.

That's about right. Though these days I'm seeing them advertised as "PATA" pretty often, which is the same thing. That designation serves to differentiate them from "SATA", which won't work in the HD24.

Microcenter is selling an 80GB drive for $50 in their current flier. There are larger drives that cost less per megabyte, but you don't often need, say, a 250GB drive in your HD24. (Incidentally, the 250GB drive is selling for $93 in that same Microcenter flier, in case you do want one that big.)

 

[cpl_crud]

Actually, I prefer to have a "small" drive (40-80gig) in bay one and a "large" (200+) in bay two.
That way, as soon as you've finished trackign, you can make a backup. Plus, you can back up a few sessions onto the large drive, then archive that when it's full, and re-use the smaller one.
Since HDs have pretty much infinite shelf life, and, as you said, larger drives are cheaper/gig, this just seems to make economic sense to me...