External Sata Docks for media centre? [Archive]

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kanook

15th June 2010, 06:48 AM

4vturnstiles

15th June 2010, 01:13 PM

Hi guys and girls, I have a WDTV Media Centre (not the mini or the live, just the old one). I have a 1TB external drive full of movies and doco's etc and its full. I was thinking of buying one of these types of docks -

http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=93&bid=7&sid=50542

Then buying internal drives, like these -

http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=129&bid=7&sid=53757

My questions are does anyone have a docking station like this? If so do they make much noise? Does anyone have a media centre and can suggest something else?

Hope you can help.

I've got a Western Digital 1.5TB Green 64MB SATAII WD15EARS.
It is much too slow. I had to send the first one back after a couple of days, died completely.

I think I'd go for this one if I was going to get another,
Seagate SATAII NCQ 1.5TB 7200RPM 32mb Cache

The dock itself wouldn't make any noise, Hard Drive noise doesn't realy bother me. I don't have a dock they do seem handy, this one will read a laptop drive. Some people may not want to look at the silver hard disk in their lounge room, but it could be hidden.

kanook

15th June 2010, 02:54 PM

I've got a Western Digital 1.5TB Green 64MB SATAII WD15EARS.
It is much too slow. I had to send the first one back after a couple of days, died completely.

I think I'd go for this one if I was going to get another,
Seagate SATAII NCQ 1.5TB 7200RPM 32mb Cache

The dock itself wouldn't make any noise, Hard Drive noise doesn't realy bother me. I don't have a dock they do seem handy, this one will read a laptop drive. Some people may not want to look at the silver hard disk in their lounge room, but it could be hidden.

Thanks for the reply. I just dont know what to do! I cant afford a 2TB External drive, I see that Officeworks has 1TB WD External drives for $95-00 so I may just buy a couple this week, use one for A to L and one for M to Z. I will have to buy two more in a couple of weeks to act as back up drives. I had a Seagate External Drive I was using as a backup drive for my movies but it failed:mad:, my original WD External is still going strong. I have had to commandeer my sons drive to act as a backup for the time being.

Im just a real Movie and Doco Tragic and I can see myself surrounded by a mountain of Hard Drives in the next year :rolleyes: I was hoping someone here may have a media unit like the WDTV or like the Noontecs and may have used docks like this.

I like the idea of the dock, I can buy internal drives and when I am not using a particular drive I can store them in a hard plastic case you can buy online.

What to do , what to do? I feel like Doctor Smith off Lost In Space, "Oh whoa is me, the pain, the pain!"

kanook

15th June 2010, 03:14 PM

Try the Seagate site and see if your drive is under warranty. Their replacement service has been very good for me.

Gidday Mr Black, I will dig my box out of the cupboard and see if it still under warranty.

4vturnstiles

15th June 2010, 06:36 PM

kanook

16th June 2010, 09:17 AM

Were you planning on plugging the dock into media player to read it and then send video to TV?
The Umart reviews of the dock were OK
Did your old drive really die?
Sometimes the power adaptor dies.
My Maxtor/Seagate One Touch 4s have 3 year warranties.

I think I have RESURRECTED (Pardon the Pun), my old drive, I think the issue was when i was copying movies over when I had XP everything just seemed to take a big Crap. i now have Win7 and have reformatted drive and it seems to be stable.

I will just buy two more 1TB drives on Friday, then I will have two drives for the movies and two drives as backup.

Thanks for the help.

4vturnstiles

16th June 2010, 05:29 PM

Big W has an HP Simple Save external Hard Drive 1.5TB advertised for $138.
I know nothing about this drive.

kanook

17th June 2010, 08:13 AM

Big W has an HP Simple Save external Hard Drive 1.5TB advertised for $138.
I know nothing about this drive.

Might go and have a look, might be able to layby a couple, thanks for the heads up

Mentally Saturated

19th June 2010, 01:59 AM

I have the same media centre (WDTV), and have 2 x 1Tb WD Elements drives, plus 1 x 1.5Tb Elements (all the older style ones, with silicone end caps). Why the hell WD had to change the design of the case, or change the USB plug (full size to mini-USB) is a mystery. All was good as all 3 drives use the same USB cable and the same power bricks. No idea if the new Elements drives use the same power brick, but if I were to buy one, I can't swap the new drives over for the old without using a USB adapter... gggrrrrrr....

Problem is.. even 2Gb drives aren't big enough to store certain sections (genres) of my collection.. :(

Been meaning to buy a HDD dock for ages, but only for doing backups (dunno if it'd work on the WDTV, and it won't fit in the same location where I have the other current drives). Would be handy to be able to fill a drive up and chuck it in a drawer, tho... much easier now that HDDs are better value per Gb than the best quality DVD-Rs.

Gary

4vturnstiles

19th June 2010, 10:43 AM

Why not buy a new cheap PC with a big PSU and shove 6 x 2TB drives in it in RAID5.

I'm not saying anyone shouldn't do that but the obvious reasons not to are:
Cost about $1400
If that is your backup solution, it is in the one basket, severe electrical mishap or thieves may take it out.

4vturnstiles

19th June 2010, 12:03 PM

Fortunately they're pretty poor reasons.

I'm sure your solution is an excellent solution for you, but I think Kanook may have had a simpler solution in mind.
I was offering the case for a simple solution.

I count nearby electrical strike as a severe electrical mishap.
I've had a PSU go off with a bang, fortunately it didn't damage anything.

4vturnstiles

19th June 2010, 04:54 PM

Info Re HP Simple Save external drives
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10295528-1.html

kanook

19th June 2010, 06:30 PM

Problem is.. even 2Gb drives aren't big enough to store certain sections (genres) of my collection.. :(

Been meaning to buy a HDD dock for ages, but only for doing backups (dunno if it'd work on the WDTV, and it won't fit in the same location where I have the other current drives). Would be handy to be able to fill a drive up and chuck it in a drawer, tho... much easier now that HDDs are better value per Gb than the best quality DVD-Rs.

Gary

I know the feeling about not enough room :(

The external Hub with the internal Sata drives looked like a promising way for me to go, and I could buy drives as I could afford it instead of buying all in one hit.

One of the big issues is trying to fing out what NAS the WDTV will work with, I was reading some forums were it was a bit hit and miss.

i know the WDTV will read drives up to 2TB so thats why I was thinking 1TB or 1.5TB drives store in protective cases you can buy when not in use (back up ones). To me this is affordable and drives can be purchased when needed, also if the dock doesnt work for some reason with the WDTV them I am only out a few dollars, the internal sata drives can be placed in a hard case and plugged into USB HUB.

kanook

19th June 2010, 06:32 PM

Why not buy a new cheap PC with a big PSU and shove 6 x 2TB drives in it in RAID5.

Most modern motherboards have RAID controllers on them. If you get a drive failure, swap it out and fit a new one and it will rebuild the data with no loss.

Stick the machine on your LAN and Bob's your Man from Uncle.

Good idea, I know of many people who have set up a Media Centre through a dedicated PC, but this would be too expensive straight up for me, 2TB drives are out of my league at present, thanks for the idea tho much appreciated.:)

kanook

19th June 2010, 06:35 PM

I've had a PSU go off with a bang, fortunately it didn't damage anything.

this brings back memories, many years ago my boy was little and had his own PC, then got curious and decided to find out what the little VOLTAGE REGULATOR SWITCH did at the back of the PSU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Result of curiosity? Big Bang, Smoke, bad smell, startled looking son, angry dad :mad:

Loki

19th June 2010, 06:56 PM

I have had problems with the WD external boxes. Two died within 4 months of purchase. They have guarantees but they aren't of much use to me, the data is too valuable for me to trust any repair facility with. Unfortunately I was using their 2x 1tb boxes in raid thinking I was safeguarding my data, but when the controller boards died I lost access to the lot. Had to destroy the cases to get to the drives and regain access to the data. Theoretically the cases can be dismantled by my experence was they are so cheap and nasty that a hammer was required.

I am still using the actual disks, and have had no problem at all with them, just the boxes. This problem may have been fixed on later models, I wouldn't know.

The issue I have with using a SATA dock with internal drives is that the SATA plugs on internal drives are fairly flimsy, they are made to be plugged in and left, not repeatedly connected and disconnected. This is an engineering thing, they are engineered for the intended purpose.

Whether this would be an actual problem with a SATA dock or not I wouldn't know. They are becoming common and if there was a real problem I expect we might have heard about it by now.

They certainly sound like a cheap solution to a storage problem, though without the convenience or elegance of Protiums solution. Why not try it and see? If there was a problem the disks would still be available for incorporation into a NAS Protium style.

Also the majority of that $1400 for a kick arse NAS would be the disks themselves, which you'd have to purchase for a SATA dock anyway.

Disks are cheap and getting cheaper, it's got to the stage where putting something on optical media is only worthwhile if you want to pass it on to someone else.