P2 Store owners: any guess if you can replace the internal HD?

K

k2director

Well-known member
I'm tempted by the P2 Store's ease of use, but can't stand that it only has a 60 gig capacity (that's less than 60 minutes of HD footage).

I'd be much more compelled to buy it if it had a 100 gig 7200 rpm drive inside, instead of a 60.

Which leads me to think: I wonder if an end-user could make the swap themselves? I know no P2 Store owner will want to risk his/her equipment, but can someone tell me if the unit looks like it could be disassembled with a few screws, or does it appear to be hermetically sealed? Also, does the documentation happen to mention anything that might give clues regarding a drive swap?

Any help appreciated...
 
I'm told the P2 card's or the HVX200 can't read anything larger than 60GB. I agree it should be larger.
 
There are 4 screws on the bottom - BUT I wouldn't touch them!

For starters the width is to small to include a normal PC drive. So I'm guessing they are using a laptop hard drive (expensive). Second the drive is protected against bumps, something you'd loose if you could put your own drive in (unless perhaps it the was one out of a powerbook? not sure). Third I'm not sure how the drive is formatted. There is a partition for each card so I wouldn't be comforable in saying "just add more patitions to a larger drive and you'll get more space". There may be issues with the controller etc on that level.

I know there's a lot of I'm not sure in that, which is exactly why I wouldn't do it.

I am really glad I bought the drive. It cost me the same as I would have spend here in Australia on 1 8Gb card. So my workflow for docos (is to use both the the P2 store and a laptop). I travel a lot so I leave the laptop in the hotel and just take the P2 store. After each section I dump the store onto a larger drive. I usually use 720pn to save space too. If I'm doing a longer IV I'll take the laptop. I don't treat the store as a place to put my dailies, but just a way to free my cards while I'm about chasing down shots.

Hope this helps some.
 
only disadvantage is you can not do run and gun shooting, because you can not load P2 cards while walking or moving. A little bit moving and it is not copying anymore. So for ENG shooting sometimes it is a little awkward.
 
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