Upgrading FS100 Firestore With New SSD Drives?

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crobs808

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Upgrading FS100 Firestore With New SSD Drives?

Can it be done? I upgraded my FS100 by removing the 100gb harddrive and inserting a 250gb Hitachi Travelstar....so what about these new SSD drives. I think they ar eup to 64GB now right? No moving parts...

Kind of like having a more powerful P2 card, because they will probably get up to 128gb and 250gb soon enough ;)

If you don't know what SSD drives are, they are Solid State Drives (i.e. no moving parts) so they are like a P2 card, or a CF Compact Flash card, just more capacity!

Here are some links to the SSD drives:
http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=80000612-1201279128
http://www.sandisk.com/OEM/ProductCatalog.aspx?CatID=1274

They are the standard sizes too, as normal laptop harddrives, so should theoretically work the same, maybe with a short adaptor cable, but that's a cheap fix.

Thoughts? Ideas? I think this is interesting, considering one of the biggest complaints about the Firestore is that you drop it once, your Harddrive is dead basically.

Sidenote...how long do you think it will be until we have wireless storage? You know...set your bag in the corner...inside is a harddrive saving the data that i sbieng trasmitted from your computer. there could even be an internal harddrive acting as a buffer, and whenever you stop recording you just leave the camera on to "catch up" saving the data, in a way. Hmm, sounds like an idea to me...ok common copyright laws enacted! It's mine, lol!

::: Connor
 
I was not aware that you could upgrade the internal drive of the Firestore? Was it a simple procedure and did it affect the drive in any way? Also, what is the max size you can upgrade to?
 
I was also not aware that it could be done with a bigger drive, I thought the firmware needed to be updated a well to access above the 100gb mark. I was thinking of building an adaptor for an FS100 to allow quick ejection and reinsertion of multiple 100gb hitachi drives. It wouldnt be continuous but it beats the cost of P2 and/or another firestore.
 
crobs808 said:
Can it be done? I upgraded my FS100 by removing the 100gb harddrive and inserting a 250gb Hitachi Travelstar....so what about these new SSD drives. I think they ar eup to 64GB now right? No moving parts...
Click to expand...

Try this to modify your FS100 with SSD.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=RXD639-IDE-SATA-ADP&cat=HDD

Halo1000 said:
I was thinking of building an adaptor for an FS100 to allow quick ejection and reinsertion of multiple 100gb hitachi drives.
Click to expand...
Halo,
How you plan to building an adapter, Please detail.

This what I was planing last year (under $80, Never test it):
Connect 6" IDE ribbon Cable inside firestore and bringing it out (some how) for external (drive) Plug & Play.

Hitachi's 120GB Hard Drive $69.00
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=0A50681&cat=HDD

6" IDE 2.5" HD ribbon cable $6.99
http://www.cablesonline.com/544pinidelap.html

Stackable Rubber Cover For 2.5" Hard Drive Storage $2.99
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SHP-2&cat=HDD

USB 2.0 to SATA + IDE (2.5/3.5/5.25") Adapter w/OTB $12.99 (for off load footage from HD to MacBook Pro)
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=2020-OTB&cat=HDD
 
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Kwan

Looks like you are on the right track. The only difference is I want to take the firestore, split its case and insert a machined anodised aluminium receiver between the two pieces for the drives which will insert in the top end of the original firstore. This keeps the whole thing as one and so I can clip it to my belt. As for the rest , you pretty much have the cabling figured. Just remember to mirror all the drives first before switching them over. Should work a treat. I will know more in a couple of months as I am offshore working right now.
 
changing fs100 hard drive

changing fs100 hard drive

hi, i just break one of my 250gb firestore, i was on a boat 200 miles from coast...

i get no choice to open it and verify if the shoot was here but no one...

now i get no hdd driver detected ... and i lost my footage...

i'm now working on a way to connect an external raid 1 1000GB to the sata internal connector

for easy changing drive when it's full and no transfert time (since mxf plugin can be installed on mac FCP, i dont need to organize p2, no need to transfert shoot in log and transfert and i'm now 100% compatible with FCP and AVID whitout any transfert)

it's really interesting if ssd can be connected in firestore but in my situation
( documentary series 1 week = 1 show= 1000gb to transfert on 2 hard drive)
i still want to connect external seagate 7200.11 rpm 1000GB

can you explain step for upgrading internal hard drive????

Thank,
Jonathan Sea
 
Firestore and 250GB

Firestore and 250GB

So I think I've read all the threads on the Firestore here. I think. And I still can't find anyone who would have replaced the 100GB HDD with a 160GB or 250GB one. Mine was manufactured in 2006, before the FS100 existed with 160GB/250GB HDD.

So can this 2006 FS100 take the 250GB? What is the procedure software/firmware wise? Will the firmware accept such a big drive. Are the chips on the Firestore the limitation? Do I need to partition the HDD?

Let me know, I'm really curious and would like to try it out. At this point the 250GB IDE 2.5' HDD are only $80. It sounds like a good deal... what's your take?

Thx.
 
obonin said:
So I think I've read all the threads on the Firestore here. I think. And I still can't find anyone who would have replaced the 100GB HDD with a 160GB or 250GB one. Mine was manufactured in 2006, before the FS100 existed with 160GB/250GB HDD.

So can this 2006 FS100 take the 250GB? What is the procedure software/firmware wise? Will the firmware accept such a big drive. Are the chips on the Firestore the limitation? Do I need to partition the HDD?

Let me know, I'm really curious and would like to try it out. At this point the 250GB IDE 2.5' HDD are only $80. It sounds like a good deal... what's your take?

Thx.
Click to expand...

YEs this works.
I put a 250 gig in mine, no software or firmware upgrade (I do have version 4 though). Just pop it in and your done.
 
250 Gig???

250 Gig???

In the older FS100, can't find anything larger than a 160G for a ATA 6 connector (no SATA in the older model) Anybody find anything larger?
 
There´s a WD Scorpio 250GB with PATA (IDE) Interface. I will buy that model online today and have a try. I will report later.
 
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what's the minimum write speed required? I know it's a 100MB codec, but if it really used all that it would be 6gigs a minute.
 
Frantic said:
There´s a WD Scorpio 250GB with PATA (IDE) Interface. I will buy that model online today and have a try. I will report later.
Click to expand...
it´s doing fine! with bios 3.xxxx it asked me to partition the blank drive, i pressed "yes" and it made two partitions of ~125GB. but i wanted to have one partition with the whole disk space and flashed the BIOS to 4.0.1.xxxxx.
then i started the program http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/index.html to format one 250GB partition with FAT32. it worked and the firestore shows now over ~278 minutes capacity.

10 minutes work, 64 euros paid for the hdd and more than doubled the capacity of my firestore.
 
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monday1313 said:
what's the minimum write speed required? I know it's a 100MB codec, but if it really used all that it would be 6gigs a minute.
Click to expand...

no problem with a modern 250 gig drive. they are all 5400 rpm with 8mb cache on the drive. inside the old 100gig fs-100 there is a hitachi travelstar with also 5400 rpm and 8gb cache. this model isn´t fast and is definately not faster than the mentioned 250GB wd drive.
 
Thanks Frantic...

when you opened it up, was there anything to watch out for as far as damaging it goes? or any pieces that are easily breakable?

If I do have an IDE interface on mine(haven't checked yet) do you think there is room to squeeze in the IDE to SATA connector cable and fold over the excess cable and close it back up? I'd like to get a larger capacity SSD in there. but there aren't a lot of options with IDE interfaces.

as for the fat32 hack. do you just have to have the firestore plugged into the computer in HD mode?

thanks for the help!
 
i have an IDE interface in my fs-100. i bought the WD scorpio 250GB with PATA (aka IDE) interface. probably a converter or cable IDE->SATA will not work! the WD Scorpio with PATA (IDE) is available up to 250GB. so you have 2.5 times more recording time than a 100GB drive.

here you can find my instructions to change the drive and upgrade to 250GB: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?p=1542429#post1542429

 
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FYI - You can upgrade the Firestore FS-100 to 320gb if you like using this drive...

MODEL: WD3200BEVE (Gives You 355 Minutes of Recording Time)
http://www.streetprices.com/Products/Western-Digital-WD3200BEVE-SP33937844.html

The 250GB gives you 278 Minutes of Recording Time. Both drives use the same voltage and temperature ratings. the 250GB is around $90US and the 320GB is around $95. May as well get the 320 :)

I have the 250 WesternDigital in mine right now, and will upgrade to the 320 in a few weeks.

Good Luck,
-crobs808
 
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