Favorite Brand for PATA Hard Drive?

[johnneumann]

I need to replace the hard drive on my first generation Kron (again). I'm getting a crash almost every time I edit and reinstalling all the software didn't help.

I'm getting a PATA IDE 100 or 133, 7200rpm.

The going price on eBay seems to be about $25 for a new Maxtor drive, but I don't know anything about what brands are considered reliable and which to stay away from.

Is there any consensus in the MS editing community about which brand is the must-have?

Also, is there any reason to get a 160gb drive when the 320gb is just a few dollars more? Any reliability issues with a larger drive?

-JOHN

[CKNewman]

I never had any difficulty with Western Digital, Maxtor, or IBM. I may have a Seagate in my collection too. I think that one of the problems came with 320 gig drives that had a buffer that was larger than 8 megs, so if you stay with an 8 meg buffer I think you'll be ok. It's been a loooong time so I hope someone else can back me up on this.

[johnneumann]

Thanks, Craig. I notice in your signature that you still keep a Kron handy, like me. Although a Kron is all I have.

It's a little confusing, buying a new hard drive for the old Kron. I would be happy to support MS ... but their HDs are 130.00-189.00 compared to a frequent price of $25 on eBay for brand name 160gb drives. Only things is ... I don't know anything about drives (the cabling, interfaces, etc) and I don't know if a $25 drive, even one with all the specs I listed above, is ready to pop into the Kron just like an MS drive would be.

Are these specs absolutely all I need to shop for? Can anything else be a mismatch? Or is there anything else like a correct cable, hookups, shape, size, whatever...?

[CKNewman]

Hi John,

My editor is actually a Kron Plus, I had purchased the hard drives to put into external sleds that I would swap when using my Avio. Remember that you are looking for a hard drive that measures 3.5" The smaller drives, 2.5" are used in laptops. Otherwise it looks like you're on the right track.

When you attempt replacing the hard drive, be very careful in handling the ribbon connector that connects to the hard drive - you don't want to bend or break any pins. The other connector with 4(?) wires supplies power to the drive. Write up some notes as to the orientation of the drive in your editor and the orientation of the connectors to the drive so that when you install the new drive everything lines up the way it should.

There may be one other thing when you are ready to install the replacement hard drive - the jumpers. There will be a small area on the edge of the hard drive that has some jumpers. These configure the hard drive to be the master or slave drive and other things. If you have the original Kron with only one drive then I believe the jumper should be placed so the drive is recognized as the master. There should be a diagram pasted to the drive that gives you a visual. If you do need to change anything you will need a needle-nose pliers to carefully remove and re-position the jumper.

Let us know how you make out.

[johnneumann]

Thank you, Craig ... it'll be a few days as I haven't yet bought the drive. If I decide to get one off of Amazon or such, perhaps I'll post it here first for your approval?

-JOHN

[CKNewman]

Not being completely knowledgeable in this area, I'm not sure how much weight my "approval" would have. But I'd be glad to look it over carefully.

[TimKennelly]

John,

You want to get a 7200rpm IDE 100/133 ATA IDE PATA 3.5" drive. I believe WD is the only manufacturer still actively making these drives.

[johnneumann]

Hi Tim ... and all the rest of you gracious responders,

I know I should just google this ... and I plan to ... but does anyone have a favorite source for a drive like this, a place that has low prices and a reliable return policy?

All I know in life are Amazon and eBay.

-JOHN

[TimKennelly]

I haven't had a reason to buy outdated PATA technology in over five years. I do endorse Amazon.com conditionally for low prices and above board customer service, but I can't speak for return policies on something like delicate electronics such as hard drives once opened.

[johnneumann]

Just read your PM, Craig ... asking if I found a drive.

Coincidentally, just yesterday I caved in and bought one from MS. I have no idea why, but MS charges a very substantial markup over similar (identical?) drives on Amazon.

I was going to buy one off Amazon per Tim's search parameters (above), but - being completely ignorant of drive specs - I became afraid when I started seeing additional mysterious numbers and initials on drive descriptions. I had in mind to ask one of ya'll to post a link to a right drive, but I thought that might be a little much to ask ... you know, rooting around Amazon on my behalf, doing the homework, then posting a link for me.

So, in a bid to end the procrastination, I just sucked it up and bought the 160gb drive from Macrosystem. Major bucks, compared to other outlets but ultimately still not a huge chunk of money to pay for getting back on my machine, which has sat dormant for a couple of years now. Besides, MS also has a one-year in-house replacement warranty. I think that's worth something.

I should say too that the problem with my Kron had now better be a defective hard drive. I was getting crashes persistently, almost constantly, and MS suspected a "damaged sector" on the drive. I'm going on faith (ie, spending more money) on a new drive banking on that in fact being the problem. I don't think spending the money to repair any other problems on an 11 year old Kron would be worth the while.