Hard Drive for Prestige

[MikeMattke]

"I've just bought this Prestige from a former member of our community and the HDD went bad within days of receiving the system. Anyone have a compatible HDD they would like to part with?" I tried to boot up today and got a code that Dennis in Boulder says means "Bad Drive". How hard is it to find an IDE drive nowdays?

[MichaelD]

Fitting an IDE drive in a Prestige caddy is easy. Four screws to release the caddy parts and another four (underneath) to release the drive itself.
The hard part is finding a drive

Curious to know 'what' message the machine gave to indicate a failed drive though . . .

[MikeMattke]

Thanks for your help. Another Forum member came to my rescue and suggested the correct brand and model that I need.

The error code on the screen is what Boulder said indicated a bad drive. I just had the Prestige "splash" screen with the hourglass that would not go away and then in the upper right corner are the numbers 524288.

The only question remaining is what to set the jumpers to, slave, master,etc.

[TimKennelly]

Mike,

Don't throw away the old drive until you are sure it was the drive.

With the Avio having number come up on the splash screen sometimes meant the ram had gone bad or become unseated.

[Martyn]

I might be wrong but I'm not convinced that error number refers to a dud hard drive. Usually it comes up when we change RAM or sometimes if we swap a video board. When a hard drive fails you normally cannot get past the first Casablanca screen (not booting) or the machine is very reluctant to respond (failing rather than failed). Sometimes there is a regular clicking from the HD.

NB a corrupt operating system can give the same symptoms (not booting)

Martyn
Dalco uk

[MikeMattke]

I replaced the drive with one suggested by an esteemed Forum member. However it did not have the same jumpers as the original Samsung that was in the Prestige. I removed the jumper [which the diagram indicated means Master setting] but wasn't sure if I had to put in anyplace else. The old drive at choices for 32 GB settings but the new one did not.

I did find though that all the smart media cards I have were all labeled "All Software" and none of them were System cards. I hope that obtaining this card will solve my problems and I can get it up and going again.

Some members have mentioned RAM becoming unseated. How do I reseat it or check to see if it needs it?

[MichaelD]

"Some" drives will use that as a Master setting - no jumper at all, don't use the 32Gb setting or else that is all you will get - 32Gb

When you get a System on a Smart Card that will allow you to install the Smart Edit on that drive and off you go !

[Martyn]

Prestige needs the jumper setting to Master. On most brands of hd (although not all) this is the extreme left pair vertical when looking from the rear. See photo.

If you obtain an operating system SmartCard, it will need the same o/s that has been licensed to your machine.

RAM is very tight fitting. Unless someone has already had it (or them) out it is unlikely they will have become unseated. However, if you want to check you need to move the clip at the end of the (or each) strip outwards. This levers the RAM out. http://www.dalco.co.uk/prestigekronavio2upgrade.html

[TimKennelly]

The hard drive you purchased Mike defaults to the master setting with the jumper pin removed. Keep the pin in case you ever want to use/sell the drive for use in a PC as a slave drive.

You MUST use an OS Smart Media Card with a new drive in a Prestige to get it to operate.

Any OS Smart Media Card will do, even an old outdated one as long as it's an OS that is licensed for that Prestige.

Once you have loaded any OS via a Smart Media Card you can then use an up to date OS Product CD (of an OS licensd for that Prestige) and then an All Software CD as well.