hi, all.

long time empeg user, haven't been to the forums in forever. recently one of the hard drives in my empeg mk 2 started to die. (clicking, spin up/spind down noises, sync errors)

one of the two hard disks in here is a 6 GB from an old empeg mk 1 unit that i had the staff roll into the new model when i got it ages ago. i'm guessing that might be the one that's on its last legs

so... i'm not very unix-proficient and while i'm sure i could physically install replacement disks, i don't know how to mount them, configure the player, etc.

what can i do? i've emailed both SonicBlue and the only support address i saw mentioned on the forums (carsupport@xs4all.nl) and haven't gotten responses.

is there anyone here who could help? (if anyone living in the greater philadelphia or new york areas would be willing, i could meet with you and pay you for your time -- either in beer or in cash -- if you'd take an afternoon to work on it with me.)

hoping someone can help,

Did you read the drive upgrade FAQ ? Link

You don't have to know anything about unix. After installing the new drive there is just a utility you have to run from windows to format the drive. The hardest part is installing the drive in the player.

Have you read the drive upgrade guide? It's considered one of the best How-To's out there, and anyone who can open the empeg up and put the drive in should be able to follow its directions. If something doesn't work, there's always free tech support on the board here. That being said, I'm sure you can find someone to help you replace the drives around your area.

Matthew

Yeah got to agree that using the drive upgrade is so easy even i can do it with zero electrical or computing training

I am trained as a marine engineer which is a bit more heavy handed than working on an empeg.

wow! this looks great! i can't believe i didn't find this while searching for information. thank you all so so so much!! =)

In addition to reading the Drive Upgrade guide, please look here. It's possible that you might not even need to replace the disk drive. It could be something other than the disk drive which is causing the problems you are reporting. In fact, if it is one of those other things, then the same problems will plague the new disk drive as well.

thanks for all the good advice. while the section to which you linked was very well put together, that wasn't it. (i checked the IDE cables just to be sure)

i could hear the drive making horrible spin up/spin down sounds as well as variety of awful clicks. when i removed the one old disk and just left the newer drive in there, all was great. i've just ordered a replacement drive (putting in a 40 GB toshiba now) and will rock and roll with the car2-builder-20011022.upgrade image when it gets here.