I'm wondering why no one has mentioned the new TravelStar drives IBM has announced. They're over 30GB in size, and only 12.5mm heigh. Am I missing something?

http://www.storage.ibm.com/press/hdd/20000412.htm
http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/diskdrdl/travel/tr32gh.htm
http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/diskdrdl/travel/tr30gt.htm

-Oscar

They have been mentioned, several times. You can't buy them yet!

"The 20GN and 30GT drives are scheduled to ship in volume in May to Compaq Computer Corporation, Dell Computer Corporation, Gateway, and the IBM Personal Systems Group. The 32GH will ship in limited quantities in June and in volume in August."

In other words, as is often the case with IBM, they are allocating their entire production run to a few key OEM's. Only when their production exceeds the requirements of those clients will the rest of us be able to get any drives.

Bear in mind that we can't even get any of the old 25Gb TravelStar drives at the moment!

Rob

Is there an updated ETA on when the larger hard drives would be available? I can get a 30GB IBM Travelstar, ostensibly within 1-2 days, at gogocity.com for $459 + tax + shipping. Granted, it may be more difficult to get the drive across the ocean---that's why I'm asking I guess.

Actually, that makes me think of an alternative. Hey empeg, what if we secured our own 30GB jobbies and shipped them to you? Could you for a nominal fee do an in-warranty install? (Not asking you to cover the hard disk itself, just the empeg :-)

Michael
just got my invite!

Edited by mcgrant on 21/8/00 03:20 AM.

gogocity.com sucks. I tried to order a simple 12gig through them. They couldn't even fill that one, even though I was told several times that they were in stock and ready to be shipped. I wouldn't take their word that something is available.

gogocity.com sucks. I tried to order a simple 12gig through them. They couldn't even fill that one, even though I was told several times that they were in stock and ready to be shipped. I wouldn't take their word that something is available.

Well, that's cool, thanks for the assesment. CDW.com has been good to me in the past, and they say they have a 3-5 day ship time for the 30gig drive, albeit for a slightly higher price. Insight.com has them 'ordered on request.' So it may very well be true that I wouldn't be able to get a hold of a 30gig wonder any time soon.

Nevertheless, I'd still appreciate if we can address such a hypothetical situation. Frankly, if I decided to add a second drive later once those 30gb puppies _do_ come through, I'm sure I'd be tempted to do it myself at the cost of the warranty, but if I could avoid it right off the bat that would be sweet.

Empeg won't install your own drive for you. The Empeg Store has drive upgrades online already, but they are for drives you purchase from Empeg. The idea is you ship them your Empeg as-is, all by itself, and it comes back with more capacity magically added.

There is a very good reason for this. It's so they can give you their full warranty on both the drive and the installation. If you sent them a defective drive (which was faulty from the manufacturer, i.e., not your fault or Empeg's fault), there would be no way for Empeg to prove to you that they didn't harm the drive. And it's likely that, if you're sending them the drive, you probably had no easy way of testing its reliablility before you sent it to them, so no one would really know how/when the drive went south and everyone could be pointing fingers.

All in all, it's best to have Empeg supply both the drive and the installation, so that you can be sure the job is done right, and there is only one party responsible for anything that goes wrong.

But with that said, it is possible to upgrade the drive yourself if you're willing to take the chance of voiding the warranty and ruining your $1500.00 player. I have a FAQ file ready to go online which details the procedure. I'm waiting on two things before I post it: Mike's newest disk formatter upgrade utilities, and Rob's e-mail template describing how to properly remove the Mk2 player lid. (Nudge, nudge, Mike and Rob).

In fact, my explanation about why Empeg won't install your own drives for you sounds pretty good, I think I'll add that to the FAQ.

___________
Tony Fabris

Well all that sounds reasonable, but it didn't need to be said, really (to me at least). I've already said that I would not expect Empeg to extend any sort of warranty to a hard drive I presented them with.

I still say that if presented with the following two options, I'd certainly prefer the first: 1) Having them install the drive, and take for myself the responsibility for the $500 drive; and 2) Installing it myself, voiding the warranty, and thereby taking responsibility for the entire $1500+$500 combo. Seems they could easily enough keep a note like "user supplied drive" in our registration info.

Anyway, I'm content to drop the idea. I agree it would be a unique service were they to offer it. Most companies wouldn't even consider it. So it doesn't bother me that they wouldn't do it.

I'd still appreciate an ETA on those larger drives if anyone has it. I just feel like I'd rather like to avoid having to send the empeg back across the ocean for an upgrade once the larger drives come in. (And 36GB isn't going to be enough in the long term.) It sounds like those people who do have one already can appreciate this: once I get a hold of one and learn to enjoy it, I'm not going to be fond of having to give it up, even for awhile...

Michael

I noticed that the IBM 20gig disks are now readily available and that they are roughly the same price as 10gig disks were only a matter of months ago. Also noticed that the 20gig disks are the thinner type. Does the empeg use the thicker of the two types ? I wonder if there is an outside chance of getting four drives in the case - although assume not due to the clever shock resistant mountings used.

- --
Rod, UK Mk2 Red S/No.341

No chance of getting 4 drives in there! Not onl would shock protection be an issue but I believe that the MKII only has one IDE bus. This could be a stumbling block ;)

M

gogocity.com sucks

Goodness, amen to that. They couldn't send me a hd because my shipping address was different than my billing address (I order plenty online and it's never happened before). I canceled, and ordered from somewhere else, and just today, two hard drives arrived (one from gogocity). Sigh, now I have to send theirs back, cover shipping, cover calling them and dealing with their crappy cust serv people again. Why can't everyone just be like rob?

cd

PS: rob, i hope this fanatic-level fan club you have doesn't go to your head.