HowTo: Upgrade a FS-100 to 250GB

[Frantic]

how to replace the 100GB hdd with 250GB or 320GB (500GB) in your firestore fs-100
(no warranty given! use your brain when doing the operation!!!)

1.) get the 4.0.1.xxxxx BIOS update from focus enhancements as it supports >250GB drives. otherwise your fs-100 will not support bigger harddisks. flash your fs-100 with the new BIOS.
link to fs-100 bios 4.0.0: http://www.focusinfo.com/rfi/confirmation.asp?id=82
link to fs-100 bios 4.0.1: http://www.focusinfo.com/dynassets/d...1.04032008.zip works only for 4.0.0 users!

2.) open the little screws of the firestore case. look which model (IDE or SATA) you have. I have the IDE model. If you have SATA, you can´t use a IDE drive. close the case again until you got the new hdd drive.

3.) If you have IDE, buy the WD Scorpio 250GB (WD2500BEVE) with PATA (IDE) interface.
technical specs of the WD scorpio 250 (IDE): http://www.westerndigital.com/en/pro...sp?DriveID=346
Or you can buy a 320GB WD320BEVE with PATA (IDE) interface.
technical specs of the WD scorpio 320 (IDE): http://www.westerndigital.com/en/pro...sp?driveid=599

3a.) if you have a SATA firestore and a SATA HDD: it isn´t very complicated to mount a SATA drive into a SATA firestore. just plug and play one/two cables.

4.) if you got the new drive from your dealer, open again the little screws of the firestore case.

5.) you have to stick tapes to the same places on the new harddisk where the original yellow ones are sitting. but beware of covering the little air hole with the tape!!! otherwise you may damage your harddisk! i made also a little hole in the tape, i used a fine knife for that.

5.) disconnect the flat cable of the old hdd. then open the little screws of the silver plate below the harddrive. open the 4 screws which fasten the hdd to the silver plate. put the old hdd away. maybe you can get an external case later to use the old 100GB hdd with your computer.

6.) there is a a square of metal (shielding) affixed to the underside of the old drive exactly where the fan lined up with the drive. take that off the old drive and fix it on the new drive on the same place. otherwise you could get problems with the fan.

7.) connect the new hdd with the flat cable. pay attention to the direction the cable is connected to the drive. if you reverse it you will probably kill your hdd and or the fs-100. fix the screws in reverse order so that the new harddisk is fixed in the case.

8.) close the case with the outside screws.

9.) connect your firestore to the power supply. for best security, connect also an accu to the case.

10.) start the engine (press the "ON" button on the fs-100)

11.) maybe your firestore will ask you to partition the new drive. in this case press "NO" (otherwise the fs-100 will make two partitions with 125GB each).
11a.) Normally all firestores over 100GB (also the original 160 and 250GB models) will partition into 2 (or more, if you use 320GB drive) partitions. the second partition will automatically be used if partition one is full (this is the default firestore behaviour, also on the original 250GB-models). if you are comfortable with this, you can press "YES" and forget step 12 and 13.

12.) if your firestore says "Please wait" after the boot screen, use the arrow keys on the fs-100 to navigate to the "DD DRIVE" option. Enable the computer connection. you should hear a ding dong (=recognized firewire device).

13.) use this program http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/index.html to partition and format a single 250GB /320GB partition with FAT32 (Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 CAN NOT format partitions larger than 32GB with FAT32). If you are on a Mac you can just use the disk utility to format the drive with FAT32.

14.) reboot the device. you should see "278 minutes free" for 250GB or 356 minutes for 320GB (in DVCPro HD/1080i) or something similar, but only if you are using one single partition, if you’re using 2 or more partitions, you have to add all minutes from all partitions.

congratulations, you have just upgraded your fs-100 to the newest 250 GB / 320 GB model!

edit: according to some postings in this thread it should be possible to upgrade your fs-100 to 500 GB (=557 minutes recording time).

you should test the recording between camera and fs-100 after the modification to ensure the correct workflow!

[monday1313]

If you are on a Mac you can just use the disk utility to format the drive.

once you're up and running, don't use the format feature on the firestore it will format it into two partitions again...

[monday1313]

Well, this is what I get for getting a firestore off ebay...

While I had it apart to install the new hard drive, I did a dust removal with some compressed air. I gave the fan a good blast and it made a fun sound, so I blasted it twice.

Then I put the thing back together and set up it up and let it record. I was making sure it would handle a really long record so I set it to slow-mo and let it record me working in my studio.

A couple of hours later. I check it and it was locked up. Apparently the fan had died as it was just in there twitching, not rotating.

So I took it apart to check the connections. Everything was hooked up the way it was supposed to be. Called focus enhancements for a fan, they wanted 300$ to fix it and they won't sell the parts.

www.digikey.com has them and will sell just one. $13 plus shipping.

You'll need a Torx T5 bit to unscrew the screws holding the fan in (I think, I tried to get some digital calipers in there to check and as near as I can tell it's a T5. I guess I'll find out when I go out and get a set of them tomorrow. (check wikipedia for bit sizes...)

I guess it's good that I found this out now, rather than on my next shoot. Now atleast I know what that funky smell is that I've been smelling...

[mmhaus]

Originally Posted by monday1313

Well, this is what I get for getting a firestore off ebay...

While I had it apart to install the new hard drive, I did a dust removal with some compressed air. I gave the fan a good blast and it made a fun sound, so I blasted it twice.

Then I put the thing back together and set up it up and let it record. I was making sure it would handle a really long record so I set it to slow-mo and let it record me working in my studio.

A couple of hours later. I check it and it was locked up. Apparently the fan had died as it was just in there twitching, not rotating.

So I took it apart to check the connections. Everything was hooked up the way it was supposed to be. Called focus enhancements for a fan, they wanted 300$ to fix it and they won't sell the parts.

www.digikey.com has them and will sell just one. $13 plus shipping.

You'll need a Torx T5 bit to unscrew the screws holding the fan in (I think, I tried to get some digital calipers in there to check and as near as I can tell it's a T5. I guess I'll find out when I go out and get a set of them tomorrow. (check wikipedia for bit sizes...)

I guess it's good that I found this out now, rather than on my next shoot. Now atleast I know what that funky smell is that I've been smelling...

I did the swap out this evening and everything went perfectly (minus forgetting to place the tape on the HD the first time I had it open) but when I put it back together a funny thing happened...... my fan just sat there and twitched. I had read your post and thought it was very odd that the same thing would happen....strange.

So then I put on my thinking cap, picked up the old 100GB drive and looked it over.
Lo and behold there was a square of metal (shielding) affixed to the underside of the drive exactly where the fan lined up with the drive. I was thinking there might be some magnetic issues between drive and fan even before I saw this piece. I pried the square of metal off the old drive, it still had enough tack to it, and placed it on the new drive in the exact same location........guess what?

It works perfectly and I have my 278 minutes of pure HD recording time.

Thanks to all for this thread. I couldn't be happier with a rehabbed FS-100. Now for the field testing.

Monday1313 check your old drive.....and I think you will save yourself some headaches.

j......

[monday1313]

Thanks so much! atleast I'll have a spare fan now, I think I'll go ahead and put the new one in anyways, since it's over 2 years old and smelled burnt out even before all this happened.

now let me check the old harddrive...

:-)


EDIT:

yeah, just put that metal piece on and fired it up. works like it should...

lesson learned...

thanks again....

[Frantic]

thank you guys for the hint with the a square of metal (shielding) affixed to the underside. i hadn´t the problem with the twitching fan but i now have put the shielding to the new hdd-drive after your warnings.

for upgraders i have edited my first posting and mentioned the shielding (point 6.).

[NoNoob]

Very cool hack. Thanks for sharing folks.

Any hope for my measly FS4-40GB?

It should be this simple, eh?

Thanks for any input regarding this.

[Nick Walters]

I read another thread where a guy with an FS4 100gig upgraded the drive...my guess is that the only difference between the FS4 40g and fs4 100g is the drive. I'd buy a drive and try it out if I were you.

[monday1313]

it's really a question of firmware. I would check the revision notes that come with the firmware download and see if they added support for larger HD sizes...

[NoNoob]

Did some research on the subject.
YES YOU CAN- no problems either.
40G to 80G, pizzapie. 5400 rpm IDE drive. Laptop common, cheap too.

ALSO, found some stuff on increasing batt performance; mods and hacks.
So, you can really get power performance equal to the time quotient of the drives.

Pretty cool.
Can pass along links if any of y'all are interested.