Conversion to Solid State drive
2015-02-08 by Geoff Ward
Hi Bill Just thought I would let you and the group know how I got on with my Mark IV conversion to SSD. I initially purchased from China a 2-way PATA to SATA adapter which connected by cables and was a bit of a mess. Anyway, It didn’t work. I then purchased from China a different type of one-way adapter which is a small circuit board that plugs directly into the rear of the SATA SSD drive. This one worked – I bought 2 of them as they were less than $7 each. I cloned the original drive using my PC to connect both drives to and the cloning software was g4L - available as a free download from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/files/g4l%20ISO%20images/ I used a Samsung 2.5” 120 GB SSD and, with the adapter installed, the Yamaha parallel cable and power cable simply plugged into the adapter. I used a 3.5” to 2.5” mounting adapter to mount the SSD into the aluminium cage which is mounted to the lid of the Yamaha computer box. I had to modify the aluminium cage with a hacksaw to give clearance for the SATA adapter. Results: The SSD makes very little difference to the boot-up and shut-down times. Boot-up becomes about 2m 25s instead of 2m 40s and this is disappointing. However, it was great to eliminate the incessant HDD hum that was previously evident whenever the DKV was on. It is now totally silent and worth the effort – plus I have a backup drive should one fail. Kind regards Geoff Ward
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From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com [mailto:disklavier@...m] Sent: Sunday, 7 December 2014 4:30 PM To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [disklavier] Urgent matter Hi Geoff, For the last 2 SSDs, I have used option 2 with no problems. I use a PATA to SATA Interface Adapter to make the connections. I am making 2 - Samsung 850 PRO 128GB SSDs into Mark IV drives this weekend, doing it as I have before. Bill On Sat, Dec 6, 2014 at 9:19 PM, 'Geoff Ward' gward1211@... <mailto:gward1211@...> [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> > wrote: Thanks Bill The most common solid state drives are 2.5inch SATA. I was surprised to find that my Mark IV has an old technology parallel (PATA) 3.5” drive. It’s easy to use a 3.5” to 2.5” converter bracket for mounting. But, which type of drive? Option 1 – find a 128GB PATA solid state drive – slow max of 133MB/s and not common. They also might not be available for much longer; or Option 2 – buy a faster (500MB/s) 128GB SATA SS drive and pair it up with an IDE to SATA converter board – not sure about the performance of such a board, but they are available. The speed is probably limited by the Mark IV interface to something less than 133MB/s in any event. Could you or any other reader who has done this please tell me which approach you believe is best. I would prefer option 2 if it is viable. Kind regards Geoff Ward From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> ] Sent: Thursday, 27 November 2014 2:33 PM To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> Subject: Re: [disklavier] Urgent matter Geoff, Its worth it. Everything runs faster and the IO Center is nice and quiet. Bill iPhone On Nov 26, 2014, at 6:31 PM, 'Geoff Ward' gward1211@... <mailto:gward1211@...> [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> > wrote: Thanks Bill. Probably worth it to go with SSD. Kind regards Geoff From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com] Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2014 7:48 AM To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> Subject: Re: [disklavier] Urgent matter My Mark IV with a SSD drive boots in 1 minute 40 seconds. Bill iPhone On Nov 26, 2014, at 12:25 PM, 'Geoff Ward' gward1211@... <mailto:gward1211@bigpond.com> [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> > wrote: In view of the drama that a failed hard disk drive causes, I think I will clone my Mark IV hard disk using Norton Ghost on my PC (I also have Linux Ghost which works with Windows 7). Can anyone say whether a solid state drive will improve the boot-up time – currently about 2.5 minutes. Kind regards Geoff From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com] Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2014 7:19 AM To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> Subject: Re: [disklavier] Urgent matter The operating system, along with the factory installed music software need to be put on the hard drive. A hard drive on one Mark IV can be switched with another Mark IV hard drive - nothing unique to the specific piano. Easiest way (without a hard driver cloner) is to use Mark IV Rescue discs (3) and install them to the blank hard drive, with it in the piano. An older firmware version (v3.0) is installed. From there, you can update to the current firmware using Network Update. To do the rescue requires pushing a couple of buttons, in sequence on the IO Center. The Rescue Discs are created using 3 ISO files. I have the files and installation instructions, if anyone needs them. Send me a private email and I will give you links to these files. Bill iPhone On Nov 26, 2014, at 10:22 AM, Mark Fontana mark@... <mailto:mark@...t> [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> > wrote: Is it possible for an enterprising member of this list to sell ready-to-install SSDs for Mark IV instruments? Or do the drives include information specific to each individual piano that is added by Yamaha during manufacturing, i.e. information that must be cloned from the original drive or configured by Yamaha in a replacement drive? On 11/26/2014 11:56 AM, George Frederick Litterst PianoBench@... <mailto:PianoBench@aol.com> [disklavier] wrote: Good afternoon, everyone. Julien, if it turns out that the hard drive needs to be replaced, I recommend that you replace it with an SSD drive and enjoy improved performance. I have never replaced the SSD in a Mark IV, but there are individuals on this list who have. Regards, PianoBench On Nov 26, 2014, at 11:03 AM, Julien Roche julien.roche@... <mailto:julien.roche@...> [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> > wrote: Thanks. I will do that right now. I am in Albania (europe), can you give me details where to send the hard disk for repair or replacement ? Thanks again Julien On Wednesday, November 26, 2014 3:55 PM, "Bill Brandom billbrando@... <mailto:billbrando@...> [disklavier]" <disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> > wrote: Try unplugging it from the outlet and let the piano sit for about an hour. Then power it back up. If you experience the same problem, your hard drive has probably gone bad and will need to be replaced. Bill iPhone On Nov 26, 2014, at 2:38 AM, Julien Roche julien.roche@... <mailto:julien.roche@...> [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> > wrote: I was out from home for one week then when I come back and connect my Disklavier Mark 4, the ON/OFF button still flashes after more than one hour and also the USER green button is ON (but not flashing) Impossible to connect with remote ... Somebody can tell me what to do to restart my piano in working conditions ? thanks a lot, first time in 4 years using this piano . ..