Cobalt Raq2 HD upgrade - Advice required

Cobalt Raq2 HD upgrade - Advice required

[Dominique Quatravaux]

Hi Linux-MIPS gurus,

First, thanks to all involved for your work on the MIPS platform. My
trusty Cobalt Raq2 in it's colocation farm not too far away boasts 394
days of uptime tonight, and you are the guys who made it happen.

I'd like to beef up the machine, with more RAM and another HD for
backups. I found the appropriate Wiki page
(http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Cobalt) and I believe I can deal with
the RAM part. OTOH as regards the hard drive, the page is a bit evasive:
exactly what kind of HD can I put there (one for a laptop perhaps)? Will
I need any duct tape to fasten the second disk? Is there anything
special I should know about the operation?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

-- 
<< Tout n'y est pas parfait, mais on y honore certainement les jardiniers >>

			Dominique Quatravaux <dom@kilimandjaro.dyndns.org>

Re: Cobalt Raq2 HD upgrade - Advice required

[freshy98]

Dominique Quatravaux wrote:

>Hi Linux-MIPS gurus,
>
>First, thanks to all involved for your work on the MIPS platform. My
>trusty Cobalt Raq2 in it's colocation farm not too far away boasts 394
>days of uptime tonight, and you are the guys who made it happen.
>
>I'd like to beef up the machine, with more RAM and another HD for
>backups. I found the appropriate Wiki page
>(http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Cobalt) and I believe I can deal with
>the RAM part. OTOH as regards the hard drive, the page is a bit evasive:
>exactly what kind of HD can I put there (one for a laptop perhaps)? Will
>I need any duct tape to fasten the second disk? Is there anything
>special I should know about the operation?
>
>Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
>
>  
>
Hello Dominique,

I used to own a RaQ2+ and had two 80GB drives in them.
Works just fine.

All you need is a new IDE cable since the default one only has the 
Master connector and you need the Slave as well.
Apart from that it should be easy.
Oh, you also need a Molex splitter since the default one is only good 
for one drive.

Regards,

Tom

Re: Cobalt Raq2 HD upgrade - Advice required

[Peter Horton]

freshy98 wrote:
> Dominique Quatravaux wrote:
> 
>>
>> I'd like to beef up the machine, with more RAM and another HD for
>> backups. I found the appropriate Wiki page
>> (http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Cobalt) and I believe I can deal with
>> the RAM part. OTOH as regards the hard drive, the page is a bit evasive:
>> exactly what kind of HD can I put there (one for a laptop perhaps)? Will
>> I need any duct tape to fasten the second disk? Is there anything
>> special I should know about the operation?
>>
> 
> All you need is a new IDE cable since the default one only has the 
> Master connector and you need the Slave as well.
> Apart from that it should be easy.
> Oh, you also need a Molex splitter since the default one is only good 
> for one drive.
> 

If you have some soldering experience it's also quite easy to fit the 
components for the second IDE channel (it's just a handful of resistors, 
a diode and the connector IIRC).

P.

Re: Cobalt Raq2 HD upgrade - Advice required

[freshy98]

> --- Ursprüngliche Nachricht ---
> Von: Peter Horton <phorton@bitbox.co.uk>
> An: freshy98 <freshy98@gmx.net>
> Kopie: linux-mips@linux-mips.org
> Betreff: Re: Cobalt Raq2 HD upgrade - Advice required
> Datum: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 07:52:06 +0000
> 
> freshy98 wrote:
> > Dominique Quatravaux wrote:
> > 
> >>
> >> I'd like to beef up the machine, with more RAM and another HD for
> >> backups. I found the appropriate Wiki page
> >> (http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Cobalt) and I believe I can deal with
> >> the RAM part. OTOH as regards the hard drive, the page is a bit
> evasive:
> >> exactly what kind of HD can I put there (one for a laptop perhaps)?
> Will
> >> I need any duct tape to fasten the second disk? Is there anything
> >> special I should know about the operation?
> >>
> > 
> > All you need is a new IDE cable since the default one only has the 
> > Master connector and you need the Slave as well.
> > Apart from that it should be easy.
> > Oh, you also need a Molex splitter since the default one is only good 
> > for one drive.
> > 
> 
> If you have some soldering experience it's also quite easy to fit the 
> components for the second IDE channel (it's just a handful of resistors, 
> a diode and the connector IIRC).
> 
> P.
> 

I've never bothered going that far, but it indeed should be quite easy.
Might also gain some speed as both drives don't need to go over the same
controler/cable?
The speed ain't too good as it is I think.

Tom

-- 
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GMX DSL-Flatrate 1 Jahr kostenlos* http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl

Re: Cobalt Raq2 HD upgrade - Advice required

[Dominique Quatravaux]

Tanks for all the responses so far. I have updated the Wiki page, and I
may do it again after I complete the upgrade.

freshy98 wrote:

>
> All you need is a new IDE cable since the default one only has the
> Master connector and you need the Slave as well.
> Apart from that it should be easy.
> Oh, you also need a Molex splitter since the default one is only good
> for one drive. 

Thanks - I already guessed so much from searching for "raq2" in Google
Images.

Peter Horton wrote:

>
> If you have some soldering experience it's also quite easy to fit the
> components for the second IDE channel (it's just a handful of
> resistors, a diode and the connector IIRC).

I put an image of a Raq2 doctored in this way in the Wiki (I just
obtained permission from the author,  Yutaka Yasuda, by private mail). I
don't trust myself enough to attempt that, however; plus I cannot afford
more than one hour or two of downtime - and I don't think I could
unseathe my soldering iron in the middle of the data center :-)

-- 
<< Tout n'y est pas parfait, mais on y honore certainement les jardiniers >>

			Dominique Quatravaux <dom@kilimandjaro.dyndns.org>