emusonacid!

Well, the guy did what he did and i accepted it. He has done a really good job all in all. There is a screw at each side if i need to ever open it up.

Yes, i can back everything up onto a second HD.

i did not realize how duff my phone camera was. i never used it much before uploading these pics. i may try and borrow a decent digicam and retake them.

Just curious, is there any reason that would prevent the use of USB MB448UR model to receive the drive tray and transfer samples to Desktop ?
http://www.icydock.com/product/mb448ur.html

keefaz wrote:Just curious, is there any reason that would prevent the use of USB MB448UR model to receive the drive tray and transfer samples to Desktop ?
http://www.icydock.com/product/mb448ur.html

Yes this



The pictures on the website showing the connectors are wrong, except for pic 6
You see the rear connector to the ultra is the wrong kind (not IDE)
I tried one of these first and had to return it.
If the bay had IDE and the caddy had USB it would be so much easier, but I had to go for the double bay system for transfers.

Yes I was thinking of a double bay system too, one bay with IDE output (MB448AR) that goes into the E4XT and one external bay (MB448UR) that would connect to Desktop with an USB cable.

From memory I think that the internal cady connections for the two bays have different connectors.
So the systems will not cross connect. This is why I used two IDE bays and an IDE to USB cable for the PC.

I see. Thanks for this information

first, thanks to jahfunk for posting this mod. i've gone the icydock route and it's pretty awesome!
just to comment on the past few posts i don't see a problem with the following set up:

1x MB-448UR in your pc
1x MB-448AR in your emu

both units are compatible with the caddy and it would allow you to pop the caddy out if the emu and into your pc. the UR uses 5pin usb 2.0 so you can just connect it directly to your pc's motherboard (via 5pin female to female internal header). it will been seen as a usb removable storage device. that's the setup i'm after. just ordered a UR :D

override wrote:
1x MB-448UR in your pc
1x MB-448AR in your emu

both units are compatible with the caddy

My findings could be wrong and the 2 units may accept either caddy, hope your right about the compatibility, if so the UR bay may be a better option for the PC.

the icy dock website says the UR and AR both use MB448ARCK for the drive tray. hopefully it's accurate! i found a ur on ebay and will post the results when it arrives!

JAHFUNK wrote:My findings could be wrong and the 2 units may accept either caddy, hope your right about the compatibility, if so the UR bay may be a better option for the PC.

turns out i was wrong. the drive trays are compatible but the units have different cartridges (the pcb's that the ATA drives connect to) and those are not compatible.. so my solution for now is to just swap the drive between cartridges to go to/from my pc.. not a big deal because i really just wanted this to make backup easier. if i could find another mb448ar for cheap i would just get one of those. good thing the UR was only about $25 with shipping and at least i can still use it to transfer samples (albeit with a bit of work)

just want to say again massive thanks for this thread jah ~ i'm really happy with this mod!

override wrote: the drive trays are compatible but the units have different cartridges (the pcb's that the ATA drives connect to) and those are not compatible...

Yes, from my memory this is what I found, they won't interconnect.
Good to get this info on the forum so users performing this mod in future are aware.

override wrote: if i could find another mb448ar for cheap i would just get one of those. good thing the UR was only about $25 with shipping and at least i can still use it to transfer samples (albeit with a bit of work)

Why not get this one from eBay it only costs about $15 plus they ship worldwide.
Total cost inc P&P would be about $36 to USA.

It would be a lot less hassle than...
removing the 1st caddy from the 1st bay > removing the HD from 1st caddy > fitting the HD into the 2nd caddy > slotting 2nd caddy into the 2nd bay... And then repeating the whole thing in reverse to get data back to the Emu
Instead you would just need to pull the caddy from one bay and slot it straight into the other.
You may be able to return the UR bay to the seller and get a refund.

NEW! IcyDock MB-448AR 2.5" IDE Hard Drive Caddy Beige
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-IcyDock-MB-448AR-2-5-IDE-Hard-Drive-Caddy-Beige-/400462995907?pt=UK_Collectables_HardDriveEnclosures_RL&hash=item5d3d7461c3#shId

Looks like the last 5 left.
From my correspondence with them it is doubtful if they will get further stock of this discontinued bay.
I'm surprised they haven't already been snapped up by E-MU users.
I don't want to upset anyone but IMO it seems a better and cheaper solution than the scsi card readers.

i ended up getting another one from ebay. much cheaper than the first i picked up (damn ups customs fees!)

i have a little micro atx board running windows xp (with an adaptec scsi card) that i use for all my sample backups/management. i access it via vnc to avoid having to connect a monitor/keyboard etc. i installed the 2nd icydock (AR) in place of an old ide zip drive. it works well but for some reason the transfer rate is extremely slow. how fast are the transfer speeds with your custom USB enclosure?
the UR icy dock i ordered by mistake can connect the hd enclosure directly to a computer via a usb cable and it transfers nicely but for some reason the AR is really really slow. not much of a problem if you're only using it for backups and small banks.. but backing up 20gb of EOS banks took about 2hrs eeeep!

I would say there is a problem with your setup somewhere.

With the IDE to USB converter attached between the dock and a USB port on a PC I get normal external USB HD transfer rates.

Do you have a 2.5 to 3.5 IDE HD adapter?
You could use this to connect the E-mu drive directly to the PCs internal IDE cable and check transfer speeds without the dock.
Alternatively if you have an old 3.5 IDE drive lying around you could use this to test the PC.

If you are still experiencing problems why not get an IDE to USB adapter and hook the bay up to a USB port with that.

thanks. yeah it's odd. other ide drives work fine. also it's only writing that is slow specifically with the two ata drives i got for the icydock. maybe something is awry somewhere with my settings but i checked all i could and it seems to be ok as far as i can tell. anyway, i'll tinker with it some more.
i ordered a 3.5 usb 2.0 enclosure that i'm going to see if the icy fits inside. according to the specs it should just barely. fingers crossed