Has anyone replaced the Audio Request hard drive with their own after the original one has fried (out of warranty)?

Actually, this is for a client, who managed to receive the worst 3 possible Audio Request replacements on the planet. (one of them being the $1000. promotional upgrade.)

I am making an attempt to swap out the existing fried hard drive (forfeiting any mp3's on it) and put in a new compatible hard drive and load the operating system.

Sounds like a plan. Am I crazy?


Arq Fusion Pro with an ARQ-80 hard drive
Seagate U Series 9 -8 gb
model # ST380012ACE

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Request. They are normally really good for customer service.

The drive on the Request has a Linux or Unix operating system on it as well as their Serious Play 4.0 Interface. Its best to send the drive back to request and see if they can recover the music on it.

On the new series - N,F, and S - they have DVD Drives and the software/operating system is on a DVD. Not sure about the Fusion Pro.

I also wanted to replace the HDD on my own F2 as an upgrade to a larger capacity server. Does anyone know if the Serious Play 4.0 update DVD will format a new HDD & install the OS from scratch?
doopid - I'll let you know how I get on.

Request has well passed their welcome in my book. I just want to move on now and try and make something of these music servers after all the time and money spent on them in poor designing and repairs.

There are "many" seagate hard drives to choose from and I don't know enough about the difference between them and what is compatible with the original hard drive. I know the prices have dropped dramatically compared to the hundreds upon hundreds of dollars Request used to charge.

Did you find a solution to this? I have a customer with the AudioRequest that wanted a larger hard drive. It was very simple to clone the HD. I don't think the brand makes a difference. I went from the stock Seagate to a 120GB Maxtor with no problem.

Unfortunately, the customer got his 2nd hand and they won't give him (or me) the upgraded software... they wanted $1500 for it!

I've re-imaged from the original image a few times and still get some audio drop outs. He's about ready to give up on Request also.

Jeff

One word:





E S C I E N T

I can't stand Escient at all, and Request has failed our clients in many ways. Just a note on upgrading hard drive size. When Request sells you units, they a really licensing their software based upon the hard drive size. So... the difference in price between a smaller ARQ unit and a larger one is not the cost differential of the hard drive of course, but the right to use their software. Field upgrading the hard drive to a larger one is a violation of their end user license. As software developers of our own, in some rights, I just thought I would bring that point up so that we are all respectful where respect is due.

A better word:

K A L E I D E S C A P E

then he can have movies too......

ya gets wot yer pays fer.............

Kaleidescape is the ONLY hard drive system I have ever used that has been truly trouble free, as close to flawless as you can get. The others may have gotten better, but they all (Escient, Request, Arrakis) have had their growing pains at one time or another.

Have they mentioned sending the drive in, so the data can be retrieved? It may be possible, but I have to wonder why the drive failed.

I only replaced two drives, in two different N1.800s and it was very easy.

This is an update:

I have replaced the original internal hard drive with a new one. I called Seagate tech to match the latest series that is compatible with the old one. I also upgraded the capicity from 80g to 250g.

I have 3 discs from Request:

1 is a boot disc (CD) with firmware v 1.9.2
1 is a boot disc (DVD) with firmware v 2.2.6
1 is a update boot disc (DVD) with firmware v 2.2.6

I put the client's ARQ harddrive into my N series chassis. (I left the CD tray open when I powered down). Next I put in the CD and pushed the tray closed the turned on the power button to have it boot up.

It didn't work and I tried this 3 times with all 3 discs. I did not try this yet on the original client chassis. I hope that is the problem.

Any thoughts? Don't say call Request because they want way too much money for something that shold have worked the first 2 times I paid them to fix and upgrade.

Hi, I have Audio Request Hard drives for sale...

I do not have any drives for the original ARQ1

I have drives for the ARQ2, ARQ Pro, Fusion Pro, F and N Series

Some Fusion Pros can use the NEW Serious Play software with a memory upgrade.
Some Fusion Pros CANNOT use the Serious Play software

To find out if your Fusion Pro is able to work with Serious Play software, you can call Request at 1-800-236-2812 and give them the serial number to your unit and they will be able to tell you.

Please email me at [email protected] and let me know what unit and drive size you would like and I will give you a price. All drives are new and fully tested with NO music before they are shipped to you.

Thanks !

Just out of curiosity. Do you have the Request server on a UPS?

I certainly do.

Plus, all the units were only controlled with crestron and had a macro to turn the server off when not in use.

I'm just trying to salvage my client and relationship. Request, unfortunately, could care less.

I'm not an installer but a DIY'er and come from a tech background. We've got audiorequest wired with crestron etc etc at my parents house and I've just been informed by my parents that the "music thing" doesn't work--and hasn't been working for a few years! HA!

It's an AudioRequest Fusion Pro and from what I can tell the hard drive is fried--I have tried connecting via my PC and the drive won't spin so that's probably a def. reason.

Being this thing is so old and out of warranty, does anyone have a HD with the software on it I can buy? I never got around disk imaging the original drive so I can't fix it myself...... If anyone can either sell me a drive (previous poster on this thread isn't replying to emails) or can image their drive (i'll pay for the hassle!) it'd be great. I'd love to get music working for my parents again.