HP Personal Media Drive Bay

[Jeff]

Hi, I have a HP Pavilion Media Center TV PC. I was wondering if I can purchase the media drive bay by it self. I want to add my own hard drive. I don't want to but the whole HP 500GB Personal Media Drive:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/prod...

Can I just buy the enclosure or adapter to add my own HDD?

[orv]

Jeff wrote:

Hi, I have a HP Pavilion Media Center TV PC. I was wondering if I can purchase the media drive bay by it self. I want to add my own hard drive. I don't want to but the whole HP 500GB Personal Media Drive:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/prod...
Can I just buy the enclosure or adapter to add my own HDD?

Of course you can.

[Jeff]

Where can I find it? I've been searching and no luck.

Can someone help please.

[Geoff]

I have been looking too. If you find out please let me know.
Geoff

Jeff wrote:

Hi, I have a HP Pavilion Media Center TV PC. I was wondering if I can purchase the media drive bay by it self. I want to add my own hard drive. I don't want to but the whole HP 500GB Personal Media Drive:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/prod...
Can I just buy the enclosure or adapter to add my own HDD?

[Ron]

Did anyone find the enclosure selling by itself with out a drive?

[Spinner]

I have not seen the cartridge by itself (sans drive) and I really want to get the bay itself
that accepts the cartridge, but hey, wanting is a good thing

[MarcW]

I'm looking for the bay also; just off the phone with HP and they say it's not available to order. I find that hard to believe..
If anyone finds a place to purchase them, let us know.

[Aje]

I have been searching for like a week now and I still can't find the bay sold seperately - only with new HP computers...:(

Any one else lucky out there?

[TfC]

I was thinking about getting one too. But after reading the specs it just doesn't make sense to me. The only thing you get from it is that it fits neatly in the little drive bay. Other than that, it's just a USB portable drive, so it's still slower than SATA. Either add a new 500GB internal SATA (under $100), or buy any third-party external USB drive (500GB for $119 at Fry's).

[60Nova]

You Can Get the 500GB Drive at http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-500GB-Perso...

Jeff wrote:

Hi, I have a HP Pavilion Media Center TV PC. I was wondering if I can purchase the media drive bay by it self. I want to add my own hard drive. I don't want to but the whole HP 500GB Personal Media Drive:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/prod...
Can I just buy the enclosure or adapter to add my own HDD?

[60Nova]

You can get the 500GB Media Drive at
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-500GB-Perso...

[HPOwner7750]

I see they have as is defective personal media drives on Ebay.
They are running for under $40
Link here: http://tinyurl.com/5loj8j

Has anyone succesfully replaced the HDD's in one of these?

[RHP]

Here's a link to replacing the drive in one of those enclosures; haven't tried it, but it looks reasonable enough:

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/2/208787/Sho...

[Bver]

MarcW wrote:

I'm looking for the bay also; just off the phone with HP and they say it's not available to order. I find that hard to believe..
If anyone finds a place to purchase them, let us know.

Has anyone been able to locate the drive enclosure itself (w/o the drive) for sale?

[Willard]

Don't bother, guys. I have a media drive bay in my HP that just bit it, and the bay isn't a standard form factor. I don't even know if it CAN be modified. If I do manage to cram it into a new case, i'll let you all know

[Rick vW]

Willard and others: you can but 'empty' bays for the HP Personal Media drive on eBay. I just bounght a bunch of empty enclosures that used to hold the 160GB drive (this is the one using the PATA = IDE drive connection). I successfully inserted a MTD (rebranded maxtor) drive in there. There is nothing special about the form factor, Willard. No idea why you say that. It takes a standard PATA 3.5" drive. If you want to be sure of compatibility the use a Seagate PATA 160GB or get a 34$ MTD.

[Aleck]

Rick, I think Willard was commenting on the bay that the drive inserts into, rather than the drive enclosure itself.

[Nissan]

Rick vW wrote:

Willard and others: you can but 'empty' bays for the HP Personal Media drive on eBay. I just bounght a bunch of empty enclosures that used to hold the 160GB drive (this is the one using the PATA = IDE drive connection). I successfully inserted a MTD (rebranded maxtor) drive in there. There is nothing special about the form factor, Willard. No idea why you say that. It takes a standard PATA 3.5" drive. If you want to be sure of compatibility the use a Seagate PATA 160GB or get a 34$ MTD.

Rick....I just bought one.. HOW do you open this case? it has the slim black strip on the sides, not the fatter one shown in the previous posts.
any help appreciated
nissan

[pcTulsa]

actually aleck...he was talking about getting the drive without a HD, not the bay.

[pcTulsa]

I would love to get a 'empty' I have sever hd's that I could use this for.

I have no intention of getting a 'populated' media drive, I already have 2 terabytes of storage and want to use this as a 'coversion' tool.