I had the same concerns, so I did what George is describing below. I removed the hard drive from the KX-TVS75 and hung it onto a PC with a 2.5 inch IDE adapter (you can find these with a quick Google search), I used and old 1GB hard drive on the secondary controller (doesn't have to be a 2.5 inch drive, just same size or larger data capacity). You need software that can clone or copy a drive in a sector-by-sector mode. I used Norton's DiskEdit in the maintenance mode (/M), selected the KX-TVS's drive and copied to the other drive in sector mode. It took about an hour to copy the drive. You can't use normal drive clone software (like Norton's Ghost) because there isn't any normal file structure on the KX-TVS drive. There are other utilities that can do this, as well as built into Linux as suggested below. You can also use the Norton utility to make an image into a DOS file, then ZIP compress the file so you can keep an archive more conveniently.
When the drive crashes we would only need to reverse the procedure, copy from the backup drive to another 2.5 inch drive. I documented the topology of the original drive (heads, sectors, tracks, total sectors) so I could replace it with a similar drive. Any drive should work as long as it is larger, but it would be a good idea to pick up a spare drive and give it a dry-run. I maintain two systems with this model of voicemail. Both have been running for almost eight years on the original hard drives. They seem to have a good MTBF, but I'm expecting a call any day.... ;-) Clay ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 2:36 PM Subject: RE: KX-T: Replacement hard drives for KX-TV100 voice mail system > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 3:32 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: KX-T: Replacement hard drives for KX-TV100 voice mail system > > > I have been told that the hard disks wear out every few years on KX-TV100 > voice processing systems. > I have just put a KX-TVS100 in and would like to put a couple of spare > hard disks in the room with the > system so that I will not have to go hunting when one fails. Does anyone > know where to get appropriate > unused hard disks and how to format them so they can be popped in when > needed. I don't want to wait > two years to get them because by them it may be hard to find such small > logical and large physical > drives. I am also open to being re-educated on this issue. > > Thanks in advance. > > Brent > (626) 564-7069 > _________________________________________________________________ > > > I was able to clone a disk drive for a KX-TVS75, and I am sure that the > procedure would be applicable to your TVS100. Since your TVS100 is still > working, you already have the hardest thing to come by, which is the essential > firmware on the working drive. You cannot attach a bare drive to the TVSxx and > make it work. > > There are a couple of potential problems. First, you may have a hard time > finding new replacement drives. The newer models may not come in the small > capacities that were common with these VPS systems, and the VPS may not > recognize a drive that is too large. The VPS will not use extra capacity in any > case. There is some flexibility in the new drive but I don’t know what > the limitations are. In my case I was able to copy a 300M Toshiba drive to a > 1.2G Seagate. > > The second problem is that you need to take the VPS apart enough that you can > remove the drive. This is not really very hard but it does require that you are > at least a bit familiar with gear like this for the safety of everyone and > everything concerned. > > Third, you need a spare PC, preferably running some form of Unix. It would > really help if the PC's BIOS can recognize the drive, and it probably will > since the older drives were "easier". The call for Unix is because the familiar > DOS utilities will not copy a disk that they don’t recognize. If you > happen to know of a DOS utility that can copy sector by sector without > concerning itself about the filesystem type, then you could use that. The true > guru would call a BIOS routine using DOS debug, but let's assume that anyone > still reading is not of guru status. > > Finally, you need an adapter that enables connection of a laptop hard drive to a > standard IDE cable. You also need the standard IDE cable. > > The remainder of the procedure is fairly detailed, would you like me to continue > ? > > George > > _________________________________________________________________ > KX-T Mailing list --- http://kxthelp.com/ > Subscription changes: http://kxthelp.com/mailman/listinfo/kxt > _________________________________________________________________ KX-T Mailing list --- http://kxthelp.com/ Subscription changes: http://kxthelp.com/mailman/listinfo/kxt
