HDD replacement - non KM always OK?

[stepwik]

Hi I've spent a bit of time looking at bulletins and these forums to figure out the lay of the land where stocking HDDs for KM machines is concerned.
I want to be ready for any machine as old as 4, 4e, 8 series, 4050, 4052, etc. Not wanting to discuss SSDs in this thread, for now just plain old HDDs.

There used to be parts A2X0M72C00 that was intended for 4 and 4e machines. There was a newer cheaper A161PP0100 but it does NOT work with the old 223 or the newer C308 series (according to bulletin 10531 from way back in 2017). Then there's the A5C1M72H00 which shows as the replacement part for both the A1xxx... and A2xxx... drives mentioned above. The official drive sells for $$$ in my area of the world. (I won't say exactly but suffice to say, enough for a nice dinner out for four.)

Questions:
1) I read any old 2.5" sata of 250GB and up (some say 320GB and up) will do nicely. Is that true for all these series: 4, 4e, 8, 50, 52, ?
(and did I miss any newish machines that still have rotational drives?)

2) any historical context for these three KM part numbers that were NOT compatible with all copiers? how is it that any drive will work, but yet, those ones were model specific? Also, there were resellers that were marketing drives that had been specially formatted for KM machines. Was that legit or snake oil? Inquiring minds want to know...

Anyhow. if this all pans out, I can stock a few $30 generic hard drives and rest assured our old loaners and donated copiers and just ancient workhorses will not die for want of a HDD.

Thanks all!

PS - A5C1M72H00D is a different part, same as above but with "D" appended... for an extra few bucks (or could order dessert with dinner for 4...) for bonus points - what's that all about? searched and can't find a parts manual that calls for it...

[rrrohan]

i have never used the KM HDD as they are just generic HDDs anyway and this way i know it will always be WD brand

[femaster]

We salvage the HDDs out of all the returned machines that we end up scrapping. We hook them up to a computer, verify SMART data is OK, check the power on hours, and if the hours aren't insanely high, we wipe out the partition table and toss them in a pile for the next time we need one. The machines have come with either a 250GB or a 320GB drive, and to date we have not had any issues with using either size drive in any machine from the 3-series all the way through the 8e-series.

While we have never used a standard HDD, I can't see why it wouldn't work (unless there is some special firmware on the KM drives?). Installing a completely blank drive into a KM machine (taken from another KM machine) has always worked perfectly. Format the drive, reboot, install movie data and everything is back to normal.

[Albonline]

Hi I've spent a bit of time looking at bulletins and these forums to figure out the lay of the land where stocking HDDs for KM machines is concerned.
I want to be ready for any machine as old as 4, 4e, 8 series, 4050, 4052, etc. Not wanting to discuss SSDs in this thread, for now just plain old HDDs.

There used to be parts A2X0M72C00 that was intended for 4 and 4e machines. There was a newer cheaper A161PP0100 but it does NOT work with the old 223 or the newer C308 series (according to bulletin 10531 from way back in 2017). Then there's the A5C1M72H00 which shows as the replacement part for both the A1xxx... and A2xxx... drives mentioned above. The official drive sells for $$$ in my area of the world. (I won't say exactly but suffice to say, enough for a nice dinner out for four.)

Questions:
1) I read any old 2.5" sata of 250GB and up (some say 320GB and up) will do nicely. Is that true for all these series: 4, 4e, 8, 50, 52, ?
(and did I miss any newish machines that still have rotational drives?)

2) any historical context for these three KM part numbers that were NOT compatible with all copiers? how is it that any drive will work, but yet, those ones were model specific? Also, there were resellers that were marketing drives that had been specially formatted for KM machines. Was that legit or snake oil? Inquiring minds want to know...

Anyhow. if this all pans out, I can stock a few $30 generic hard drives and rest assured our old loaners and donated copiers and just ancient workhorses will not die for want of a HDD.


Thanks all!

PS - A5C1M72H00D is a different part, same as above but with "D" appended... for an extra few bucks (or could order dessert with dinner for 4...) for bonus points - what's that all about? searched and can't find a parts manual that calls for it...

the d is for de manned parts, I've used generic hdds in just about every line after the 600. however, some of the production print units require km drives for the rips and main body .