help - i hope this is the right forum

JudeC

JudeC

New member
Any assistance would be gratly appreciated.

Let me start by saying i am not technically savvy, so lay man terms would be greatly appreciated

The Problem:
I have a PC that i turned into a HTPC with 4 varying size drives
1) 250gb - operating system and all software and apps
2) 500gb - Music
3) 1.5Tb - tv shows
4) 3TB - Movies

Software- windows 7 64b pro
media browser
ffdshow
media fetcher

recently the pc started losing a hard drive, i would strip the machine clean it and replace the drives, and a different one would be missing, or go missing while running.

I decided this meant it was more than likely the MB. which meant putting money into the system, so here comes the question, i found out there are relatively cheap media players out there, and i thought if i get myself a nas device, then that would work, but what about cover fetching and ffdshow and media browser will they still work and if so how?

the other option is just to rebuild an htpc - but that seems incredibly pricey, especially since i like to do gaming on the pc too.

the last option just use a NAS device with an entry level pc, but not as cheap as the media player.

any advice please even if it's an option i havent thought of
 
JudeC said:
Any assistance would be gratly appreciated.

Let me start by saying i am not technically savvy, so lay man terms would be greatly appreciated

The Problem:
I have a PC that i turned into a HTPC with 4 varying size drives
1) 250gb - operating system and all software and apps
2) 500gb - Music
3) 1.5Tb - tv shows
4) 3TB - Movies

Software- windows 7 64b pro
media browser
ffdshow
media fetcher

recently the pc started losing a hard drive, i would strip the machine clean it and replace the drives, and a different one would be missing, or go missing while running.

I decided this meant it was more than likely the MB. which meant putting money into the system, so here comes the question, i found out there are relatively cheap media players out there, and i thought if i get myself a nas device, then that would work, but what about cover fetching and ffdshow and media browser will they still work and if so how?

the other option is just to rebuild an htpc - but that seems incredibly pricey, especially since i like to do gaming on the pc too.

the last option just use a NAS device with an entry level pc, but not as cheap as the media player.

any advice please even if it's an option i havent thought of
Click to expand...

Your first option is to actually diagnose the issue...

Dont just assume its the mobo it may be plenty of things ranging from PSU to the hard drives themselves actually reaching end of life.

What i suggest is take it to a friends place for the weekend have a lan or something, and put the hard drives into his PC, see if it does the same thing. If it does, most likely hard drives are actually dying. However if it doesnt then chances are its PSU

If you want to go the NAS route im pretty sure ffdshow and everything will be fine? All you would have to do is just relink them to the NAS no?
 
thanks for the help, the reason i'm assuming MB is the pc is so tired that it is time i replaced it, really regardless of why it's losing HD's. I never worked with a NAS but looks pretty straight forward i just not sure what option to put on the end of it, entry level pc or media player

nervous about a media player as i have not even seen one in action and have no idea what to expect, and have not been able to find a demo unit.

But thanks again Caboose, it helps
 
On the diagnostics side, if different hard drives fail at different times whilst plugged into the same SATA ports, my vote is also Power Supply.

I bought a media player online from hong kong and had it posted to me. Have never looked back. It plays every movie under the sun, 1080p with 15gb file size. Only problem for you will be that it doesn't have a hard drive, just a USB slot for an External HDD. But at R300 or so, it comes in a lot cheaper than the Mede8rs.
 
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