What do I do here - bust media player

funkey_monkey

I've just stumbled across an old media player that I bought about 5 years ago that has (or did have) a lot of movies and music stored on it.

I've lost the power lead for it. The remote is somewhere in the house - I can't locate it at present, but it will turn up somewhere. From memory, there was a problem with the unit - it was dead/unresponsive. I can't remember if it was a power cable problem or a HDD issue - I don't think I got to the bottom of the problem.

The HDD is a 500Gb SATA drive.

Most of the SATA - USB adapters that I've viewed online do not include the power cable (12V 2A - same as the unit) required for a 3.5" drive. Those that do are coming in at around £20 - which I think would be well on the way to the price of a new enclosure. Although, at a guess I could probably buy a power cable and the adapter cheaper separately!

What should I do here? My thinking is to check the HDD first. I've only got a laptop - so I've not got a PC with a secondary HDD bay to plug it into.

What is the cheap/quick way to get this checked?


Thanks.

Johnboy1951

Ask a friend to check the HDD before spending anything?

ED E

Buy a SATA + SATA power kit, they come in handy to have so its worth it IMO.

£8 on ebay

Johnboy1951

It might be the stored media is encrypted and useless unless the media player can be resurrected.

What Make/Model is the device?

funkey_monkey

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

It might be the stored media is encrypted and useless unless the media player can be resurrected.

What Make/Model is the device?

It is an old Emprex MZ3 media enclosure.

Johnboy1951

funkey_monkey wrote: »

It is an old Emprex MZ3 media enclosure.

It should be easy enough to get a PSU for that ...

DC +12V, 2A

It seems to contain a standard SATA HDD formatted to NTFS or FAT

As it can be used as a USB storage device it seems likely the content is not encrypted.

funkey_monkey

Sorted. Drive connected to an old pc and found to be alive. I am assuming that a new power cord is required for the media box.

Johnboy1951

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Sorted. Drive connected to an old pc and found to be alive. I am assuming that a new power cord is required for the media box.

Just be sure that the replacement PSU is not only the correct voltage (12V) and capable of delivering the required current (2Amps or more), but also that the connector is wired correctly (i.e. that the +Ve and -Ve are connected to the correct part of the plug) and you should be ok.

funkey_monkey

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Just be sure that the replacement PSU is not only the correct voltage (12V) and capable of delivering the required current (2Amps or more), but also that the connector is wired correctly (i.e. that the +Ve and -Ve are connected to the correct part of the plug) and you should be ok.

How is that indicated/marked on the plug?

Johnboy1951

funkey_monkey wrote: »

How is that indicated/marked on the plug?

The position of the + symbol tells you whether the outer or inner is +Ve ...... same with - symbol.

In the above the inner is +Ve

funkey_monkey

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