My 9200T disk is rapidly dying. Does anyone know where I can get a new 500 GB disk for it? Or even a new 300 GB? or 160 GB disk?

I would prefer new because the 9200T cannot remove faulty blocks from use, and the file system eventually gets corrupted. Symptoms include missed recordings, lost reservations and a given recording appearing twice in the list of recorded programmes etc.

I currently use a 500GB Seagate ST3500312CS Pipeline but cannot find any stockists as it is obsolete. I am reluctant to buy used as the last used one I bought had no spare replacement blocks and failed the Seagate tests.

I suspect new Seagate ACE drives as included in the 9200 are now virtually unobtainable. However there are numerous used 160GB ACE drives available on eBay for about £10 on a "buy it now" basis and potentially much cheaper if auctioned. I think many of these come from old Sky boxes that have been upgraded to HD.

Some of the sellers of the "buy it now" deals offer an explicit 90 day guarantee but even those that don't are normally subject to the distance selling regulations which allow for a 7 return if not satisfied.

In the past there have been threads about using a PATA-to-SATA adapter; you buy a SATA disk, and then fit an adapter that allows you to plug in the 9200t's PATA cable. Sorry, but I do not recollect how successful people's experiments were using the adapter; perhaps others will comment.

I recently purchased a bi-directional PATA-to-SATA adapter from Currys for £5, but I have not tried using it yet.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK