Install HDD
This is a really very easy step and if you look at the following pictures, it will be self explaining. All I needed was a small screwdriver and I was good to go. After mounting the HDD to the HDD guard I inserted it into the slot and gently pushed it down against the SATA connector.
Here is a list of some 2.5" hard disks (with exact model no. and some specifications) which were tested by users who confirmed that these work properly as an internal HDD inside the Xtreamer. If you have a hard disk which works and isn't listed here please let me know. The reason why people often think that the Xtreamer doen't work with hard disk bigger than 500GB is simple: at the time of release, there were no bigger hard disks available to be tested, the only limit I know of is the physical limit, as you can only fit in hard disk with a max. height of 9.5mm.
- Hitachi (HTS545050B9A300)
5400rpm • 8MB • 9.5mm - Samsung (HM250JI)
5400rpm • 8MB • 9.5mm - Samsung (HM500JI)
5400rpm • 8MB • 9.5mm - Seagate (ST9320325AS)
5400rpm • 8MB • 9.5mm - Seagate (ST9500325AS)
5400rpm • 8MB • 9.5mm - Toshiba (MJA2500BH)
5400rpm • 8MB • 9.5mm - Toshiba (MK5055GSX)
5400rpm • 8MB • 9.5mm - Western Digital (WD3200BEVT)
5400rpm • 8MB • 9.5mm - Western Digital (WD3200BEKT)
7200rpm • 16MB • 9.5mm - Western Digital (WD6400BEVT)
5400rpm • 8MB• 9.5mm
Finished mounting the HDD (I have tested 2 Samsung HDDs so far) inside the Xtreamer I reconnected everything and started formatting the HDD within the Xtreamer menu. It will be formatted in NTFS format and its label is "Xtreamer".
The transfer rates were just average. Not very fast but also not very slow. So don't expect the Xtreamer to work wonders as an external case for 2.5" HDDs. An eSATA interface would have been perfect, well... maybe in the next hardware revision.
I used HD Tune for measuring transfer rates and access times. Nice little tool if you want to quickly check your hard disks. And yes... I didn't use the latest version, shame on me :)
