No support for legacy authentication method in SMB or AFP

As previously mentioned, OS X Lion does not support logging into NAS boxes running Samba or AFP servers that employ the DHCAST128 authentication method. Apple documented this as a security update, in which they outright disabled DHCAST128 in Lion.

People who are running type of NAS system – FreeNAS or store bought boxes will not work in Lion!

Now some people have figured out a workaround to manually enable DHCAST128 in Lion, so if you don’t mind a little hacking in the system go ahead and use it. Otherwise try to enable NFS on your NAS. NFS is support by most NAS boxes running Linux. However, note that NFS does not provide any option for user authentication.

Option 1 – Hacking the OS

SMB/CIFS solution:

1. Upgrade FreeNAS to the latest stable build.
2. Setup your SMB/CIFS shares accordingly.
3. Go to Finder, click on Go->Connect to Server  or simply press command + K.
4. Connect to your server by typing smb://your.ip/hostname or use cifs://your.ip/hostname
5. Login, and you should be good to go.
6. If you don’t see the login pop-up, connect to smb://user:pass@ip  instead.

Do not use the link in Finder under the Shared category. It will not let you connect. It could be my settings somewhere that’s causing the problem, but so far I can’t figure out why it won’t let me connect straight from the Finder shortcut. However, the Connect to Server option works just fine.

Leave a comment if you encounter problems.

AFP solution:

1. Launch /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and do:

• sudo chmod o+w /Library/Preferences

• defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleShareClient afp_host_prefs_version -int 1

• Now restart your computer.
2. From Finder, select an AFP server, or use “Connect To…”.  This will cause the AFP Client to create the full preferences file
3. Launch Terminal again and do:

• sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleShareClient afp_disabled_uams -array "Cleartxt Passwrd" "MS2.0" "2-Way Randnum exchange"

• sudo chmod o-w /Library/Preferences

• Now restart your computer.

To disable DHCAST128,

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleShareClient afp_disabled_uams -array-add "DHCAST128"

Credit for these command goes to Alexander Wilde, please visit his site for the original post. All credits go to him!

Option 2 Enabling NFS

In FreeNAS, go to Services – > NFS and enable 4 NFS servers.

then configure your NFS shares, the easiest way is to point the share to your main storage folder under and share all sub-folders underneath.

Configure NFS shares

Note that if you do not “Map all users to root” you will not have write access to the share!

Save and apply. Then go to Disk Utilities on your Mac.

Click on File – > NFS Mounts, click on the ‘+’ to add a new mount.

Configure NFS mounts in Disk Utility

Replace the IP and folder names according to your FreeNAS share. Then click on ‘Verify” to close the dialog and close the window to save your settings. You may be asked to login to your admin account in order to save the setting. The mount will be auto-mounted to your system at boot time.

After you set everything up in Disk Utility. Quit it and wait a couple of minutes for it to show up in Finder. Note that even though we mounted it to a folder on the Desktop, it will NOT show up! The easiest solution here is to go to your Desktop in Finder and create an alias to the mounted folder. Or, create an actual folder on the Desktop beforehand then mount the share to it.

This isn’t the safest approach since NFS in FreeNAS does not have any authentication support. But for my personal needs it’s actually quite nice, especially when NFS is about 30-50% faster than SMB in some cases. For many home networks, it’s the only way to stream HD videos over the air.

So please give NFS a shot if you don’t want to hack your system to use AFP!

Previously, the FreeNAS project has stuck with the decimal 0.x scheme for build numbers. the latest nightly build we used for the DIY storage appliance was 0.7.2. Since then, the number jumped from 0.x to 8.0, with 8.1 baking in the oven.

Taking a deeper look inside, FreeNAS 8.0 is certainly miles apart from its 0.7.2 release, both in the OS architecture and the front end GUI.

• Based on FreeBSD 8.0
• Modular system design, allow for 3rd-party plug-ins
• Django based GUI, classic GUI still available
• ZFS parameters per dataset, such as quotas, were added
• LSI 6 gbps HBAs are now supported
• Migrated to rc.d init system
• CIFS settings that were mostly detrimental to performance have been removed
• VLAN interfaces are fully supported and can be created from the GUI or from the CLI menu
• Added the ability to edit ZFS options from the GUI such as quotas, compression, reservations on existing volumes and datasets
• Added the ability to create “stacked” ZFS configurations in the GUI as well as add devices to existing ZFS volumes
• Spare, cache, and log devices can now be added to ZFS volumes through the GUI

As highlighted above, I am most excited about the add support of ZFS features that will greatly benefit our cause to create a cheaper and more functional device to the droboFS.
FreeNAS 8.0 represents a more complete port of ZFS from OpenSolaris. The most exciting feature is the ability to add devices to an existing ZFS array. Although this has been available to the latest OpenSolaris systems, FreeNAS 0.7.2 did not support it.

To those of us who have been waiting for more ZFS support in FreeNAS this is perhaps too good to be true! So what is the catch? FreeNAS 8.0 BROKE config compatibility from past FreeNAS 0.7.x versions! There is no way of importing configuration from 0.7.2 to 8.0, so the backups are useless. There is also no way of safely upgrading from 0.7.x!

I’m not certain if FreeNAS 8.0 running from a USB stick can automatically recognize existing ZFS arrays created by 0.7.x. However, we need to keep in mind that ZFS version upgrades are PERMANENT. That means once you are on the FreeNAS 8.0 train, you cannot get off without losing all of your data.

In the next couple of weeks, I’m going to experiment with upgrading my 0.7.2 system to 8.0. The things I’m waiting for are more 2TB drives to backup my data on the NAS.

Please stay tuned, and comment if you have questions or insights to FreeNAS 8.0.

For the longest time, we had to use the alpha Redsn0w release that not only required a 4.2b SHSH but the actual 4.2b IPSW which is only available to iOS developers.

The Greenpois0n RC 6.1 release is based on a different hack to the kernel that will allow untethered jailbreaking minus the need for 4.2b SHSH altogether. It also fixes the annoying DRM issue with iBooks.

Steps: (mirrors updated, please read on)

• Download Greenpois0n RC 6.1 (fixes iBook  and DRM issue)
  Mac | PC – I’m providing a mirror at this time since the greenpois0n site is very unstable
• Do the buttons combos as instructed.
• Don’t be alarmed by the “Can’t find fs_mount…” errors.
• At the last step, HOLD THE HOME BUTTON AND DON’T LET GO until the jailbreak is completed.

That’s it! Finally a jailbreak that works without hacks!

Note that the Loader app will not work until Greenpois0n’s site is back online. Just use Redsn0w to install Cydia for now.

HOWEVER… along with new features iOS 4.2.1 brought us more woes than ever before as well.

1. Battery drains EXTREMELY quickly with this release. I would have nothing running in the background of my iPhone 4… and the phone will get warm. It almost feel like the phone is constantly accessing something… and it just drains the battery right out.
2. Jailbreak is still tethered! This means you have to physically attach your phone to your computer every single time you reboot. so imagine putting your phone into DFU mode and uploading the jailbreak exploit every single time. Not fun!
3. Cydia and other jailbroken apps still cannot work well with iOS 4.2.1 yet. Although Cydia has been updated to run on iOS 4.2.1 it is still not very stable from what I could tell.

So to sum up… after having iOS 4.2.1 running for 4 days (3 days unjailbroken, 1 day jailbroken) I finally decided to revert back to 4.1
Also, the heating/battery issue was worse after jailbreaking… I tested repeatedly and found this to be true.

So here is how to downgrade your iOS 4.2.1 device to iOS 4.1 or earlier.

Before we begin, you will need

• A PC or Mac.
• Backup your iPhone / iPod from iTunes.
• Saved SHSH on Cydia. You cannot downgrade if you didn’t save a SHSH for your post-iPhone 3G/iPod 2G devices and chosen iOS version.
• Apple firmware restore IPSW (I’ve listed the 4.1 files)
  • iPhone 4
  • iPhone 3GS
  • iPhone 3G
  • iPod touch 2G
  • iPod touch 3G
  • iPod touch 4G
• iREB from here.
• iTunes 10.x

There are guides out  there like this one, but none of those worked for me. Every time I tried to restore to 4.1 iTunes spits back an error 1600 or 200… and won’t continue.
Here is how I made it work for my iPhone 4.

1. Point gs.apple.com to the Cydia clone.
   • Open your host file, and add

     74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com

   • This will fool iTunes to recognize your SHSH saved on Cydia. However, this step is not need for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G (MC version) because older devices are not required to have SHSH verification with Apple’s server for every firmware restore.
   • Better illustrated in Step 3 of this guide.
2. Put your phone in DFU mode. Again check this guide if you are not sure how.
3. Connect your iPhone or iPod to the computer, and launch iREB. Click on the device you have, and it will upload a jailbreak exploit to the phone and prep your phone for the restore. Wait for iREB to tell you it has done the job.
4. Go to iTunes, it should recognize your iPhone/iPod in recovery mode.
   • On a PC, hold Shift and click on restore. Select the IPSW file you downloaded.
   • On Mac, hold Alt and click on restore.
   • iTunes will now extract the IPSW file and prepare your device for restore.

You device should successfully restore without any error. When I upgraded to 4.2.1, my baseband was also upgraded to 03.10.01. I just want to confirm for others that iOS 4.1 can indeed work with the newer baseband.

Good luck, and hope Apple fixes all the issues with another update soon!

So what has happened in the months following my original post? Quite a lot! ZFS has gained much attention as the world begins to realize its potential and the lack of exposure in the media. AnandTech recently published a very good article detailing the common features ZFS offers over traditional file systems. It goes over almost everything you need to know about ZFS, and the native system that carries it – Solaris. I recommend everyone to read it if you are interested, but it is quite long… so please keep reading this post if you just want the main points.

ZFS and FreeNAS
I’m going to focus on ZFS in the FreeNAS (FreeBSD port) arena. First of all, there is a new stable release of FreeNAS – FreeNAS 7.2. This release brings all the goodies from nightly builds to stable status along with a fix for the 4k sector problem with Advanced Format drives like the WD Green 2TB I used. I highly recommend everyone to upgrade their system ASAP. The process is simple, export your config and upload the new OS image and reboot! The out of the box tweaks in this release are very mature to give you the most out of the ZFS system, but please do read my personal tweaks and see if they can give you even more juice. FreeNAS 8 is also in the works and it is actually being tested right now. It is built on FreeBSD system 8, and it supports ZFS natively. I suspect that it will bring us a lot more native ZFS features, and hopefully implement the ability to add devices to an existing, live ZFS pool. It’s all very exciting!

OpenSolaris
There was a leaked memo from Oracle which now owns the Solaris and its branched systems like OpenSolaris that mentioned the possible abandonment of the open-sourced project. It mentioned that while Oracle plans to continue its use of Solaris technologies, it plans to slow down the code release for OpenSolaris and essentially devote even less attention to the project. So what does this mean to the community and daughter project built on OpenSolaris, like Nexenta? Personally I agree with Anandtech that the impact is going to be very small. OpenSolaris was never a very actively maintained project like many Linux counterparts. As far as NAS and SAN systems are concerned, it will take the community years to even fully implement the features of the current ZFS build. There really is no shortage of things to port as far as ZFS support is concerned. Outside of Solaris, FreeBSD is perhaps the most actively developed ZFS port, and by riding on the FreeNAS/FreeBSD train I’d say we are pretty much future-proof.

To sum up, for the purpose of building a NAS or even SAN system the current ZFS build from Solaris is more than powerful and polished to handle the task. For those of us on the FreeNAS train, the next version – version 8 of FreeNAS will be an exciting build!

NAS Benchmark
ZFS Build posted an interesting benchmark between FreeNAS and OpenSolaris, the result was a landslide victory for OpenSolaris. I’m going to discuss the holes in his benchmarking techniques… personally there were too many unknowns and people already commented the article very heavily. One thing to note from reading the benchmarks, the speeds were measured with iSCSI connections, which is a completely different animal than our Samba setup. I’m not sure how well iSCSI is implemented in the 7.2 build of FreeNAS, but I have heard that FreeNAS/FreeBSD 8 includes a lot of optimizations for iSCSI.

What I can tell you is that although I have not performed any scientific benchmarking against the system, the throughput of my file transfers maxes out Gigabit standard quite easily, granted that I’m usually the only person accessing the NAS. To me, that is more than good enough. I mean unless I have the money to buy 10 Gigabit equipment… I’m happy with my DIY FreeNAS setup. I just want to tell everyone that please do not get discouraged over the poor benchmark you may have seen. Furthermore, ZFS is still considered to be an experimental feature and it only shines it true colours when you put in the appropriate system tweaks. Until FreeNAS 8 comes out, please read my guide and have yourself an extremely capable system.

Cheers!

The Goal
The story here is simple – we are building a DIY storage appliance that is not only FASTER but CHEAPER than the Drobo. I have owned a 2nd generation Drobo for about 8 months. For the most part, it did its job. However, all the weakness of the device surfaced when I dug into the world of Network Attached Storage or simply NAS. I have written about my attempts to put the Drobo on my LAN …   http://frankleng.me/2010/02/11/droboshare-alternatives-tonidoplug-gigabit-switch/ I did not want to spend another $200 for the Droboshare! That setup worked for the most part, but performance was not even close to production-worthy.
I mean try to live with a 4TB NAS that transferred at 3-5MB/s… which is actually on par with Droboshare’s throughput… need I say more?

What I needed was:

1. Energy efficient, lower powered machine. (It’s a NAS after all, not a media center)
2. Able to let me swap a drive when it fails, and not lose data.
3. Able to expand, swapped out the smallest drive and replace with a larger drive.
4. Costs a lot less than $350USD. (that’s the price of the Drobo, not including drives)
5. Easily manageable, settings can be tweaked and system status can be monitored.
6. Speed, Speed, Speed. Must be able to sustain Gigabit throughput, even for larger files.

The Facts
Most BYOD (Bring Your Own Drives) storage devices on the market today do NOT offer the features that the Drobo does. The Drobo was never designed as a NAS, but rather a DAS (Directly Attached Storage), and it did that job fairly well. So if you are an average user who favour ease-of-use than anything else… then read no more… you are better off with the Drobo. However, if you are like me and you want that blazing fast performance for the smallest price tag… you have found the right place. =)

NAS devices are computers too. The basic rules do apply – the faster the chipset the faster the throughput; the more RAM the better, etc.

Lastly, and most importantly NAS devices’ throughput depend largely on caching and the CPU’s ability to translate between different storage and communication protocols.

Intel D510MO

The Hardware

CPU
It is really quite difficult to find a blazing fast computer by today’s standard without killing your electricity bill. Most high end processors run 100W + and even lower end chips easily go over 40W (That’s almost the same as the Drobo’s power consumption with 4 drives inserted… so it’s quite a lot for a single chip!) Thankfully, Intel created the Atom series of processors. Originally made for netbooks and mobile devices, the Atom series chips are Intel’s smallest and greenest – consume only about 10W. You can buy Atom from most local computer stores, but note that they are bundled with a motherboard and not sold separately.

I picked the latest generation, and the fastest Dual-Core Atom chip -D510 @ 1.66GHZ. This chip gives the equivalent performance of a Single-Core Celeron running at 900-1000MHZ but uses 1/4 of the power, TDP rated at 13W. Because the chip is so new, very few motherboard manufacturers have them shipped to stores. I grabbed the Intel D510MO motherboard bundle for $80 CAD.(It was the cheapest option I found, and had the same features as the more expensive ASUS and Supermicro boards).

RAM
The D510MO takes DDR2 memory, and  I happened to have two 1GB sticks. Obviously the more the better, DDR2 RAM sticks are super cheap nowadays and you don’t need the fancy ones. 2GB RAM – $30

Add-ons

Modded PCI SATA Controller

I want to talk about add-on cards because you will need one for this build. Like most Mini-ITX boards, the D510MO only has 2 onboard SATA ports and it’s not enough to have a more robust ZFS setup. Therefore, I searched online and bought a PCI-X/PCI SATA II controller card and gave me two more internal SATA ports. Later, I modded one of the the eSATA ports to SATA by replacing the connector head. The card was the SYBA SD-SATA2-2E2I – $36. There is a 4 SATA port version of the card, but I wasn’t able to find one at the store. I also liked the idea of having an eSATA port.

CHENBRO ES34069

Case
I went through 2 cases for this build. I originally bought the Chenbro ES34069 because it had 4 swappable drive bays. However, the proprietary power supply, the lack of space in the case and noise from the case fans(fans were not user replaceable as far as I could tell) eventually made me return the purchase.

The case requirement here is simple, find a small case (mATX or mini-ITX) that has 4 drive bays. Do note that besides the Chenbro case, there really isn’t an alternative that has swappable bays. So go spend the $200 and buy it if you want ease of access. The case I ended up using was the Antec NSK-2480 – $100. It has plenty of space for the two 5.25′ and 3.25′ bays and a 380W standard power supply. It has the best cooling arrangement I have ever seen in a media center case. Head over to SilentPcReview for some professional opinions.

Antec NSK2480

I also considered the NSK 1380 case, but spacing arrangement inside the case was nowhere near what the NSK 2480 had. However, the first does have much smaller dimensions.

Antec NSK1380

Drives
First of all, you will need a set of drives to store data and one other drive to host the OS. I have purchased 4 WD Green 2TB 5400rpm drives because they are quiet, efficient and more than fast enough for a NAS. However, do know that you will need at least 3 drives to take full advantage of ZFS. Also, the current version of ZFS does not allow you to add physical drives to an existing ZFS pool. Although you will be able to REPLACE one of the four drives for a bigger one, adding a 5th drive without rebuilding is not possible at the moment. This means if you started out with 4 drives, you will always have 4 unless you recreate your logic pool and lose all the data in the process.

I guess this is the only spot where Drobo may have an edge over our ZFS build. You can add more drives into the Drobo at any time until the slots are full. I believe Drobo accomplishes this by pre-populating its storage pool with virtual devices, and a virtual total size. That way, any new drive can just slide into these pre-made virtual slots without affecting the storage pool as a whole. Lastly, the ZFS development team has plans to resolve this limitation in the near future. So let’s stay tuned.

For the OS drive I decided to use USB sticks. They are much cheaper and much more energy efficient than having another disk spinning at 5400rpm to keep the system running. I used a USB port expansion cable to make use the connector on the motherboard and keep the sticks inside the case. Check out the picture and you’ll know what I mean. =p

Adapter with dual USB sticks

Accessories
The D510MO board does not have an IDE port to hook up a CD-ROM drive. It does support booting from USB. However, most OSes do not offer a .usb image for install. Therefore, I purchased an IDE to USB adapter so I could boot from my DVD drive. My IDE to SATA adapter was not recognized by BIOS for some reason… so please be aware if you are thinking about getting one of these things. It’s safer to get a SATA optical drive instead. I see them on sale now for under $20. Anyway, since FreeNAS supports USB images, there was no need for any additional accessories. (Note: Other OSes mentioned above will require a optical drive to install.)

Total cost: $246 (shipping included, taxes not included)

Next up… the software.  Turn the page.  =p

HOWEVER… I’m getting 3-5mb/s Write, and 3-20mb/s Read. The speed fluctuation is related to the limited CPU and I/O resource on the TonidoPlug. For a $550 setup (2.3TB) the speed just doesn’t make any sense. Even a 300mb file takaes 10min to write… this is clearly not a viable option for any power user.

After speaking to a friend, I was quite inspired by his ZFS rig that actually cost less and is capable of delivering 3x the speed I get. The rig’s 75W power consumption wasn’t too great in my books, but I’m sure by using something less powerful I can crank the wattage down.

My checklist for this rig:

• - Cheaper than the Drobo and TonidoPlug, in other words less than $400USD.
• - Efficient, low power consumption.
• - The rig must have at least 4 swappable drive bays. As it turns out, consumer grade swappable bays are prone to drive vibration. Especially when used with high speed drives 7200RPM+. Be warned.
• - Must be fault-tolerant like the Drobo.
• - Space must be easily upgradeable, again like the Drobo.
• - Must be faster than the Drobo, and is able to sustain read/write speed even for large files.

At first glance this looked to be a tough find, but the worry eased up after some research. It was clear that my rig will need to be in the mITX form-factor, and it will need an energy efficient CPU.

The slower Celeron chips caught my eye for a second, but it was the new Intel Dual Core Atom that shined. With a TDP (Thermal Design Power) of around 13W, the dual-core Atom D510 offers faster performance at a cooler temperate than the previous generation N330 it replaces. (FYI, TDP only measures the amount of thermal energy that need to be dissipated to keep it at an optimal temperature, it does not measure total power consumption). The D510 offers a fast front-side bus, and dual-core architecture clocked at 1.6GHZ. According to previous performance comparisons, a single core Atom running at 1.6GHZ is equivalent to a 900MHZ Celeron.

Therefore, I’m assuming the dual-core will performance similar to 1.2GHZ Celeron M chips. For the purose it is going to serve, it got a gold star in my books. Lastly, since Intel does not sell the Atom chip as  a standalone product, I was looking for a bundle with a motherboard.

Due to the low cost of these parts, most motherboards offered will only carry 2 SATA ports. That is a big NO NO for a NAS box! The good thing is that most of these boards do have a PCI slot for expansion, so you can put a SATA controller card in there to expand its ports. (Note that in order to have Sata II  3Gbit/s , you will need a PCI-Express based controller).

I eventually nailed my choice down to the Intel Atom D510MO bundle. It has 2 SATA, 7 USB, 1 PCI and 1 PCI-E mini slot. The board isn’t the most full-featured product, but it was cheap and made by the mighty Intel itself. Other alternatives from ASUS and Supermicro offer similar specifications for a higher price, and to be quite frank I don’t trust those vendors as much as I do with Intel. (Supermicro does offer a board for the D510 chip with 6 onboard SATA ports, but costs more than twice the Intel board). Price $80 CAD

The D510 uses DDR2 memory, but I already have 1GB sticks laying around. so no need to buy more. but they go for $30 nowadays.

Along with my Intel D510MO I ordered a PCI SATA II controller. The model number is Syba SD-SATA2-2E2I, and it was the only SATA II controller I could find with a PCI interface. I know I won’t be able to get full SATA II speeds, but I’d rather not play around with the jumpers on my older SATA II drives to get it to work. Price $36 CAD.

Lastly, I needed a small yet stylish case to house everything. I know my budget allowed me to have a case with at least 2 hot-swappable bays, but I really need 4 of them. The obvious choice was the CHENBRO ES34069. It comes with 4 hot-swappable SATA drive bays and either 120W or 180W power supply. The package I ordered from NCIX also included a riser card and a camera card reader. For more than $200 it wasn’t the cheapest option, but it certainly looked worthy and it had exactly what I needed. Price $ 207 CAD.

CHENBRO ES34069

Antec NSK2400

After testing the Chenbro case for a week, I must say that the swappable bays are not exactly what I expected them to be. They share the same flaws as many consumer grade screw-less systems… DRIVE VIBRATION and NOISE! Since each swappable slot was not held tightly enough, drive vibration can be heard quite clearly. (Same problem we have with the Drobo actually…) The two fans in the back of the chassis were also inaccessible by the user, and there was no speed controller connector to allow the user to adjust their speed. Therefore, you end up with a system that spins 100% RPM at all times – something the Drobo solved by adding thermal sensitive cooling fans. Lastly, the external power supply is proprietary! The cable that plugs into the chassis looks more like a PS/2 port… rather than a standard PSU connector. You know what this means… if your PSU on the Chenbro ever give out on you… you are going to have fun finding a replacement… then burn a hole in your wallet to pay for it.

So without anymore ranting… I introduce to you the final piece of the puzzle – Antec NSK2400. It costs half as much as the Chenbro, it has 4 drive bays – two 3.5 inch and two 5.25 inch. Click here for a thorough review from slientpcreview.com
I bought two 3.5 – 5.25 drive bay adapters to fit all four of my 3.5 inch SATA drives. Obviously the bays are swappable, but I don’t plan on having multiple drive failures everyday that I need to be swapping drives. =p

This case can accommodate up to mATX form factor, so it will make a good media center chassis as well. – Price $101.91CAD

Finally, the total came to $230 after shipping and taxes - That’s almost half the price of the Drobo, even after you add the cost of RAM.

As you can see, the case I decided to get was a bit more expensive than most. There are a lot of cheaper options out there, especially if you don’t need hot-swappable bays. Secondly, if you are adventurous DIY is another way to go. Check out the DIY project here: http://paulstamatiou.com/diy-200-dollar-pc-part-3 to build an awesome looking acrylic case for your NAS!

Please check back for Part 2 of this NAS adventure. My parts should be in next week, but since the case was re-ordered it might take some time before I can post updates. Please stay tuned! and big thank yous go out to all the people who tweeted and commented on this thread. Thank you for the interest. I won’t let you down!  =p

So today I decided to take a crack at it and see if I can figure out the problem. The drive is out of warranty anyway… and it still burns fast and solid.

After some testing, I realized the cause of the problem was the little rubber belt connecting two spin wheels that controlled the ejection and retraction of the tray.

I guess the elasticity of the rubber must have worn out over the years, and the wheels were left to spin freely.

The simple solution was to replaced the worn out belt with an elastic band.

I found an elastic band with slightly shorter circumference than the original, so it was a bit tricky to put on. I hooked up the small wheel first, then used two tweezers and pull the band around the bigger wheel.

Problem solved! and gave the old drive a few more years to live.