I bought this nice looking box because it is all in one, hence I am not so found of attaching a hard drive. The device is sold as a CD player, not only a CD ripper… If I wanted to rip, I can do this as well with a cheap PC… Even more, because I recently discovered the power of the device remains on (even the amplifier section ! - listen to your speakers …) when something is connected on the USB (see another thread I entered No power off with inserted USB (Uniti Star) - #5 by ChrisSU ). So, I think this ‘design choice’ is detrimental to the livetime of my device + I don’t like the unneeded power consumption during ‘standby’.