Replacing a drive in an iRiver iHP120?

  • Thread starter Thread starter gaikokujinkyofusho
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gaikokujinkyofusho

Hi I have an iRiver iHP120 and it seems that the hard drive is crapping
out (lots os cyclic redundancy & writing errors). I have had it for
over a year so warranty won't help me. So. I thought i would use this
"opportunity" to "upgrade" my iRiver from a 20 gig to something larger.


My question is: Do i need to put in the exact same model hard drive? it
seems to be formatted with fat32 so i assume it should just be a case
of popping the new drive in there. I called iRiver but the support guy
couldn't tell me any more than it was a toshiba drive.

If anyone has any advice or better yet has done this themselves i would
really appreciate any words of wisdom.

Cheers

-Gaiko
 
Hi I have an iRiver iHP120 and it seems that the hard drive is crapping
out (lots os cyclic redundancy & writing errors). I have had it for
over a year so warranty won't help me. So. I thought i would use this
"opportunity" to "upgrade" my iRiver from a 20 gig to something larger.


My question is: Do i need to put in the exact same model hard drive? it
seems to be formatted with fat32 so i assume it should just be a case
of popping the new drive in there. I called iRiver but the support guy
couldn't tell me any more than it was a toshiba drive.

If anyone has any advice or better yet has done this themselves i would
really appreciate any words of wisdom.

Cheers

-Gaiko
Click to expand...

I seem to remember hearing about people upgrading the hard drives on various Creative Nomad models.

I found this link for you: http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,119267,pg,7,00.asp

In theory it should be possible to do the same for other HDD-based MP3 players. It ought to be a matter of getting the right make of hard drive, the proper adapter to put it on your computer's IDE chain, copying some system files, and voilà, the new hard drive should work on the old MP3 player.

- NRen2k5
 
In article news: said:
My question is: Do i need to put in the exact same model hard drive?
Click to expand...

You can do, or you can upgrade.

The thing to beware of is that 1.8" hard drives come in several different
thicknesses: 5mm and 8mm are common, but some are 9.5mm. The thicker drives
use two platters to achieve higher capacities.

The H120 takes a 5mm single-platter drive, and you can upgrade it to 30GiB
by installing a 5mm 30GiB drive (and 40GiB single-platter drives will be
coming soon). You can, apparently, remove some of the padding that protects
the hard drive in the H120 and install an 8mm drive, but I'm not at all
sure that that is a good idea.
it seems to be formatted with fat32 so i assume it should just be a case
of popping the new drive in there. I called iRiver but the support guy
couldn't tell me any more than it was a toshiba drive.
Click to expand...

Yes, iRiver seem to use Toshiba drives. The disk in my H340 is a Toshiba
MK4004GAH (8mm, 2-platter). It's formatted as an LBA FAT32 volume. The
iRiver should be able to format a new disk for you, but if not then you
should be able to format it in any DOS/Windows/linux/whatever PC.

The main obstacle to upgrading an iRiver in this way is the cost of a new
drive - especially the larger capacity drives - but the cost is falling
(you can now get a 20GiB 1.8" drive for only about twice the cost of a 3.5"
40GiB drive). As you have an iRiver with a failing drive this would seem to
be the ideal time to experiment.

Cheers,
Daniel.
 
Since you are all on this subject, maybe someone can help me with this:

My H120 died last week (actual electrical problem, no HD related).
Unfortunately its out of waranty and Im considering iPoding it this
time around. I'm left with the HD which seems to still be fine.

Does someone know how i can attach that HD to either my Laptop or
Desktop to copy over all the songs and photos I have on it?

Thanks alot
John
 
Since you are all on this subject, maybe someone can help me with this:

My H120 died last week (actual electrical problem, no HD related).
Unfortunately its out of waranty and Im considering iPoding it this
time around. I'm left with the HD which seems to still be fine.

Does someone know how i can attach that HD to either my Laptop or
Desktop to copy over all the songs and photos I have on it?
Click to expand...

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=312100&pfp=cat3

Just about any computer retailer will have something similar. Take your hard
drive out of the dead computer, put it in an external case, plug in the
cables and use it anywhere you have a USB port. As long as the hard drive is
healthy you wouldn't need to physically transfer the files.

TB
 
Technobarbarian said:
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=312100&pfp=cat3

Just about any computer retailer will have something
similar. Take your hard drive out of the dead computer,
put it in an external case, plug in the cables and use it
anywhere you have a USB port. As long
as the hard drive is healthy you wouldn't need to
physically transfer the files.
Click to expand...

Don't think a standard 3.5" external case (or even a 2.5"
external case) will interface with the iPod hard drive. It's
really small, even compared to a 2.5" drive.
 
The iRiver drive is indeed smaller than even my 2.5" laptop drive.

I do have a USB/IDE kit for a 3.5", but connecting this small a drive
would be impossible. It looks about the size of a pcmcia, but I doubt
it would fit in there.

Any ideas would be great.

John
 
[email protected] said:
Hi I have an iRiver iHP120 and it seems that the hard drive is crapping
out (lots os cyclic redundancy & writing errors). I have had it for
over a year so warranty won't help me. So. I thought i would use this
"opportunity" to "upgrade" my iRiver from a 20 gig to something larger.

My question is: Do i need to put in the exact same model hard drive? it
seems to be formatted with fat32 so i assume it should just be a case
of popping the new drive in there. I called iRiver but the support guy
couldn't tell me any more than it was a toshiba drive.

If anyone has any advice or better yet has done this themselves i would
really appreciate any words of wisdom.
Click to expand...

Check out this thread over at Mistic River:

http://www.misticriver.net/showthread.php?t=18911

Hope this helps.

Remmer
 
The iRiver drive is indeed smaller than even my 2.5"
laptop drive.

I do have a USB/IDE kit for a 3.5", but connecting this
small a drive would be impossible. It looks about the
size of a pcmcia, but I doubt it would fit in there.
Click to expand...

It is possible that the iRiver drive does in fact fit into a
PC Card slot. If there's mechanical fit, then there is also
probably an electrical and logical fit.

http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Pa...00000000/81000000010D000000010000659C00000000

suggests that 1.8 drives come with either ATA interfaces or
PCMCIA interfaces.

It seems like the ATA interface adaptor for 1.8" drives
would be passive and cheap. Finding one for sale seems to be
a problem.

Here's a 1.8" USB 2.0 drive enclosure for an highly
attractive price:

http://www.coolerexpress.com/noname.html
 
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