Topic: HELP!! My Iriver has died...

[whatboutbob]

ebay:

[440] Is it possible to upgrade or replace the hard drive?

Much of the following hdd replacement info has been lifted from NPSwimDude500’s FAQ over at misticriver (http://www.misticriver.net/showthread.php?p=330700#post330700)

Yes.

Hx20: uses a single platter 1.8" 20 gigabyte hard drive manufactured by Toshiba. The model name on these drives may read MK2004GAL or MK2006GAL (the 4 and 6 designate model years, and there is no known difference other than the number). Toshiba currently manufactures two other single-platter drives with the same dimensions, the 30 gigabyte MK3006GAL drive and the 40 gigabyte MK4007GAL drive which uses new PMR technology (note: it has not been officially released yet). Hx20s can both be fitted with these drives without modification.

[Liquid Drum]

ebay:

[440] Is it possible to upgrade or replace the hard drive?

Much of the following hdd replacement info has been lifted from NPSwimDude500’s FAQ over at misticriver (http://www.misticriver.net/showthread.php?p=330700#post330700)

Yes.

Hx20: uses a single platter 1.8" 20 gigabyte hard drive manufactured by Toshiba. The model name on these drives may read MK2004GAL or MK2006GAL (the 4 and 6 designate model years, and there is no known difference other than the number). Toshiba currently manufactures two other single-platter drives with the same dimensions, the 30 gigabyte MK3006GAL drive and the 40 gigabyte MK4007GAL drive which uses new PMR technology (note: it has not been officially released yet). Hx20s can both be fitted with these drives without modification.

Many thanks for the information, +t

I've managed to get my HHD partition that has no bad sectors to boot up and record on. I'm gonna record across the whole 6gb tomorrow and see if I can get it off via USB without errors.

If that works, I'm happy to use it for the time being until I can afford a new disk (hopefully in 1-2months).

Cheers,
Simon.

[cgrooves]

I've managed to get my HHD partition that has no bad sectors to boot up and record on. I'm gonna record across the whole 6gb tomorrow and see if I can get it off via USB without errors.

If that works, I'm happy to use it for the time being until I can afford a new disk (hopefully in 1-2months).

Cheers,
Simon.

If that works, I would try to do the same thing with the partition that had fixed errors (:H).  If :H checked out fine, you could combine those 2 partitions and have approx. 14 gig worth of good sectors to use.  Just a thought.

[petur]

If that works, I would try to do the same thing with the partition that had fixed errors (:H).  If :H checked out fine, you could combine those 2 partitions and have approx. 14 gig worth of good sectors to use.  Just a thought.

Rockbox only supports one partition out of the box. There are provisions for multi-volume but they are not enabled by default. So you would need to build your own version. Furthermore, this scenario has never been tested....

[Liquid Drum]

If that works, I would try to do the same thing with the partition that had fixed errors (:H).  If :H checked out fine, you could combine those 2 partitions and have approx. 14 gig worth of good sectors to use.  Just a thought.

Rockbox only supports one partition out of the box. There are provisions for multi-volume but they are not enabled by default. So you would need to build your own version. Furthermore, this scenario has never been tested....

Yea, its cool.

The 6gb is more than enough for me. I was recording today (well testing) and I have 10 hours recording time with that 6gb. I recorded 4 hours so far and still have 60% battery life which I a great thing.

1 question though: Every few mins, the HHD light would come on. I'm guessing its buffing or saving as it goes along?? I have yet to check for errors (transfer, etc), but it recorded smoothly and plays back fine.

Thanks for the help everyone, +t's all round.

Simon.

[petur]

yes, that red light is the buffer flushing to disk

[Liquid Drum]

yes, that red light is the buffer flushing to disk

Thanks for the confirmation. 

[petur]

... well to be 100% correct, the red light is disk activity, which means buffer flushing ...

[Liquid Drum]

... well to be 100% correct, the red light is disk activity, which means buffer flushing ...

Thats a good/normal thing? (I hope)....

[whatboutbob]

Thats a good/normal thing? (I hope)....

yup.

[cgrooves]

If that works, I would try to do the same thing with the partition that had fixed errors (:H).  If :H checked out fine, you could combine those 2 partitions and have approx. 14 gig worth of good sectors to use.  Just a thought.

Rockbox only supports one partition out of the box. There are provisions for multi-volume but they are not enabled by default. So you would need to build your own version. Furthermore, this scenario has never been tested....

He currently has 3 partitions, but Rockbox can only write to 1.  What I'm suggesting is combining 2 of the 3 partitions (the 2 good ones via re-partitioning) so that there becomes a total of 2, and let Rockbox write to the good one that does not have bad sectors.  Is that not feasible?

[petur]

He currently has 3 partitions, but Rockbox can only write to 1.  What I'm suggesting is combining 2 of the 3 partitions (the 2 good ones via re-partitioning) so that there becomes a total of 2, and let Rockbox write to the good one that does not have bad sectors.  Is that not feasible?

I really should have to look at the code, but iirc Rockbox will try to use the first FAT partition it encounters. And partitions are in one piece, so no gaps in the middle

[cgrooves]

He currently has 3 partitions, but Rockbox can only write to 1.  What I'm suggesting is combining 2 of the 3 partitions (the 2 good ones via re-partitioning) so that there becomes a total of 2, and let Rockbox write to the good one that does not have bad sectors.  Is that not feasible?

I really should have to look at the code, but iirc Rockbox will try to use the first FAT partition it encounters. And partitions are in one piece, so no gaps in the middle

I was assuming that if you had 2 partitions on a drive and 1 had bad sectors, you would treat the partition that you wanted to access via Rockbox as the 'root folder' and place the rockbox folder & bootloader in there.  I haven't ever tried to isolate bad sectors by partitioning though, so I don't know.

[Liquid Drum]

He currently has 3 partitions, but Rockbox can only write to 1.  What I'm suggesting is combining 2 of the 3 partitions (the 2 good ones via re-partitioning) so that there becomes a total of 2, and let Rockbox write to the good one that does not have bad sectors.  Is that not feasible?

I really should have to look at the code, but iirc Rockbox will try to use the first FAT partition it encounters. And partitions are in one piece, so no gaps in the middle

I was assuming that if you had 2 partitions on a drive and 1 had bad sectors, you would treat the partition that you wanted to access via Rockbox as the 'root folder' and place the rockbox folder & bootloader in there.  I haven't ever tried to isolate bad sectors by partitioning though, so I don't know.

Thats what I did. After partitioning into 3 parts, the drive that tested 100% I put as the ROOT and dumped all Rockbox stuff on it.

When booted up, It loaded up that partition perfectly fine. I can only access the other partitions via the PC USB, but if I wanted, I could boot it off another partition my changing the ROOT and where I dump the Rockbox files.

I could also easily combine the 2 'good' partitions to 1 and boot from that, but I'm more than happy with the 6gb and 10 hour recording time.