Topic: iRiver H120 CF Mod Attempt - Success!

[sunjan]

Hello - though I've never tried to record with the H116, I gave it to the other half, and for a couple of months it's worked fine as a music player.
However as of yesterday, it comes up with "No partition found".
I don't have another card, or device in which it'll work, can someone suggest what to do?

My gut instinct is that you've dropped the recorder, and the IDE connector has lost contact. But I assume you pushed it back firmly when reassembling it.
Do you get a rockbox error code? That usually helps when troubleshooting.
Other ideas:
Borrow/buy a card reader to verify if the CF card is working or shot. Shouldn't cost you more than $10 or so, and is useful to have anyway.
Borrow/buy another card.
If you still have the original HDD, put it back.

[jbell]

I bought a CF modded H120.  I wanted to know what steps I would have to take to put a 32gig CF card in it?  How would I transfer the H120 & rockbox firmware to the 32 gig card?    Thanks for your help in advance

[petur]

I bought a CF modded H120.  I wanted to know what steps I would have to take to put a 32gig CF card in it?  How would I transfer the H120 & rockbox firmware to the 32 gig card?    Thanks for your help in advance

Just copy the .rockbox directory to the new card, or download the latest version from rockbox.org.

[EarlyMorningRain]

well yeah, and no

plug your iriver into your computer (via usb) anb copy the entire rockbox folder from the iriver to your computer.

Now on the hard part. 

open up your Iriver, and swap out the CF card.

then go back to step #1 and hook up your iriver to your computer (again via usb) and copy that .rockbox folder back to the iriver.

reboot the iriver, cross your fingers and you might just be done!
 

[travelinbeat]

Okay guys,  I did the mod and everything came out perfectly!  (almost)...  Everything boots and looks good, but once I go to the recording screen, it boots me out, saying "The disk is full. Press STOP to continue.", so I do that, go to System > Rockbox Info, and I'm seeing 14.8GB free out of 14.9GB total (on a 16GB 233x Ridata from newegg).  The card will accept file transfers from my PC via the USB, but it seems to freak out like this if I try and record.  What gives?

[sunjan]

I'm seeing 14.8GB free out of 14.9GB total (on a 16GB 233x Ridata from newegg).  The card will accept file transfers from my PC via the USB, but it seems to freak out like this if I try and record.  What gives?

Sounds like a compatibility issue. Do you have any spare CF cards lying around to compare with? Or borrow some from your friends. Post results here...

[petur]

maybe I should try to get my hands on one of these cards to debug...

[Wolfgan]

Hi,
My RockBoxed h140 hard disk died recently, and taking the opportunity I decided to go to a solid state configuration, with a HD1.8-CF converter from DealExtreme and a Transcend 8GB 133x CF card.
 
Problem is that the bootloader in my h140 is v6, so I'm getting ATA -80 errors and the CF disk is not recognized. Booting from the iRiver stock firmware after a hard reset show a disk with 0 capacity and mangled disk structure.

Is there any way to flash out the latest v7-pre4 bootloader someway without a working hard disk?
Thanks, Wolf.

[dain45yl]

Did you make or buy the drive connector part that converts to CF?

[sunjan]

The previous poster bought his adapter at Dealextreme. If you look back in this thread, a lot of users also bought theirs for a few bucks from an ebay vendor based in Hong Kong, IIRC.

[Big Muff]

Great work with the CF mod everyone!

I was almost sold, but then i thought about an SSD.. has anyone ever tried it? I am assuming that it would be just as simple as swapping out the hard-drive, but with all the issues folks have had with CF cards.
Any ideas?
I think I'm going to go for a kingston.. any advice on which specs I should look for? speeds, etc.?

Thanks!!

[sunjan]

I was almost sold, but then i thought about an SSD.. has anyone ever tried it? I am assuming that it would be just as simple as swapping out the hard-drive.

Sure, it has been done:
http://www.misticriver.com/iriver-h1xx-series-h110-h115-h120-h140/55139-ide-ssd-drives-drop-replacement-h120.html

To conclude: it offers hardly any benefits from a taper perspective.
Up to 64GB, CF cards are cheaper, and less power hungry = longer battery life.

I see little justification going for a 128GB SSD, when you'd be limited to 8hrs runtime or so, due to higher draw.
Maybe it serves a purpose if you're going on a long jungle trip (or a very remote festival) with no access to charger outlets, provided you carry along plenty of external battery power.
But for real life use, remember that you can almost buy an M10 for the same money as that SSD... 

[Big Muff]

Niiice! thanks for that link.

I love my irivers, probably going to use a 128 or 256 ssd in one for listening, and perhaps a 32 CF or less in another for recording.
not sure, for listening I'd rather have the space, not power..

Thank you all again! and again.

[florestanus]

Hello,
 
I have a rockboxed iHP-120 and and will be doing a 32GB CF upgrade shortly.

Does anyone have tried a Transcend 400x CF?

http://www.transcendusa.com/Products/ModDetail.asp?ModNo=264&LangNo=0&Func1No=1&Func2No=13

Looking in misticriver and rockbox pages and forums I haven't found any report about this compatibility.

I am thinking of getting this card instead of the Kingston 133x, as the Transcend 400x has a reasonable price, is probably faster and implements more completly the ATA specifications, according to this review:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3Q8IJNTT67R8O/ref=cm_cr_pr_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview

Furthermore, there is also a reported issue with the Kingston Elite Pro 133x:

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29297

http://www.misticriver.com/hard-drives-batteries/54797-compact-flash-hard-drive-bad-luck.html

Any opinion will be very appreciated!

[sunjan]

Welcome florestanus!

It seems that you did all the research and checked all the right places. If there's nothing neither at Rockbox, Misticriver or here, that means you're probably the first one trying this particular model.
Go ahead and take the plunge, the worsst thing that could happen is that the card won't be recognized...