Topic: JB3 Problem "firmware" can i connect hard drive directly to PC?

[nomad666]

Hi everyone, I taped a concert last night with my jb3 that had been unused in more then a year.

I did test everything at home and made a couple of test recordings in the 30 second range they recorded and played back fine.After the show I noticed it took a really long time to save.  It did save fine though.  When I got home I got the firmware error message.

I did read the couple of topics here that i found through searching but reloading the OS but i still get it.  I'm wondering if I can directly connect the hard drive to a pc to get my file? I'll glady destroy the nomad if it means saving the concert. 

Any suggestions welcome.

thanks for the help

[willndmb]

this MIGHT work

1. Remove the battery or press the reset button.
2. Either while reinserting the battery or after reset ensure that the stop button is held down.
3. As soon as the 'Creative' logo appears on the screen during the boot sequence, release the stop button. Immediately press and release the play button. The unit should boot to a diagnostics mode with several recovery options.

[a.] Clean Up (Performs a scan disk on the HDD)
[b.] Format All (*WARNING* ALL contents will be lost, including pre-installed content)
[c.] Reload OS (*WARNING* THIS IS AN ADVANCED OPTION. DO NOT choose this unless you are sure of what you are doing as you could render your player unusable. You must also have a suitable firmware file on your PC for reloading via USB)
[d.] Reboot
As best I could find, Clean Up scans the disk for errors and rebuilds the songlist index but does not perform a defrag.  The Format All does just what it sounds like: formats the drive, negating the need for an actual defrag (and good thing as there doesn't appear to be a maintenance operation to do just the defrag while maintaining your data).  Reload OS is probably overkill and you shouldn't need to do it unless you're having serious problems.

A and/or D

[nomad666]

I already tried reloading the OS and it failed.  install seemed to be sucessful however I got the same error.

The file was saved yesterday so it should still be on the drive somewhere.  I've never seen the HDD in the nomads but since you can upgrade them I assume they are laptop hard drives?  If that's the case can I not remove the hard drive and just add it to a pc as its own drive, then just transfer the files this way?

Honestly I don't care about the JB3 anymore its proven itself unrealiable last night.  I just want my show off it then I will replace it with another one or a different recording device.

thanks

[ScottT]

can I not remove the hard drive and just add it to a pc as its own drive, then just transfer the files this way?

It's my understanding that this does NOT work.  I believe the drive is formatted in a way that makes it unreadable to a regular computer without the JB3's firmware and software.

Hmmmmmm - upon further research:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,39662.0.html

[nomad666]

i've erased the OS since reloading it doesn't help.

i'll try nomad explorer again but i don't think that will work.  Once I take the HD out I have a feeling it won't be going back in.  Is there anything else I should try first?

Keep in mind the recording is more important then the nomad.

thanks for the help