100GB H140 Project

[Hoboken]

Anyone else up for this? It's something I'm really interested in doing, and figured the help of the community would be a great boon. 100GB of hard disk memory will store ~333 albums in lossless format, which will cover almost anyone's record collection. It's also the next barrier to break in terms of H140 mods, given the amount of 60GB and 80GB mods done and not a single 100GB mod that I know of.

So, the idea is to take a stock H140 and install a 100GB Toshiba MK1011GAH. The main hurdle here is overcoming the ATA H140 and ZIF HDD connection barrier, while still being able to fit the hard drive in the case. There's two sources I've seen that look promising. One is the PDF file linked around this site that shows how to build a connector. The PDF is in German, so someone needs to translate that, and the information looks somewhat sparse, so someone else will need to fill in the gaps. Also, coming up with a solution to avoid soldering directly to the mainboard would be great, given the relative difficulty and expense of procuring H140s. It would be much preferable to come up with a cheap and self-contained adapter and leave the hard drive and player intact.

The second idea revolves around a Japanese site selling adapters that might work. Personally, I can't tell which, if any, of these would work, so the opinion of someone a bit more technically minded would be a great help. From what I've heard (and correct me if I'm wrong), ATA uses 5V as opposed to ZIF's 3.3V, and the pin out is different, which makes me doubt the Japanese connectors a little. But a second opinion would be great.

Any help or cooperation on this project would be great. I'm going to try to check back here as often as possible, but I'm pretty busy with school (studying architecture at a major university) so I'm not always able to check my computer. Plus, I don't own an H140 yet, but I'm looking around pretty intensively for one. As soon as a good idea is down on paper here I'm willing to tear it open and start modding.

MK1011GAH: http://store.memorylabs.net/to10mk428mbz.html
ZIF-IDE mod: http://www.stolltech.ch/iriver.pdf
Japanese connectors: http://www.ddknet.co.jp/English/prod...d_d/index.html

[caramelsoul]

Im pretty happy with my 80 GB. The 100 GB would still not hold my, or even most peoples album collection that i know of.

[Hoboken]

Depends on the person I suppose. It's still an extra 65 albums on 80GB. Either way, the extra 20GB isn't the big issue here. Solid state drives are catching up pretty quickly to traditional hard drives. It wouldn't be surprising to see them eventually replace what we use today as the most common type of permanent storage. So it's arguably likely that ZIF is the last connection type we'll really see on 1.8" hard drives before they stop developing an outdated technology. So, if we lay out a practical way to install ZIF drives into iRiver players, that opens up the next few years of technological developments to modders. So maybe you don't want a 100GB hard drive, but what about 200, or 300? I think that's what this will allow over the next several years.

[shadesbass]

I'm afraid to say that this idea is hardly original. This has been discussed before and there are several threads on ZIF connectors, covering the various problems encountered with attempting to fit them into iRivers (both H1xx and H3xx series). I doubt that a ZIF drive and ZIF->IDE adapter would physically fit in the space of a 1.8" IDE drive, hence stolltech's decision to hardwire the connector to the mainboard.

You shouldn't need to speak German to understand that pdf. The schematics showing the pin locations are in English and the pinouts of the two interfaces show what number pins should be connected together. That should provide enough information to build an adapter. Then again, there's always Babelfish if you really want to know what the rest means.

That Japanese site is only for the connectors to build the adapter, as described in the other thread on this topic that you posted in.

[Hoboken]

I never claimed it was an original idea; I'm just trying to compound scattered topics into a single thread that people can use for reference. I was hoping to create better, more detailed instructions that don't involve translating from German and decrypting a series of slapped together diagrams in a pdf buried in the forums.

[Hoboken]

And as far as space is concerned, I was looking at one of the pictures on the wiki and the piece holding the hard drive in on the far right seems removable. I've done some modding on iPods, and that piece seems just to hold the disk in place. I'm thinking it could be removed, freeing up a quarter inch or so, and held in place with a different, smaller piece of foam padding if necessary.

Picture: http://www.misticriver.net/wiki/imag...1xx_HDD_04.jpg

Edit: Did some digging into the forums, looks like this post is pretty redundant after all. Going to email Savannah Systems about the adapter they are working on. All right, guess I'll let this die. I'll post a new thread if/when they release the adapter (doubt I'll be the first though), or if I get a new self-contained adapter rigged up (hopefully make a post with detailed, photographed instructions).

[Anansi]

what was the repply from savanna systems? I mailed them myself a couple of months ago and they seemed to be at a standstill with no real signs of improvement anytime soon.

[ihatelongnicksevenmore]

I just found out this thread, after Anansi ressuscitated it, and it think the project was a very interesting one, even if its path appeared mired by hardship and tech hurdles. Shame it was abandoned.

BTW, I have one point to make:

Someone (see the HD mod FAQ: H1XX and H3XX Series FAQ's @ www.misticriver.net/forums/199333-post56.html) managed to install a normal sized HD to a H3x0 via an adapter and I recall talk of a harcoded limit of like 80 GB on the DAP disk reading capacity. Anyone pursuing this path should look into that...