iHP-140 reborn as iHP-160 :^)

[Mike]

Well, with a totally full iHP-140 and with matters being painful everytime I purchased a new CD (having to decide, what music to delete from the player, to add new music onto it), I had to decide: mod the player or replace it.

Not yet prepared to part with the player, I bit the bullet, purchased a 60 gb drive offered for sale here, and installed it. Voila--I have now joined the ranks of others and am the proud owner of a new iHP-160!



I am amazed--I now how 17 gb of space free on my player (compared to nothing before)! I keep on looking at that and feel content--that's enough to last me for another 2-3 years.

Installation went fine (no screws got lost or parts got broken--thanks for the warnings, here, on not screwing the screws too tightly!), although the guts of my player may not have had some of the rubber protection that other players have had, from past descriptions--I kept on looking for that rubber to remove, to install the new drive. Putting the new drive in was a piece of cake--just wriggle the old out and wriggle the new in. The formatting for the new drive was a bit experimental: the formatting software, SwissKnife (needed for larger FAT32 partitions), glitched up on me when I tried to read its Help screen as it was doing its formatting job--I learned never to touch it while it is working. I was able to fix the glitch, which stopped SwissKnife from completing a format despite repeated attempts, by running a basic NTFS format and then re-running a SwissKnife FAT32 format--without touching the computer as it worked.

With the newly-found space, I already have started filling it. Happily so.

At any rate, eminently do-able by a non-techie non-engineer. Many thanks (really, really, really!) to those who created the Wiki instructions here on swapping in a new hard drive, and to those others who have posted instructions and photos here, especially NPswimdude500 and Paperman23--they gave great comfort and assistance. And to Kramerica, for selling me the drive, as well as MisticAudio for having the needed torx screwdriver available!

[DreamTactix291]

Always good to hear especially since I have an MK6006GAH on the way to my house so i can mod my H140 as well.

[Mike]

Piece of cake!

[Wolfen]

Why didn't you use the onboard format in the iRiver firmware?

[musichound]

Originally Posted by Wolfen

Why didn't you use the onboard format in the iRiver firmware?

Because the on board formatter cannot format a partition beyond 40GB.

[Mike]

Yep. SwissKnife is super to use--as long as you remember not to touch it when it's doing its work.

[Mus]

Well done dude. How long does the format take?

[Mike]

The quick format was less than a minute. The full format (the difference, I learned, is that the full format also does a chkdsk) took about 1.5 - 2 hours.

[NPswimdude500]

Originally Posted by Wolfen

Why didn't you use the onboard format in the iRiver firmware?

I tried using the stock firmware to format my 30GB drive, which theoretically would work, being less than 40GB. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful. The player kept flashing "Can't format" everytime I tried.

My point is: the onboard format doesn't always work, even for drives within the capacity parameters.

Mike: Once again, I'm glad you were successful, and glad the FAQ helped!

[Wolfen]

Originally Posted by NPswimdude500

My point is: the onboard format doesn't always work, even for drives within the capacity parameters.

There's some great firmware writing there...thanks iRiver.

[DreamTactix291]

The minor surgery is done and the files are being moved right now. The padding around the HDD in my H140 was thicker looking than the ones in the pics of NP's H120 and it was very sticky. Oh well I got it back together and running

Doing an xcopy right now.

[Mike]

Congratulations! And I replaced the slightly nicked LCD screen protector on my player--feel like it's a new player! Now to update Rockbox.

[Mus]

Originally Posted by Mike

The quick format was less than a minute. The full format (the difference, I learned, is that the full format also does a chkdsk) took about 1.5 - 2 hours.

Ah right, I just read this again. Do I need to do a full format do you think (or CHKDSK)? As you say the quick one was quick so I settled for that.

[Mike]

Others will know better, but I thought that running the full format made sense, just to catch any disk glitches up front, before loading the player up again.

[zotbar1234]

I thought I'd share my experiences as well.

Due to several unfortunate meetings between the player and the tarmac, the original HDD (Toshiba MK4004GAH) did not want to function anymore. MK6006GAH is all around a better replacement (size, power, shock ratings), but incredibly difficult to get hold of in 2007.

Having learned (off my own wallet) the difference between a ZIF and an ATA-connector, and having scavenged eBay, I finally got hold of a MK6006GAH. Let me repeat this, iHP-1xx have hard drives that have a standard ATA-connector. ZIF-connectors en vogue today (e.g. in last generation iPods) will NOT fit. Given how tight the fit is, I cannot imagine a ZIF->ATA connector would be possible.

The disassembly/reassembly is really simple. There are 8 torx T5 screws holding the construction together. Once they are removed, the player can be taken apart. The drive itself is padded with a soft plastic frame and once it is peeled off, the drive can be pulled out. MK6006GAH and MK4004GAH are a perfect match sizewise. The 6006 slid into place very easily.

MK4004GAH
MK6006GAH

I do not know if the player can format 60G drives, but I have used this device to attach the drive to my laptop, test it (badblocks), partion it (fdisk, partition type 0xc (FAT32 LBA)), and create a FAT32 partition (mkfs.vfat).

Now my iRiver iHP-140 has 57'203 MB of space.

[jumbuck]

I have also done the upgrade to a MK6006GAH .
It all went as smooth as silk and I am now a proud owner of a iHP160 .I got mine from Santech http://stores.ebay.com.au/Santech-Network-Solutions and though they where a little bit dearer I was very happy with their service.

[zotbar1234]

Hmm... MK8007GAH looks like a possibility as well (not to confuse with MK8009GAH, that has a ZIF-interface). Has anyone tried making a iHP-180?

[jumbuck]

Yes its been done. Caramelsoul has one (lucky b@$t@rd ) and I'm sure there's more who have done the conversion .
Just as a word of warning , make sure the drive you get is not a apple branded drive (they are the same part number but have the apple symbol in the corner) as they tend not to work in irivers.

[DreamTactix291]

Wow, old thread got revived

Just to let everyone know the H160 is still going strong after 15 months since the HDD swap. The 40GB drive still works too and is hooked up to my computer right now.

I'd love an MK8007GAH, but not enough to pay upwards of $400 for one

[zotbar1234]

Originally Posted by jumbuck

Just as a word of warning , make sure the drive you get is not a apple branded drive (they are the same part number but have the apple symbol in the corner) as they tend not to work in irivers.

Do you have any more specific information as to *what* exactly is wrong with the "Apple-branded" MK8007GAHs?

[shadesbass]

Originally Posted by zotbar1234

Do you have any more specific information as to *what* exactly is wrong with the "Apple-branded" MK8007GAHs?

There is a bit of info in the Hard Drive FAQ (link in my signature). Some work, some don't.

[joesoap]

So is 60Gb the max you can upgrade to. I had a creative zen Xtra 40Gb and I put a 160Gb drive in it.