Buying new HD for H120. Necessary to format?

[Muse______]

My H120 persistently (since thursday night) has displayed the error message:

ATA error: -1

I presume (suppose) that the HD has developed a serious problem. Yes, it could be something else. However, I just purchased a new MK3006GAL and should have it in 2-3 days. I haven't seen any stickies or FAQs about HD replacement for the H1xx series, although I suppose something exists (links?).

I read in some posts that the drive has to be formated FAT32. Is this correct? Will the drive come so formatted? Do I merely need to install it in the H120? I know how to do this, because I took mine apart and put it together several times yesterday. Or do I need to format the drive somehow? My PC's are running XP Pro (main desktop), Windows 2000 (2nd desktop), XP Pro (laptop). Thanks for any help.

[SilverRanger]

In short, yes, you do need to format. After replacing your hard disk, connect your player through the usb cable like normal.
You can do it using Disk Management in XP (for any drive under 32G), or using other disk formatting tools such as Swiss Knife...

[Muse______]

Originally Posted by SilverRanger

In short, yes, you do need to format. After replacing your hard disk, connect your player through the usb cable like normal.
You can do it using Disk Management in XP (for any drive under 32G), or using other disk formatting tools such as Swiss Knife...

Thanks. I'll have my fingers crossed. If the player still acts the same I'll have two good HD's and a crazy H120. Not sure what I'll do then. Should know by Wednesday. Meantime, I'm making do with my old iRiver SlimX iMP-350's. It's been a little rough so far.

[Step666]

Originally Posted by Muse______

I haven't seen any stickies or FAQs about HD replacement for the H1xx series, although I suppose something exists (links?).

Yes, it does.
Funnily enough, in the FAQ section (see the link at the top of the page).

Here.

[Muse______]

Originally Posted by Step666

Yes, it does.
Funnily enough, in the FAQ section (see the link at the top of the page).

Here.

Thanks. Actually, I'd seen that and read it kind of a couple of times, so I had a basic idea of the information in there, and learned some things. For instance, I did order from eWiz.com, who had the best deal for me. Folks, (I hope it's cool to say this, and if it's not, delete the offending info or inform me and I'll delete it), the best deal around on the mk3006gal is through www.pricewatch.com, where they link to eWiz's free shipping deal on the drive.

I don't believe the linked thread has information on how to format the drive in a PC, which is kind of what I was wanting to know when I posted the OP. It's OK, I think I have a handle on it now (format in XP from Disk Management, since the drive is < 32 GB).

[Step666]

Yeah, XP can natively format your drive as FAT32.
If you ever need to format a drive larger than 32GB as FAT32, then get either SwissKnife or Partition Magic.

I don't worry about the link - why would anyone be opposed to you trying to help other MR members save money?

[Muse______]

Originally Posted by Muse______

Thanks. Actually, I'd seen that and read it kind of a couple of times, so I had a basic idea of the information in there, and learned some things. For instance, I did order from eWiz.com, who had the best deal for me. Folks, (I hope it's cool to say this, and if it's not, delete the offending info or inform me and I'll delete it), the best deal around on the mk3006gal is through www.pricewatch.com, where they link to eWiz's free shipping deal on the drive.

I don't believe the linked thread has information on how to format the drive in a PC, which is kind of what I was wanting to know when I posted the OP. It's OK, I think I have a handle on it now (format in XP from Disk Management, since the drive is < 32 GB).

Originally Posted by Step666

Yeah, XP can natively format your drive as FAT32.
If you ever need to format a drive larger than 32GB as FAT32, then get either SwissKnife or Partition Magic.

I don't worry about the link - why would anyone be opposed to you trying to help other MR members save money?

I understand that completely, except that at Anandtech Forums sometimes the mods get prickly. I dunno.

Anyway, the new drive came today (mk3006gal), and I install it and the player's acting different, better I suppose, but it's still not working. I can't see the drive in XP Pro's Explorer.

I no longer get the former error messages such as ATA error: -1 or Check HDD Connection. In fact all would seem to be well except that I can't see the drive in Explorer and therefore cannot format it.

When booted to Rockbox, it says this indefinitely with the new HD:

Rockbox boot loader
Version 6
Bat: 3.76V

Hit reset and the iRiver firmware takes over and it goes

0000 Folder(s)
0000 Song(s)

Very normal looking.

It sits like that a few minutes and switches off.

Any take on this?

I did not drop the drive, never have. I've only had it about 3 months, and the owner said it was little used and spent most of it's life nestled in a drawer. It seemed to work fine until 5 days ago.

[Muse______]

OMG, Windows Disk Manager suddenly sensed the drive and I'm attempting to format it...

Why Oh Why did Windows not offer to initialize the disk before? Nothing happened for over 20 minutes. Bloody XP. I was in freaking Disk Manager, Explorer too. So far, I see very little advantage with XP over Windows 2000. Windows 2000 was 20 times better than Windows 95. XP may not be any improvement whatsoever, all things considered is my opinion after a week.

I was reluctant to install the 30 GB drive, suddenly thinking it was a near no brainer that the HD was OK and the problem was likely the daughterboard-motherboard connection. Then it wouldn't turn on at all, and I soon realized one of the battery wires had come loose from its solder connection. I repaired that and installed the new HD. At first it looked the same as before, confirming my conviction that both HD's were fine. Then I realized that I was getting different behavior with the new 30 GB. However, it could not be seen by my PC. I expected it to come right up in Explorer as a drive letter, just not formatted. Windows is supposed to offer to format such a drive, right? At the very least it should have offered to initialize it, whatever that is. I guess it had to partition the drive. I opted to have one primary partition, this is right isn't it? I formatted it FAT32, or I should say it's formatting now... it's rather slow. It's 25% done after about 15 minutes. Looks promising, however. I guess chances are good I'll have a functioning H120 in an hour or so. Fingers crossed!!

[NPswimdude500]

I'm running Windows 2000 and let me tell you, I see no reason to upgrade.

Anyway, everything's settled now? (I usually pounce on HDD-related threads, but I'm been pretty apathetic about posting lately)

EDIT: You may find this very helpful: http://www.misticriver.net/wiki/inde...d_Partitioning

[Muse______]

Originally Posted by NPswimdude500

I'm running Windows 2000 and let me tell you, I see no reason to upgrade.

Anyway, everything's settled now? (I usually pounce on HDD-related threads, but I'm been pretty apathetic about posting lately)

EDIT: You may find this very helpful: http://www.misticriver.net/wiki/inde...d_Partitioning

Thanks for posting. I've read your posts (and others) the last few days in my attempts to get to the bottom of the problem. I'm sooooooo relieved. It appears I made the right decisions in dealing with this. I bought the right HD from the right place at the best price and it turned out to be what I needed to resolve the problem. Well, I won't know for sure for an hour maybe, when I have it all up and running.

One thing that really helped me (well, it wasn't necessary as it turned out, but it's a great great great post/thread) is this thread:

Temp fix for always connected/HDD Check error (With pics!)

That thread describes in pretty good detail (!) just exactly how to get at the connections people talk about between the daughterboard and mainboard. Others talk about it but that guy went to the trouble to illustrate it very nicely and in depth.

At the moment, my H120's in pieces, all the screws are out (10 screws) except for the side pieces (I even had those removed), while the drive is formatting. I'm not touching anything until the format is complete. When it's all working, I'm popping a brew!

Edit: Yes! Thanks for that link, it appears to be exactly what I needed. Fortunately I stumbled on a way to get Windows to offer to initialize the drive without going to Add/Remove hardware, but I almost didn't.

Hey, I posted this thread yesterday and I could swear nobody suggested anything other than formatting it in Windows. Noone said I had to do an Add/Remove hardware. Sheesh.

[Muse______]

Damn, after waiting 45+ minutes for the format to complete, only then Windows tells me the format did not complete because the label chosen was invalid. I could learn to hate Windows, I swear...

I just relabeled it iHP-130 (the one suggested at the linked page by Toshiba), and the format is starting from scratch. 27.94 GB. Argh.

Edit: What's amazing about all this is that I had no real evidence that the problem was the HD and not the DB-MB connections. There wasn't so much as a hiccup from the HD until this problem happened. Nobody responded to my posts describing the behavior and said "I think your HD is bad." I had to do something, either get an enclosure and test the HD or just take the gamble and buy another HD. I rolled the dice and won, however I know I was lucky. If it weren't the HD, I'd have two good HD's a bad H120 and (assuming I had no success fixing the problem, whatever it was) I'd be shopping for an H120 or H140 on ebay. I checked out eBay today. There were zero H140's and one H120 up for auction! That's slim pickin's. Anyway, I do have a mind to get a backup H1xx. I'd have good use for an extra and it would be backup for if/when my current player goes bad. I bought two iRiver imp-350's for the same reason.

I have been paying a fair amount of attention to the information available to upgrade HD and battery on the H1xx's but I didn't imagine I'd be doing it so soon... I've had it just a bit over 3 months.

[Step666]

Originally Posted by Muse______

Edit: What's amazing about all this is that I had no real evidence that the problem was the HD and not the DB-MB connections. There wasn't so much as a hiccup from the HD until this problem happened. Nobody responded to my posts describing the behavior and said "I think your HD is bad."

That's unfair - your first post said you'd already ordered a replacement, so how were we to know you hadn't already ruled out the alternatives?
Or, even if you hadn't, it was a bit late anyway given you'd ordered a new drive.

Originally Posted by Muse______

I had to do something...

Yes, so it would seem - to the point where you weren't even prepared to wait and see what people had to say.


It's no-one else's fault that you were impatient.
I'm glad you 'won' when 'rolling the dice' but if you hadn't, it would've been your own doing.

[Muse______]

Step666: Yes, my first post in THIS thread said I'd already ordered a replacement. However, I was referring to my other posts, mostly here:

iHP-120 problem, evidently not booting, strange messages, won't turn off

I described the behavior in detail and noone ventured an opinion except IIRC Jumbuck, who said I could either order a new HD and take my chances but that I "might" want to order an enclosure/adapter or whatever (he linked to a particular USB enclosure that would ship from Asia/Aus and I'd get in maybe two weeks), to check out the HD first. That was going to cost me $16.60 and a fair amount of time. I rolled the dice and won. I might have gotten help if I'd waited longer, however I first posted (I believe) on Friday and I waited over two days (meantime, taking Jumbuck's advice and reading a lot of posts/threads) before making my decision, Sunday evening.

Anyway, this thread was started because I wanted some counseling on how to install the new HD. As I said in the OP, I knew how to install it physically, it was getting it working that I needed help with. I don't believe I got that help. Anyway, it worked out, but it took me nearly 6 hours. I only got Windows to offer to set up the device by accident. I'd read a post where someone said they were connecting the DAP by USB and Windows was beeping. I generally have all Windows sounds turned off, so I thought I'd turn them on and see if I was getting these beeps. I had Disk Management open. I heard a couple of beeps as I plugged the USB cable in and removed it and plugged it in again. Suddenly, Windows displayed the typical Found New Hardware configuration screen. It didn't say Found New Hardware, but it offered to initialize the drive, and I was taken aback!