From: Justin Fisher <jaf60_at_it.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 16:45:06 -0800

Hiyall. My AJBR has died (a particularly nasty case the old "hard disk
error" problem) and I'm faced with a dilema - either

1) return it under warranty, and likely lose the (not backed up) data on
the drive
or
2) attempt to fix it myself by voiding warranty (taking the disk out and
plugging it directly into an ide slot in my computer)

Now if option two were successful, I would not only have saved my data
and fixed the problem, but I would have removed the obstacle that is
stopping me from modifying my device (warranty), and I'd get straight
down into happpily modifying it. Which is why I think I can get away
with posting this message to this list :-)

So option two is very tempting, BUT, if it doesn't work, I am absolutely
screwed - a non-functional device and no warranty with which to get a
working one. So before I take this leap, I want to find out as much as I
can about the HD error problem, and whether it can definitely be fixed
by plugging the HDD into your computer, or "probably" fixed, or "maybe"
fixed, etc.

Can anyone help me out here?

Some details of the problem:
Turn it on as normal, and it only gets halfway through the boot sequence
(four squares checked) before it simply goes no further, and just sits
with those squares checked, backlight on, buttons doing nothing,
forever. To power it down, I need to removed the external supply, then
hold down OFF for a few seconds.

Plug in the USB, turn it on, and it boots all the way to the USB screen
(briefly flashing "HD error", where it appears to be working. Except the
computer cannot see it. in win2k, the device appears as a USB storage
adapter, not an actual useable storage device. In win98, running the
JBCheck utility results in an error - it can't find a jukebox to fix.

Plug in the charger, and it boots to the charging mode without problem.

Plug in the USB, and yank the cord out mid-boot (once it is past those
four check boxes), and you can get to the menus and stuff - it boots the
onboard firmware ver 1.17 (rather than the upgrade on the disk), but you
can't browse actual files or the HDD - Hard Disk Error.

So - any and all access to data on the HDD is impossible. Does this mean
that the HDD is damaged or corrupted? (Ie unlikey to be recognised if
plugged into an IDE slot)

Does anyone know if people have tried to fix disk errors by plugging
them into their computers?
I'm not a HDD guru. I'd be counting on things to connect fairly
smoothly, then I can either use scandisk, or delete the firmware and
replace it with a fresh copy, then return the HDD to the jukebox. Good
plan, or risky?

Thanks
Received on 2001-12-29