From: Neon John <johngd_at_bellsouth.net>
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 22:20:24 -0500

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 06:49:39 -0600 (GMT-06:00), Gary
<flgants_at_earthlink.net> wrote:

>Hello
>
> You probably dont know me but i am a tech idiot. My thirst for technology is only surpassed by my ignorance of it. Anyway, my laptop died yesterday, and I opened it up to find the HD crashed. I have been wanting for the last year, to upgrade the HD in my V2 but have been afraid to attempt it. Fear went out the window last night. I got out the screwdriver and went after it. The HD ws very easy to pull out of the V2. I simply removed the covers and bumbers, slightly bent the bottom and slid it right out. I put it in my laptop, fdisked and by some miracle of God, it worked. Now i need recommendations for my V2
>
>1) Where is the cheapest place to look for a 60, 80 or 100gb HD?

This is what I got from Page Computing at the first of the summer.



Quan Item No. Description Price
Extension
---- ----------- ------------------------------- --------------
  1 T0889049 MK8025GAS 80GB SUPERSLIM $170.85
                 ATA/100 9.5MM 12MS 4200


                            SUBTOTAL $170.85
                            SALES TAX $0.00
                            SHIPPING $6.66

                            ORDER TOTAL $177.51

This drive has been superb. Very low power - my batteries last
significantly longer than with the stock drive. Quiet. Fast,
particularly spin up.

Page Computing was the lowest total price according to Cnet that actually
had stock to ship. That may have changed by now.



>3) How do I format my new disk on my V2? I have a desktop with XP? Should I just take the HD out of the laptop and fdisk the hd in there?

Allegedly you can do it in the player. I chose not to risk the hassles.
I found this device:

Item List
CABLE ADPTR QS|USB EZGO (Qty=1,Price=35.00)

Subtotal:35.00
TAX:3.24
Shipping and Handling Charge**:.00
Total:38.24

>From newegg.com. Again this was the cheapest price Cnet reported. This
is an IDE/USB2 adapter. The only number I can find on the box is a
barcode sticker, 12-118-401 (318043)

This gadget is great. Every IDE/ATA device I've plugged into it mounted
to XP perfectly.

>From the list archives, here's the post I made at the time I installed my
drive. (repeat after me "archives are our friend." Then repeat after me
"most questions about the jukeboxes have already been asked and answered
and the answers are in the archives.")

---
80gb in 45 minutes. 
yep, sports fans, 'tis true. I just installed a Toshiba MK8025GAS 80 gig 
drive in my JBR. It was probably the most painless drive install I've ever
done. I was able to do it using XP without resorting to Win98. I'll recap
for 
everyone's benefit. 
I ordered the drive from Page Computer (can't recommend, as they have a
15% restocking charge that isn't disclosed on the order but that's another
story). 
I ordered a USB/IDE adapter from NewEgg (would have ordered the drive from
them too, except that they insist on collecting TN sales tax) CABLE ADPTR 
QS|USB EZGO (Qty=1,Price=35.00) I decided to order this adapter rather
than spend time trying to get the drive to format in the JBR. It might
have gone just fine but my patience wears thin easily when dealing with
computers. 
This kit is da bomb. It comes with the USB/ide adapter, a whippy little 
switchmode 12/5 volt power supply, an adapter for the laptop drive
connectors 
and an IDE extension cord. The adapter simply plugs into the drive and the
USB cable plugs into the computer. No driver needed for XP boxes (Win98 
drivers supplied) It mounts just like an Archos. 
When I plugged it in, the hardware was recognized but the drive wasn't. 
Hadn't been partitioned or formatted. 
I've never installed a raw drive under XP so I used the handy F1 key,
searched for "partition a drive" and found the command line program
DISKPART. I also found the GUI later but I used DISKPART. This utility
allowed me to create a partition, make it active and assign a drive
letter. A drive letter is necessary for the formatting process. The GUI
that can be started from the help screen will do the same thing but I
didn't find it until after I got the job done. 
I then used the h2format utility available on the rockbox web page to do a
high level FAT32 format. The command line is "h2format x:" where x is the 
drive letter assigned the new drive. This utility ran so fast on my
machine that I thought at first it hadn't done anything. 
[NB: I could not find h2format on the rockbox site tonight (11/12/2004)
but it can be gotten here: ftp://ftp.heise.de/pub/ct/ctsi/h2format.zip]
The next thing I did was to connect my JBR and mass copy all the files
over to the new drive. This USB/ide adapter really strokes, as it took
under 20 minutes to copy about 16 gig. I use a Belkin USB2 PC Card adapter
in my laptop. 
At this point the drive was ready to install in my Jukebox. Opening the
JBR was fairly easy after looking at some of the disassembly instructions
on the RockBox site. I curse the pointy-headed prick who designed those
blue bumpers!!!! All that was necessary on my unit was to remove the
batteries, remove the face and remove the unit from the back pan. The
drive pops right out. No unsoldering necessary. I did give my battery
contacts a careful look. 
I stuck the drive in, stuck in some batteries and flashed Rockbox booted
right up. Amazing how well that works. 
The worst part of the whole process is reassembly. Getting those bumpers
in is a chore for someone with arthritic hands. I finally did and now I'm
the proud owner of an 80 gb Jukebox. I can now have my entire music
collection in one place. Whippy! 
While I've been typing this I have reformatted the old Hitachi 20 gig
drive to NTFS to use as a backup device for my laptop. The old drive is a
pig while writing. I copied the data off the drive in under 20 minutes.
That was with the drive in the JBR and the new one on the USB adapter. I'm
now copying over about 12 gb from "my documents" and file manager is
reporting 120 minutes to go. Hmmm. 
Anyway, the JBR is MUCH more responsive with this new drive in. When I 
navigate into a directory the contents snap up on the screen almost
instantly as long as I haven't waited long enough for the drive to spin
down. It would take the better part of 2 seconds with the old drive, just
long enough to spoil the rhythm.
John
---
John De Armond
johngdDONTYOUDARE_at_bellsouth.net
http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/o/johngd/
Cleveland, Occupied TN
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Received on 2004-11-13