iriver H140 replacement to 80GB problem

[ivanrocks321]

So I have a H140 and want to replace the HDD with a Toshiba MK8007GAH 80GB HDD. I do the usual replace the HD and install rockbox. However when I run rockbox it does not load up. It says

"No partition
found
Insert USB cable
and Fix it."

so I look at the drive and it is in NTFS and I tried reformatting with windows the quick and long way but no dice. Then I tried to convert to FAT32 with Partition magic but the drive is Bad and I cannot proceed to creating a new partition. Also under windows format, there is an option to change the file type but the only option it gives me is to format to NTFS (default) and to exFAT.

PLEASE HELP, I am so lost thanks 

[yapper]

Take a look at the iRiver FAQ here: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IriverFAQ#The_original_firmware_no_longer

The suggestion there is to use Swissknife, or better fat32format to format the drive.

[peteswensson]

I had similar problems reformatting the MK8007GAH for my iriver H300.  They do usually come used, and formatted in NTFS.  I could not get Swissknife to format it in FAT32 for 80GB while it was in the iriver and connected to my computer by USB.  I did succeed once I connected it directly to the motherboard using a standard PATA hard drive ribbon cable and a PATA to 1.8" 50-pin adapter that I got from DealExtreme over the web.

So take heart.  This will only be a momentary frustration.

[ej0rge]

If you must use windows, I'm a big fan of using the windows disk manager to repartition the drive (you want a simple partition) and then fa32format to format it. I find swissknife to be too often cranky and uncooperative.

generic fat32format instructions here: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/fat32format.htm

If you use linux, you can just nuke it from orbit with 'dd' piping from /dev/zero and start over with fdisk/cfdisk/parted/whathaveyou.