iRiver iHP-1X0 mSATA SSD drive mod

[monoid]

You did not write how big SSD is. If it is big you need newer firmware.  And maybe even for most of modern HD or SSD.  You need bootloader 7pre4, the latest working one.

I have SSD H120, but not eSATA. So there might be also another problem with your mod than old bootloader.  Mine Iriver booted only eraticly, once in several cases, with bootloader 6.

[bpfiguer]

This is an update. The mSATA drives described below work with the iHP-120 player using Rockbox and the mSATA to ZIF adapter described before:

1. Crucial M500 240GB mSATA drive (cat. no. CT240M500SSD3)*
2. Crucial M500 480GB mSATA drive (cat. no. CT480M500SSD3)*
3. MyDigitalSSD 240GB mSATA drive (cat. no. MDMS-BP4-240)

*Note: I do not have the low power issue that I had with the Crucial m4 256GB mSATA drive (cat. no. CT256M4SSD3).

Please let me know is somebody try the Samsung 840 EVO MZ-MTE1T0BW 1TB mSATA drive.

Thanks

[juanpa74]

Thanks for this bpfiguer.
I am going to try this on an H340.
The CT256M4SSD3 is $299 on amazon.com while the CT240M500SSD3 is only $119

This is an update. The mSATA drives described below work with the iHP-120 player using Rockbox and the mSATA to ZIF adapter described before:

1. Crucial M500 240GB mSATA drive (cat. no. CT240M500SSD3)*
2. Crucial M500 480GB mSATA drive (cat. no. CT480M500SSD3)*
3. MyDigitalSSD 240GB mSATA drive (cat. no. MDMS-BP4-240)

*Note: I do not have the low power issue that I had with the Crucial m4 256GB mSATA drive (cat. no. CT256M4SSD3).

Please let me know is somebody try the Samsung 840 EVO MZ-MTE1T0BW 1TB mSATA drive.

Thanks

[juanpa74]

I can confirm Crucial M500 240GB mSATA drive (cat. no. CT240M500SSD3)
WORKS on my iRiver H340.
I was making the mistake of trying to format the mSATA drive using a ZIF to USB adaptor I had in the house similar to this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FHI3CTG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2FJ04XRTBDC3C&coliid=I26BO8ZH06O7K5

That was driving me crazy giving me errors recognizing the drive or freezing while formatting.

It is so much easier. Just use the iRiver (assuming you already had rockbox running on it on your previous drive or maybe that is not even necessary) .
1. Connect the mSATA drive with the mSATA to ZIF adapter.
2. Then use the ZIF to PATA adapter to plug it to the H340.
3. Plug the H340 to the computer USB and turn it on.
4. Format the drive with Windows in NTFS and assign a letter to it.
5. Format the drive to FAT32 [I used 32K cluster size (allocation unit size) not sure which size is recommended] (I used this software: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm ).
6. Use the Rockbox Utility to download and install rockbox.
7. Copy some music files.
8. Disconnect and unplug.
9. Turn on your iRiver H3240 !! :-)
10. Enjoy!

I will return and comment if something doesn't work.

I USED:
Crucial M500 240GB mSATA drive (cat. no. CT240M500SSD3) $120 on Amazon at the moment:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BQ8RKT4/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
mSATA SSD to 40 Pin ZIF Adapter Card $20 on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009BA5JU6/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[maxhebus]

Hi.
I followed as much the threads as possible concerning the Iriver H140 mods and I plan to push mine to 240GB.

So far I've ordered the
1 ZIF HDD,SSD to 1.8 inch TOSHIBA type converter,zender
2 MINI PCI-E Msata SSD to 40pin ZIF adapter card as Toshiba or Hitachi ZIF CE HDD
3 Crucial M500 mSATA 240GB SATA3 Internal Solid State Drive (MLC) CT240M500SSD3

My main concern and the mystery part concerns the battery. I read that a lot of people swapping it with the ipod 2200mAh battery. And some are just replacing it by an original one but new.

Based on the set up I'm planning, What would be your recommendation?

If the ipod 2200mAh battery has to be the one, Does the plug really need to be inverted before plug it to the Iriver H140.
And if Ipod 200mAh Battery, will my original charger still be enough?

I did find this but it says I river.... Looks the same as the ipod one....  Confusing. 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/360205624790?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT


Thanks in advance
Steph

[bpfiguer]

Hi.
I followed as much the threads as possible concerning the Iriver H140 mods and I plan to push mine to 240GB.

So far I've ordered the
1 ZIF HDD,SSD to 1.8 inch TOSHIBA type converter,zender
2 MINI PCI-E Msata SSD to 40pin ZIF adapter card as Toshiba or Hitachi ZIF CE HDD
3 Crucial M500 mSATA 240GB SATA3 Internal Solid State Drive (MLC) CT240M500SSD3

My main concern and the mystery part concerns the battery. I read that a lot of people swapping it with the ipod 2200mAh battery. And some are just replacing it by an original one but new.

Based on the set up I'm planning, What would be your recommendation?

If the ipod 2200mAh battery has to be the one, Does the plug really need to be inverted before plug it to the Iriver H140.
And if Ipod 200mAh Battery, will my original charger still be enough?

I did find this but it says I river.... Looks the same as the ipod one....  Confusing. 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/360205624790?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT


Thanks in advance
Steph

For the Cameron Sino battery CS-H110XL is not required to invert polarity (just use without modification). If you invert the polarity your player will be fried. The iRiver charger works fine with this battery. 

[maxhebus]

Thank you bpfiguer.
Just ordered it.   

Last question around. (at least for the hardware).
For the "Crucial M500 mSATA 240GB SATA3", Do I need to format it in Fat32? Never used that kind of hard drive before....
 If yes, can I do it once installed in the Iriver HP140?

Steph

[bpfiguer]

Thank you bpfiguer.
Just ordered it.   

Last question around. (at least for the hardware).
For the "Crucial M500 mSATA 240GB SATA3", Do I need to format it in Fat32? Never used that kind of hard drive before....
 If yes, can I do it once installed in the Iriver HP140?

Steph

The drive needs to be formatted FAT32 to work with Rockbox and probably with the original iRiver firmware too.

I suggest you getting a mSATA/USB enclosure because I don´t know if the original iRiver firmware will reconize the SSD drive (it will allow you to copy music files faster: 5x times). If your SSD drive is factory formatted as FAT32 then you are lucky.

To format the SSD drive to FAT32 you can use this utility (http://download.cnet.com/CompuApps-SwissKnife-V3/3000-2248_4-10070864.html)

[maxhebus]

Thanks bpfiguer.
I thought that would be the case.  Thanks for the link. I'll study the threads about it. I've seen the name already but was hoping I could avoid it. 

For the mSATA/USB enclosure, would something like that work?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-SATA-2-5-HD-Hard-Drive-Disk-Case-Enclosure-Box-for-Laptop-PC-/171383470708?pt=US_Drive_Enclosures_Docks&hash=item27e7403a74

or maybe something more like that:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/External-mSATA-SSD-to-USB-3-0-Super-Speed-Converter-Adapter-Enclosure-Case-/371079615041?pt=US_Drive_Cables_dapters&hash=item5666119241

Would you have any suggestion?

Steph

[bpfiguer]

The second one.

[maxhebus]

Thank you so much Sir.

Steph

[peteswensson]

And note that the iRiver original firmware WILL NOT recognize flash memory.  Hence you must format the flash memory to FAT32 before installing it into the iRiver device.  You also must flash the bootloader to the iRiver original firmware from the hard drive before installing the flash memory.

Best of luck with your project!

[landolfi]

>>If you use 50 pin PATA (CF) SSD, you do not need any adapter.

So this drive: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007PFPVOS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

can be installed without any adapter, just slide it on in place of the existing HD?

Thanks in advance,

Robe

[bpfiguer]

Yes, it will work.

>>If you use 50 pin PATA (CF) SSD, you do not need any adapter.

So this drive: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007PFPVOS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

can be installed without any adapter, just slide it on in place of the existing HD?

Thanks in advance,

Robe

[y2kse]

I just got done upgrading my iHP-120 from a Toshiba MK8025GAL 80 GB drive to the Corsair M500 480 GB mentioned in this post.  This is my third drive upgrade on this player.  The first was from the factory 20 GB to a 30 GB to get a little extra space, then from the 30 GB to the 80 GB when the 30 failed (I dropped the player while it was drive seeking).  I was significantly out of space with the 80 GB, hence the current upgrade.

I already had the ZIF to IDE adapter mentioned in this post and the mSATA SSD to ZIF adapter from this eBay seller.  I updated the bootloader to 7pre4 before doing the drive swap, got the player started in USB mode, formatted the drive as NTFS using Windows Drive Management then reformatted the drive at FAT32.  I also installed the newest Rockbox build using Rockbox Utility.

I'm currently copying over ~400 GB of data using FreeFileSync.