H340 replace hard disk

[boby]

Hi,
I damaged the MK4004GAH  hard disk of my h340.
After long researches, I found on ebay.fr a "40 GB TOSHIBA  MK4004GAH IPOD VAIO". I should receive it soon (69 euro). I'm eyes disabled but I have a friend who will replace it for me. When it will be replaced, what shall I do to format it ? Shall I use the Gparted program (linux) or  SWFormat (window XP) or something else. Is there a risk if I try with a wrong tool ? Can I damage the new harddisk if I switch on my iriver before formating the hard disk ? Is that true that it may not work because this MK4004GAH hard disk comes from a Ipod ? If yes, is there a risk for my iriver ?
Thanks a lot
Boby

[Multiplex]

I recently changed the drive in my H320, the drive came totally uninitialised and there was no problem starting up the machine with the basic drive. Of course Rockbox won't start, I was slow getting the USB cable in and the Iriver firmware started and just got a bit confused that it couldn't read the disk, finally showing 0 files, etc.

I did have a problem getting my Windows XP PC to see the H320 in bootloader USB mode and format it. I was also doing my wife's H120 and that was OK so I put the drive in that to format it, but I don't remember anyone else reporting that problem and having formatted it it was fine so I stopped investigating.

I don't know about the tools for formatting the drive - mine were 30Gig drives so I used the standard windows formatter.

There is a thread here about an 80Gig drive and trouble getting it seenhttp://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=7745.0 also other threads mentioning swissknife

Instructions for your friend to take the H300 to bits;
http://www.misticriver.net/showpost.php?p=363259&postcount=118

[Mikerman]

Some sources concerning H3xx player hard drive replacement, from the Misticriver website:

http://www.misticriver.net/wiki/index.php/Customize_Your_H1xx_or_H3xx#Hard_drive

http://www.misticriver.net/showthread.php?t=17400

On the H1xx players, iRiver added a format feature that can be used for 20 gb and 40 gb drives.  For a 60 gb or an 80 gb replacement drive, a program such as SwissKnife (freeware readily available on the Internet) would be needed to be used to format the drive (an easy process).