Support and General Use > Hardware

Upgrading Gigabeat S (and/or F/X) HDD?

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scharkalvin:
Many of the ipod hard disks are the same type as used in the Gigabeat.  If you can wire up a 40 pin to 50 pin adapter, the drives used in the newest ipods should work.  Aside from the connector differences, they are still ATA interface disk drives.

Assuming your current drive is still good make a copy of the MBR using the unix/linux
dd command.  To do this attach the player and see where it showed up
(usually something like /dev/sdx where 'x' can be a, b, c etc...)  
I think the dd syntax would be dd if=/dev/sdx of=mbr.dat bs=446
Then save your boot sector from the primary partition
dd if=/dev/sdx1 of=boot.dat bs=512
Make sure you back up all of the system files and folders.


After replacing the drive with a new one you restore the MBR and boot sectors.
First do the mbr  dd of=/dev/sdx if=mbr.dat bs=446
then use fdisk to partition the drive as one big partition, type is vfat (fat32).
then format /dev/sdx1 as a vfat file system. (mkfsvfat /dev/sdx1)
Then restore the boot record  dd if=boot.dat of=/dev/sdx1 bs=512
Finally you need to copy all the required files back to the new drive.

Free free to correct any mistakes I might have in these instructions.

Windoze users are on their own here ... use gigabeat room?

AlexP:
You don't need to do any of this.  When I replaced my drive I just formatted it as FAT32, copied the GBSYSTEM and .rockbox folders on to it from my old drive, put it into my gigabeat and away you go.

scharkalvin:

--- Quote ---You don't need to do any of this.  When I replaced my drive I just formatted it as FAT32, copied the GBSYSTEM and .rockbox folders on to it from my old drive, put it into my gigabeat and away you go.

--- End quote ---

I guess your new drive was already partitioned.  I'm surprised you did not have to put a MBR on the new drives' first sector, and maybe a boot loader in the primary (only) partition's first sector.  Guess that depends on what the Gigabeat's flash has in it's bootstrap.

AlexP:
Yes, sorry I forgot partitioning it.  But no dd bootsectors or any of that required.

Nate!:
Since I may have a harddrive issue in my F60, I was wondering if I had to jump through hoops to put in a replacement.

BigBambi, I've seen a few MK6006GAH drives for about $120US.  I just want to be clear.  All you did was install the drive in the GB, Create the 1 partition and format it, and do an install of Rockbox.  (With bootloader and dummy GBSystem files)

Is it that simple?  Thanks.

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