Is it possible to use Toshiba MK2431GAH on Gigabeat S?

[psycho_maniac]

well keep us updatd

[cool_walking_]

I got a reply from jhMikeS.

Hi,

I was told you were the guy to ask about this, but you're not on IRC very often.  Is there anything preventing someone from replacing the OF's bootloader in flash with some Rockbox code (e.g. does Rockbox rely on some initialisation done by the OF loader), or does it just need someone to code it?

Hello,

I've been busy and just haven't been on much lately. I plan on returning to the fold as soon as I am able.

There is nothing preventing it that I can see at this point but no work has been done on flashing Rockbox on an S yet. There is setup from OF that RB is relying on, yes. Unless I have some way to recover from a botched image (and I don't at this point), there's no way I'd even attempt it.

As for the disk speed benchmarks, I'm confused.  I tested 2 builds - one with and one without the above-mentioned MAX_LOG_SECTOR_SIZE and MAX_PHYS_SECTOR_SIZE defines.  Both based on r21113, the only other difference from SVN being that HAVE_LBA48 is defined.  USB write performance is better with the defines:

With
Without

However, the test_disk plugin says the opposite - better performance without the defines:

With: test1 test2 test3
Without: test1 test2 test3

I'd been (still am) using the build with the defines, and disk performance has seemed fine.

[isanggon]

Sad news. Then, its very hard to use more than 120gb on gigabeat s.
But mk2431gah's disk speed looks fine. I'll go mk1231gal. Thanks for useful information

One more, mkxx31 hdd only works with single boot firmware? How can I change to dualboot to singleboot?

[cool_walking_]

mkxx31 hdd only works with single boot firmware?

I don't know if this is related to the HDD.  Someone (possibly Unhelpul/MilitantlyUnhelpful?) said they also had a problem with dual-boot, so it may just be a bug.  I'll try dual-boot with another HDD when I get home...

[saab_rider]

My information might be out of date, but I think the MK1231GAL won't work.

I have a Gigabeat S and I too want to install an MK1231GAL...

But every single forum post, site I found on-line indicates that this drive only works with the 6th Gen iPod and 2nd gen Zune.

From Macbook Air, to iRiver H300, to HTC Shift, to Kenwood DAPs, to even HDD enclosures... No one was able to format this drive...

I'm told that there are two versions of the drive... One is encrypted (most of the available drives for sale fall under this catagory) for use with the players mentioned above. The second (very rare supposedly) isn't encrypted, and is made for use with Notebooks.

Now I am not sure of the accuracy of the above claim... But I was told this by a technician working in a computer repair shop in Shanghai (supposedly the largest 3rd party apple repair shop).

I have yet to see a single success story of installing the MK1231GAL on a device other than the 6 gen iPod and 2nd gen Zune....

If you've seen proof it works somehow, please share the info.. I want this so bad too!

If you noticed, the HDD replacement page was updated last month saying "MK1231GAL is also not compatible with the Gigabeat S30. This drive is rumored to be compatible only with the 80 and 120 gig iPod Classic 6th generation, Zune 80, and nothing else - including no usb enclosures or netbooks, etc. The reasons are unclear - Toshiba says this drive is normal PATA and has not responded to questions about what the differences might be."

[psycho_maniac]

so this doenst work with the orignial firmware correct? i know this is far fetched but couldnt there be a custom built rockbox firmware to take complete control of gigabeat s to override this problem?

[ej0rge]

Well the S is very particular about the way that the hard drive is partitioned and formatted. Which is unfortunate because the partition table it prefers is technically invalid, and because of that, normal fdisk utilities decline to perform it.

The good news is that the OF boot loader recovery mode will do it for you.

When i put an MK1214GAH in an S60, getting it formatted was pretty much as easy as physically installing the hard drive and turning it on. The boot loader went into recovery mode, I used sendfirm to push it the NK.bin from the v1.1 OF, and it did it's thing and booted up into the OF. Then i followed the normal procedure to rockbox it.

But the MK1231GAL is a very different piece of hardware and it doesn't even fully respond to normal ATA initialization strings and get properly identified. I don't know if it's "encrypted", intentionally crippled, or just weird. But it doesn't work.

If it's just that it has bizarre firmware and somewhere out there is a version of the firmware that works, maybe some day some sort of hack will be available to make the drive work. But I don't think that's going to happen this week or next.

[psycho_maniac]

just buy 2 beasts and put 120gb hard drives in them. problem solved LOL