iRiver H10 20GB harddisk upgrade

[Xenna]

I recently brought my old (barely used) H10 back to life by installing rockbox on it (a huge improvement, the original firmware stinks).

Does anyone have experience with upgrading the hard disk?

I looked at this page: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/HardDriveReplacement

It seems the H10 has a 7mm ZIF-40 disk.

Does this mean I could replace it with a 80GB MK8022GAA (5mm, ZIF-40)

Or could I manage to fit a 8mm drive like the 120GB MK1214GAH in it?

Anyone try this? The H10 is a nice small player and it would be really nice if its capacity could be increased this way. I'm looking for someone who did this successfully. Lots of success stories on the h1xx and h3xx but none on the h10 so far...

X.

[b0hoon]

Take a look at it:
http://www.misticriver.net/forums/h-10-h-20-series/57257-iriver-h10-hd-upgrade.html

[Xenna]

Thanks, I read that.

The only nearly big enough (for me) drive they mention is the 80GB 'MK8009GAH', which is a 8mm drive according to the rockbox wiki table. So it seems that 8mm drives should fit. Does anyone have experience with any of the  120GB drives?

[b0hoon]

The Iriver H10 uses a Hitachi hdd which is 7mm high. You can use any Toshiba drive which is 5mm high for sure. From the posts on the mysticriver forum is clear that someone has managed to put the Toshiba 8mm high, but that's a 1mm difference and i have never done this before, so i can't tell if it is feasible for sure.

Generally L at the end of the Toshiba hdd number means 5mm (single platter), H means 8mm (two platters).

While replacing hdd in your DAP you may fall into three kinds of troubles:

a) Toshiba drives have a connector more tight than the Hitachi, so you won't be able to close the lock bar on the connector and you must insert the ribbon with force. Or you can "shave" the end of the ribbon. I suggest you to use the first solution, it feats tight and it won't fall out from the hdds connector. It always worked for me. Just leave the lock open.

b) the connector on the Hitachi drives may be displaced from the center of the drive and Toshiba has always connector on the center so you may need to bend the ribbon a little.

c) you may have a problem with formatting the drive at the beginning in FAT32 format (if it is bigger than 32GB), i suggest you to use this solution, it's tested and it always worked: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm

Or could I manage to fit a 8mm drive like the 120GB MK1214GAH in it?

As i said i don't now it for sure, but you can always try this model: MK1231GAL (120GB).

You can always look here too, for a comparison:
http://www.span.com/index.php?cPath=23_504_1801&language=en
http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=StorageSolutions/PCNotebookHardDrives/MKxx31GAxSeries

[Xenna]

Thanks b0hoon,

Lots of info there!

I have already upgraded my h140's (2x) with a MK1214GAH so I think I'll try taking one of those drives and putting it in the h10 instead. I've ordered a small toolset with pry bars because it seems the h10 is a little harder to open than the h140.

That connector info is very useful, formatting is no problem, I'll just use swissknife.

I don't know about the MK1231GAL, I find confusing info about that one on the web. It doesn't seem to work in *some* devices. If the MK1214GAH doesn't fit, I may order one anyway. I'll make sure to post here if it works (or not) in the h10.

I ordered my MK1214GAH in Hong Kong via e-bay, that seems a lot cheaper.

=== UPDATE ===

I got the toolset and got to work.

I backed up the .rockbox and System folders from the H10.
 
I took the front cover of the h10 off and removed the hard disk as described here:
http://www.misticriver.net/forums/h-10-h-20-series/52314-iriver-h10-20gb-disassembly-instructions-pics.html

I put in the 8mm 120GB MK1214GAH I took out of my H140 and connected the ribbon cable by just pushing it in, first on one side, then the other.

I cut off a small piece of the rubber padding because it was blocking the MK1214GAH's connector.

The drive went in without problems.

I tested it with the device still open and after restoring the .rockbox and System folders it booted without problems. (remember, it was already formatted to fat32)

And now after disassembly my girlfriend now has a cute little 120 GB iRiver H10!

I'll just need to order a new MK1214GAH for my spare H140, unfortunately the ebay prices seem to have almost doubled since two weeks ago

Thanks for the help.

[tsester]

About H10 20G
 i bought a 60G , formatted it in FAT32 using a zif to 3.5'' adapter but still no luck :*(( http://paste.ubuntu.com/977797/ )

[tsester]

the zif cable was cut. i added a new one and the 60G plays

[boomer59]

Just upgraded an h10 I bought at a thrift store.... used a Samsung Spinpoint N2 120 GB,Internal,4200 RPM,1.8" (HS122JB) worked like a charm.  Just backed up all the files that were on the original 20gb drive, then connected the new drive to the h10's ribbon cable and the 120 showed up as an unformatted 111gb drive under the windows xp disk management tool.  used guiformat <url http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm /url> to format the drive to FAT32, sector size of 4096, 111gb available after running a quick format using the guiformat tool.  after formatting I copied the backed up folders and files onto the new drive, the disconnected the h10 from my pc (used eject menu command then used the safely remove hardware to in the systray.  total cost: $83.00 ($31.00 for the h10, $8.00 for a pair of h10 sync cables, and $44.00 for the Samsung HS122JB) I thought about doing a SSD conversion using a CF card etc. etc.  But it added up almost $80.00 just for the components, and I would only have 64gb when I wuz done.  The ZIF connector on the Samsung was very tight, so I just carefully inserted the ribbon cable and did not try to seat the ZIF clamp.   The upgraded h10 booted up into rockbox no problem!!

[Ejecutor Hanzo]

Sorry for revive  this old old topic, but I have 2 iriver H10 20gb (one  in great condition, one bad). I was investigating about the disk upgrade and I do not know if adding a zif to msata converter will work on the h10, considering that a msata drive costs 30 bucks (64 gb), and the converter 9 dollars. I think msata will be more reliable than hdd solutions, and faster than CF solution.

Here some picks:




What do you think?

[Ejecutor Hanzo]

Well, good and bad news.

Good news: The mod works perfectly
Bad news: Rockbox shows error -11 all the time even if the original firmware works, so I can't use rockbox anymore if I want to use my zif/msata converter.

I am really really sad for that.

If anyone can help me to resolve this issue will be great.


Thanks!

[WhiteKenny]

Hey Ejecutor,

What is the controller on that FastDisk drive?