Toshiba 320gb hard drive in which player?

[george99]

are there any players out there that will support the 1.8" toshiba 320gb hard drive?

if not, what player under rockbox can act as a true usb host and let me hook up a usb hard drive to it and play music files from the hard drive?

[LambdaCalculus]

If the drive has a ZIF connector to connect it to the board, then you should be able to use it in any device that has this connector, or with an adapter.

Rockbox shouldn't have any issues with this large of a drive, but it doesn't hurt to try it out to see what kind of results you get.

Devices that use a hard drive with a ZIF connector include the iPod video, Gigabeat X, and Gigabeat S.

[AlexP]

It won't work in the gigabeat S as the OF bootloader will have a fit on anything over 128 GB.

I think torne had a potential strategy, but it involves partitions with non-standard properties and multi drive Rockbox builds, ...  I've probably got the details wrong here, but it remains non-trivial.

[torne]

It also depends if Toshiba have helpfully released yet another drive with a braindamaged firmware that doesn't support unaligned sector accesses; if it's broken like some of their other drives it will need a custom build of Rockbox for whichever player you use. (the change is trivial, though).

And yes, there's a theoretical way of making large drives work on the Gigabeat S but nobody has yet tried it for me; I don't have a large drive to try it out. People are welcome to contact me if they want a go, though

[george99]

how about the older gigabeat models or cowon, iriver, etc

[torne]

Any Rockbox-supported player which has the same kind of interface (ZIF or ATA) and which is physically large enough to contain the drive (not all drives are the same thickness) will work with any size drive, except possibly the Gigabeat S (depending on whether my method actually works or not) and the old Archos players (which need weird and inconvenient workarounds to use drives over 128GiB). Certain drives may require a custom build of Rockbox for the player, but that's not particularly difficult.

[TexasRockbox]

I think the drive in question (MK3233GSG) uses a microSATA interface not ZIF.

Overview here: http://sdd.toshiba.com/techdocs/MKxx33GSG.pdf.

Wouldn't it be something to have a 2.5" drive Rockbox-able player with a SATA interface?  That's 1TB territory.

EDIT: there is an adapter from ZIF to MicroSATA: http://micro-sata-cables.amazonwebstore.com/1.8-Micro-SATA-16-Pin-Female/M/B004FD5B9I.htm?traffic_src=froogle&utm_medium=CSE&utm_source=froogle

Might help with some players. Might be a tight/impossible fit in an iPod video with the standard thick back.

[LambdaCalculus]

It won't work in the gigabeat S as the OF bootloader will have a fit on anything over 128 GB.

Thanks for that info. I wasn't aware that the OF bootloader would freak out on large drives.

[serge33bill]

Actually Rockbox does not support USB on every player. So the best preference for it will be Toshiba Gigabeat S or also you can try for Rockchip 27xx based players.

[AlexP]

So the best preference for it will be Toshiba Gigabeat S

No, see what torne and I wrote above.

[TexasRockbox]

Toshiba will be introducing 1.8" drives using a LIF/SATA interface.  It is 5mm height (single platter) and maxes out with the 220GB MK2239GSL.  If things aren't complicated enough already...

I wish Toshiba would manufacture a dual platter 440GB 8mm 1.8" ZIF/PATA drive.

[george99]

i have a gigabeat f40 on the way.

searching for the best price on the 320gb toshiba drives right now.

anyone have an idea of where to find one on the cheap?
should i steer clear of a used drive?

[TexasRockbox]

I'm not sure how you plan to implement it but I don't think there are any 320GB 1.8" drives that will work directly with the F40.

[george99]

i hope you aren't correct.

i was going on torne's advice that it could be done. the 320gb toshiba drive has a microsata connector on it and the f40 has a 50 pin connection cable. at the very least i need an adaptor.

[torne]

Any Rockbox-supported player which has the same kind of interface (ZIF or ATA)

^- this is the key part; microsata and 50-pin ATA are totally unrelated and you need far more than an adapter to connect the two: it would have to actually convert one protocol to another. I doubt this exists in the required form factor to fit inside the device.