iRiver H120 with broken hd - can I upgrade to a SSD anyway?

[brutsalvadi]

Hi guys,
unfortunately my beloved H120 fell down and the HD broke. Now the player powers on but it can't complete the boot, and I can easily hear the tipical ticking of a broken HD. As a matter of fact, Rockbox won't start at all, and when I start the originail firmware I got an error saying "Check HDD Connection".
So I thought this would be the right moment to swap the broken HD with a bigger and faster SSD, but when I searched the forum for the correct procedure, I found that first I need to update the bootloader to version 7pre4 (currently running 6) and then copy everything from the old HD to a PC, in order to copy things back to the new SSD.
Obviously I can't perform these steps since my HD is broken, does it mean that I can't upgrade?
Thank a lot for your help!

[peteswensson]

Yes, you need a working hard drive in order to update the bootloader before conversion to a SSD.  Sad, but true.  On the bright side, the kind of HD you need doesn't cost much any more.  I haven't gone looking for one in a long time, so I do not know how hard they are to find any more.

[peteswensson]

By the way, I have several extra left-over working hard drives that would suit your need, having upgraded several iRivers.  I would be willing to send you one for the cost of postage, since I have no further use for them.

[marksk]

having trouble locating instructions on how to prepare a new hard drive for installation. can someone please point me in the right direction?

thanks!!

[monoid]

Try this:
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,42704.msg220070.html#msg220070

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,41487.msg214999.html#msg214999