iRiver H120 HDD broken - CF mod?

[entne]

Hello guys,

I've got an iRiver H120 and after nearly 14 years of daily usage with the original parts and original firmware the HDD broke (when turning the device on, it makes rhythmically working sounds for a while and display says "check hdd"; then it boots with zero directories). It isn't detected anymore when connected via usb. I hit the reset button once with no substantial effect (device boots as described above with still the newest firmware 1.66 active).

I already searched the net and these forums for a working method to replace the defective hdd. I learned about rockbox and a CF mod here https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/CFModGuide. In fact, to my newbie understanding, the guide presumes that rockbox was already installed on the old hdd (or more exactly: in flash) which is not the case here. Am I right? Which way could I possibly go to continue using my beloved device?

Any help is appreciated.



Edit: Finally I did a successful mod, see a few posts below for a few newbie hints from a successful newbie. 

[entne]

Until now I ordered this converter for compact flash cards (CF): https://www.dx.com/p/cf-to-toshiba-1-8-inch-ide-hard-drive-converter-10886?r=95998535#specification

Another option I discovered could be a SSD, which could be directly used without a converter:

https://kingspec.en.made-in-china.com/product/cBmxnCYuqUVi/China-1-8-CF-50pin-IDE-128GB-SSD.html

I wonder if the following idea would work:

Connecting the device with new HDD via usb to the pc, copy the ihp.hex firmware on it and hope that it is booting with iriver firmware (which is already installed in flash).

Or, maybe I get rockbox to work with a usual installation.

What I don't know yet is if I have to do any sort of formating.. (CF or SSD)?

Any comments or advice are appreciated.

[entne]

Nobody?

Quick summary of my help request:

- problem: iriver H120 without rockbox installed -> (original) HDD defective (error message "check hdd" on start up, then it boots with zero directories)

- idea: replacing defective HDD with compact flash card (CF) via this adapter:

https://www.dx.com/p/cf-to-toshiba-1-8-inch-ide-hard-drive-converter-10886?r=95998535#specification

-> This guide (https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/CFModGuide) presumes that rockbox was already installed on the device, am I right? Indeed the guide tells me to first update rockbox and flash the player with it (everything with old working HDD in it) and then putting the CF card in, which I assume is not possible in my case (because hdd is defective) and therefore I am not sure how I could proceed in my HDD replacing mod...

-> Also it says "Beware h1x0 and h3x0 original iriver firmware does not like the CF cards." What does that mean exactly?

- possible procedures I thought about (would be thankful for feedback):

1. Just put CF card in, start the player and see what it comes up with. Maybe it's just working like a charm with original firmware like I am used to?

2. like 1., but before starting the player copying the original ihp.hex via card reader on the CF (don't know if this file is still relevant when the iriver firmware is already installed in flash?!).

3. like 1., but connecting it via USB to PC before, then copying rockbox on it, disconnect device (leave it turned on), hope that I can access the options menu and install rockbox. When this would have worked and the latest rockbox build is successfully installed and the player boots up with it, then I could follow the CF mod guide flashing instructions... but I don't know if this is the right procedure... (to be honest, I don't understand this flashing thing fully yet)


I found another old thread over here (http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=14211.0) that suggests (like the wiki page) that newer CF cards work better. That makes me more hopeful...

[Frankenpod]

Dunno.  No experience with h120 (though seems it uses pretty much the same drives as the ipod video?) - but putting h120 in the search box over there produces a lot of old threads, many of which seem to be about this conversion.

e.g. this one seems to me to be about exactly your issue - did you see this already?

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=51260.0

Though I guess that's an SSD rather than CF, sorry.  Sounds as if the first part - that you need a hd first to get it ready for the upgrade - is still relevant though?

[entne]

Ok, I am just listening to the first song after a successful CF mod! A huge thanks to all developers and forum nerds of rockbox! 

Here are a few details concerning newbie understanding (at first I also had a lot of questions which led to this thread and forum search shows that there are other people who don't fully understand the procedure described in the wiki - the order of my below hints is the order of procedure in the wiki) and the parts I used for the mod:

- Used parts are a iriver H120, a Sandisk Extreme 32 GB Compact Flash Card and the 50 pin CF adapter from dealextreme (Link in one of the posts above) + a new working original hdd Toshiba MK2004GAL (had to be formatted - windows asked automatically to do this after connecting via USB).

- Important information before you start: you must have a working original Toshiba HDD (MK2004GAL or MK2006GAL) if you have the original iriver firmware installed - so in my described case (see start thread post) I had to order a used one from ebay and was lucky that it worked. I think the only case you don't need one is if you already flashed rockbox to the player before (the firmware/OS is stored in flash which means - I think - on board/CPU instead of the disk. For the mod, rockbox has to be installed in flash and if you haven't done it before you need a hdd to get access to flash via disk.).

- Installing the latest current rockbox build can be easily done by following the instructions in the manual (see documentation at this homepage).

- Bootloader Flashing Procedure: download Bootloader version 7-pre4 (you find the link in the forums or at the homepage), it consists of the file "bootloader.iriver" -> this has to be copied to the player, f. e. to the .rockbox directory like I did. The rest of the instructions in the wiki is well clarified I think (for me it was).

- Flashing procedure: I flashed both RAM and ROM as should be done for CF mod I think. Flashing RAM: Don't overlook the hint of doing "RoLo" (Rockbox Loader) before continuing! Instructions at the link are pretty clear for H120. After this, flashing RAM and ROM is pretty straight forward (all the files already exist in the .rockbox folder). I set booting sequence to ROM.

- Then I copied the rockbox build from the downloaded .zip to the CF card via card reader.

- Then turned the device off, put it on hold and replaced the hdd with the adapter/CF (for my adapter, I had to cut away small plastic parts for perfect fit to the pins. Maybe also the jumper has to be cut down).

- Again, control if booting is on ROM and turn the unit on. It worked like a charm for me. I will look for a new battery now because the device is already opened. 

Good luck for you all!

[entne]

Unfortunately there are some problems now...

see my new thread: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,52523.msg242983.html#msg242983

[Bilgus]

Maybe the adapter + card have a higher latency than the driver is expecting I'll add a retry mechanism to the function giving you the panic and you can try that to see if it helps or still fails..