H10 20GB Hard drive

[Shabby D]

My hard drive is broken, and I'm looking to replace it.

I know the H10 20GB uses the Hitachi HTC426020G7CE00 ZIF drive, but this seems to no longer be in production.

Would it be possible for me to buy an alternative ZIF drive with the same specifications that will still work in my H10?

Could anyone give me some info on how I would go about replacing the hard drive?  

I've managed to open it and have seen that the hard drive is attached to a small circuit board, which is attached to an even bigger circuit board.  I am able to remove the hard drive from the small circuit board, but don't seem to be able to remove the small circuit board from the bigger one (it's attached by some wide orange cable).

[saratoga]

Generally disks can be replaced with a drive of comparable physical dimensions, but there are exceptions.  Might want to search around on google and see if anyone has posted about it on other forums too.

[surlypants]

anyone had any luck finding a suitable replacement disk for the H10 ?

[markun]

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/HardDriveReplacement

Look up your player and then look at the drives with the same connector and thickness (50 pins and 5mm in your case)

[surlypants]

according to that link:

>>>
Rockbox targets using 1.8" drives

Iriver
H10  20GB  50 Pins  5mm
>>>

but the original irivier H10 20gb disk is hitachi HTC426020G7CE10 (travelstar C4K60-20):
"http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/techdocs/82E177636DFFF3F686256F0200716EFB/$file/C4K60_CE_e2_3020.pdf"

which is 1.8", ZIF-40, 7mm

which is why i'm confused.

can *any* ZIF-40 disk be put into the H10 (can it use more than 20gb) ?

[markun]

Oops, I see you are right. Then I don't know if you can upgrade it.

[surlypants]

even if it can't be 'upgraded' to a larger capacity, can it simply be replaced with MK2008GAL / MK3008GAL (partitioned for 20gb) ?

[karashata]

I can't say I know exactly what I'm talking about, but I'm gonna pur my two cents down anyway.  I don't think you'd find any difference in the ZIF connectors on 1.8" ZIF drives because they're a component that needs to be compatible across many applications, so any 1.8" ZIF drive should work in the H10 player.

As for capacity, I expect it shouldn't matter so long as whatever firmware you're using recognizes the full capacity.  Rockbox shouldn't have any problems with larger drives given the fact it's developed for multiple targets and several of the iPods have larger drives.

On a similar note, you could theoretically replace the drive in there currently with a 1.8" solid-state ZIF hard drive and be able to extend your battery life, though that likely has yet to be proven.

**EDIT:  Also, a quick question:  You took the circuit board off the hard drive rather than disconnecting the cable?

[surlypants]

I can't say I know exactly what I'm talking about, but I'm gonna pur my two cents down anyway.  I don't think you'd find any difference in the ZIF connectors on 1.8" ZIF drives because they're a component that needs to be compatible across many applications, so any 1.8" ZIF drive should work in the H10 player.

As for capacity, I expect it shouldn't matter so long as whatever firmware you're using recognizes the full capacity.  Rockbox shouldn't have any problems with larger drives given the fact it's developed for multiple targets and several of the iPods have larger drives.

On a similar note, you could theoretically replace the drive in there currently with a 1.8" solid-state ZIF hard drive and be able to extend your battery life, though that likely has yet to be proven.

**EDIT:  Also, a quick question:  You took the circuit board off the hard drive rather than disconnecting the cable?

no, i removed the ribbon from the ZIF connector and now have been staring at this dead disk for weeks wondering how to proceed.

[megalosaurus]

Greetings all. I seem to be a new member, effective today, of the Dead-H10-disk club. When I turn on the H10, I get a message about corrupted system files. If I connect it to the computer, the Windows device manager says it's connected, but Windows Explorer doesn't see it and the recovery utility doesn't see it. If I listen closely when I turn it on, I hear a kind of struggling clicking sound, like the drive is trying to get started, but there's no indication of it spinning.

It's still not clear from the posts here whether the drive is replaceable. Will any 1.8" ZIF drive do? Does it have to be a 50-pin model - which I gather is not available anywhere? Does one remove the drive from the circuit board?

thanks

[karashata]

Just a bit of a note, if you're really worried about replacing the drive with the exact same or similar, you could check sites like Ebay for the drive, I've run a search on Google for the drive by its model number and turned up a few Ebay links...

I'm going to look into it a bit and see if I can't find anything else about ZIF drives that may work with the H10

**EDIT:  If anyone's willing to look into it, I found a drive that may work here. I don't know where the connecter is placed on the drive, but I'm willing to guess that it's in the same spot as the Hitachi drive that's currently in there...  As I was looking around I saw pictures of a ZIF drive being installed into a 1.8" ZIF drive enclosure, and both the drives had the connecter in the same place...

**EDIT #2:  Looking at the spec sheet for the 1.8" SSDs Samsung is offering (currently?), the ZIF connector is located where it needs to be relative to the cable in the player.  I think it's safe to assume my speculation that the connectors are located specifically in one place on the end of the drive it correct...  It only makes sense in my opinion, given the fact the drives are made for multiple applications...

Also, in reply to megalosaurus:  It would need to be a 40-pin ZIF drive.  AFAIK there's no such thing as 50-pin ZIF.

[darkdoomer]

seconded Kara's advice. it's like you could get a toshiba mini-hdd with a 60gb capacity for like, fifty bucks.

i'm still on the hitachu 20gb, but it would be sure more intresting to store more music and datas.