Rockbox Technical Forums

Installation / Removal => Manual Installation => Iriver - Installation/Removal/Flashing => Topic started by: windycity on April 30, 2013, 07:28:21 PM

Title: Should I format my H10 before installing Rockbox?
Post by: windycity on April 30, 2013, 07:28:21 PM

Hey guys, I've had my 5GB iRiver H10 since 2005. Since upgrading my laptop to Windows 7, I manage without iRiverPlus by just dragging & dropping files. Super basic, but it's all I need.

But today, copying across a bunch of mp3s froze up, and cancelling the process in TaskManager seems to have corrupted the player. Now it says 'System files missing' when I start it (even after removing the battery to reset), & when I connect it via USB I get Windows telling me I have to format the drive before using it because 'this volume does not contain a recognised file system'.

Googling for help brought me to Rockbox. But I've looked around the FAQs here, and dual booting gets mentioned a lot. So, my very basic question: can I install Rockbox straight onto a blank, reformatted device? Or do I need the original iRiver firmware - if so, where can I find it?

I haven't formatted it yet, because I wanted to check first. I'm not much of a tech person, so I'd really appreciate dumbed-down answers! And if I'm posting in the wrong forum, please let me know? TIA.

Title: Re: Should I format my H10 before installing Rockbox?
Post by: LambdaCalculus on May 01, 2013, 07:07:09 AM

I'm not 100% certain of how this works on the H10, but on my GoGear players, which have a similar firmware structure, you can safely eliminate all of the files in the /System directory (except for the Rockbox bootloader, of course!) and run Rockbox as the only firmware on the player.

If you read this part (http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-iriverh10_5gb/rockbox-buildch2.html#x4-110002.2.2) of the manual, you can see what file you need, but I would recommend using Rockbox Utility to install instead, as it handles everything for you.