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Okay got everything ready to replace the hdd and could not open it

i took the battery out - removed two screws on the inside (holding harddrive cover down) but that about it .. there dont seem to be any more screws ???

I really dont want to break the device so I stopped.

Anyone have a step by step guide, or link i can use?

I did find pictures in the A7 forum, but they were once it was all opened - no steps to show how it was done!

thanks

OMG just found the two screw under the rubber stoppers.

Hitachi 160gb Drive is out ...

samsung 160gb is in ...

About to run format

okay got to recovery ok ...

clicked format disk

attached to pc

dowloaded update file (1.7.0.2 patched) ... seems to be stuck at about 20% updating ... gonna leave it though .. not sure whats its doing

Nope ... I crashed it out gonna try on 1.6.54

Make sure that you have charged the device before you try anything.

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openAOS ROCKS!!

Nope 1.6.54 did not even start ... back to 1.7.0.2 patched ...

Paused again at about 20% .... ??? .. this time Im gonna let it run for a while and see if it comes right

Did have a look and both fat32 and the hidden ext3 got created ...

Power supply is plugged in and charged

Before removing your drive did you have the patched firmware installed??
If yes try using the recovery mode and add the patched firmware if that doesnt work try the original firmware.
If nothing works just make sure that your player is not bricked by reinstalling the old HDD

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openAOS ROCKS!!

yes I did .. I appreciate your help but im not a noob

My bootloader is 1.6.54 patched, otherwise i would not have even entered the install

Oops. Sorry

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openAOS ROCKS!!

Just leave it for about 3 hours. Because it has to format the new drive, and create partition and then add system files to the hidden partition.
Anyways how much time did you wait when you tried for the 1st time. And when it gets stuck can you hear any activity on the HDD?

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openAOS ROCKS!!

Sorry without appearing rude, you are wrong

The partitions and format are created before it asks for the update - because when i connect the partitions are there and a basic file structure. I then cope the update onto that

I understand it now copies the files, but ussually that does not take long. As an experiment I did a format disk on my A5 with 1702 pached on the supplied drive and that worked fine in a matter of minutes.

Anyone in the archos.g3nius.org got an idea?

In the meantime I gonna crash out mount the hidden partition and report what i find

Ok
Well then try copying all the files from the hidden drive of the A5 (which is working properly) and copy it over to your A7 (with which you are having problems)
Hope this will work. Sorry for my noob suggestions, just trying to help. Sorry if I have been irritating you.

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openAOS ROCKS!!

I have success!!

My samsung drive is now fully working in my A7

I shall buy the 500gb tomorrow and put in in, take some photos to prove i have done it



nokiae50 you were, I know trying to help, but Im not a n00b I just behave like one sometime. Ironically after my last post I signed off of windows and was in ubuntu (no connectivity) I did not see your idea until now, but ironically i did start copying files which is how I got it fixed ...

so yes great minds obviously think alike ... but fools never differ

EDIT - I still dont know if my samsung has a bad sector that caused me the pain, or maybe a archos check that is still in place - I will be able to comment on this tomorrow with a new harddrive

Great congrats..!!!
Would love to see the 500GB pics..!!! And also may be a SSD pics(if you can get it may be)


Well please behave like a nood only, so that most of the people will understand what ever is going on. Now other people trying to do the same thing can get good help from this topic.






Yes again a suggestion(you already know it better than me), try check disk option under windows.

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openAOS ROCKS!!

just bought a My passport WD 500gb caddy - The guy in PCWorld told me there would be a ata drive inside.

there was, but the connectors are hardwired to a usb slot . Given I have broken it open I cannot return it

Well AFAIK the experiment was successfull - I was able to use a non-original drive in the archos, albeit with a few more steps that anticipated. Its a shame I cannot use the 500gb but hey I need another bakup drive anyway. When I have the funds again Ill buy a proper barebones 500gb (learnt me lesson!) and try again

AA123 out ..

Thanks for the clues to where the screws were. I had to replace the HDD on my Archos 7 today when it became apparent that the 160GB drive was faulty. I was able to easily replace the drive with a 320GB Western Digital HDD. Thank goodness for custom firmware without which this would not of been possible.

Zac

Hey Zac68!

Have any tips? I'm eager to replace my A5 HDD. Any issues you encountered/avoided?

Thanks!

The Archos 7 is pretty easy to open up, there's only 6 screw that you need to undo. On the Archos 7 you just detach the ribbon cable from the HDD and connect it to the new drive then screw everything back on. It took me no more then about 10 minutes.
From there I went into the Recovery mode of the Archos and chose the option to format the drive. The archos restarted after doing the format and then returned to the Recovery screen. From there I selected format again and then connected the USB cable to the Archos and copied my 1.7.11 patched firmware (http://archos.g3nius.org/index.php?titl ... re_Updates) to the root directory of the Archos and then pressed the power button. The update was detected and install. Easy Peasy

The Archos 5 might be a bit harder to open up and replace the HDD. At least that's how it looks in the images I've seen.

Cheers
Zac

#Update One other thing I did was renamed the downloaded patched firmware to "firmware_archos5-7.aos"

So had you done anything to the A7 prior to changing the HDD? Did you do the GF hack?

Currently, I am at 1.6.54 (unpatched) on the A5 + a successful GF hack.

Taking the unit apart wasn't too bad... just really crammed together.

When I put in the new HDD and selected format, it just stayed static on formating for several minutes... and then went into a rebooting cycle where the logo kept flashing every few seconds.

I know I must be missing something.