Success Upgrading Archos 504 40gb to 160gb from Woot

msuc5vette · Post by **msuc5vette** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:55 pm

I recently purchased a 504 40GB from Woot

I decided to try and upgrade the HD to a 160gb.

I bought a new Seagate 160gb from microcenter.com

The 504 shipped with firmware 1.5.04 I believe.

When I booted it up, it asked to repair, format, or do nothing.

I selected format.

It then said to connect to the computer and update.

I plugged it into the USB port on my WinXP machine.

I dumped the firmware 1.4.03 into the root directory.

http://www.archos.com/support/download/ ... 3/a504.aos

It rebooted and updated (backdated) the firmware.

It ran just fine! I dumped a bunch of files and music onto it.

I would now like to try and update the firmware to something newer.

Before I try to do this, does anyone know if there is a limit to which firmware I should go to?

Do any of the newer firmware revisions keep you from being able to back date?

dr150 · Post by **dr150** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 6:41 pm

Cool!

Keep us posted on your progress!

mikey · Post by **mikey** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:24 pm

look at this thread, basically if you upgrade over 1.5 firmware it locks the drive.

http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.p ... ve+upgrade

and this one

http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.p ... ve+upgrade

msuc5vette · Post by **msuc5vette** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:32 pm

mikey wrote:look at this thread, basically if you upgrade over 1.5 firmware it locks the drive.

http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.p ... ve+upgrade

and this one

http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.p ... ve+upgrade

Thanks, I had read both of those before.

Neither one answers the question of whether you can still backdate the firmware later if you update it first.

One post says you can not, but it is not entirely true since I backdated already from 1.5.04.

I am trying to figure out if some of the firmwares do keep you from back dating...

I understand that if I install 1.5.x it will lock the drive. My first drive was locked!

The question is, after I install the new firmware (which one?), and lock the drive, will I still be able to install the older firmware and unlock the drive?

Questioner · Post by **Questioner** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:48 pm

Very cool. I also got the woot 504 and after messing about with it for a few days it became clear to me that 40gb is not enough for movies.
can you give more info on the hard drive you used?thanks.

msuc5vette · Post by **msuc5vette** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 5:13 pm

UPDATE!

I tried to update the 160gb to the 1.5.04 firmware I had originally on my 40gb.

It failed, it would reboot and give me the format or usb option.

I put the 40gb back in. The 40gb has 1.4.03

I ran an update (backdate) on the 40gb for 1.4.03 again.

I then put the 160gb back in, formatted, and installed 1.4.03

Worked just fine.

So I tried 1.5.55, it didn't work.

So I reinserted and backdated the 40gb.

I then put the 160gb back in, formatted, and installed the 1.5.55 straight away.

It gave me an error message.

I decided to give up, put the 40gb back in, backdate it, and just install the 160 with 1.4.03.

After I backdated the 40gb again, and put the 160gb in I expected it to give me the format option. It just booted up!

So I now have the 160gb running with 1.5.55 on it.

I can not explain why this worked, but apparently putting the original drive back in with 1.4.03 unlocks the Archos....

I do not know if backdating the original drive with the same 1.4.03 again is required, but it doesn't take long to do it.

If someone wants to try this, I would suggest you first install 1.4.03 on the original drive.

So far the original drive has worked each time I have put it in...

The HD I bought is a Seagate 160gb IDE drive. I bought it from Microcenter...

The drive model is ST9160821A, PN: 9S1034-508

If someone else wants to try this method, please let me know how it works.

dr150 · Post by **dr150** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:47 pm

Does backdating the firmware affect the plug-ins already installed?.....

Frances · Post by **Frances** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 10:06 pm

did you copy the hidden ext2 partion from the 40GB to the 160GB (ie install two dissimilar partions on the 160GB - if so how did you choose the partitions) or was the 160GB merely formatted as a single 160GB FAT partition. If the latter then it would appear that the player from running from software in its non-harddisk memory and if running a version post 1.5 looking for some special file on the harddrive

msuc5vette · Post by **msuc5vette** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:13 am

dr150 wrote:Does backdating the firmware affect the plug-ins already installed?.....

Sorry, I have no idea. I don't have any plug ins yet.

msuc5vette · Post by **msuc5vette** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:14 am

Frances wrote:did you copy the hidden ext2 partion from the 40GB to the 160GB (ie install two dissimilar partions on the 160GB - if so how did you choose the partitions) or was the 160GB merely formatted as a single 160GB FAT partition. If the latter then it would appear that the player from running from software in its non-harddisk memory and if running a version post 1.5 looking for some special file on the harddrive

The drive has only one partition, I just used the format tool that the archos booted up with.

I tried the NTFS format trick, but I don't think it does anything at all.

It is formatted as a single FAT 32 partition.

Max157 · Post by **Max157** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:41 pm

I am curious if your battery life is any different after using a different hard drive or if there are any other disadvantages. I too bought one of these off woot and was looking to upgrade.

nclark · Post by **nclark** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:45 am

where can I get an older firmware?
How can I backup my existing firmware, incase I dont like newer firmware and want to go back?

Will this firmware extractor software(or any other software) work for an archos 504. I would try but I dont have my usb conector, Left it at a friends.

Orwells1984IsHereNow · Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:10 pm

dr150 wrote:Does backdating the firmware affect the plug-ins already installed?.....

This is the main issue for many potential upgraders. I would find the loss of the Podcast Plug-in too high a price to pay for going 80 -> 160Gb. If plug-ins can work with a new drive, then 160gb allows more usage of the Cinema Plug-in capabilities.
Can someone confirm whether plug-ins work on a new drive...?

nclark · Post by **nclark** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 3:16 pm

Orwells1984IsHereNow wrote:
dr150 wrote:Does backdating the firmware affect the plug-ins already installed?.....
This is the main issue for many potential upgraders. I would find the loss of the Podcast Plug-in too high a price to pay for going 80 -> 160Gb. If plug-ins can work with a new drive, then 160gb allows more usage of the Cinema Plug-in capabilities.
Can someone confirm whether plug-ins work on a new drive...?

So, you cant just reinstall the plug-in?

Orwells1984IsHereNow · Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:48 pm

nclark wrote:
Orwells1984IsHereNow wrote:
dr150 wrote:Does backdating the firmware affect the plug-ins already installed?.....
This is the main issue for many potential upgraders. I would find the loss of the Podcast Plug-in too high a price to pay for going 80 -> 160Gb. If plug-ins can work with a new drive, then 160gb allows more usage of the Cinema Plug-in capabilities.
Can someone confirm whether plug-ins work on a new drive...?
So, you cant just reinstall the plug-in?

Depends whether it is keyed to the original drive or not...
That's why I was asking....

wermerskoch · Post by **wermerskoch** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:24 pm

I've been scouring any archos forums I can find, but can't seem to find an answer to my question... I understand that if you update past 1.5.x it'll lock your harddrive.. But what if I immediately switch harddrives (meaning, don't do anything with the firmware on a fresh unit, and switch drives), and then update? It'll lock THAT new harddrive to the unit, and I can update to the latest firmware? I really wouldn't care if I put a big harddrive in there and it locked it, as long as I can get up to the latest firmware. Any info would be appreceated. Thanks,
Warner

wermerskoch · Post by **wermerskoch** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 7:55 am

Sorry to put two comments in a row, but I definately thought this was worth a bump. I followed the directions in this thread to a T, and am now running 1.5.55 with a 160 GB HDD I just put in

I also bought my 504 off of Woot, and it came with 1.4.07. I back-dated to 1.4.03, rebooted, and put in the new harddrive. I turned it on, it asked me what to do, I told it to repare, and plopped the 1.4.03 firmware in the root directory, and let it update. When it finished and rebooted, it gave me an erroe (with the options "usb" and "reformat"). I turned it off, put back in the original HDD, "backdated" back to 1.4.03 (even though this was the current firmware version on it), let it reboot, and shut it off. I put back in the 160 GB HDD I had just attempted to put 1.5.55 on, and BAM! A user-upgraded 504, with 1.5.55 firmware on it. I'm using a 160GB Hitachi HDD, part no. 0A50817. A big thanks to the starter of this thread, I'd have never gotten this to work without you.

Raist3001 · Post by **Raist3001** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 7:53 pm

I don't understand what all this talk is about backdating. Can the guys who successfully swapped out their HDD give us a step by step guide as well as where we can download previous firmware?

Thanks

wermerskoch · Post by **wermerskoch** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:00 pm

UPDATE: I just used this same method to further update to the very latest firmware (1.6.23)! Woo hoo! I'll consider taking pictures and writing up a little how-to when I get home from work (I'm such a bad employee...).

Warner

Raist3001 · Post by **Raist3001** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:15 pm

wermerskoch wrote:UPDATE: I just used this same method to further update to the very latest firmware (1.6.23)! Woo hoo! I'll consider taking pictures and writing up a little how-to when I get home from work (I'm such a bad employee...).

Warner

That would be awesome!! Thank you so much