AV500 HDD Upgrade may be possible !!

davew · Post by **davew** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 4:09 pm

Hi All,

Just thought I'd let you know I've spoken to a data recovery expert who I deal with at work regarding the HDD lock of the Archos and he tells me that if the firmware is locked to the drive serial number then there is a way around it. The drive S/N is in the "manufacturer firmware area" on the disk, this is the bit the HDD looks at first during spin up to determine it's own parameters etc, there are no standard ATA commands that allow you to get at this area however the guy I know has equipment that will allow him to change the serial number on HItachi / IBM drives and some seagate.

I have an AV500 with a dead 60GB HDD so I'm going to send him a new 100GB Hitachi drive and the dead one so he can read the serial number off the label and he's going to rewrite the 100GB S/N for me to match the dead one, I'm sending it tomorrow but then I'm off on my hols for 2 weeks but hopefully when I get back my AV500 will live again with more capacity, if this works then I'm going to get a 160GB and get him to try it again.

He's doing this as a favour for me but as he said it would only take him 5 mins to change the S/N I'm sure he would be happy to charge a sensible amount to do others, if this works it has to be a cheaper option than sending it back to Archos.

As soon as I'm back from my hols and can get my hands on the bits I'll post the results, fingers crossed !!

Dave.

honeymonkey · Post by **honeymonkey** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:43 pm

Why not just try changing the serial number in the partition table? Doesn't the OS check the partition table for this information and not the drive itself. When you format a drive, the information from the hardware serial number is written to the drive and then I thought the oS just checked that number.

davew · Post by **davew** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:58 pm

The serial number that the end user can get at is the volume I.D, the Archos checks for the serial number written in the HD firmware, this is not normally changeable as it's written by the manufacturer for warranty purposes. Archos check against this S/N to specifically stop the end user buying for example AV500 40GB and then going out and putting a 100GB in it and saving themselves loads of money, the problem with this is if your drive dies you should be able to replace it yourself, not have to pay Archos 3 X the price for the same drive.

Dave

honeymonkey · Post by **honeymonkey** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:25 pm

davew wrote:The serial number that the end user can get at is the volume I.D, the Archos checks for the serial number written in the HD firmware,

Dave

Hi Dave, thats what I was questioning. I wasn't sure if Archos checked the HD firmware. I have heard of lots of cases where drives being locked to the device were not done in that way so I was just throwing it out there in case nobody thought of trying it and maybe just assumed it was compared with the firmware ID. Are there not ATA command sets each mfg uses that you can alter the firmware SN with?, or are these not too readily available.

davew · Post by **davew** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:33 am

The manufaturers keep that sort of info very close to their chest, also from what I was told the HDD controller on a PC mother board only supports a standard set of ATA commands and I was told that the commands would not be passed on to the drive even if you knew what they were. The guy I am dealing with has a special box the drive plugs into which enables all sorts of things to be done to the drive, in fact he has 4 of these boxes and they cost about ┬ú3000 each but data recovery is his business and he uses them alot. I'll post more info as soon as I'm back from my hols, hopefully I will have another working AV500 160GB !!

Dave.

Post by **roylovelock** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:32 pm

Hi dave, i hope this works for ya..... keep us posted im sure we could throw some work his way if this prooves successful.
If this works for the 500 i cant see it being a problem on the 04 models either.
You will have to try to get the names of the boxes he uses and maybe someone on here might be able to make one up......., i would certianlly have a go.
roy

MrPib · Post by **MrPib** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 3:34 pm

I'm very interested in hearing if it works. Thanks for posting this, Dave. I'd pay a reasonable sum to have a 100GB modified for an AV500.

Hope you're having a nice vacation! Wait -- you wrote 3000 pounds. Hope you're having a nice holiday!

Pib

SoltyRei · Post by **SoltyRei** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 6:31 pm

I have done the above however and it didn't work for me =(

scgfull · Post by **scgfull** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:46 pm

Hi All,

I read this thread with interest but we don't appear to have a conclusion

Davew - I suspect you are back from your holidays (2 months!!!!) - Do you have an answer for us all - was the upgrade successful?

Steve

ON1DQD · Post by **ON1DQD** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:15 pm

Hi,

Nothing new here from Dave...........

I think the trick is much simpler than reading F/W serial number of the harddrive.
It reads the harddisk Volume Serial number.
There is software for changing these data.
Can someone check this out if i'm right?

Thanks,
ON1DQD

ON1DQD · Post by **ON1DQD** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 3:55 pm

I need people who are willing to do some tests with me.
I'm working on how to change a HDD of the AV700.
If you interested please PM me!

Thanks,
ON1DQD

davew · Post by **davew** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:28 pm

Guys,

Firstly I must appologise for taking so long to reply to you all, at present this is the situation. Changing the drive serial no. didn't solve the problem - my friend has suggested that I make up a lead so the drive can be plugged in to the Archos but kept external to it, this way he can capture the data going to and from it with his expensive kit and find out what "security" information the archos is asking the drive for, at present I've made up a lead but not had chance to send it to him yet due to work commitments, I will update my post and hopefully have some good news early in the new year. As for people mentioning the volume serial no. changing this has no effect what so ever.

Regards

Dave.

Post by **roylovelock** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:46 am

thanks for the update, hopefully he will find out what is actually locking the hard drives down. I bet its something so silly and small its been over looked
roy

scgfull · Post by **scgfull** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 6:49 pm

Dave,

Thanks very much for the update - looking forward to the results of the 'lead test'.

Steve

savagemyth · Post by **savagemyth** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:15 pm

Hi All. I'm new to this forum and not sure if my av500e is similar to your units, but being a truck driver on the road all week i found myself running out of content to watch, and having an extra laptop HD laying around (100gb) decided to put that in a caddy, formatted it to FAT32 to be recognized by the Archos, then plugged in to the "USB Host Cable" into the USB A connector. It works great and allows me to watch .dpd stuff from my Dish 622 that's been put on the Archos and transferred to the 100gb drive. I also put a crapload of mp3's and other video on there and can play it directly from the drive. It shows up in the File Browser in the archos as another device. Works great.

Post by **roylovelock** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:45 am

Vagitarian wrote:So, any news on the test???
How about using "HD Regenerator"?
Anyone tried that?

tried by me mate on the 604 and av700 no joy.
roy

chriz1226 · Post by **chriz1226** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 5:11 am

My AV700 100gb HDD got busted and i tried to replace it with a 160gb but it didnt work.

[b]btw guys, you might wanna try this...[/b]

http://frenchyaz.com/av500.aspx

i will try it soon..

Post by **roylovelock** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 5:20 am

i thought the firmware was locked down after a certian release preventing you from downgrading, keep us posted on this
cheers
roy

BUC · Post by **BUC** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 8:58 pm

Any confirmations about this subject?

chriz1226?

dul311 · Post by **dul311** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 2:48 pm

chriz1226 wrote:My AV700 100gb HDD got busted and i tried to replace it with a 160gb but it didnt work.

btw guys, you might wanna try this...

http://frenchyaz.com/av500.aspx

i will try it soon..

I was so excited when I found the site you mentioned above. I went ahead and ordered the 80GB hitachi drive it listed as a supported drive. Well, hitachi drive that I ordered was 3600rpm instead of 4200rpm that was in the archos. The bigger issue was that the zif interface/connector on the new drive was in a slightly different position then the original drive. Given the short zif cable it was impossible to position.

In case you guys don't know, the zif connector on the OEM drives are centered at the top of the drive. The Hitachi ones are slightly to the right so it becomes impossible to line up with the internal connector of the archos.

The only solution could be to find a flexible/bendable zif cable to accomodate the newer drives.

BTW...I was able to revert to the old firmware per the site above. So I suppose if the drive had fit, it might have actually worked.

AV500 HDD Upgrade may be possible !!

AV500 HDD Upgrade may be possible !!

Archos drives

http://frenchyaz.com/av500.aspx

Re: AV500 HDD Upgrade may be possible !!

Re: http://frenchyaz.com/av500.aspx