What's up fellow Archos fans? Today, I FINALLY upgraded an Archos 504 40gb that I got off of eBay to a WHOPPING 250gb Hard drive! As you can probably tell, I'm very excited. The process was surprisingly easy after following some of the directions that was given here on this very thread. To be honest, nobody on here provided a clear-cut set of instructions as to how to upgrade your 504 so I thought I'd take the liberty of writing up my set of instructions of how to upgrade your Archos 504 hard drive from a 40gb, 80gb, 160gb or whatever into a 250gb 2.5" PATA hard drive. Anyways here I go. These directions are very clear cut, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them here and I'll try to help you out to the best of my ability. Anyways here's my Archos 504 hard drive swap tutorial:
What You Will Need:
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T8 size Torx Screwdriver (We're going to be using this to take out the mini two-screw caddy for the original Archos 504 hard drive.)
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Archos 504 WITH Firmware 1.4.03 OR LOWER! (The lower the firmware, the better. 1.4.03 still lets you downgrade your Archos 504 to a 1.4.03 or lower. This is of course assuming that the Archos has never been updated PAST 1.4.03. If you have an Archos 1.4.03 that hasn't been upgraded to any firmware beyond that, you SHOULD be good to go as your Archos hard drive has NOT been locked to your Archos 504.)
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2.5" PATA (EIDE) hard drive (I used a Western Digital Scorpio 2.5" 250gb EIDE hard drive, check out
http://www.newegg.com for a PATA (EIDE) hard drive that works best for you)
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Small Phillips Head Screwdriver (We're using this to take out the two screws that hold down the Archos 504 hard drive to the motherboard. You'll need one for about 2 minutes tops to take out the screws and obviously put them back when the new hard drive is inserted.)
If you have an Archos 504 (no matter what hard drive) with Firmware 1.4.03 installed OR LOWER, you're pretty much set to upgrade you hard drive to a much bigger one. Anyways let's begin (assuming you have your hard drive of course.)
1) Be sure to back up anything you might want to save on your Archos 504. When you install the new hard drive, there will be absolutely no pictures or music of any kind on it. Be smart, back all your shit up before you swap hard drives.
2) Change the Archos 40gb HDD or whatever with 1.4.03 firmware or lower to 250gb HDD with NO firmware installed.
3) Once installed and properly screwed on, Format the 250gb HDD on the Archos.
4) When the Archos asks to insert a USB cable to update, Copy firmware 1.2.05 on the 250gb HDD now and update the Archos. You can download 1.2.05 for the Archos 504 here.
http://www.touslesdrivers.com/index.php ... v_code=125
5) You should now have an Archos 504 with a 250gb HDD running Firmware 1.2.05. SWEEET!
Optional steps (if firmware 1.2.05 is just not cutting it for you.)
6) Copy firmware 1.4.03 OR 1.5.56 onto the Archos 250gb HDD and upate the Archos.
7) You should now have an Archos 504 with a 250gb HDD running Firmware 1.4.03 or 1.5.56, whichever one you decided to update to. It don't matter. =] 1.5.56 is the best because it supports plug-ins purchased from
www.archos.com. I could be wrong on that but earlier in this thread, it's been said that firmware 1.5.56 is the last firmware that will let you downgrade past 1.5.04 and lower. It also corrects the USB-charging problem which will allow your Archos 504 to recharge via the USB cable. I say 1.5.56 is your best bet but if you want to play it safe and stay on 1.4.03, it's up to you. I guess it's USB to AC/DC adapters for you. ONLY UPDATE TO 1.5.56 if you're absolutely SURE you're not going to want to swap hard drives again. I can't be anymore clear on that.
If you so choose (doing so will lock your Archos 504 to your newly installed drive)

Copy firmware 1.6.53 onto the Archos 250gb HDD and upate the Archos.
9 You WILL NOW have a fully updated Archos 504 with a 250gb HDD. There will be no more further upgrades to other hard drives if you decide to update to this firmware.
This tutorial really works best for people with Archos 504s with low firmwares currently installed. If you ever upgraded your Archos 504 at one point to a firmware like 1.6.53, you will not be able to upgrade your hard drive. I'm still unsure about 1.5.56 being able to downgrade BACK to 1.4.03 which allows for hard drive swapping. If anyone can shed any light on that, that would be much appreciated. The Archos 504 I upgraded had 1.2.05 installed. Once I got my new 2.5" PATA (EIDE) hard drive, I immediately swapped hard drives and went right to it. The Archos accepted my new hard drive and asked to update it. I popped in a 1.2.05 firmware and it updated and booted right up. Well I hope this tutorial helped anyone here. Feel free to ask me any questions about anything I just went through here. Thanks for reading.
A-R-V