Looking to ditch my old standby, need a new large player. which one?

[wrongbloke]

Hey guys,

So for the past 6 or so years I've been using a 30gb creative jukebox zen xtra. Ive suffered through the usual tortures brought on by that particular player (headphone jack, firmware issues, etc) but I have always loved it due to its size, the ability to have multiple batteries, and the ease of use of the (original) software. I recently reformatted my desktop and now my player no-longer works in it. luckily for some reason I can browse my files through windows explorer on my laptop so my data isn't lost, but I think its time to go a different direction.

I have a large collection (80+ gb of music and audiobooks) and I'm looking for a new(er) hard drive player that could hold a considerable chunk of that figure. I've noticed that most mp3 players created these days are flash based and therefore way to small for my needs so Im wondering if someone has any suggestions as to what I should look into. Im ok w/ getting a used player (provided it works) but Id like to stay away from getting another zen xtra or a zune.

Im looking for:
-30+ gb space
-Hard drive mp3 player
-user accessible battery (so I can switch between multiples at work)
-decent windows software interface (Ideally something that works straight through windows explorer alone)

thanks!

[quintets_man]

If you really want a hard drive player your options are pretty much an iPod Classic(or whatever the HD one is called), a Zune 80/120, or an Archos player.

The iPod and Zune won't work with Windows Explorer. You'll need either iTunes(iPod) or the Zune Software(Zune). And I've no idea about the Archos players.

BTW I doubt the user accessible battery applies to any of the players mentioned above.

[vice]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...16405&csid=_21

new, not refurbished and with included accessories , big screen compared to a ipod ,but as quintets man said, most recent hard drive players need their own software, the archos seems to describe what you want but you need to sort out which version you want because some archos are hit or miss, there are like 5 versions each with 2 or 3 different hard drive sizes per version. Archos does have drag and drop though. Or you could look around online for some older ipod generations and snag a 80gb for 150$ at ebay? I say go lurk around the archos.com website and find something you like.