anyone know anything about the 120gb 5mm Toshiba MK1231GAL?

[upgrader]

Contrary to Saunic's post, I have had no success making this drive work in a Vision M or a PC (via a USB-ZIF adaptor).

A description of my case is here: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...430#post477430

I have private messaged Saunic about this but received no reply...

[clare33]

Originally Posted by ziny

I thought I would get in first.

Toshiba Corp. today announced the world's first dual-platter 240GB HDD (MK2431GAH).

According to the Toshiba website:

http://www.toshibastorage.com/main.a...Kxx31GAxSeries

"Toshiba, the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), continues to deliver innovative storage solutions with the addition of a new series of PATA 1.8-inch HDDs. The new single-platter (80GB/120GB) and dual-platter (240GB) 4200RPM HDD models deliver the highest capacity along with leading areal density for integration into portable media players, camcorders and ultra-mobile PCs."

See if you can cram one of these in your Zen Vision M.

I upgraded to MK2431GAH from the 80GB, purchased it on sale from CPU, theres the link. The capacity was definitely worth upgrading to, but not any faster than the 80GB.. just my opinion, but then again, I already filled up over 200GB . I was thinking about upgrading that, but I don't think there is anything larger to upgrade to. Any suggestions?

[dnlbntl]

Originally Posted by clare33

I upgraded to MK2431GAH from the 80GB, purchased it on sale from CPU, theres the link. The capacity was definitely worth upgrading to, but not any faster than the 80GB.. just my opinion, but then again, I already filled up over 200GB . I was thinking about upgrading that, but I don't think there is anything larger to upgrade to. Any suggestions?

The access/transfer speed would only be minutely higher as you're still relying on a mechanical HDD.

What I'm most curious about is your getting over 200GB+ of storage! Previous threads stated the player only recognized ≈131GB with the firmware only allowing 16,000 songs. Could you please post your 'System > Information' Total Space and Track Count (if above 16,000) as I'm interested in re-upgrading from 80GB - I'm currently at 76,268MB/22,822MB free and 12,897 tracks. I'd planned to try out an 128GB SSD and selectively loading higher bitrate tracks but if I can go even further then it's on like Donkey Kong.

On the issue of further upgrading your player, no one's making higher capacity PATA/ZIF HDDs than the one you're using. If the SSD I'm looking into is compatible, there's a 256GB version (Super Talent FZM56GF18H) if you're willing to part with an arm and a leg for only ≈16GB. I would suspect that's the max for the 1.8″ format currently and any further capacity advances would either not have PATA/ZIF connections or they'd solely be overpriced enterprise/industrial models.

[Tias]

Dear clare33,
I just ordered the same HD to increase the size of my ZVM to +200GB.
Now I have managed to download the Red Button MP3 Recovery Tool but obviously this is too old to be run in Win 7.

How did you make your new large HD run in the ZVM?

Did you just connect and then start the player in recovery mode, format from there and everything worked? I am very excited to do this...increasing from 60 to +200GB sound awesome!!

Cheers,

Tias

[dnlbntl]

Have you tried the model-specific firmware loader?

Creative Zen Vision:M 60GB Firmware 1.21.02

I've only done updates/upgrades to a couple of 30GB players, but the app appears to start up normally on my machine (Windows 7 64-bit).

Also, my above geek-out applies to you if you're successful =D.

[Tias]

Hi guys,
I have now successfully upgraded to the 240GB MK2431GAH from an original 60GB version of the player. Had trouble with the firmware but after several attempts and installing from an XP machine the player restarted. Now it only recognised ~130GB and I cannot fill it up to 200 as clare33 described so I wonder what you (clare33) did to get this going. In any case I have got around 19000 files on there now, so at least there does not seem to be a 16000 songs limit.
Any ideas and help to get it to recognize the larger size would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Merc

[dnlbntl]

Hmm..we'll have to hope that clare33 returns with further details.

Good to hear there's no song limit or at least that it isn't 16,000. Just a couple of weeks ago my Zen, having survived myriad drops, happened to fall in such a way as to crash the HDD, so it looks as though I'll be testing the SSD sooner than later. Oh well, back to ye olde 30GB Hitachi.

[Tias]

I have also ordered a IDE/Zif USB connector so my plan is to connect the HD to Windows or Linux directly and format it from there. It seems (from what I had read on the Creative webpage) that formating it from within Windows with Fat32 is fine...

Will let you know if this worked..

EDIT:
seems that formatting the HD outside of the Zen is not quite the same. It is not recognized as a formatted drive with a working file system and Windows wanted to INITIALIZE it which I did not do.
Would be good to know if claere33 upgraded from a 30GB Zen because I seem to remember that they built them for a longer time and maybe their firmware was newer and supported larger drives. Next thing would be to use the 30 firmware on the 60GB Zen....if this even works?

[dnlbntl]

Hm..didn't catch the edit.

The MK2431GAH is a two platter (8mm) HDD so it would only fit in the fat ZVM, of which, as far as I know, only the first run of the 60GB version was made. Though I've also heard of owners cramming 2-platter drives in their 30GB and 60GB-slims.

Since the 30GB and 60GB players use different mainboards, I'd be wary of using one's firmware on the other - carries a significant risk of permanently bricking the player.