Hitachi 1.8" hard drive from Creative Zen Touch

[mikeh]

This may be useful for anyone needing a new hard drive for an X40 or X41.
The Creative Zen Touch has the same Hitachi drive, complete with annoying clicking when the heads park. I tested this in an X40 and no problem.
The Zen touch has a common problem with the touchpad failing, which would make it very cheap on ebay etc
Most seem to be 20GB, but some are 30 or 40GB.

[rkawakami]

This might be a good source for cheap 1.8 drives but remember... this HD was installed in a portable MP3 player. Could have been used by some jogger while (s)he ran marathons . It would be ideal if you could get a non-DOA guarantee on the hard drive for a "parts or repair" Zen Touch but that might be asking too much. It also looks like Hitachi's DFT program does not support C4K drives. As I'm a bit of an X4 newbie, does anybody know if there's a hard drive diagnostic program for the 1.8" drives?

I have (somewhere in the house) a first-generation Rio Nitrus. It uses a 1" 1.5GB hard drive. I was amazed that it never skipped, nor did it ever experience a head crash, while I went skiing for a couple of seasons with it buried in my suit pocket. It was quickly obsoleted by flash-based players (also made by Rio, along with Apple and the rest) where you don't have to worry about dropping it or subjecting it to G forces beyond it's design limits. Even given that I know the drive's past history, I probably would not want to use it for any critical data storage applications.

[mikeh]

OTOH, these drives only spin up once in a while to refill the memory buffer with an MP3 queue. And they are rated for a large number of spin-up/down cycles.

The fault I mentioned results in a player that still works, but its a bit like an Ipod Shuffle, in that you can't select the song or album that you want, just next or random.

The way flash-memory prices are going though, it won't be relevant for long.

[SaberX]

What about the ipod 30/60/80 and 160 gig's.
Far as i know the ipod used a 1.8" drive.
Will the drives out of them work in the X4x?

[sjthinkpader]

The newer ipods are probably using SATA and I think they use ZIF connectors. There are ZIF PATA to 44 pin PATA adapter that I've seen in Akihabara (Tokyo).

My new (to me) X40 is running on a 8GB CF (233x) loaded with WinXP. There is a slower 60x 16GB at Fry's for $45 this weekend. It is a little slow for me so I will wait for the fast 16GB/32GB CF to get cheaper.

The SD slot in the side is good for another 4-8GB SD too and right now there is a 2GB card in it. I want to keep the PC Card slot open for a EVDO modem.

[laundromatt]

A few questions -

1. is the drive from the zen touch a direct replacement? meaning, it won't need an adapter of any sort?

2. there are some zen touches being sold on ebay. is it cheaper to get one of those and using the hard drive than to just buy a new hard drive outright?

i'm thinking about buying an X41 and replacing a 20GB hard drive with a bigger hard drive, and wondering if the zen touch approach is the way to go...

[icebag]

sjthinkpader:
[quote] My new (to me) X40 is running on a 8GB CF (233x) loaded with WinXP. [quote]

I have tried loading XP onto an 8GB CF, but it refused to run saying that there was insufficient swap file space. How did you get round that? (I've gone for Linux Mint instead.)

[mikeh]

1. is the drive from the zen touch a direct replacement? meaning, it won't need an adapter of any sort?

2. there are some zen touches being sold on ebay. is it cheaper to get one of those and using the hard drive than to just buy a new hard drive outright?

Yes, same brand, same connectors. I can't promise they didn't change it in later units, but I don't think so. Its a 2.5" IDE connector, but 3.3V.

As for cost, that depends on when and where. The right type of drive is hard to find.

[mikeh]

I have tried loading XP onto an 8GB CF, but it refused to run saying that there was insufficient swap file space.

How much RAM do you have? You probably shouldn't be using swap at all with a CF card.

[laundromatt]

Yes, same brand, same connectors. I can't promise they didn't change it in later units, but I don't think so. Its a 2.5" IDE connector, but 3.3V.

As for cost, that depends on when and where. The right type of drive is hard to find.

Thanks for the clarification. You're right - they're hard to find. I may have to go the CF/SSD route.

[icebag]

I have tried loading XP onto an 8GB CF, but it refused to run saying that there was insufficient swap file space.

How much RAM do you have? You probably shouldn't be using swap at all with a CF card.

The machine has 1GB. I have tried switching swap off, but XP just re-enables it each time I boot and warns me there is not enough space allocated.

[mikeh]

Thanks for the clarification. You're right - they're hard to find. I may have to go the CF/SSD route.

The zen-touch is a good option IF you can find one cheap - not unusual as the touchpad if fault-prone.
Otherwise, I'd go solid-state too. A fast 8GB CF card for the main drive, plus whatever you need in the SD-HC slot for videos or mp3 library.
Just read the other threads abount problem with Windows and some CF cards.

BTW, I think a first-gen iPod may have the same HDD. Definitely not later gen's though.

[mikeh]

The machine has 1GB. I have tried switching swap off, but XP just re-enables it each time I boot and warns me there is not enough space allocated.

Thats odd.
- Win XP certainly doesn't need swap (paging) with 1GB ram.
- you don't want it with SSD
- 8GB is plenty even if you did
- you should be able to turn off the "paging file"

[icebag]

Given those comments I am tempted to try again. I had given up with XP and installed Linux instead: Mint works a treat. But it would be nice to have a couple of CFs, one with Linux on and one with XP. I'll post again if I have any success.

[pxa270]

What about the ipod 30/60/80 and 160 gig's.
Far as i know the ipod used a 1.8" drive.
Will the drives out of them work in the X4x?

As stated, the newer iPods use ZIF interfaces. From teardown pictures I've seen, all the older ones used the X4x-incompatible Toshiba form factor/connector.