After my previous review of the Zen Vision W I had a reader Ask the Man the following question:
Hi,
I just got myself a Zen W last X-mas. I think it’s fantastic as well. I bought the 30gb instead of the 60gb thinking I could probably upgrade the hard drive to a higher capacity eventually.
Do you think it’s possible or know what kind of hard disk format they have in those machines?
Thanks One Man!
No, thank YOU for the question! As far as the answer is concerned, there’s only one way to find out… crack that puppy open!
Disassembly
What you will need to open the device:
- A Jeweler’s Phillips head screwdriver (you know… the really tiny ones).
- The smallest tweezers you can find (the screws are really small)
- Nerves of steel and hands like a surgeon (OK, maybe not those two)
What I discovered:
The Creative Zen W utilizes a 1.8″ hard drive with the following specs:
- The drive, made by Hitachi, is a 3.3 v, 1.8″ Travelstar C4K60 Slim.
- The 30 GB drive is 5mm thick, the 60 GB drive is 8mm thick.
- These drives use the ATA-7 interface and a Zero Insertion Force socket. ZIF is a rare interface used only on devices like this, so it’s difficult to work with.
- The data buffer is 2MB, it spins at 4200 RPM and has average latency of 7.1 ms.
- If you need a replacement or an upgrade you can search Froogle.
- If you’ve got a 30 GB model you might consider upgrading to the 60GB Hitachi, or you might wait as this 100GB Toshiba should start production in Jan 2007.
- If you’ve got the 60 GB version, there is no good upgrade path yet.
How to get at the Hard Drive
Step 1) Remove the battery.
Step 2) There are 6 screws that need to be removed underneath the battery. One is behind a tamper-resistant sticker which, if removed will void your warranty.
In order not to void my own warranty for the purposes of this exploratory surgery I simply used a very sharp pocket knife to gently pry up the sticker so it would be replaceable.
Step 3) Remove the Compact Flash slot screws.
Step 4) Gently pry the back cover off the device. This is the tricky part since you don’t want to break anything. Take your time!
I discovered that the best way seems to be to start on the end with the compact flash slot and begin by squeezing the top of the device together a little to try to release the little plastic hook on the inside. Hopefully the image will make clear what you are trying to get at.
After releasing that hook there will be enough room to use a pocket knife or some other thin flat piece of metal to slip between the cracks and gently leverage the rest of the device apart.
Step 5) Loosen (or remove) the four screws holding the hard drive cover on, then remove the cover.
Step 6) In order to remove the hard drive, peel back the tape covering the ZIF socket and gently unplug it.
Step 7) Take a beer break and admire what you’ve already accomplished!
Optional
Now that you’ve got it disassembled you can learn How to Upgrade to a Larger Drive.
So is it better to get the 60gb or the 30gb. Obviously I want more capacity, so if I could add the 100gb Toshiba it would be nice. So I want the Zen Vision W, the question is what is the best way to go about it?
Well, in my opinion I’d get the 60Gb version for a few of reasons:
1) If you get the 30Gb you are going to be wanting more space much more quickly. Perhaps even almost immediately.
2) Having the 60Gb version probably means you can hold out for a year or two until even larger than 100Gb drives pop up.
3) No one has actually yet performed this upgrade to my knowledge, so there is some risk until it is proven to work.
John
Thanks.
Thanks for doing this! Question: obviously you can’t fit the 8mm drive in the compartment of the 5mm one, but if I get the 60GB model, is it possible to put the smaller 5mm drives (like the 100gb one you mentioned) in there or are they physically different in some other way as well? I’ve never worked with 1.8″ drives.
Goodstuff,
Ok, remember, this is all hypothetical since it’s never been done yet. :-)
But having said that, when I researched this situation the unit was built to hold either the 5mm or the 8mm drive, so the thickness should not be an issue when the larger drives become available so long as they are not actually fatter.
I’d be more concerned about them having the same mounting holes, but that’s a very minor fear since they seem to be standards based.
Take care,
John
Thanks!
I heard that Creative kept some extra space in thinkness in 60GB model to use the same case for their 100GB model. I am not sure if this is true or not.
Hope it is! Thanks for the insight. I should be getting my 60GB W tomorrow. Looking forward to it.
I bought the 60 GB, and it came today.
I’m loving it except one thing. (For now) Is there a way to rotate the picture sideways, so I can see it better? It’s obvious that you can do it one at a time, but can you rotate like the whole folder?
ryoutsu,
Congrats! I hope you really enjoy it for a long time!
As far as photo rotation, I’m assuming that what you mean is that with the photos you’ve loaded some of them are not oriented properly… for example, you held the camera sideways and took the photo taller as opposed to the normal view which is wider? And now when you view them it is auto-correcting them and making the tall ones fit but you’d rather turn the device sideways and see them larger?
Did that make sense? Wow, I hardly know how to explain what I think you mean…
Anyway, if that is the case, I don’t think the Zen will automatically take care of that for you. What you can try to do is edit the photos in your software by rotating them the way you want them and then re-upload them.
Picasa and FastStone Image Viewer are both free and will let you adjust the orientation, though Picasa would be faster and easier for this.
I don’t know if that helped, but let me know if I’m misunderstanding you.
John