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.
{ 165 comments… read them below or add one }
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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
No problem. :-)
Ok. That is exactly what I thought you meant… though you explained it better than me.
I don’t know of a way to batch rotate them in the Zen. I think you’ll have to do that before you load them up.
Also, I noticed that the links I had to the software that will do this were broken before, but now they’re fixed.
Take care,
John
I don’t exactly know what you think I’m thinking (ioi) but what I meant was that the pictures I have are tall, not wide. So when I look at it in my Zen, it comes out really small. BUt when I rotate it, its perfect. Now what I’m asking is if there is a way to rotate multiple photos at a time, so when I’m using it as a slideshow, they will come out rotated, therefore making it be larger although I have to flip the player sideways (which I don’t mind).
And thanks again for all of the help, in such a timely manner.
To rotate pictures in the ZEN Vision W, select the picture you want to rotate. Click the “Menu Drop-Down” button, the one below the “Back” button. Select rotate from the drop-down menu. This method will ALWAYS rotate the photo/picture in a clockwise direction.
Or if you want to rotate images quicker:
Select the image you want to view from the Photo Index, press the “Up” arrow to rotate image counter-clockwise or press the “Down” arrow to rotate the image clockwise. Rotating images in this manner will allow you to press the corresponding arrow to rotate the picture and then quickly move to the next one.
I have done this many times myself.
Is there any manufacturer that sells a hard screen protector for the Vision W, because the LCD screen is so not able to handle something touching it, not that it is supposed to be touched or anything, but just curious if anyone that reads this comment knows.
Try http://www.shieldzone.com/custom-orders/. This model is not on their standard list yet, but they could do a custom one for you. I *love* their stuff. Couldn’t scratch my Treo if I tried.
My Zen 60GB hard drive failed. I’m going to order a new one. Can you send me the image file that was on your hard drive. I think I will need it to change out my hard drive to another 60GB.
Thanks
Rob,
I deleted your second post with just your e-mail to protect you from spammers who will pick it up off the web. On the back end I can still see it in your original post…
I’m sorry to hear about your hard drive failure. Unfortunately I did not image the drive when I disassembled the Zen. Now that you mention it, I probably should have…
But I don’t think you’re going to need the image anyway because the Zen’s operating system should be in the firmware and not on the hard drive. I would expect that if you plug in the new drive it should just recognize it and move on. Hopefully it will even format it initially if required.
John
My 60GB Zen W also just failed due to a bad HDD. I’ve seen this problem brought up other places as well. It makes me wonder about the TravelStar drives. They don’t seem to have a very good reputation no matter what application they’re used in. I’m going to try to find a vendor for the Toshiba 100GB. So far I’ve only seen them go for about $350-375, OUCH!
PLEASE HELP.
I got a 60GB Vision W and I’ve installed all the software. But when i connect the player via USB, it says “Unknown USB Device” or “One of Your USB Devices is Malfunctioning”.
Media Explorer is not detecting it either and all the options are grayed out. My PC has Win Xp SP2 and all the updates necessary but what should I do Now?
Thanks in advance.
Gaurav
Gaurav,
My Zen Jukebox Xtra did the same thing. Turns out one of the updates for XP made it so that XP would not recognize the Xtra. There was nothing I could do to get it going again except to use Win 2000. The symptoms were the same as you describe.
Dan
CDW.com has the Toshiba 80GB 1.8″ HDD for $200. The model is MK8009GAH. They don’t have the 100 GB yet but expect it in the next month or so. The 100 GB model is MK1011GAH. There are also some nice looking little external cases available from Newegg.com so the old drive can be saved and used as an external drive.
60GB Hitachi HTC4260 does not fit in the 30GB model. Its too thick.
do someone know if there is any possibility of updating the OS so it can read .txt and .pdf files ? I just bough my zen vision w and i cannot read my ebook with it !
thank you
@Vod
you can try to build yourself and extension cable, like this : http://www.hackaday.com/2006/10/04/ipod-hd-adapter/
then with a dremel you cut a hole in the box so you can have and external hard drive.
It won’t be cute, but it will work !
Another idea is to put plastic washer between the top and the bottom of the case, creating the space you need to fit the HD.
Hi,
Could you please tell if I can read PDF files in my creative zen w or not ?
Regards
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