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Posted on Jul 20, 2007 - 12:42am by John P. in Computing, Tutorials
Six months ago I published a guide to the complete disassembly of the Creative Zen Vision W personal media player. At the end of that post I theorized as to how one could upgrade the hard drive when larger ones came available.
Well now, thanks to the generosity of Aaron Vronko and RapidRepair.com for supplying a 100GB drive; and Dan, one of my loyal readers, for playing guinea pig using my previous post to repair his Zen, I now have the largest drive in any Zen W in the world – and the theory is now a reality!
Here is how it was done.
First of all, you need to order yourself a new hard drive. Clearly I would recommend ordering the exact one that I upgraded with from RapidRepair.com. It is the 100GB Toshiba MK1011GAH.
After you get your new drive, follow my instructions on the Creative Zen Vision W Teardown page. Once you get to the point where you are down to the bare hard drive follow these steps:
Remove the tape on the existing hard drive connector and, with a tiny flathead screwdriver, flip the white ZIF socket clip up and gently remove the ribbon cable.
After the new drive is inserted replace the red tape over the ribbon cable and Zif socket and re-assemble the Zen. You will have to trim back the rubber shock protector a little so it fits the shape of the new drive. See the attached image for an example.
The firmware installer will begin and after a minute or two when it completes you can disconnect the Zen and power it on. At this point it should boot up into the full interface except that the drive is completely empty.Once you’ve completed the upgrade you could, in theory, order this case to repurpose your old drive and use it as a USB external storage device. However, I have not tried this so I am not advocating it. Perhaps if they send me one to test out I’ll give an update later if it works.
Please let me know if anything is unclear or you have suggestions on how to improve this article.
By the way, I LOVE comments! Please feel free to leave one below!
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No it didn’t worked with windows media player 11 also . it is still looking for driver for ZEN vision w
Can someone help? I bought the drive but I can’t get the ribbon to go into the zif connector on the new drive. What am I doing wrong?
The ribbon is thicker than it should be for the new drive. You really need to ram it in there preferably using a little lube. Also, make sure the ribbon clamp is unlocked on the drive. It’s a black piece which either snaps upwards or slides out a little to unlock.
You really need to ram it in there preferably using a little lube. <– What do you use to “lube” it?
Any non conductive lube which doesn’t degrade plastic. a tiny bit of vegetable oil or WD40 comes to mind. The absolute best is silicone grease.
I tried and still can’t get the Zen to recognize the hard drive. Does anyone have a picture of the connection between the ribbon and the new hard drive? I can’t get the ribbon in any further but at this point I’m not sure if it’s the connection or the hard drive at this point.
Since your’s is already opened up, why don’t you post a close up of your completed assembly? If I can’t see what you are doing wrong, I’ll open mine and post it.
Rapid Repair has offer to install the drive at no cost. I sent it to them last week.
Wow! Cheers to Rapid Repair! People! take notice of this organization!
Unfortunately, the hard drive was damaged so they couldn’t repair it. A good link for installing these drives http://www.digitalintelligence.com/support/zif_hard_drive_enclosure/ which unfortunately I found after I broke the drive connector.
I have tried setting up the old zif drive as an external storage. I found one at http://insidecomputer.stores.yahoo.net/enc18aluz.html. It is cheaper than the one you linked and works fine.
People have made the case for choosing a Creative Zen W over both the iPod or the Zune display DivX.
Is the disk in the Vision the same as the disk in the vision:W. I would love to upgrade my Vision! Thanks.
People have made the case for choosing a Creative Zen W over both the iPod or the Zune display DivX.
Its not working.I think i made a mistake somewhere.
Great tutorial John P!!!
Just 2 Questions:
1. Will this hard drive work with a “Creative Zen Vision” (not Zen vision W); and if not, then what hard drive does it use?
Also..
2. What type of hard drive does a “Zen V Plus” use; and is this device too small for you to crack open and examine?
I am also interested in doing this with the “Creative Zen Vision”.
Also, I assume 8 months after the blog was posted, an even bigger drive can be used now?
Can I use one of these?
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/productmodel.do?group=72&type=60&subtype=68&model_cd=346&tab=spec&ppmi=1160#
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/productmodel.do?group=72&type=60&subtype=68&model_cd=346&tab=spec&ppmi=1160#
It looks like the same size but I’m not sure about the connector. I’m not sure the CEATA is the same as the ATA-7. That would really make for one nice little player!
Dan
will this work for a 30 gb zen? I noticed he had a 60 gb
I meant to paste that link for the Samsung as well as this link:
http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=StorageSolutions/1.8-inchHardDiskDrives/MK1214GAH/MK1214GAHSpecifications
I think the Toshiba might work as it’s specs seem VERY similar to that of the 100Gb toshiba.
The only real remaining question is whether or not this would work on the Zen Vision (not Zen Vision W)
thanks again
jacauc
It looks like the same size but I’m not sure about the connector. I’m not sure the CEATA is the same as the ATA-7. That would really make for one nice little player
The toshiba is ATA-7. Will that work?
Hello Guys
Anyone interested in selling you old drive you replaced?
Many thanks
Mark
Toshiba now do a 120gb drive, the MK1214GAH, which will fit. Now mine is the biggest on the planet, Mwah hah hah haaaaa!
I have just replaced the 30gb Hitachi drive in my Vision M with a 30gb from my Vison W and so can attest that they are indeed the same. The model numbers are identical. I have to believe that the upgrade would therefore work on either. Now, to find a larger drive for my “W” :)
“Toshiba now do a 120gb drive, the MK1214GAH, which will fit. Now mine is the biggest on the planet, Mwah hah hah haaaaa”
whyyyyyy?
Here’s my question, Would this work in converting the Vision W to a Solid State Drive? That would be, in my opinion, the ultimate conversion…
Hi this is kinda weird !! my little brother sticked a Nokia charger inside the headset port (since he assumed that it fits there :\) so i had 2 ICs burned inside !! right behind the port (yellow colored) so i had them changed i started my zen !! it worked very well ! i entered the recovery mode (by using the battery thing) formated the hard drive and it formated verywell then erased the old firmware and connected the zen to my pc the upgraded the firmware and the zen rebooted after finish !! but the peoblem is i see the “Creative” logo and the “ZEN” logo when it start my zen but then i see NOTHING only a black screen
what do you think the problem is ?!
Hey John –
Did you run into any problems being that the ZVM’s OEM drive (I don’t have the model# handy) being 5mm high, and the Toshiba MK1011GAH being 8mm high?
I did notice that RapidRepair mentions if you were to use the Toshiba MK1011GAH for upgrading an iPud, you would need a larger backing.
Also, is it really necessary to upgrade the ZVM’s firmware prior to the drive upgrade? I would like to keep the OEM’s original fw — I like the Record FM feature a lot!
Thx
Has anyone successfully put in a Toshiba MK1214GAH drive in the players????
I was wondering…
Would one of these work to replace the drive?
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/products/flash/ssd/ssd_products/solid_choice.html
I’m thinking the slim SSD Special with the ZIF connector would be good, but if I understand correctly, there are actually 2 different ZIF connectors out there, so it may still need a ZIF to ZIF adapter.
The 1.8″ model should work, too, since it is only 5 mm thick and would work in the 30 GB or 60 GB slim models. But you’d need the PATA model and a connector adapter for that as well.
However, unless you can find an OEM vendor, it doesn’t look like Samsung is selling to us lowly people on the street.
How much is RapidRepair asking to install these drives?
Awesome !!!!.
Now i have a 114418 MB of zen goodness
Thanks John P !!
You are extremely welcome! :-)
John P.
I bought one just to see if it was possible to do the 120gb upgrade and it was =D
Wewt!!! I now have 114422mb of absolute beauty and man it was a pain to crack mine open they screwed one of the screws in wrong so it wouldnt unscrew took me 15 minutes to get it open =/ and getting that zif connector to fit was a real pain in the ass =/
But it works and thats what matters =D
Major props man =D
And BTW you look just like this guy I used to work with when I worked for the Mesquite School District outside of Dallas its scary how much you look like this other guy…
Thanks again =D