Not possible to increase hard disk size in NW A3000?

[SimonGrafftey]

I am appproaching the capacity of my NW A3000, with 4500 mainly atrac tracks. As I had previously upgraded the drive in a HD5 from 20gb to 30gb successfully, I thought I would try with the NW A3000. Getting hold of a matching 30gb drive isn't easy - the equivalent to the Toshiba MK2008GAL drive the NW A3000 ships with is the MK3008GAL. This drive has a ZIF connector (basically a push in flexible board connector as opposed to the male-female multipin connectors in earlier models). I got one from a damaged 30gb video ipod, which had a smashed screen but the hard drive was ok.

Getting at the drive in the NW A3000 is not easy and I wouldn't recommend it to any but the brave - there are 4 pins to be desoldered and resoldered to remove the motherboard and about 5 flexible connectors to disconnect and reconnect. I did however manage to put the new drive in. However, after initialising the disk and reconnecting it to my PC to my horror I found that it is still recognised as a 20gb disk! I have tried everything to try and reformat and even allocate unallocated space but nothing seems to acknowledge the extra 10gb of space.

I can only deduce that the firmware in the NW A3000 is set to format a 20gb disk, irrespective of the actual disk attached, so it will always appear in Windows and SonicStage as a 20gb device.

Any ideas gratefully received! I tried Partition Magic, but it doesn't recognise the device as a partitioned drive, which may be part of the problem - in properties it is listed as SONY HDD WALKMAN USB DEVICE. All other hard drives are listed by the name of the actual hard disk eg. Toshiba MK6006GAL etc.

[haroldpark]

That.....sucks.

However you were able to do this with an HD5? Was it as tricky (ie resoldering etc).

Sorry to not be of any real assistance.

[Guest Stuge]

That.....sucks.

However you were able to do this with an HD5? Was it as tricky (ie resoldering etc).

Sorry to not be of any real assistance.

Yes ,Simon was able to do this in HD5 succesfully .No resoldering is needed to change the hard disk in HD5,HD3,HD2,HD1.

Simon, I think It is the firmware of A3000 which preventing drive to be recognised as 30Gb ...

[SimonGrafftey]

I thought that must be the problem. I was trying to be too clever!

Unless I get an HD5H or upgrade another HD5 to a 30 gb drive, I guess I will have to wait to see if Sony bring out a 30gb version of the NW A series.

[peterjf]

There are rumours going around that a NW-A3200 with 40GB capacity is expected around May (have a look at Dapreview - I think it is mentioned in the section called 'New Stuff' or something similar).

Hope this does happen as my HD5H is getting very close to its capacity (at present about 14,700 tracks in ATRAC 64KBps).

[Guest Stuge]

There are rumours going around that a NW-A3200 with 40GB capacity is expected around May (have a look at Dapreview - I think it is mentioned in the section called 'New Stuff' or something similar).

Hope this does happen as my HD5H is getting very close to its capacity (at present about 14,700 tracks in ATRAC 64KBps).

Keep a watch here ,if that rumor is true you will get more infomation here.

[mgillespie]

There are rumours going around that a NW-A3200 with 40GB capacity is expected around May

Jeez, can you imagine how slow Connect would be with double the amount of tracks!!! 16 minutes to start up,

[Tiesto]

hey, this might confirm that the HD5 has a limited capacity of 30GB...

[Guest Stuge]

hey, this might confirm that the HD5 has a limited capacity of 30GB...

May Be But no one has tried 60gb hard disk with HD5 ..

[MDX-400]

hey, this might confirm that the HD5 has a limited capacity of 30GB...

That's what I'm wondering... I wonder if a 40GB drive would work in one? But then again the A3000s behaviour with a 30GB drive has no bearing on an HD5 (or HD1/3)'s behaviour with a larger-than-30GB drive. Because the A3000 won't even work with a 30GB as it is, and we know the HD5 will, thanks to Simon.

But I'd have to say I think, Simon, you might be the only one attempting these things, LOL. Because it is all I've ever read about it. I.e. I doubt anyone can confirm for you that the A3000 doesn't work with larger drives.

It's kind of funny that the newer A3000 can't actually go higher than 20GB whereas the older units can. I have no idea why Sony didn't make the A3000 40GB or so to begin with.

I wonder, if we look at the iPod's sales statistics, what size iPod is the highest seller? Would it be a 20GB model? (Does Apple even make a 20GB iPod anymore?)... Not that I care about the iPod, but I'm trying to understand why Sony would make the A3000 only 20GB, since it's their 5th Generation HDD DAP and still has the same capacity as their 1st Generation HDD DAP

[SimonGrafftey]

I agree with you. Given the marginal cost of a larger capacity drive at manufacture it seems odd that Sony didn't put the maximum available into the A3000, which I believe would be 40gb. Toshiba make a single platter 40gb 1.8" drive now, which is the same thickness (5mm) as the 20gb drive they actually used. Given the amount of space inside the case of the A3000, I think they could have even got a 8mm thick drive in there, which could increase the capacity to up to 80gb with Toshiba's latest 8mm drives (by contrast Apple has to increase the thickness of the 60gb ipod in order to accomodate the 8mm drive).

Probably relatively few people do need/want to use more than 20gb of music storage. But I have seen several comments by people here and elsewhere concerned about capacity. If you use high bitrates in order to ensure quality with either Atrac or MP3 you can eat up 20gb pretty quickly...

[Ascariss]

SimonGrafftey I got a quick question for you

I am assuming you opening it up correct since you wanted to get the drive it.

how hard would it be to remove the front cover and say clean the dust from there?

[haroldpark]

I wonder, if we look at the iPod's sales statistics, what size iPod is the highest seller? Would it be a 20GB model? (Does Apple even make a 20GB iPod anymore?)... Not that I care about the iPod, but I'm trying to understand why Sony would make the A3000 only 20GB, since it's their 5th Generation HDD DAP and still has the same capacity as their 1st Generation HDD DAP

Apple's highest selling model was the mini and I imagine now it is the Nano or maybe even the shuffle. Most people do not have anything like 20GB of music and are happy enough to carry around 4 or 5 gigs even if they do. And for most people its not the capacity in terms of bytes but the "5 billion songs in your pocket" mentality that dominates. Have overheard conversations between sales assistants and ipod buyers doing arithmetic on the number of songs per model they can store vs the cost. At any rate this is why high capacity storage devices like the 60GB ipod are rare and there is a proliferation of flash devices but very few options in the 20GB and over end of the market. Sonys decision probably makes a lot of sense from a business standpoint if not from the minority consumer standpoint that we might represent.

hh

[SimonGrafftey]

SimonGrafftey I got a quick question for you

I am assuming you opening it up correct since you wanted to get the drive it.

how hard would it be to remove the front cover and say clean the dust from there?

It's not that hard. You need to take the back off - to do this you need to prise off the silver Walkman symbol, which is held by a thin sticky pad, beneath which is a screw. Remove this and then the back slides upwards slightly and comes off, it is held by two small hooks, one on either side. The front cover can then be pinched and pushed off through the back of the four slots which hold the front cover, two slots on either side. The front cover has three components - a thin matt film which covers the circuitry on the front, a transparent plastic cover which only has the Sony log on it and finally the outside coloured cover. They are easy to wipe clean and put back. The clear screen provides the illusion of depth the A3000 has by reflecting the oled display and providing a ghost image of it.

[Viper]

I work in a leading retail outlet of many different brands and types of MP3/ATRAC3 players and I can say without a doubt that the NW-AXX00 series are being discontinued (according to my Sony rep) and replaced with yet another line-up of supurb ATRAC players.

All the rep said was that they aim to clear the current series from the warehouses and stores by late 3rd quarter of this year to make way for "... a VERY sexy portable that will knock your socks off..." that will start with a 30GB model and also release a 60GB. There were plans for a 40GB but last he heard was they scrubbed it to better compete with Apple.

He mentioned the battery will be built-in "... and off the record, you could replace the battery for a customer in less than 5 minutes once you know how to open it. There won't be any soldering points thus far unless we decide to change the design for that particular part of the board..." which I doubt, after so much research. Oh, and the battery will be fairly pricey, as per usual... around AUS$130.

I don't know anymore than that really. Everything else I would almost assume to be standard; lightweight, deathly slow software (he had nothing to say about Connect), good sound quality (on the whole) and most remotes will give you at least the basic functions.

[Guest Stuge]

All the rep said was that they aim to clear the current series from the warehouses and stores by late 3rd quarter of this year to make way for "... a VERY sexy portable that will knock your socks off..." that will start with a 30GB model and also release a 60GB. There were plans for a 40GB but last he heard was they scrubbed it to better compete with Apple.

If you are correct that that`s great news ..I hope it will play video atleast .

[d12world]

i want to clear the dust in my player to

and i've managed to get the back of, bot how can i can i get the plastic front of now?

edit maybe someone can post some pics of how to do it?

Edited April 27, 2006 by d12world

[Guest Stuge]

i want to clear the dust in my player to

and i've managed to get the back of, bot how can i can i get the plastic front of now?

Plese see the service manual of A3000/A1000download service manual from the download section of the forum.

[d12world]

Plese see the service manual of A3000/A1000download service manual from the download section of the forum.

i would, but for some reason i won't open

[Guest Stuge]

i would, but for some reason i won't open

Apologies ...But i will advise you to contact Ishiyoshi/Kurisu via PM(oersinal message )

[Viper]

Stuge, do you know of any good site that will show me how to open up and steal the harddrive from an iPod? I got my dirty paws on one to replace the HDD for the HD5

[Guest Stuge]

see here :->

http://mstation.org/ipod_battery_replace.php

http://www.ipodbattery.com/ipodinstall.htm

http://www.chipmunk.nl/iPod/

[Viper]

Thanks! I checked it out a few hours ago and the sites were helpfull! I dissected the iPod in seconds!

I'm still running into problems though, but i thought it best to continue everything to do with the upgrade in the original thread I started a few days back, to help others in a similar situation. It's much easier to track that kinda info if it's in the one thread

[mercury_in_flames]

lol hey simon where are the the pics of you showing the rest of us rubes how to do this is the MK3006GAL also ok for the HD5? If i took my hd5 apart could I put that drive in there with no problems>?

Edited May 1, 2006 by mercury_in_flames

[Guest Stuge]

Hey ,Why don`t you use Service manual of HD5 instead .

see here -->

http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=627&hl=

[Pulse]

Hello, firstly I'm sorry for a thread resurrection but I have a question for Simon in the hope that he reads this.

I'm unsure on the outcome of this (i.e I don't know if it would damage the player) but did you tried to format the disk through windows disc management utilities?

Infront of me I have my disk manager open with the drive connected and it seems like it would format if I clicked "Ok". Im not quite so brave though, also I only have the standard hard drive in mine so there is no point other than for proof of it working I guess.

If you want to check it out, connect the player to your machine. In windows XP - Right click my computer, click Manage, on the left click Disk Management. Find your player in the list, right click it, click format:

EDIT: P.S Im aware the allocation bar shows 100% of the drive space for that partition (because my drive is only the 20gig version), but usually when there is extra space on the drive the disc manager should be able to see it. (Unless of course the firmware on the device hides that unpartitioned space too).

Edited July 3, 2006 by Pulse