How to replace the hard drive in your Cowon A2

[stow]

Part 1

Get the Cowon A2.



Flip it over.



Using a sharp object like a pin, flick out the screw covers and rotate them out of the way





Carefully unscrew the screws with a cross-head screwdriver and put them in a safe place.



Use your nails or a sharp flat object to prise open the case and take off the back of your Cowon A2.



Be careful not to lose the hold switch which can fly loose



Also be careful not to pull the wire connecting the battery on the back of the A2 to the circuit board. Carefully disconnect the battery wire from the circuit board.



Put the back of the Cowon A2 with the battery away to one side



Your A2 should now look like this:

[stow]

Part 2

Remove the plastic shock absorber from the existing drive.



Next remove the rolled up pads from the old drive.



Gently push the drive away from the IDE connector.





When this is done you can prise the disk off the circuit board from the other end and your A2 should now look like this:



It should be trivial to remove your new hard drive from the anti-static bag and insert in into the IDE connector on the A2.

Remember to replace the roll-up pads and the rubber shock-absorber. Put the hold switch back in the position it was and connect the battery again. Carefully clip together the case and connect the A2 to your PC. Format the new drive as FAT32 and copy the firmware update files to the root directory. Disconnect the A2 from your PC and hold down the power button and the joystick to let the A2 update the firmware. Your A2 is now complete with a new hard drive.

[stow]

Remember that the only hard drives that fit are the following:

MK2004GAL
MK3006GAL
MK4007GAL

[mssx]

is this tested to be working?? if so..WOW!! great job man!

[stow]

Originally Posted by mssx

is this tested to be working?? if so..WOW!! great job man!

Yes, this works fine. It's a very simple procedure.

Originally Posted by mikey

What capacity drive did you replace with and how much was it, thanks

First, I replaced a MK2004GAL with bad sectors with a working one. Then I replaced that with a 30GB MK3006GAL. Both worked fine.

The 20GB drive was about £30 on ebay and the 30GB drive was £40.

[mikey]

What capacity drive did you replace with and how much was it, thanks

[omjeremy]

Great, $80USD for 30GB. Just what I needed. /*sarcasm

Anyway, it really sucks that there aren't any cheap drives that fit the A2. I mean, I can get a 320GB 3.5" HDD for under $80.

[zombie woof]

Thanks stow, a great step by step guide with good pictures. I always wondered what it looked like inside. It's interesting for me to see the battery as well.

One question on the hard drives; I searched for the MK4009GAL but it seems to have a zif connector. Does anybody have any information on the definitive drives with the correct connector? Any information would be gratefully recieved.

[stow]

Originally Posted by omjeremy

Great, $80USD for 30GB. Just what I needed. /*sarcasm

Anyway, it really sucks that there aren't any cheap drives that fit the A2. I mean, I can get a 320GB 3.5" HDD for under $80.

Yes, it's more expensive and a 3.5" form factor drive. If you can work out how to fit the same amount of data into a tiny 1.8" space, by all means let Toshiba and co know. Otherwise, you're going to have to pay more like everyone else...

Originally Posted by zombie woof

Thanks stow, a great step by step guide with good pictures. I always wondered what it looked like inside. It's interesting for me to see the battery as well.

One question on the hard drives; I searched for the MK4009GAL but it seems to have a zif connector. Does anybody have any information on the definitive drives with the correct connector? Any information would be gratefully recieved.

Sorry, I meant the MK4007GAL. I've never seen the MK4009GAL so I wasn't certain what connector it had.

[mikey]

Theres a guy over at misticriver that can get his hands on the single platter 40gb MK4007GAL if anyones interested (he posts from japan)

http://www.misticriver.net/showthrea...ight=soulpower

[Packgrog]

So, wait, it uses the same drives as the iRiver H120? Hmmm...

It would be interesting to find out if a dual-platter drive would fit onto the connector on the board. If so, it might be possible to come up with some kind of spacer to put between the side edges of the A2 and the back-plate. This could be work pursuing. Some people have put 80GB dual-platter drives in their H140's, which are just thicker versions of the H120.

-Packgrog

[mikey]

Originally Posted by Packgrog

So, wait, it uses the same drives as the iRiver H120? Hmmm...

It would be interesting to find out if a dual-platter drive would fit onto the connector on the board. If so, it might be possible to come up with some kind of spacer to put between the side edges of the A2 and the back-plate. This could be work pursuing. Some people have put 80GB dual-platter drives in their H140's, which are just thicker versions of the H120.

-Packgrog

Theres a long long long long thread already on this, summing up yes the bigger drives fit but you cant close the case.

http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7383

[Packgrog]

Originally Posted by mikey

Theres a long long long long thread already on this, summing up yes the bigger drives fit but you cant close the case.

http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7383

And you missed a key word in my post: SPACER. Assuming that the drive can be connected to the pins and actually work properly, all that should be necessary is to create some kind of spacer between the back plate and the main unit. This would make the A2 thicker than it currently is, and make any cases kinda unusable, but this is still feasible. OK, you'd need slightly longer screws, too, but that shouldn't be too hard to find.

Frankly, I'm surprised that no one in that, what, year-and-a-half year-old thread didn't think of a simple case mod to allow this to work. Hell, I wonder if someone could check with the people who make the ZSkins to see if they could manufacture spacers to allow A2 users to upgrade to dual-platter drives. That way they could package it with a larger ZSkin and Sell More Stuff! Just a thought.

[GSV3MiaC]

So what's the average, and spin-up, current requirements for the dual platter drives?? I guess the latest generation are lower power than the early ones, but I still wonder how well the A2 will cope.

[Ath]

How do you propose to make a converter that will fit in the case?

I doubt that you'll get an 8mm drive to fit now matter what you strip off...

And you missed a key word in my post: SPACER. Assuming that the drive can be connected to the pins and actually work properly, all that should be necessary is to create some kind of spacer between the back plate and the main unit. This would make the A2 thicker than it currently is, and make any cases kinda unusable, but this is still feasible. OK, you'd need slightly longer screws, too, but that shouldn't be too hard to find.

How do you propose to make a converter that will fit in the case?

I doubt that you'll get an 8mm drive to fit now matter what you strip off...

First off, I already have a connector that I can connect A2 to a 3.5" HDD. This will prove A2 can support beyond 100GB. I connected it to a 160GB Maxtor HDD.






And this is photos showing A2 connected to the maxtor HDD







To prove this is working, here's a screen shot





So, you must be wonder how am I suppose to connect it to zif HDD?

I have ordered some flat flex cable(FFC)




I'm going to strip off one end and connect it to the CF connector







Now about the SPACE

here's a 'blueprint' of the mk1011gah. It's from toshiba's website. You can download it here.




The blue circle indicates the thickness of the faceplate of mk1011gah. It's 0.85mm. We got 0.85mm free now. Check here to see how to remove it. I'm still waiting for my drive to confirm it.


Now the rubber spacer



It's 2mm in thickness. It's mostly at the side of the drive. The photo below show that those part of rubber that need to be removed.



So another 2mm freed. So 0.85 + 2 = 2.85mm
There is still some space between the rubber and the battery. 0.25mm is just the thickness of a few strands of hair. So there goes the extra 3mm of the double platter HDD.