Toshiba XS32, XS54, XS35, (all XS models) - HDD swap info!!! - Page 4

yes ok BUT WHAT IS THE FIRMWARE IT IS ON THE SAME LABEL ON THE drive unit?? F/W??????

Interesting. The 9574 was a fairly common Panasonic drive (Fairly common in the "you could find them at most stores" sort of way, not heavily used). I wonder if a 9585 would work for the swap... the 9585 was a VERY big quality drop, though, and didn't take cartridge DVD-RAM. I just wonder if Panasonic changed enough to make it not work...

I'm interested, in my case for the XS35.

It's a 9574-E, IT IS ALSO IN THE TOSHIBA D-VR-4 RECORDER SOMETIMES. AND I MEAN SOMETIMES. they also installed the sw9473 in them too. I have several as backups. ALSO was able to change firmware to panasonic to be able to use in pc . it;s a 8x burner, cd etc. works great. so make sure they have same f/w ie MT18 .....

For those interested in swapping the RD-XS32 burner, there is already a thread here...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2&page=1&pp=30

And on another site here...

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=266129

Great info. Thanks!

*I* tried a different model 80 gig drive -- another Seagate.. I give the exact model in another thread... and my XS32 simply came up with one of the hard drive error codes (7000s I think) right away and the machine is essentially hung.

Plus, for the *other* machines, you can pick a random drive and it will format (to the size the original machine supported)... right?

so I still think that the thread title is largely incorrect, since you can't just use 'random drive' in an XS32 as a replacement..

See if you can just do a low-level format, through the BIOS or something. ANY sort of PC-based formatting will leave some debris that the XS32 may reject. (I'm not even sure if you can do low-level formats on IDE drives, I know you can on SCSI.) Maybe try to find the manufacturer's diagnostic disc? Many of them let you zero out drives so there is NOTHING on them at all...

Did you pull it from the same XS32 you put it back in? It's possible the XS32 "knew" that HDD (like, a serial number stored somewhere) so it was ok with it.

The trick will be trying to put in any random 80gb HDD..

Were you also able to high speed dub/read DVD-RAM ? The reason I ask is because I have an XS-32 with a HDD that works just fine but won't read or record onto DVD-RAM and I haven't seen anyone on this thread discussing DVD drive replacement. Is that due to high cost?

Hi.
I need a hack code to unlock dvd regions for KX50.
Thanks for your help.
Best regards from Brazil...............Fernando

I have just found this today. My XS44 has started to give the following message when trying to copy to DVD-RW "System was unable to read content on HDD etc" Maybe the HD is on the way out eben though the machine is only 12 nonths old.

In this thread I have found no mention of the XS44 which has a 250Gb HD. Is it the Australian equivalent of the XS54?

Look forward to your replies.

Great stuff! I read this and tried the same thing with a 250GB drive from an XS54 installed in a XS35. It booted fine but I got an error message saying that there were problems with the drive and content was only available for playback. I then tried to format the drive and the 250GB drive formatted to a 160GB capacity. So unfortunately this won't work on the XS35. Too bad. Great catch though!

Thanks for that.

The plot thickens. I turned the machine off over night - just left it on standby, as I had a feeling the HD could have overheated.

Today I copied ( dubbed) four saved programs to DVD-Ram - "The TV series 24" which I have been saving for my son at Uni for him to watch when he returns on leave. All burnt flawlessly.

I then burnt 4 DVD-RWs (as DVD videos) again without any problems.

I previously owned an SX32 which gave me DVD read problems and after replacing the DVD with an LG burner had no further problems. My daugher now uses that machine as it was replaced with the XS44 under extended warranty.

I will keep ane eye on things. I didn't want to reformat the HDD whilst I had programs I wanted my son to watch, but will do that if the problem persists now that I have copied what I wanted to.

By the way, where can one obtain a copy of Toshiba manuals and firmware?

Hi everyone. New to the forums, but not to the heartaches and frustrations of the Toshiba RD-KX50 HDD swap troubles.

I thought I stumbled across a solution, but I thought wrong. My KX50 unit has the 80 GB Seagate ST380012ACE hard drive, and I've been trying a little bit of everything mentioned in this thread, but with little luck.

The ZOOM - 701 - ZOOM trick works for my unit, and is the only one thus far that initiates the "INIT OK" message. I've been using that command and trying different sized HDD's from different manufacturers, but no dice.

So I did a "hot swap" by booting up the original 80 GB Seagate, unplugging the power/data cables, then dropping an XP Professional, SP2, NTFS-formatted 200 GB Seagate ST3200822A hard drive in it.

To my amazement, the machine didn't go up in flames. I went to the format option, and it formatted the drive without even a hiccup.

Recorded just fine, was able to high speed dub to my -R/RAM/HDD with no problems. Even deleted. Then I restarted.

ERR 7034.

Dropped the 80 GB drive back in, all was right in the world as far as the KX50 was concerned. Tried another "hot swap" with the same results, only this time I decided to check out the Content Menu to see if the unit was really seeing the disk.

It was looking for the pre-recorded content on the other drive: It had all the titles, duration, names, chapters, you name it--except for the thumbnails. All I saw was snow, and when I tried to play back the "phantom files," all I saw was snow.

I performed a "Delete All Titles" command, and the machine spat back an "Unknown Error" message, then disappeared. Pressed the Content Menu button again, and it said that I had an empty drive.

I checked the Disk Information page out, and it told me the same thing. I had an empty drive to work with. Formatted again, without a hitch, recorded some more, performed some High Speed Dubbing tricks, then restarted the machine, this time using the ZOOM - 701 - ZOOM trick.

That went just fine, but when it came time to initialize the drive, ERR 7034 popped up again. I loathe these numbers.

I'm not looking for increased capacity, I'm just looking to prolong the life of my investments for a couple more years. I'll keep trying different things, and keep everyone posted. Just don't give up on the KX50 just yet.

Ben

Oct-19-2007 UPDATE: It has been determined that performing a "hotswap" is a no go, and ultimately a dangerous move to perform, not only for the machine, but a person's physical well being.

It was a necessary step to perform at the time as part of the troubleshooting routine, and it seemed like a good idea at the time, but you know what they say about hindsight being 20/20.

Hi rick,

Thanks for the feedback.

I don't have a new (or used) ST380012A, or anything from SG within that range/size on me at the moment, but that's something to consider when I am able to appropriate the funds.

Something interesting, though: When I plugged the ST3200822A back into my PC, my machine had to re-install the drivers and everything for it.

And when I looked it up under Computer Management (WinXP Pro, SP2), it told me I had 186.31 GB's uninitialized and unallocated. Funny considering that it *was* initialized and allocated when I formatted the beast (didn't format it new; it was in use in 2 other machines prior to the KX50 test runs).

Could this mean that the KX50 is performing its own form of a low-level format? In a sense, maybe, but not likely. As you've said, it's looking for the ST380012A, and formatting it as such (200 GB drive formatted down to 80 GB).

I tried the same trick using a Western Digital 1600JB drive (160 GB), with the same results. I also tried a Samsung SpinPoint 80 GB (Model SV8004H), and I think it (the drive) gave up the ghost .

The KX50 is doing *something* to these drives. It's just a matter of finding a way to get the KX50 and the new HDD to like each other during the boot/reboot process.

Perhaps someone with the expertise could perform a hotswap, format new drive, then ghost the old drive over to the new one? Just throwing out some ideas.

I'll keep everyone posted on my progress.

Ben

Just to touch base, in case anyone is wondering, I'm trying to swap HDD's with my Toshiba RD-KX50 80 GB HDD/DVD-R/RAM unit.

My unit's specs are as follows:

Unit Software Version: YA10 (Y-A-one-zero)
DVD Drive Software: J130 (J-one-three-zero)

HDD Specs:

Seagate
U Series 9
80 Gbytes

Model: ST380012ACE
Firmware: 9.51
Site Code: WU

I found a 160 GB Seagate drive, model ST3160023A, but it's a bad drive. The KX50 got to 10% format, then spat out "Unable to format DVD." Interesting that it spat out "DVD."

Another thing: I fired up the original HDD with the jumper set on MASTER, and it booted and operated normally.

I tried a WD3200JB, with the jumper set to master, and it did the same thing as the other WD drive.

I'm tempted to try booting up one of the WD drives, and when the error code pops up, try hot-swapping the original HDD back in. I'm not ready to try that just yet, though. Reason #1 being that I still have content on the original HDD (playing with fire, I know), and secondly, I found an ST380012ACE on eBay for $37.90 altogether.

I want to try what rickc5 has suggested about getting as close to the original HDD's specs as possible, and I think this is as close as it gets (without dropping a grand on that bogus site a few posts back )

The specs on the new drive are:

Model: ST380012ACE
Part Number: 9W6022-001
Firmware: 4.06
Site Code: WU

In the tiny picture that follows the information, I can even make out the message about the drive being OEM, just like how mine does. I'll keep my fingers crossed and report back with any new findings. Hope this is helping somebody out there.

Ben