Has anyone upgraded the hard drive in the FS-4 lately?
I’ve read some of the threads from about a year ago but none recently.
If so which drive did you use? I noticed that the drive number is different now that it was a year ago – mine is a THS541040G9AT00 and not the HTS548040M9AT00 previously mentioned. Still FAT32 though.

thanks

Well I finally decided to try the upgrade – probably should not have – developed a problem and now the hard disk is not recognized. I think that I may have somehow broken one of the connections on the flex cable between the FS-4 PCB hard drive connector and the hard drive. Hooked both the old and new hard drive to my desktop computer and they both work fine. So sent an e-mail off to Focus support yesterday to inquire as to replacement and cost. No answer yet – will keep this group informed.

Remember that if your unit is under 1 year old this voids the warranty.......

http://www.sonic.net/kd6hq/images/Firestore-01-01.jpg
http://www.sonic.net/kd6hq/images/Firestore-02-01.jpg
http://www.sonic.net/kd6hq/images/Firestore-03-01.jpg
http://www.sonic.net/kd6hq/images/Firestore-04-01.jpg
http://www.sonic.net/kd6hq/images/Firestore-05-01.jpg
http://www.sonic.net/kd6hq/images/Firestore-06.jpg

so it was recognized when you first put it in there? is the master/slave jumper set correctly?

so it was recognized when you first put it in there? is the master/slave jumper set correctly?

No, at first power up it was not recognized. So replaced the original disk and same thing. I know that normally a master/slave jumper is used. On this specific drive it defaults to master (with no jumpers) so that was an easy one.

So the saga continues....

Well I finally decided to try the upgrade – probably should not have – developed a problem and now the hard disk is not recognized. I think that I may have somehow broken one of the connections on the flex cable between the FS-4 PCB hard drive connector and the hard drive. Hooked both the old and new hard drive to my desktop computer and they both work fine. So sent an e-mail off to Focus support yesterday to inquire as to replacement and cost. No answer yet – will keep this group informed.

Remember that if your unit is under 1 year old this voids the warranty.......



Don

make sure the flex cable is correct. If you switch connectors you will get exactly what you are getting. HD not recognised but works fine.

Flip the connector around (take the end that is connected to the HD and connect it to the FS4 PCB and connect the other end to the HD)

Mike

I bought a 100GB toshiba drive from newegg

works fine. I had the same issue don is having but as i mentioned i found that i had the flex cable connectors reversed

if you do the mod buy the drive and also get an external case for a 2.5" drive with USB connector

i formatted the drive but under winxp or win2k you can not format the drive properly as it has to be formatted as Fat32. i used a little command line utility off the net to format the drive

remove the FS-4 battery.

open the FS-4.

It is a little tight in there.

disconnect the two cables that go to the rear cover

before you disconnect the flex cable mark one end so you know where it was.

then disconnect the HD.

remove the HD from the FS-4 and put the new HD in.

reconnect the flex cable and reconnect the two wires and close the unit

power up and enjoy

Don

make sure the flex cable is correct. If you switch connectors you will get exactly what you are getting. HD not recognised but works fine.

Flip the connector around (take the end that is connected to the HD and connect it to the FS4 PCB and connect the other end to the HD)

Mike

Mike

I’m guessing that is not the case. As you can see by the attached link http://www.sonic.net/kd6hq/images/Firestore-07.jpg
the cable is well marked for you. Of course it is possible that the silk screen is incorrect but I think doubtful. As you can see in the picture pin 2 seems to be a power lead. I don’t know the pin out of the HDD but I’m guessing that is correct. I really do suspect that one of the traces is broken. This type of cable is notorious for breaking especially when folded hard like in the FS-4. You can’t see it in the picture but there are actually indentations of SMT components in the cable. So what I plan to do next is to locate a 44-pin ribbon cable long enough that I do not have to put the unit back together and try it. If it works then at least I will have an answer.

I just went on the Hitachi web site and found the pin out. Pin 2 is a ground pin so according to the picture I'm thinking it is inserted properly. So now to find a 44 pin cable.

Mike

I’m guessing that is not the case. As you can see by the attached link http://www.sonic.net/kd6hq/images/Firestore-07.jpg

Interesting. Mine doesnt look like that. Mine looked like a regular cable such as the one you have in PC's. No markings at all

I had mine working with the HD not installed but connected and then when i installed and closed it it had the same problem. The next day i had this goofy idea of flipping the connectors and voila it worked.

But you are correct> looks like yours is seated correctly.

Do you see all the pins on both ends. Maybe one got bent ?

Mike

Thanks for all the thoughts, but a bent pin is the first thing I check for as well as being offset by one pin. Any way will get a ribbon cable in the morning and try it. Otherwise guess I will send it in.

As far as yours having a ribbon cable instead of a flex type. I believe that mine might be an older unit than yours. I believe that they now come with a ribbon type, which should prevent this problem. I think mine sat on the shelf of the store where I purchased it for quite a while. It has a manufacture date of 3105. Anyway I will see how it goes.

I bought a 100GB toshiba drive from newegg
i formatted the drive but under winxp or win2k you can not format the drive properly as it has to be formatted as Fat32. i used a little command line utility off the net to format the drive


I also got mine (Hitachi HTS541010G9AT00) from Newegg, best price I could find $130 shipped to the door and fast service. The old one is Hitachi HTS541040G9AT00 so I went the same route. From what I understand the formatting should be able to be done from the FS-4 but just incase it can’t where did you find the utility? As I use XP….
Thanks

Don

Never mind, got the format done….

Don

sorry i didnt see this earlier. The utility is called MKDOSFS. It is a port of a linux utitlity

Mike

Some progress has been made.

I went out today in search of 44-pin ribbon cable and quickly found out that they are not a commonly carried item. At least not around here. So I purchased (2) 44 pin to 40 pin standard adaptors. When I got home I connected one adaptor to the FS-4 and the other to the original hard drive. Connected a standard ide cable between the two and powered up. It worked the first time around, no problem. So I shut everything down and connected the new 100-gig drive. Powered up and no problem worked the first time. So to me it is clearly a problem with the flex cable. It was also nice to see the increase form 173 to 458 minutes of recording time.

http://www.sonic.net/kd6hq/images/Firestore-08.jpg

So now just need to find a ribbon cable of the proper size. Where’s my search engine……
My next step is to actually record some video after I charge the battery….

Don, have you thought about just checking the cable with a multimeter, finding the broken link and soldering a wire bridge over the broken trace (of course completely unconnected during this procedure)?

Should be a relatively simple and painless repair.

Don, have you thought about just checking the cable with a multimeter, finding the broken link and soldering a wire bridge over the broken trace (of course completely unconnected during this procedure)?

Should be a relatively simple and painless repair.

Thanks John for the thought. I can't determine if it is a broken trace or just a solder joint that has gone cold. In any case over the next couple of days I'll work it out.

I received the ribbon cable, installed and everything seems to be working.

So for those of you that are interested:
Would I go through this procedure again – yes even with my frustrations.
What would I do different. Before I ordered the hard drive I would open up the FS-4 and see if it has a flex cable as mine did. IF so I would not proceed. I would automatically order a new ribbon cable with the hard drive. Once I received the hard drive with cable I would follow the procedure others have outlined here.

Final note ……. Remember if your unit is still under warranty, this will void the warranty.

End of saga………

Hello,

I'm in the process of upgrading my HD in the focus fs-4 to 100 gb. However, before doing so I did a test run removing the hard drive and then replacing it. The problem is that when I replaced the drive I was under the assumption that I would be able to see previous files that I had on the drive. unfortunately when I restarted the FS-4 I received the following message :

unknown volume type...

partition volume?

YES

I decided not to proceed until I totally understood what my options were.
My question is: Have I lost the previous files that were on disk? If not, how do I retrieve them. If I have lost the previous files that okay, but just wanted to know what was happening. I have ordered the 100 gb hitachi from newegg and will replace the current one anyway, so all of this is no big deal. I suspect that I will be prompted with the same message upon adding the new drive anyway?

Thanks,
Troy

Try connecting your FS-4 hard drive to a desktop computer. It should show up just like any other hard drive. You will need a 44 pin to 40 pin adaptor similar to the one’s pictured. Your files should still be there.
http://www.sonic.net/kd6hq/images/Firestore-019.jpg

As to why this would happen I’m not sure but I have to ask – what does the ribbon cable look like on the FS-4?

Don,

It looks like the cable here: http://www.sonic.net/kd6hq/images/Firestore-06.jpg

I guess I will have to purchase the cable you mentioned in order to connect to my desktop?

Thanks,
Troy

Troy

I ended up having to replace the cable in the FS-4. I had the same type of cable that you have and once that I disconnected the hard drive from it the cable would no longer work correctly. Do a google search for “44 pin ide” or perhaps contact Newegg to see if they have one. Here is one of several sources.

http://www.mycableshop.com/sku/IDE44-1.htm

Once I replaced the cable the FS-4 worked correctly.

fyi:

I ended up purchasing a 2.5 usb 2.0 HD Enclosure from tigerdirect for $9.99 and was able to move my files successfully.

Troy

I ended up having to replace the cable in the FS-4. I had the same type of cable that you have and once that I disconnected the hard drive from it the cable would no longer work correctly. Do a google search for “44 pin ide” or perhaps contact Newegg to see if they have one. Here is one of several sources.

http://www.mycableshop.com/sku/IDE44-1.htm

Once I replaced the cable the FS-4 worked correctly.

Don,

I received my hard drive. Formatted using mkdosfs and reconnected to fs-4. When I power up the drive not I get a DISK NOT DETECTED message. When connect the new drive to my PC running Xp the drive is recognized. Could this be the cable issue? Are these cables built to self distruct at first touch :-)
I say this because I was very delicate with the whole process. I guess I will see if I can fine a new cable in the mean time.

Thanks,
Troy

Troy

That’s exact ally the problem I ran into so I replaced the cable and it started working as soon as I plugged it in.

Don

Troy

That’s exact ally the problem I ran into so I replaced the cable and it started working as soon as I plugged it in.

Don

Thanks Don. I ordered the new cable, so hopefully that will clear things up.

received new cable and all is well. Now I guess I need to get the battery.

received new cable and all is well. Now I guess I need to get the battery.


Glad to here it Troy

You might try this site for a battery.

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=894