Upgrading the hard drive of the P-3000
After recently purchasing the Epson P-3000, 40gb or storage was definitely not enough, after reading a few posts online suggesting the P-3000 could be upgraded with a normal parallel 2.5" laptop hard drive, I thought why not try it for myself.
I have outlined what I have done in the following post.
Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible for any damages that you may incur on your P-3000/P-5000, if you choose to follow the procedures outlined in this post, you agree to do so at your own risk and I will not be held liable for any of your actions
The following things are needed to complete the hard drive upgrade:
First thing's first, you need to disassemble the P-3000. We'll start with the side that has the SD and CF slot in it. Using your hex screwdriver, take the two screws out on each side of the unit.
Flip the unit over and you will see another hex screw, take that screw out.
Open the battery compartment door, take the battery out and take the two screws out.
When you take the cover off, there will be a speaker that is connected to the main unit, I couldn't take it out of its slot, so I just took the two screws off the speaker
Turn the unit so the screen is flat on desk and you will see two rubber pieces on the unit, take these rubber pieces off to reveal five more screws, take these screws out.
Once the five screws are off, there are three more screws that holds the back plate. One.
Two
Three
Take the back plate out and viola! The hard drive is almost exposed
Before you can take the hard drive out, you need to take the housing off the hard drive, there are six screws on this side that needs to be taken off.
Four screws to be taken off this side. There is one screw that has a metal plate in front of it, the plate can easily be bent so the screw is exposed.
Like so
Once all twenty five screws have been taken out, gently take the IDE connector off the hard drive.
Once taken out, you are now ready to back up the drive.
Backing Up the Hard Drive
Put the original 40gb Fujitsu hard drive into a hard drive enclosure. When plugged in, Windows XP automatically detects the drive, showing two partitions, EPV_SYSTEM and P-3000. Start up Acronis True Image 10 and select Backup to start the wizard.
Click Next.
Select My Computer and then Next.
Here you will see all the drives on your computer, but you want to select the disk that has the P-3000 drive on it, this this case its Disk 3, make sure both partitions are selected, and then Next.
If you have just installed True Image, you will get the following screen, just hit OK.
Select where you want to save the Image and then Next.
Select Create a new full backup archive and then Next.
Select Use default options and then Next.
No comments are really needed for the Image. Click Next.
A summary of what is being performed. When ready, click Proceed.
Operation in Progress.
Once completed, click OK and you are now ready to restore the Image.
Restoring the Hard Drive
Take the original hard drive out of the enclosure, and plug the new one into the enclosure, Windows XP will detect the drive, but won't have a drive letter for it as it has not been formatted yet. If you are using an old drive, make sure you delete the partition using partition magic or something similar so you have an unformatted disk. Start up Acronis True Image 10 and select Recovery to start the wizard.
Click Next.
Locate the Image file and click Next.
Select Restore disk or partitions and click Next.
Select the partition you want to restore first. Restore the P-3000 data Partition first and click Next.
Select the disk you want to restore the image to, if you have a brand new disk, you will see the disk has Unallocated space, select this disk and click Next.
For the data partition, you want this to be a Primary type partition (I haven't tried the other settings, but this is the way partition magic read the disk, the P-3000 partition as Primary and the EPV_SYSTEM partition as logical) and click Next.
Select FAT32 and click Next.
Resize the P-3000 partition so you have roughly 690mb left for the system partition (the system partition is 650mb, but the extra 40mb of space isn't going to hurt). Using a 120gb Fujitsu hard drive, I have 111.1gb allocated for the P-3000 data partition. Once resized, click Next.
Assign a drive letter to the P-3000 partition. I did this because the first time I tried restoring, I selected No thank you, I do not want to assign a letter and when I plugged the Epson P-3000 into the computer, I was not able to see the P-3000 partition as a removable storage device (it only showed the two memory card readers), I then tried assigning a drive letter, and it worked perfectly. Ideally you want to assign D: and E: (for the data and system partitions), this is because when you plug in the device, and the drive letter is already taken by another device, it will automatically, assign it to the next available letter, if you assign the drive with a Y: and Z:, it will always be Y: and Z:, because chances are, you won't have drives on your computer up to Y: and Z:, call me pedantic, but I prefer to have it in sequence. If you already have D: and E: assigned to something else on your computer when trying to restore it wont allow you to use those letters, just change the drive letters of those drives (using disk management, which is in computer management, found in administrative tools in the computer panel) when you restore the Image, and then change it back after you've restored the Image. Once assigned, click Next.
Now its time to restore the EPV_SYSTEM partition. Select Yes I want to restore another partition or hard drive and click Next.
Select the EPV_SYSTEM partition and click Next.
Select the disk you want to restore the image to, you will see the disk now has the P-3000 restored and there is 690mb of Unallocated space, select this disk and click Next.
As the EPV_SYSTEM is being restored, select Logical and click Next.
Select FAT32 and click Next.
Resize the EPV_SYSTEM partition so there is no more space on the hard drive. Using a 120gb Fujitsu hard drive, 111.1gb has been allocated for the P-3000 data partition and the EPV_SYTEM parition has been allocated 690.3mb. Once resized, click Next.
Assign the next available drive letter for the EPV_SYSTEM, I have assigned the drive to E: for the reasons outlined previously. Once assigned, click Next.
Select No, I do not and click Next as all partitions have been restored.
Select Use default options and then Next.
A summary of what is being performed. When ready, click Proceed.
Operation in Progress.
Once completed, click OK and you are now ready to re-assemble the P-3000.
Plug the newly restored larger hard drive back into the IDE connector and before re-assembling everything back, put the battery inside the P-3000 and confirm the P-3000 boots up with the new hard drive.
Re-assemble the unit, power on, check the drive capacity, and presto! You now have 111gb on your P-3000.
I have outlined what I have done in the following post.
Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible for any damages that you may incur on your P-3000/P-5000, if you choose to follow the procedures outlined in this post, you agree to do so at your own risk and I will not be held liable for any of your actions
The following things are needed to complete the hard drive upgrade:
- A 1.5 hex screwdriver
- A really fine phillips head (it's labelled "00" on my set) and another one the same size you would use for computer parts (it's labelled "1" on my set)
- A 2.5" Parallel laptop hard drive to the size you want (I use a 120gb Fujitsu laptop hard drive as the P-3000 ships with a Fujitsu hard drive and I thought it would be better to stick with the same brand)
- A USB2.0 (or firewire) external hard drive enclosure (it is not necessary, but it does make things a whole lot easier)
- Acronis True Image 10 software (you could probably use Ghost or any software that clones/backs up a hard drive, but True Image was used from another tutorial I saw for the Epson P-2000, and its relatively easy to use)
- I would highly recommend you backup all your images on to a computer or another hard drive and delete them off the Epson P-3000 before cloning the hard drive, so you have a fresh, factory default clone of the hard drive.
- Windows XP SP2 (this is what OS I am currently using, I don't see why this couldn't be done on MacOSX or Windows Vista)
First thing's first, you need to disassemble the P-3000. We'll start with the side that has the SD and CF slot in it. Using your hex screwdriver, take the two screws out on each side of the unit.
Flip the unit over and you will see another hex screw, take that screw out.
Open the battery compartment door, take the battery out and take the two screws out.
When you take the cover off, there will be a speaker that is connected to the main unit, I couldn't take it out of its slot, so I just took the two screws off the speaker
Turn the unit so the screen is flat on desk and you will see two rubber pieces on the unit, take these rubber pieces off to reveal five more screws, take these screws out.
Once the five screws are off, there are three more screws that holds the back plate. One.
Two
Three
Take the back plate out and viola! The hard drive is almost exposed
Before you can take the hard drive out, you need to take the housing off the hard drive, there are six screws on this side that needs to be taken off.
Four screws to be taken off this side. There is one screw that has a metal plate in front of it, the plate can easily be bent so the screw is exposed.
Like so
Once all twenty five screws have been taken out, gently take the IDE connector off the hard drive.
Once taken out, you are now ready to back up the drive.
Backing Up the Hard Drive
Put the original 40gb Fujitsu hard drive into a hard drive enclosure. When plugged in, Windows XP automatically detects the drive, showing two partitions, EPV_SYSTEM and P-3000. Start up Acronis True Image 10 and select Backup to start the wizard.
Click Next.
Select My Computer and then Next.
Here you will see all the drives on your computer, but you want to select the disk that has the P-3000 drive on it, this this case its Disk 3, make sure both partitions are selected, and then Next.
If you have just installed True Image, you will get the following screen, just hit OK.
Select where you want to save the Image and then Next.
Select Create a new full backup archive and then Next.
Select Use default options and then Next.
No comments are really needed for the Image. Click Next.
A summary of what is being performed. When ready, click Proceed.
Operation in Progress.
Once completed, click OK and you are now ready to restore the Image.
Restoring the Hard Drive
Take the original hard drive out of the enclosure, and plug the new one into the enclosure, Windows XP will detect the drive, but won't have a drive letter for it as it has not been formatted yet. If you are using an old drive, make sure you delete the partition using partition magic or something similar so you have an unformatted disk. Start up Acronis True Image 10 and select Recovery to start the wizard.
Click Next.
Locate the Image file and click Next.
Select Restore disk or partitions and click Next.
Select the partition you want to restore first. Restore the P-3000 data Partition first and click Next.
Select the disk you want to restore the image to, if you have a brand new disk, you will see the disk has Unallocated space, select this disk and click Next.
For the data partition, you want this to be a Primary type partition (I haven't tried the other settings, but this is the way partition magic read the disk, the P-3000 partition as Primary and the EPV_SYSTEM partition as logical) and click Next.
Select FAT32 and click Next.
Resize the P-3000 partition so you have roughly 690mb left for the system partition (the system partition is 650mb, but the extra 40mb of space isn't going to hurt). Using a 120gb Fujitsu hard drive, I have 111.1gb allocated for the P-3000 data partition. Once resized, click Next.
Assign a drive letter to the P-3000 partition. I did this because the first time I tried restoring, I selected No thank you, I do not want to assign a letter and when I plugged the Epson P-3000 into the computer, I was not able to see the P-3000 partition as a removable storage device (it only showed the two memory card readers), I then tried assigning a drive letter, and it worked perfectly. Ideally you want to assign D: and E: (for the data and system partitions), this is because when you plug in the device, and the drive letter is already taken by another device, it will automatically, assign it to the next available letter, if you assign the drive with a Y: and Z:, it will always be Y: and Z:, because chances are, you won't have drives on your computer up to Y: and Z:, call me pedantic, but I prefer to have it in sequence. If you already have D: and E: assigned to something else on your computer when trying to restore it wont allow you to use those letters, just change the drive letters of those drives (using disk management, which is in computer management, found in administrative tools in the computer panel) when you restore the Image, and then change it back after you've restored the Image. Once assigned, click Next.
Now its time to restore the EPV_SYSTEM partition. Select Yes I want to restore another partition or hard drive and click Next.
Select the EPV_SYSTEM partition and click Next.
Select the disk you want to restore the image to, you will see the disk now has the P-3000 restored and there is 690mb of Unallocated space, select this disk and click Next.
As the EPV_SYSTEM is being restored, select Logical and click Next.
Select FAT32 and click Next.
Resize the EPV_SYSTEM partition so there is no more space on the hard drive. Using a 120gb Fujitsu hard drive, 111.1gb has been allocated for the P-3000 data partition and the EPV_SYTEM parition has been allocated 690.3mb. Once resized, click Next.
Assign the next available drive letter for the EPV_SYSTEM, I have assigned the drive to E: for the reasons outlined previously. Once assigned, click Next.
Select No, I do not and click Next as all partitions have been restored.
Select Use default options and then Next.
A summary of what is being performed. When ready, click Proceed.
Operation in Progress.
Once completed, click OK and you are now ready to re-assemble the P-3000.
Plug the newly restored larger hard drive back into the IDE connector and before re-assembling everything back, put the battery inside the P-3000 and confirm the P-3000 boots up with the new hard drive.
Re-assemble the unit, power on, check the drive capacity, and presto! You now have 111gb on your P-3000.
posted by Julius Lagula at
12:13:00 PM
77 Comments:
Wow, awesome tutorial, very descriptive! Thanks - will do this IF I get a P-3000! =P
Just did it today as soon as I got my P-3000, with Toshiba MK8032GAX HDD.
Thank you very much for this tutorial, everything worked as you described. Now I have 80GB HDD inside, backup image on my desktop, CD and original HDD sitting in my drawer just in case. Perhaps I'm paranoid but from my point of view it's just protecting my investment :-) One more update... it seems that few jpeg files I left on disk before cloning did not work right (P-3000 won't rotate or magnify them). However, any new file downloaded after upgrading worked just fine. And yes, now I can feel vibrations of HDD spinning while old Fujitsu was undetectable.
Thanks again and greetings from Zagreb!
Zagreb,
Its great news that you followed the tutorial and everything worked perfectly, I'm very happy to hear that.
With regards to the images left on the P-3000 before cloning, yes, I have heard from various forums that leaving images on the P-3000 before cloning can have problems, I'll update the tutorial to say it is recommended that you have a blank hard drive.
The weird thing is though, the sample images come up fine, I am able to rotate it, zoom in, and even apply the "photo enhance" on it.
Thanks for the feedback.
Perhaps P-3000 catalogs some media info in its internal flash, this could explain failures with pictures stored before cloning. This is a very minor issue considering that it could catalog many other things including HDD serial number to disable upgrading or user servicing. I am very happy with the fact that we can upgrade HDD and backup OS. I am very curious how they initially upload image to HDD in factory. I bet they put a flash card in a slot and press combination of buttons, something like firmware upgrade. I'm wondering what would happen if someone puts a blank HDD in P-3000 and then inserts a CF card with EPV-system folder on it, and then power up just like it is a firmware upgrade...
Can you post the exact model number of the drive and perhaps where purchased. Thanks! Great tutorial. I have the P-5000 (80G) and want to upgrade to a 160G if possible, but want the specifics of the IDE (ATA-6) etc...
The model is a Fujitsu 120gb MHV2120AH.
It is a 2.5-inch IDE hard drive.
All the other specifications are on the website.
I purchased my hard drive from an Australian retailer www.msy.com.au
As for getting a 160gb, from what I've been told the maximum the Epson will see is 137gb due to the 32bit LBA limitations of the Epson PXXXX, so for me, purchasing the 160gb seems to be a waste.
I've also heard from forum posts that there are problems with Seagate hard drives. I personally haven't used anything but what I've got, so I am at no liberty to comment.
Hope that answers some of your questions.
I've tried this upgrade earlier before with a WD 80GB drive. It basically works, however there are some power management issues. Such as the P-3000 not waking up after the HD has gone to sleep, especially when using a USB connection.
Is there any such problems with the Fujitsu drive?
I can verify with you that I've had no such problems with the 120gb Fujitsu drive I have on my drive.
First I got to say this upgrade guide is great. Just Two question, after I follow this guide to upgrade my P-3000 with WD Scorpio 120GB, most of things works but two. Q One, The link2 software won't recognize my P-3000 and with little research I found out that any thing larger than 80GB installed on P-3000 than the Link2 won't recognize it. Q. TWO, The p-3000 wont wake up after I plug-in to computer and disconnect from computer. Have to reset it every time, some one say it has something to do with power control of P-3000 and the HDD spin down when it is in USB mode. My question to you is, are both this symptoms shows on your P-3000 after you upgrade? or it is because only FUJITSU HDD works? WD/Samsung all report same problem, I think Seagate are troublesome too. Hope HDD model you use have no problem at all.
This is a great guide, thank you. I have a slightly off-topic question though: does the unit allow to unload data to an external USB2.0 drive? The Jobo Giga Evolution allows an external drive to be plugged in for redundancy and extra storage, but I would prefer to get the Epson for its ability to download and play video form my Canon TX1.
Thanks for taking the time to produce the guide, it's always nice to see how to get an expensive toy apart without breaking it :)
Having read of others' problems with drives >80GB and different makes to the original, I went for a Fujitsu MHW2080AT (80GB), which I'm sure is just the updated and higher capacity version of the MHV2040AT that came out. The update worked without a hitch, and so does the Link2 software.
Even though I made a point of deleting everything from the drive before doing the upgrade, there were still about 3.5GB of stuff that ended up having to be copied across in the data partition. Running the Link2 software after the upgrade seemed to clear this stuff out, so I'd recommend doing that just before taking an image of the original drive.
I used Ubuntu Linux to clone the partition - 'partimage' saves and restores whole partitions in compressed form, and 'gparted' can partition a new drive. These tools are free and easy to use, and save having to fork out for a commercial package. The only thing to watch is that restoring the data partition with partimage doesn't automatically release the new additional free space - I had to go back to gparted, reduce the size of the data partition back to its original size and then expand it again. (Dead easy, only took 5 minutes).
Dear Julius, I have readed your procedure ... really interesting, I had a same idea of you!!
But I write to you to ask you something: I make the mistake to wipe the partition table via USB to mu brand new P-3000 and now it is completely unuseful! This happenet trying ti recreate a fat32 P-3000 partition (via USB) after a unintentional NTFS XP format!!!
Now both partition has gone!!!
Can you please send me, even via eMail in 10MB WinRAR blocks or directly with MSN the 66BM of the image of the partition EPV_SYSTEM ??? In that way I would be able to recreate the partition table and to restore the espson OS partition properly.
At the moment I have the P-3000 with his original HD but BLANK!!!!
Thank you for your help ...
You can repolay tu me at my eMail, valobra@dataworks.it
I am from Rome, Italy ...
Thank you one more time.
Raffaele Valobra
Thanks for your posting.. just upgraded my P-3000 with a 120Gb Fujitsu drive and it worked perfectly.
Acronis True Image is now at version 11, but the procedure is identical.
Thanks!
Hamish
How do you do.
I am SHIN which is working as a cameraman in Japan.
The other day, my hard disk of P-5000 has broken.
Since the photoed data was backed up in the personal computer, it was good.
Epson did not do exchange of a hard disk.
My HDD was exchanged for 120GB of perpendicular magnetism.
It did not correspond in the outside of a guarantee.
Then, I think that I will correct by myself.
There is merely no software of Naka of EPV_SYSTEM and it is hopeless.
Someone should divide me into me.
I do not want to use important P-5000 with recollections as a free box.
Please send to batsman_10@jtw.zaq.ne.jp.
I would appreciate your favor.
I am sorry to be strange, since the text was changed by Web.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you....
I followed these instructions exactly and now have a 111 GB image storage device. Everything worked perfect. Great job on the text and images in this blog!!!!
Thank you, Julius, for this fantastic write-up.
One note: True Image 11 offers a "sector by sector" option to backup/restore. Leave it unchecked for our purposes.
Ok, i've just purchased the P-3000 AND the 120Gb Fujitsu HDD :)
This is gonna happen tonight (GMT+4)
Will post back once done.
Your article convinced me to buy this stuff in the first place!
Well, All done, working like a charm - best 30 minutes i've spent this month :)
Thanks mate!
Glad it worked fine for you Khaled.
Keep passing it on to as many people as you know that has an Epson P series :D
Just to add - just like a few other posters, and a few on the dpreview website - the link2 software is not working with my 120Gb
Here are some of my other findings:
1) Copying files through windows explorer to the root of the Photos folder does not work as expected. when you browse through on the epson, you will see the files, but when you press 'NEXT' to go and view them, the hourglass comes up and the screen goes black for a sec and then you cant see them anymore!!
2) Same thing with video folder.
Here's my experience...
For Photos, i created a subfolder called test under the Photos folder, copied some photos to that folder and that seems to work ok, anything in the root will not display.
Next i tried the same for video, but that didnt work - then i realised that the subfolder i created in the video folder was called Test (not 'test') the difference being the first letter was an uppercase letter!!
When i changed it to a lowercase letter, it worked fine and any videos i put in there worked ok - well except this 90Mb .mov file, which it was telling me there was no codec for it - but others were fine...
Julius, you didnt mention anything about your usage of link2 software, and whether it worked with you or not... did it? anyone else seeing the same results?
My main usage for this device is to backup CF cards when travelling, and for that it works perfectly with the directory structure preserved fully intact on the epson as it was on the CF... which means i dont have to change my workflow which relies on files being as they were on the flash...
Regards!
I wonder if it is possible to just make an image of the P-3000 hard drive (with Acronic), via USB and my PC, without removing it from the unit. I just want the image for backup in case the disk gets corrupted and I need to restore it.
It is not possible to make an Acronis image of the EPV_SYSTEM hidden partition without removing the drive from the P-3000.
Ultimately, drives other than Fujitsu's caused a myriad of glitches--probably because of differing power requirements. Stick with a Fujitsu MHV2-series drive.
FYI--the re-indexing portion of the Epson OS is not terribly robust. If you have a problem with folders and filenames, use the Epson to delete the file/folder, re-connect to the PC and copy it back onto the Epson.
The Epson OS generates and puts a bunch of index files in the folders. These ".sys" directories are normally hidden and marked as system and read-only, so you have to set your Windows Explorer to see hidden and system directories to see them.
These ".sys" directories contain various files used by the Epson OS: cache.inf, cachetbl.inf, DIRICON.cch, folder.inf, other *.cch files. If something is not displaying correctly (thumbnails, disappearing folders, etc), something in the ".sys" directory is not synchronized. Simply delete the ".sys" directory in that folder to force the Epson OS to regenerate them the next time you navigate to it.
Nice job on documenting this whole procedure Julius!
Great job Julius !
About the power problems, i've checked the specification for Fujitsu MHV2120AH.
Spin-up 1.0 A max
Operating 1.9 W typ.
Idle 0.6 W typ.
Standby 0.2 W typ.
Sleep 0.1 W typ.
WD/Samsung/Seagate all have higher power requirements than this.
The thing i found which have lower power requirements is Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 Series.
http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.dac393208bfae6f199558fe7eac4f0a0/
I don't have a chance to try Hitachi but if anyone can, please leave a comment. Personally, i prefer Hitachi and WD Drivers than Fujitsu (Better reliability and lower operating noise).
I wouldn't call a 2.5" Hitachi Travelstar drive more reliable than a Fujitsu. Hitachi notebook drives are notorious for going bad. I've had two of them die on me, and I just had a customer bring a notebook in with the famous Hitachi click-click-click -- unrecoverable without sending the drive to a cleanroom facility for data recovery. I replaced the slow, failing Hitachi drive in my P2000 with a 120GB Fujitsu drive and got better performance and battery life in the bargain. Personally, I'm sticking with Fujitsu for this upgrade.
Should also have mentioned that my Fujitsu drive is notably quieter than the Hitachi, too. It hums softly, but doesn't click audibly. Pretty much the reverse of what you've stated, nguyen.
WOW! That's all i can say. I'd recently upgraded my laptop drive and had a 120Gb Seagate Momentus lying around. After trawling through the Interweb i'd found your Blog and with the video for the P2000 here managed to swap it over, image the OS back onto it and am currently backing up some recent images.
Many thanks!!! You're a lifesaver!
Where can I get an image of the P-3000 hard disk. My hard drive is corrupted
I'm only want to say that this is a great upgrade. I have bought for 4 weeks a second hand P-3000. It is five months old and it is working perfect. But i realy wanna have a backup of my harddrive. But i don't trust myself to take the P-3000 apart. Is there anyone who can post two images of the P-3000 harddrive in one of the binary groups?
Thanks, Mike
Does anyone know of an alternative program that is free or low cost. It's hard for me to justify 50$ for using it once. I am really interested in doing this, but the software is currently in the way. Does windows have a backup program that is suitable? Thanks for any advice. Take care.
can you help reformat my epson hdd? i'll probably upgrade but for now all i need is to reformat. where do i get its internal program/software.
jojomamangun@gmail.com
Hi Julius,
thanks so much! I knew that it must be possible, because I have another image tank which´s hard drive I just change easily. But it was clear, that there is some software in the P-3000 and I thought that possibly it´s written exactly for the same size of hard drive. I was happy to read that it´s not like that. I changed the hard drive and it works! Yep! And the best about this is that in the future I will travel without my laptop! I just take the P-3000 and the other little image tank for a backup and some additional 2.5 hard drives and that´s it! So far I had as much weight as in times when travelling with films. Now there is only two tiny image tanks and some screw drivers.. Time to celebrate! Thanks again, Ingrid
Newegg has Acronis for $21. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832200004
I'm ordering it and the Fujitsu drive today. Thanks for the excellent tutorial.
Thanks for this excellent tutorial. I've been wanting to do this for a whle - and it was a breeze.
I did my P3000 last week and now others in our camera club want me to upgrade their P3000's. Thank you for the excellent tutorial.
Hi, Julius,
Thank you very much for your tutorial. I sucessfully upgraded the P3000 with Fujitsu 120GB HD. and it worked quite good.
Unfortunately, I made a mistake that I deleted all the sample music files for the viewer.
Would you please send those files to me via the following e-mail : colnago@netvigator.com.
With best regards,
KM Tam
Hi Julius et all,
The 120gb Fujitsu 2/5" HDD comes with ATA-6, ATA-7 and ATA-100. Which ATA should I purchase to upgrade the HDD?
Thanks for the tutorial, Julius.
Freeciel
I first tried a Seagate 120g drive with partial success. It was able to backup CF cards but not much more. Also if I connected it to the computer to download files it worked but would hang forever if I unplugged the USB connection.
I now did the upgrade with a Fujitsu 80gB drive and it works perfect.
Only thing is I broke the wire on the speaker(at the connector and need a new connector) Anyone know what kind of connector this is?
Thanks
FYI,
This is a great post. Thanks.
I used a 120g Seagate drive and all is working fine. I think that the trick is to make sure you limit your storage space to 80g. The software won't handle free space larger than 80g (not including system partition). At least that is what I have found on my seagate drive.
When Partition was larger than 80g the USB connection to my pc locked up and such. I used a bootable cd for gparted (way cool) and resized the storage partition to 80g via USB connection my pc and all works well.
I am going to try a few more things with my p-3000 like: (why?, because I can)
1. Install linux on it
2. Try an embedded Windows XP version and windows CE 6.0
3. Try to use the P-3000 hard drive in a computer to see if it will work on a big screen.
I will post my findings.
Hi! (sorry my English, T'm Vietnamese)
I have a Epson P5000. I cannot access file on P5000. It warning: cannot access the hard drive. There may be a problem with the hard drive, or it may not be formatted as FAT 32.
I were read julius lagula's blog. I think I can fix the P5000. But I have not original image of the P5000.
Please help me!
Thank you!
email: dohuudat@gmail.com
Julius, great tutorial. I followed it and did my own successful upgrade to a 120gb disk (111 gb of storage). Thanks, your info really helped.
A couple of things I noted:
- When re-installing the steel housing plate I wasn't careful enough with where all the bent tabs go, as a result I had to break one off that covered a hole for the hex screw.
- I left my music on the drive and in the backup (hadn't intended to) and after the restore the P3000 still recognized the music. (I had heard that it doesn't seem to recognize photos after the upgrade.)
- Even though the epson software doesn't recognized the drive over 80gb you can still dump mp3s into the music folder. When you disconnect the unit processed the files and sets them up by artist.
- I didn't know this, but apparently laptop drives can be powered through the IDE connection. I mention this because I needed to purchase an enclosure and I avoided the small 2.5" enclosures because they didn't have power connection. That made me nervous. But when I pulled out the drive it doesn't have a power connection in the P3000 (there are unused pins though) I could have saved a few bucks and got the 2.5" enclosure.
I have a P5000 and have tried fitting a 160GB WD Scorpio drive. I can confirm the 137GB LBA 'problem' -- the unit failed to work at all with the whole disc visible, but with < 137GB allocated the P5000 started up fine and gave around 128GB of available space. however after some usage tests (filling the disc completely with images) I ran into reliability problems, entering or leaving folders would occasionally freeze the unit and require battery removal to reset. I am guessing this is the 'non-fujitsu' issue that other people have reported. I have reverted to the stock drive for now and will try to find the suggested 120GB drive. Most usefully, this process has given me an image of the system partition in case something goes wrong!
(Continued from above). Tracked down the MHV2120AH (on ebay); soak tested; installed; works perfectly in my P5000
Dave.Lawrence, did you happen to experience the same problems people had with the P-3000 above re: link2, etc?
Hi!I'm Russian.sorry for my English
I have a Epson P3000.I can fix the P3000. But I have not original image of the P3000.
Please send me image.
Please help me!
Thank you!
email: maxindahouse@rambler.ru
Hello
A friend of mine has got a P3000 as well, but it felt and the result is a broken hard-drive..
He bought a new hard drive, but now he is looking for an image of the Epson operating system..
If somebdy can post the image on megaupload it would be great
thank you very much
Nicolas
skrotzky@gmail.com
re: link2 -- no, I don't use this software, I simply copy the images directly off the drive (treating it as an external USB drive)
Thanks Julius, Brilliant Tutorial. Worked like a charm.
Gordon
p.s. have you seen this
http://www.hkcug.com/thread-25102-1-10.html
no credit given to you I notice.
Gordon,
Thank you so much for the link.
It seems this tutorial is quite popular for people to copy it directly without even giving credit.
I guess there isn't much I can do in that regard, I can't even read the forum, so I can't even join and state my defence.
To all the people requesting for the P3000 image, I'm sorry, but I will not distribute the image.
Thanks so much for this! I've just upgraded by P3000 and works like a charm. Instructions are perfect.
My only departure from the instructions was to use an adapter from ATA 2.5" connector to ATA 3.5" so I could use my PC's ATA ports. Saves a couple pennies ;-)
Hi Julius,
I have an Epson P3000 which recently suffered HD failure and I no longer have the operating system. Is there any way I can get an image to restore my unit to a working state.
Hi Julius:
Thanks for the tutorial. It was great! I followed all your instructions including powering up the unit before closing it all back in. Worked like a charm. Funny thing is now after I have closed the unit it will only work with the AC plugged in and the battery symbol has turned to a red outline. Any thoughts on this? I installed the Fujitsu 120 MHV2.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again
WC
Thanks a lot, Juius.Great and very professional job!
I first upgrade the P-3000 with a 120Gb Seagate hard drive. This gave a lot of problems. Files I put on there via the computer wouldn't show up on the Epson. Also after deleting the .sys files. It would also need a reset after unplugging it from USB.
I replaced the disk with a 120GB Fujitsu disk and all the problems are away. The P3000 works great.
Thanks!
Just wanted to say that the same procedure works fine with the Epson P-4500. I sourced a 120GB Fujitsu drive from directcanada.com, cloned the partitions over from the original 80GB drive. Everything works just as it did before, except with more available space now!
Greetings! I apologise for my English, but the help is necessary to me. I Epson P3000 has fallen to a floor and now does not work, the image of a disk is necessary to me, can you know where it is possible to download it or write to me on mail sucker@inbox.ru
I Write to you about online of the translator:))
In advance thanks......
I used the Fujitsu 120gb drive and like many others, Link2 software does not recognize viewer.
Hi, is there any HD alternative to the Fujitsu MHV2120AH drive that works fine on the P3000? Its getting difficult to find that drive on the market.
Thanks
Worked like a charm - took me thirty minutes once I found the correct hex driver. Thank you very much for the extremely well-written and illustrated tutorial on how to upgrade the Epson P-3000.
Fantastic information. I recently found another device that looks promising as the hard drive is ser removable nice and easily.
Its a much cheaper alternative. Its called the Hyperdrive Colourspace O
http://www.hyperdrive.com/HyperDrive-COLORSPACE-O-s/42.htm
I was very unimpressed how the Ipod cannot read CF cards or support a reader as it has not USB host mode so there is a big hard drive with screen and without a computer you have no way of getting a CF read into the ipod, how silly is that.
Unsure how good the hyperdrive is but I will be purchasing one shortly and let you all know.
regards
I notice the Epson P7000 supports a 160GB harddrive.
Has a recent firmware upgrade possibly solved this with the P3000?
Has anyone tried to use the new
Fujitsu MHW2120BK 120GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb? Also, any word on the last post on upgrading to 160gb?
Please someone knows a HD alternative to the Fujitsu MHV2120AH for the p3000?
I upgraded to the Fujitsu 80GB drive (MHW2080AT). This was the biggest drive available from Fujitsu that had the same low power charcteristics (4800 RPM), and I wanted to preserve the relatively long battery life characteristics I was previously getting. The directions provided by Julius worked to a tee. Thank you!
- sfischer
HI nice to meet you, i saw your post...and i think it is so great~ I have a big big problem, I got a P-5000 and it broke down b4, than i brought the new hard disk, and try to transfer the file from the old one ....unfortunately the old hard disk was died! I trying to find the "EPV-SYSTEM" and the "P-5000"file to put into the new one...but i can't find any through the internet, may i ask...would you mind send this two file for me plz plz, I know there is P-3000 and P-5000 the system and file is the same! My e-mail is :fion850517@yahoo.com
thank you so much
Does anyone know if the same hard drive upgrade process is applicable to the newer P-6000?
Hi Guys,
just for those who are trying no Fujitsu HD. I just used 160gb Seagate HD. First I could not make it work. But then I started reducing the size of the data folder and wallah..I hit jackpot at 120gb. So looks like, as long as you stay at 120gb or below you are good to go. Works like a charm for me.
hi, thank god i finally found this blog, i am also looking for the system-file originally from the P-5000 hard drive, I accidentally lost them and i can't use my P-5000 now. can you please tell me where can i download these files? many thanks.
Hey guys,
As I've said previously, unfortunately I won't send out copies of the image of the hard drive. I don't want to breach anything by sharing out the image.
Sorry once again.
Julius,
This worked great for me. Thank you very much for the detailed instructions. I successfully upgraded using a WD 120GB 5400/8MB 2.5" Mobile PATA HD that I got from Tiger Direct. Working perfectly and a little quicker than the original Fujitsu. Thanks again...EnviroBob
Julius,
Thanks for your well detailed instructions. I was able to install WD 320GB 5400/8MB 2.5 HDD on P-5000
Worked for me too :)
used a WD 120GB.
Thanks everybody!
Luis
does somebody know what kind of procedure for mac user?
i have superduper as clone software is it good?
what kind of wd pata shuld i buy ?
thanks
Awesome!! Put a WD 1200BEVE and it worked perfectly. Thanks!
Hello!
I have P-3000... It's ok for now, but I am wondering would it work with SSD disks? They have lower power requirements so it looks like a good idea? Or I don't know something?
If you are looking for Epson P-3000 system files, I have a hard drive that I pulled from the Epson P-3000 and have listed on Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120432201953
Hello, everybody
first: Julius, thank you very much for this outstanding tutorial and your beuatiful photos...very well done indeed...
I know I will not be the first one with this kind of query, but anyway.
My P-3000's hard drive broke down, I'll need to replace it and I do not have the image file. I would be awesome if anybody had it and could help out...
here is my e-mail: viktorcap[at] gmail.com If you know where to get an image or if you have it, please drop me a line...
Thank you so much.
Viktor
www.flickr.com/photos/lightpoet/sets/
skype: call_victor
i try using a Hitachi 160GB Hdd, but my p5000 fail to boot up, it just stuck at the "Epson" screen
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