I'm looking for info for a project that i'm planning.
I found a broken Creative vision:m Zen 30gb music player.
I have two questions: 1) How do i test to see if the HDD is still working fine?
2) How (if at all possible) can i adapt the hd drive from the player to function as a removable usb disk?

Any input that can be provided would be truely appreciated.

This topic has been moved from the section Other-2 to section Audio by Jake_Barnes

What interface does the hard disk use ?

Older iPods used IBM microdrive socket which is compatible with solid state Compact Flash cards. Have a look for a pic of either and compare with yours -- you may find that you can test the HDD in a Microdrive adapter and hopefully use it as a removeable drive that way. Alternatively a CF card may replace the a broken HDD and restore the Creative to working.

I learned all I know by dumb tinkering.

Thanks for the info dude. I can't seem to find a clear a pic of the microdrive pic that ur talking about but i will keep looking.

PS i'm new to forums and was wondering if u could give me a clue as to how to post pics.
the HDD specs are:

Toshiba MK3006GAL Hdd1442
length=8cm
width=5.5cm
thickness=0.4cm

I found that it is a cf connector is it possible to purchase an external case

I use an IBM branded PCMCIA card microdrive adapter for laptop -- cost very little at flea market as it is redundant technology now memory stick flash drives are sold at every supermarket.

thanks for all the info dudes. I found an enclosure that works perfectly on ebay. It's an enclosure for a Toshiba 1.8" disk drive. used in most ipods. If any1 is interested there is a model for the Toshiba 1.8" which has specialised pins connection, there is a separate enclosure for the Hitachi 1.8" drives
More info:
http://insidecomputer.stores.yahoo.n...b20alhadr.html