Av500 Hard Drive Error

[kman365]

I have had my Archos AV500 100GB for about 4-5 weeks. It has worked well up until the weekend.

I have the device set to hard drive.

When I plugged it in on the weekend it came up as a "F drive removable device". Usually it came up with AV500 as an external hard drive.

When I click on the removable drive (ie the Archos Player) it comes up with "Do you want to format the hard drive". Im no computer genius but surely this is going to delete all my data? Does anyone know if there is a way to fix this problem as Archos only suggested that I format the hard drive and how important it was to keep a back up of my data. The player works fine apart from this but obviously the player looses 80% of its functionality if I cant connect it to my PC.

I dont want to have to recopy everything from my PC to Archos player everytime this happens which they said could easily happen again. In fact with a 100GB hard drive its not really possible for me to back up all of the movies and videos on my PC anyway when I have stored .

Hs anyone else encountered this problem? Are they working on new firmware update to fix this problem? Surely the cant expect people to just put up with this.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Andrew
 

[tat2sailor]

kman356, have not encountered your problem with my AV 500. But such problems usually happens when devices are disconnected from PC incorrectly. For now, formatting seems the only choice and things should be ok from then on unless it has been happening frequently.

If we really treasure what we have then backing up is the only solution, this is what i do:

1. if it's really important, keep 1 copy in PC or Portable Harddisk and burn another copy to DVD RW.

2. create a document (word, excel or note) within folders to properly keep tracks of files and where are their back ups.

[kman365]

kman356, have not encountered your problem with my AV 500. But such problems usually happens when devices are disconnected from PC incorrectly. For now, formatting seems the only choice and things should be ok from then on unless it has been happening frequently.

If we really treasure what we have then backing up is the only solution, this is what i do:

1. if it's really important, keep 1 copy in PC or Portable Harddisk and burn another copy to DVD RW.

2. create a document (word, excel or note) within folders to properly keep tracks of files and where are their back ups.
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The Acrhos people have said it is a hardware fault with the device. It is currently being fixed apparently. Im pretty careful about ensuring I disconnect the HD first before unplugging though.

Yes I will probably back everything up to DVD and my PC harddrive

Thanks
Andrew

[eyan15]

I have a basic Q. The same thing has hpnd to my Archos too. The Q is would the formatting affect my firmware?

And, that only my data would be lost!

It would b of great help if somebdy would clarify ths.

Thank u in advance.

On a vry diff topic, The chrgr wich comes with it is very poor qulity. Is anybdy using a 3rd party chrgr? if so is it working fine?

[Takeapic]

I've ordered a car charger and a USB charger. I'll post the results when they arrive.

[Takeapic]

I received my chargers.
The UBS one fits perfect, has a standard UBS cord length, and charges just like the AC one.
The car adapter jack is slightly loose on the Archos end, and I have to move the L-shaped plug until the light stays on. Otherwise it works fine.

[tat2sailor]

takeapic, it's convenient to use a USB charger but do note the time it takes for a full charge. It should be much slower than pluging it to the wall socket.

[iom]

I had the same problem ("disk not formatted") the other day. I got my Archos AV500 30g only 2 weeks ago so I was rather worried about it...
Now, luckily I had a backup of almost all my files on my PC, so I didn't lose those.
But there's a way to retrieve your fils anyway: set the archos AV 500 to "Windows Device" and connect it to a WINXP PC... Somehow it was still recognized there, and I managed to retrieve the missing files. Note that the transfer time is a lot slower, so it's better to have a backup.  

Then I formatted the drive, not through Windows, but by going to the Archos setup screen, System Info, pressing the down action button for 3 secs (so a "format archos" button appears) and validating it. once again: YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA AND SETTINGS IF YOU DO SO.
The Firmware version remained though... But I lost all the wallpapers and my TV Tuner settings.

I e-mailed archos and they told me that the error wasn't a hardware problem, but may be due to a shock or improper disconnecting.. I never do that but I hope they're right... I'm even more careful now.
If you want to get the original files back, Archos have uploaded them all here: ftp://support.archos.com/AV500/

Now I've re-programmed the TV-settings and made a backup of the whole Archos content, even the "System" folder. If you do the same and if the problem happens again, I wouldn't recommend to copy/paste the whole "system" folder into the archos, but just the file with your TV settings: "TVChannels.txt"

That's it for my experience with the error.. Hope it won't occur again.

I just have two questions:
- I got a USB charger.. I'm a bit worried though: it seems to work fine, but I guess it doesn't have the same characteristics as the regular charger, as the charging time is way longer. Isn't that bad for the battery?
(BTW I was rather pleasantly surprised at the battery-life: Archos says it's supposed to last 4h30 in video mode, I tested it and it lasted over 5hours   )
- I had a strange display problem once or twice: the right half of the screen was in negative. Not such a big deal, after reboot everything was OK. Archos Tech Support said it's not normal and that they're working on it. Hope they can fix that with the next firmware. Has anybody else seen this happening?  

Ok, hope this helps and thaks for reading through this long post  

[tat2sailor]

Click here

Was discussed here, but no solution yet!

Cheers!

[powder]

I am completely clueless on how to move files from my AV500 to my PC.  When I plug the device into my PC the device is recognized as an F: drive and I get the promt informing me that the device has more than one type of content and asking me what I want to do.  When I click on Windows Media Player, the prompt goes away and nothing happens.  If I open Media Player on its own, I can "see" the files, but all I get is audio.  If I go through Explorer, I can see the files as Media Player files, but I quickly get a Data Execution Prevention message which then closes Explorer.  Added to this is the fact that I have yet to figure out how to get the video files to play on my TV.  The video files open and play just fine on the AV 500 though.

Can someone help - I can't seem to get a reply from Archos.

Chad  

I had the same problem ("disk not formatted") the other day. I got my Archos AV500 30g only 2 weeks ago so I was rather worried about it...
Now, luckily I had a backup of almost all my files on my PC, so I didn't lose those.
But there's a way to retrieve your fils anyway: set the archos AV 500 to "Windows Device" and connect it to a WINXP PC... Somehow it was still recognized there, and I managed to retrieve the missing files. Note that the transfer time is a lot slower, so it's better to have a backup. 

Then I formatted the drive, not through Windows, but by going to the Archos setup screen, System Info, pressing the down action button for 3 secs (so a "format archos" button appears) and validating it. once again: YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA AND SETTINGS IF YOU DO SO.
The Firmware version remained though... But I lost all the wallpapers and my TV Tuner settings.

I e-mailed archos and they told me that the error wasn't a hardware problem, but may be due to a shock or improper disconnecting.. I never do that but I hope they're right... I'm even more careful now.
If you want to get the original files back, Archos have uploaded them all here: ftp://support.archos.com/AV500/

Now I've re-programmed the TV-settings and made a backup of the whole Archos content, even the "System" folder. If you do the same and if the problem happens again, I wouldn't recommend to copy/paste the whole "system" folder into the archos, but just the file with your TV settings: "TVChannels.txt"

That's it for my experience with the error.. Hope it won't occur again.

I just have two questions:
- I got a USB charger.. I'm a bit worried though: it seems to work fine, but I guess it doesn't have the same characteristics as the regular charger, as the charging time is way longer. Isn't that bad for the battery?
(BTW I was rather pleasantly surprised at the battery-life: Archos says it's supposed to last 4h30 in video mode, I tested it and it lasted over 5hours   )
- I had a strange display problem once or twice: the right half of the screen was in negative. Not such a big deal, after reboot everything was OK. Archos Tech Support said it's not normal and that they're working on it. Hope they can fix that with the next firmware. Has anybody else seen this happening?   

Ok, hope this helps and thaks for reading through this long post 
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[Takeapic]

In the System screen, change the drive type to Hard Drive. This is what Explorer will treat the Archos like, so you can drag and drop files. If it is Windows Device, only WMP can use it.

[tat2sailor]

iom, can't get to the format screen on my archos. followed the procedure but nothing happens, do i have to be in windows or harddrive mode? btw had tried both and nothing happens.......

Then I formatted the drive, not through Windows, but by going to the Archos setup screen, System Info, pressing the down action button for 3 secs (so a "format archos" button appears) and validating it. once again: YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA AND SETTINGS IF YOU DO SO.
The Firmware version remained though... But I lost all the wallpapers and my TV Tuner settings.

[iom]

Hmmm.. .Maybe I made a mistake. Here's a cut/paste from the Archos manual.. Hope it helps:

Problem: I want to reformat the AV 500’s hard drive.
Answer: You can do this, but it will erase ALL of the data on your AV 500. Sometimes this may be necessary
if your FAT (File Allocation Table) becomes so corrupted that nothing seems to fi x your fi le problems. First, as
explained below, you should run ScanDisk or the DOS chkdsk (Check Disk) program to try to fi x your problem.
If this doesn’t fi x your problem and you are sure you must reformat the AV 500 hard drive, then go to the screen
Settings > System and press and hold the DOWN action button for three seconds. A button “Format HD” will
appear. Use this button to format the AV 500’s hard drive. Remember, doing this will erase all the data on the AV
500’s hard drive!!!

[tat2sailor]

Had tried those, guess it's a trip to the store......thanks!