Format Hard Drive Error

Hi
i had same issue. nothing worked until i saw a guy who fixed his by dropping it on floor?
i dropped my archos in the protective case from 2 feet off floor. the bloody thing when came back to life, 100% good. i think the hard drive was stuck and the fall fixed it!! it cannot hurt as yours is broken still i guess. hope it works for you to

its a HDD or OS failure
ull have to ask the company for a replacement if its under the warranty period
make sure to register ur device on the Archos website to get a 'Technical Support Passcode.'call Archos to tell them ur problem and if ur lucky they wud repair it free of charge
if u want to try it urself...i found this one of the forums on the net..
1.remove all the screws, and remove the battery.
2. Remove the hard disk from the player by disconnecting the ribbon connector carefully from the mainboard.
3. Try to startup the player after putting the battery back in place. This time, instead of turning off, the player showed a "cannot read hard disk" error with the option of formatting it. Made me realise that the hard disk was the culprit. However, I had heard the hard disk noises previously, and they sounded fine, so I realised it was a software issue (file system was corrupted)
4. Try to connect it back, same problem as before... Also it is very difficult to first start the player & then connect the hard disk, as the player is designed to shut off in that situation.
5. The best option after this would be to get a drive enclosure designed specifically for 1.8 hitachi hard disks to connect the disk directly to the computer using USB and format it.
6. However since I didn't have a specialised enclosure, I did a lot of trail and error with the player itself (running off mains while connecting the hard disk after starting the player without releasing the power button etc etc etc) which Im sure wasnt too kind on the hard disk, but voila, I managed to start it up fine WITH the hard disk in place without the player turning off using some weird combination of holding down the power button and connecting the ribbon on the bootup screen)
7. After this, he was able to select "format", and the player began working fine he lost all the data on the player itself, but luckily he had backups of everything!

Thanks for using Fixya

Try updateing the firmware on the device
http://www.archos.com/products/video/av_500/download.html?country=global&lang=en

If you are unable to perform a firmware update on the player you will most likely have to send it in for service.

The hard drive in the Archos may have become corrupted. A format will most likely fix the issue but the media on the drive will be erased.

you need a 1.8" zif format hard drive samsung and toshiba both have models that will work for you, but you need to do a downgrade upgrade trip with the firmware in order to get the archos to use the new hard drive! her is the link to how to do the downgrade upgrade to the firmware

http://frenchyaz.com/av500.aspx

Downgrade firmware from 1.5.12 to 1.3.12 and then replace the hard drive, it should work. It does not work with firmware versions superior to 1.3.12. If you have 1.5.13 you can downgrade to 1.5.12 using the normal archos update procedure (yes, from 1.5.13 to 1.5.12 you can freely donwgrade using standard offical method). You can find 1.5.12 firmware on the official archos download page. If you need the 1.3.12 version (not available at archos website) it can be retrieved there: http://www.opendrivers.com/freedownload/232939/archos-av500-portable-dvr-firmware-1.3.12-download.html

LAST HOPE !!!

ERROR CODE 102!!!
I JUST FOUND OUT THAT I HAD THAT SAME PROBLEM TOO...AND I WAS ABOUT TO THROW IT AWAY OR GIVE IT TO MY WILD CAT TO PLAY WITH !!! BUT!!! HERE IS WHAT I DID FOR MY LAST HOPE IN SOLVING THIS PROBLEM...

FIRST HERE ARE THE DETAILED PROBLEMS I HAD...
*NO RECOGNITION OF MY ARCHOS IN MY PC...
*ERROR SCREEN..."SYSTEM DAMAGE...REPAIR? NO,REPAIR,FORMAT DISK"
*SELECTED ANY OF THE OPTIONS...SAME STUFF...BACK TO THE SCREEN...NEVER ENDING STORY...

OK...THIS IS WHAT I DID...

1 DOWNLOAD THE LATEST FIRM FROM WWW.ARCHOS.COM...TO YOUR PC !!

2.AFTER DOWNLOADING THE LATEST FIRM UPDATE TO YOUR PC... PLUG IN YOUR ARCHOS TO YOUR COMPUTER...

3 YOU WILL NOTICE THE ARCHOS IS NOT DETECTED AND YOU ARE IN YOUR SCREEN ERROR STILL...OK...TURN YOUR ARCHOS OFF BY CLICKING ON THE POWER BUTTON FOR ABOUT 5 SECONDS OR UNTIL IT TURNS OFF...(NOTHING ON THE SCREEN BUT BLACK...)

4. THEN...WE ARE ABOUT TO TURN IT ON AGAIN...BUT BEFORE THAT... LEAVE ONE FINGER ON YOUR TV/LCD BUTTON PRESSED !!! HERE IS THE SECRET...THEN TURN IT ON !! BUT...DO NOT LET THE TV/LCD BUTTON RELEASED !! IS LIKE YOUR ARE GOING TO PRESS BOTH OF THEM AT THE SAME TIME...AND WAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS...

5. THEN ANOTHER SCREEN WILL APPEAR..SORT OF LIKE...HDD RECOVERY 2...YOU MIGHT WANT TO UNFORTUNATELY FORMAT YOUR DISK...

6. ONCE IT TELLS YOU DONE ! DO NOT PRESS ANY BUTTON... THE PC WOULD NOW RECOGNIZE YOUR ARCHOS...AS A HARD DRIVE..ETC...

7. ONCE IS DETECTED BY YOUR PC...REMEMBER THE FILE YOU DOWNLOAD IT... DRAG IT DOWN TO YOUR ARCHOS..IN THE ROOT SECTION... THAT MEANS...IN NO FOLDERS INSIDE THE ARCHOS...BUT BY ITSELF...JUST LIKE ANY OTHER FILE IN A FLASHDRIVE IF YOU MAY...

8. THEN IT MIGHT ASK YOU AGAIN YOUR PC...YOU WANT TO FORMAT THIS DRIVE...JUST SAY YES....OK...WHATEVER... AND LET IT FORMAT...

9. FINALLY AFTER THE FORMAT SITUATION HAPPENS...YOUR ARCHOS WILL ACCEPT THE FILE...AND IT WILL BE DOWNLOADED AUTOMITICALLY...THEN REOPEN IT TO MAKE SURE IS THERE ALREADY...

10. FOR THE LAST STEP... ENJOY ! MY ARCHOS IS BACK TO NORMAL..IT REBOOT AND EVERYTHING IS FACTORY MADE...HOPE THIS WORK GUYS...AS FOR ME IT DID...
PS. PLEASE BE PATIENT ON THAT OPTION OF THE TV/LCD FOR IT MIGHT NOT WORK RIGHT AWAY...I TRY IT LIKE TWO TIMES BEFORE IT LET ME FORMAT EVERYTHING...BECAUSE YOU MIGHT GET ERROR MESSAGES LIKE..."MEDIA FAILED" ETC... JUST KEEP ON TRYING UNTIL IT ACCEPTS IT.. LET ME KNOW WHAT HAPPENED...

AV500 will not install on XP PRO

I have found someone who can replace the hard drive al they will need is the serial# from the HD it also depends on the size of memory you have. They will program the HD and send it to you with the instructions ob how to install. I will post here as soon as I receive the new HD back. So Archos lied saying you cannot replace the HD yourself.I will never buy another Archos product again. I have two the AV500 and the 605 wifi which is a joke with all of the Accessories they want you to purchase.I believe they design the products to fail so you would have to purchase their new products and all of the crazt accessories to get it to do what is supposed to do in the first place.Horrible company

If you have windows, you can sync your videos through windows media player, when you do this it should convert the videos into wmv format, which will then play on the Archos.
Jo :-)