IAUDIO SAYS HHD ERROR

I also had this error. I assume this fix will also work on the X5 and maybe M3.
This can also be used to upgrade the HDD to a larger size!

I love my M5 and was gutted when it broke, it sounds brilliant and even in June 2009 it beats the competitions tiny, flashy, colour screen malarky by being solid, ugly, un-nickable and NO DAFT SOFTWARE! That last point is integral to fixing this fab machine.

Mine was caused by a chair leg placed on the unit... so I pretty much knew for sure the error truly was a HDD one.

- I bought a new HDD (hard disk drive), a Toshiba MK3006GAL (30gb) to replace the original MK2006GAL (20gb) off ebay. My fixed M5 is now 30GB! I'd be careful what drive you use to replace the original, I have no idea which work and which don't work. Stick with Toshiba probably.

- If you have an external drive caddy for 1.8" HDD's or some means of easily formatting the disk like a cable, format it to fat32 filesystem now. if it's secondhand your seller might do this for you if you ask nicely. Skip the linux steps if you can do this.

- Unscrew the back of the unit with a properly sized precision screwdriver, you don't want to ruin the heads on the screws mangling them with the wrong tools as they won't go back in!

- *gently* peel back the silver tape and move the red wire aside. The tape is conductive to stop static from the HDD messing things up and vice-versa.

- remove the back tape section and remember where it goes.

- remove the HDD and gently remove the delicate connector cable

- replace the HDD and put everything back as it was, making sure the black tape is in the same place and the silver tape is firmly attached (as it is meant to conduct electricity). Screw it all back up.

SKIP THESE STEPS if you previously formatted the HDD and continue where it says NOW:

- Windows was useless as it finds the device but you can't do anything to it, so I used the Ubuntu linux instead. There is probably a similar method for macs. Maybe you could use DOS, but god help you! If you hate linux, maybe Partition Magic for Windows can be used but this is only a suggestion and may be a totally useless one as I didn't try it.
- Get Ubuntu linux (or your own preferred distro) live CD (or install and enjoy a windows free life!).
- Load the livecd.
- Load Gparted (System>Administrator>Partition Editor, or "sudo gparted" typed in the terminal)
- Find the unformatted new HDD from the drop down menu e.g. SDA will be your computers HDD, don't touch that! SDB will either be your M5 or another internal HDD. You will recognise the correct drive by noticing it has 'unallocated' (i.e. unformatted) space of the same size of your replacement HDD, and won't be half full like your PC's drives (which you DONT want to format!).
- Format it to FAT32 (the same as a pendrive).
- Remember to 'unmount' the filesystem when you unplug or it may corrupt. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, leave it plugged in while you turn off the computer, and remove it when the PC is off.

NOW:

- Either using Linux or other means, you have an M5 with a new HDD formatted to fat32.
- Download the latest firmware from Cowon.
- Plug in the M5 into the PC
- The PC >should< recognise this is an IAudio M5, and you should be able to access the new empty disk. I did this step in Linux, so its probably best that you do too.
- Create a new folder on the M5 called "FIRMWARE"
- Drag the firmware file into the FIRMWARE folder.
- Unplug the unit safely (i.e. unmounted) and turn it on.

The unit runs a firmware update and recreates the software on the new disk.

Voila! You have a repaired M5!

Connect to a PC and add your music back on. You did keep a backup, right? ;-)

Hope I've helped everyone!

I have same problem and dont know what i can do with it