Rare semi-vintage Harddrive MP3 Player
I found a weird one.
I was at my local thrift store a few days ago. And I saw what appeared to be a caller display unit with a little window. It was a chunky looking unit shaped like a bar soap container sitting in a small orange cardboard box. I picked it up and it read: X's-Drive Pro [UP300].
It was in very good condition. I read the box and it said "USB 2.0" and 9 in 1 card reader".
I thought “OK this is some primitive MP3 player which took SD cards and a few old obsolete formats too”. The on board battery is dead from sitting, I would have to charge it up.
It said "USB 2.0" so I place the unit sometime after the year 2000. There was a mini-cd with the unit so I popped it into my laptop I had with me, it had XP drivers so that places it on or after the year 2001. Interesting.
I read the specs on the back further, and it names the various storage options, then I see something that said :Hard Drive size". What?
I open the back with a screw driver and holy **** right there is a laptop HD! Later on I’d find out that it is a blank 40GB drive. The machine is from 2004 and worth $350 with a 20 GB HD.
I heard that it is hard to find on this side of the pond. But after reading reviews I hear you can stick a HUGE HD in it, ever have I seen any kind of limit to how big a HD I can put in it.
If I put in a 320 GB PATA HD, that would be more than double the capacity of the Apple Ipod classic!
The sound sounds good, the HD is OK. The battery time is shitty though. I updated the firmware from 1.30 to 1.33 for bug fixes.
Now here is the problem: It plays 160kbps MP3 files like a champ. But it either outright refuses to play 320kbps MP3 or when it does play it, the tempo is slow and there is a “rice crispy” popping sound as it struggles along.
Most of my music is 320kbps, do I have to convert all the stuff I want to put on there?
But I have never seen anything like this, I thought only apple and a few other major players made HD mp3 players at that time!? It seems to be well made and stirdy. I am thinking about adding a battery clip with 5 AA batteries to the underside of it to replace the custom made battery inside, Maybe install an LED to illuminate the screen as they did for the models after this one, add a piece of cardboard underneath the LCD screen as it goes dark because of the heat generated by the HD. Finally some stickers or something to knarly it up.
Any idea, suggestions?
I found a weird one.
I was at my local thrift store a few days ago. And I saw what appeared to be a caller display unit with a little window. It was a chunky looking unit shaped like a bar soap container sitting in a small orange cardboard box. I picked it up and it read: X's-Drive Pro [UP300].
It was in very good condition. I read the box and it said "USB 2.0" and 9 in 1 card reader".
I thought “OK this is some primitive MP3 player which took SD cards and a few old obsolete formats too”. The on board battery is dead from sitting, I would have to charge it up.
It said "USB 2.0" so I place the unit sometime after the year 2000. There was a mini-cd with the unit so I popped it into my laptop I had with me, it had XP drivers so that places it on or after the year 2001. Interesting.
I read the specs on the back further, and it names the various storage options, then I see something that said :Hard Drive size". What?
I open the back with a screw driver and holy **** right there is a laptop HD! Later on I’d find out that it is a blank 40GB drive. The machine is from 2004 and worth $350 with a 20 GB HD.
I heard that it is hard to find on this side of the pond. But after reading reviews I hear you can stick a HUGE HD in it, ever have I seen any kind of limit to how big a HD I can put in it.
If I put in a 320 GB PATA HD, that would be more than double the capacity of the Apple Ipod classic!
The sound sounds good, the HD is OK. The battery time is shitty though. I updated the firmware from 1.30 to 1.33 for bug fixes.
Now here is the problem: It plays 160kbps MP3 files like a champ. But it either outright refuses to play 320kbps MP3 or when it does play it, the tempo is slow and there is a “rice crispy” popping sound as it struggles along.
Most of my music is 320kbps, do I have to convert all the stuff I want to put on there?
But I have never seen anything like this, I thought only apple and a few other major players made HD mp3 players at that time!? It seems to be well made and stirdy. I am thinking about adding a battery clip with 5 AA batteries to the underside of it to replace the custom made battery inside, Maybe install an LED to illuminate the screen as they did for the models after this one, add a piece of cardboard underneath the LCD screen as it goes dark because of the heat generated by the HD. Finally some stickers or something to knarly it up.
Any idea, suggestions?
You're quite welcome. Glad you like the idea!
I subscribed to this thread so keep me posted on your progress.
se
Somebody stole my SD card and the reader for it, I can't take any pictures.
Here is a picture of one I googled for you.
http://steves-digicams.com/images6/xdrive_cards.jpg
Mine has a white body with a bare metal accent around the screen.
The SD card in the pic gives you a good sense of scale.
No. I took a 4 GB SD card and stuck it in the slot. It does NOT go all the way in and click in place as you might expect, it sticks out half way.
So no, I couldn't care less about the card slots. Its got a 40GB drive in it, that's good enough for now.
I was going to write something about having a more vintage harddrive MP3 player, but thought it didn't really add much to the discussion. But, anyway, it's a Creative Nomad Jukebox, with a 6 gig drive, USB 1 connection which requires special software to transfer music, and runs on AA cells. The drive upgraded, but you have to copy some of the image over so it'll boot. There was a site called Nomadness with lots of info and helpful software, but it went down not long after I got the Jukebox. It's hard to recommend this model, because it seems like it was rushed into production without refining either the hardware or software. There's an IR sensor, but no remote exists. It can record losslessly, but it picks up internal noise, and lacks level monitoring. The case could be mistaken for an off-brand portable CD player.
Creative made a later version that is just about ideal, the Jukebox 3, with S/PDIF out and in. I hope to find one of those at the thrift store one day.
Creative made a later version that is just about ideal, the Jukebox 3, with S/PDIF out and in. I hope to find one of those at the thrift store one day.
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