# How to retrieve contents of faulty Creative Zen Xtra hard disk?



## ClubMan (12 Feb 2006)

Anybody any suggestions on this...

My nephew's 60GB _Creative Zen Xtra MP3 _player has stopped working. It seems to lock up at the _Creative EAX _splash screen and never gets to the main menu. Activating the maintenance mode menu and using _Clean Up _does nothing (just displays the _Scanning _(?) message and nothing happens). Restoring/upgrading the OS/firmware doesn't help either.

I've read a few sites about _Creative _hard disks locking up in this way and recommending so called "percussive maintenance" (i.e. giving the player a whack or two on the site to free up the stuck hard disk ) and we have both even tried this with no joy (yes - I'm aware of the risks involved!).

I took the 2.5" hard disk out and tested it with the hard disk vendor's utilities (it's a _Fujitsu_) and it passed all tests. I also tested it with a few other diagnostic/rescue utilities including SpinRite and none of them reported any problems.

It looks like the hard disk itself is OK but there may be some problem with the filesystem that _Creative _use that is preventing the player from booting up properly. Anybody know of any way to tackle diagnosing and fixing problems with such a disk - e.g. a utility that can understand the _Creative _filesystem and so the equivalent of a _chkdsk/scandisk _etc. on it?

I guess there's also a possibility that the flash memory containing the firmware could be corrupted or faulty but seeing that the firmware restore/upgrade worked OK I presume this is OK (i.e. I would expect this to verify the firmware written and even mask out dead sectors of flash memory if necessary).

Any other suggestions?


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## DrMoriarty (12 Feb 2006)

*Re: How to retrieve faulty Creative Zen Xtra hard disk?*

I had similar problems with an iRiver 5GB 'Pure' (i.e. no FM player) that I bought on eBay for my sister's birthday — at a 'bargain' price, but with a short warranty period. I wish you luck; my goddamn yoke is still sitting gloating balefully at me from the corner of my office, and I ended up buying Sister Dearest an over-the-counter iPod Nano as a replacement... 

I think God may be trying to send a message to mp3-player _aficionados_.


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## ClubMan (12 Feb 2006)

*Re: How to retrieve faulty Creative Zen Xtra hard disk?*

Actually he has a second one but it looks like the hard disk in that one is totally screwed. When I installed the first one in my laptop it at least detected it (although obviously didn't understand the filesystem) allowing me to run _SpinRite _etc. on it. However the other hard disk didn't even register in the _BIOS _or with any of the diagnostic utils...


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## ClubMan (12 Feb 2006)

*Re: How to retrieve faulty Creative Zen Xtra hard disk?*

Just to clarify - I am looking for a way of retrieving the hard disk in it's current state if at all possible - in order to retrieve the contents. If this is not possible then I presume that zeroising the disk using the _Fujitsu _utilities and then reinstalling the _Creative _firmware etc. will restore the player to new/blank mode. At the moment the priority is to retrieve the existing contents if at all possible.


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## car (13 Feb 2006)

*Re: How to retrieve faulty Creative Zen Xtra hard disk?*

anything [broken link removed]


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## ClubMan (13 Feb 2006)

*Re: How to retrieve faulty Creative Zen Xtra hard disk?*

Thanks but not really - I've been through all of the information on _Creative_, _NomadWorld _and lots of other sites and haven't been able to find some way of recovering the disk by doing some sort of _chkdsk/scandisk_ equivalent. I guess that _Clean up _in the _Recovery/Maintenance Menu _is supposed to do this but it just hangs. At the moment a reformat (raw using the _Fujitsu _tools and then higher level using the player) and reinstall looks like the only option. Of course this means the loss of the contents of the disk. Underlines the need for backups yet again...


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## Bootdog (13 Feb 2006)

*Re: How to retrieve faulty Creative Zen Xtra hard disk?*

Did you try calling them, and asking to speak to someone in the tech department in Dublin? They are based in Citywest if I'm not mistaken.

I found them very helpful in the past, they organised a swap for me when I called out to the factory with a Zen Xtra 60 GB that was defective from new.

I presume the nephew told you that it won't work without the Nomad Explorer software installed (i.e. its not simple plug and play).


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## ClubMan (13 Feb 2006)

*Re: How to retrieve faulty Creative Zen Xtra hard disk?*



			
				Bootdog said:
			
		

> Did you try calling them, and asking to speak to someone in the tech department in Dublin? They are based in Citywest if I'm not mistaken.
> 
> I found them very helpful in the past, they organised a swap for me when I called out to the factory with a Zen Xtra 60 GB that was defective from new.


 The players are not under warranty so I doubt that they will help but I suppose I could try all the same. Thanks for the tip.


> I presume the nephew told you that it won't work without the Nomad Explorer software installed (i.e. its not simple plug and play).


 Thanks. I'm familiar with how the players work having an old [broken link removed] myself and all the latest _Creative _software (_MediaSource Player/Organizer, NOMAD Explorer, Jukebox 3/Zen Xtra _drivers etc.) installed. In any case the issue is not access to the player from the _PC _(via the _Creative _software - I realise that the player doesn't appear as a normal _USB/FireWire _mounted drive) that's the main problem but rather the fact that the player won't boot properly from the hard disk even though there doesn't seem to be any low level problem with it - i.e. it seems to be a problem with something like the proprietary filesystem on the disk itself that the _Clean Up_ operation can't cope with because the _Fujitsu _and other low level diagnostics report no problem with the physical drive.


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## ClubMan (13 Feb 2006)

By the way - while I was referring to the _Creative _"filesystem" above it seems that these players don't use a filesystem as such but rather a database on the hard disk. See this link:


> On writing NJB filesystem-like components:
> 
> Users of Unix-like operating systems in particular have a nack to
> turn everything into filesystems. Naturally, many people believe that
> ...


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## ClubMan (20 Feb 2006)

No joy in the end. Ended up zeroising the drive with the _Fujitsu _low level tools, reinstalling it in the player, reformatting it, reloading the _OS_/firmware to end up with a perfectly working but blank player. Oh well - I think that most of the content was illegal anyway. He has another identical one whose hard drive seems to be totally screwed - doesn't even register in the BIOS when installed in the laptop - and just clicks at startup. Percussive maintenance hasn't worked and I even tried freezing it just in case that helped. He wants to sell these players on _eBay _and buy a video _iPod _now anyway. Bloody students, eh? When I was his age blah, blah, blah etc....


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