I bought a tomtom 910 on ebay which is not working. It 'boots' to tomtom but then has a red x. anyway, I know it has a hitachi microdrive which I would like to re-format and then tomtom home says it will recognize it. Then I can buy the maps and it should work.
I'm trying to determine if this drive can be saved. Initially when you plug in the usb it errors saying:
One of the USB Devices attached to this computer has a malfunctioned, and windows does not recognize it.
yes, i tried the correct reset button for 5, 15, 30 and 60 seconds a thousand times with no joy.
But if I go to device manager and disable then enable the unknown usb device and then reboot, it comes up as e drive every time. I have tried the following programs on that drive all of which have failed:
seatools: knows it's a tomtom, wrong size (2000gigs when it's just 20 gigs)
ontrack data recovery: never recovers even from raw recovery any data
windows disc manager: right click e drive and format in various ways (want fat 16 or 32)
partition magic 8 to format it: does not recognize it unlike all above. maybe old version of pm
wipeout: a low level format program but it fails and won't even let me try
I know where I can buy another but before I do I want to ask the experts here why it can see the drive but not access data or format it? I heard my last resort is to buy some 40 pin to 50 pin adapter or something like that and access it from my comptuter, not usb. I don't have one or know exactly what I need to try this. It seems so darn close - even the tomtom knows it's a tomtom and sound works on booting and icons show up, just does not work.
specifically, here's what the hd specs say:
Hitatchi Model # HTC426020G5CE00
It is 1.8" HD 50pin ATA interface microdrive
same as used in laptops it says. Yes, I've tried connecting with tomtomhome from 3 computers.
Thanks in advance
James
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I don't have the adapter, but the I DO have the drive recognized by the OS (xp). I am unable to format it using windows management, partition magic, wipeout, and the command line etc. I'm open to suggestions of other programs to try. I do not know if there is something on the ultimate boot cd that would work. Thanks for any advice you can give me.
James
I found this part on webpage http://www.deltaco.se/ using word "zif" in the search. The correct name for this adapter should be "ZIF-IDE40-A".
ok, I see it. I may buy one of those but in the mean time, what else can I do to reformat this drive?
I can't imagine it's dead if it shows up AND it boots to tomtom error page on tomtom so it must at least have one file accessible to even show an image. If it's not completely dead, chkdsk should be able to fix bad sectors but it does not let me do this. I need ideas to reformat or explain why it's dead even though it shows up still.
Thanks
James
Hi ultrasoft. I like that answer. It makes sense with what I'm seeing and I read one other person suggesting that. How do I delete partitions in linux? is the ultimate boot cd have linux on it? I've used that once. I pretty good with windows and know some command line stuff but I've only worked on linux once so I need help on three things:
booting to linux
commands to first try to save any files that may be ok
commands to format including reformating the mbr and or creating more than one partition if needed.
Thanks, were' almost done, I'll check this question daily now, James
Sorry for late reply. Try Knoppix Linux Live DVD (http://www.knoppix.org/).
If you don't want to play with partitions - first try to format the drive instead deleting partitions using GParted. If it doesn't work, then delete and re-create again.
Thanks ultrasoft. I'm downloading it now. I also so freebsd and microknoppix with addrianne. Not sure what they are but I'm trying the iso of knoppix 2007 now, will let you know what I get. Does not sound like I can copy contents before partitioning. Can you explain your reasoning to first try deleting and adding back a partition? Could that actually allow the data to be saved and it might work again without reformatting? Thanks, James
If Tomtom uses FAT filesystem, Knoppix will be able to mount it and you should be able to copy away all of your data. If you want you may make a disk or partition image before you destroy partitions (Knoppix has all needed tools).
I suspect that something is wrong with MBR or filesystem or both. If you don't want to repair them then delete-create is the simplest way to correct it. Of course, doing it you'll loose all your data.
ok, I deleted all accounts on the laptop except one. I even gave it a password where it did not have one before. no luck. I'm starting knoppix by rebooting the computer with the cd drive as boot 1 and it boots perfectly. I've used it once I remember now about 5 years ago. What's the password for gparted?
please read all my entries: I can open qtparted. It shows 10 drives and there is no way this laptop has that many partitions already. I don't need this laptop so I'm not worried about having to reinstall the os etc. what's dev/cloop1 to cloop8 and then dev/hda is my cdrom drive and dev/sda is an hitachi drive but I don't know if it's the tomtom or the laptop. The tomtom does use a hitachi drive so it may be it - what can I do to it with qtparted? Still want to know the password for gparted.
Ultrasoft,
I looked through all the tools. I'm not sure how to mount it. Yes, it's fat 16 or 32 but I don't think it's mounting. I don't see how to format it. With windows, I get it to show up by going to device manager, removing the unknown usb device, and then rebooting and it finds it. Each time I turn off the tomtom I have to repeat that procedure to mount it. It always begins by "formatting" my tomtom or so it says on the tomtom menu. That always fails in windows, and then I do my enable/disable, reboot, and it mounts. How can I disable driver in linux?
James
Hi Ultrasoft - I have googled lots of commands to mount the hd but none of them worked in the command window. The drive just won't show up. I know if I could learn to disable and enable the driver like I do in windows I might be able to do it but I don't know linux as well. My drive must have something wrong although I know it's not dead. I think I may have lost you here. Maybe you're busy. Thanks - I'll check it once more and then close this.
I never solved the problem. Ultrasoft had some great ideas to try but they did not work. Then I never heard back from him and no one else tried to help me. I thought of deleting it but I figure Ultrasoft deserves the points just for trying. This question does have a little value for your knowledgebase but only in things to try and for others to see I was not successful and that they are not alone. I know it's solvable but how and by whom I don't know.
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by: ultrasoftxPosted on 2009-07-27 at 01:58:18ID: 24949730
Some ideas: you really need correct 50-pin adapter, for example http://www.deltaco.se/wind
If you have drive connected and recognized by OS, then try to re-format it. If you are unable to format it, then I'll try to instruct you in next posts.