Yes. As long as there is a bootable master drive (ignore emplode for the moment) in the player, you should be able to partition and format a new secondary drive.

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(ignore emplode for the moment)

It would connect w/Hyperterminal but it would fall short of a bash prompt. Instead there disk error issues, I wish I had captured it now so as to post.
***I'll try the boot drive from the Rio or perhaps try the whole operation in the Rio instead of the Empeg.
Thanks for all help so far, the others may have given up on me for my rather ham-handed attempts @ getting this to work. In my eagerness to get the drive to work before the return time is over my posts have been lacking in good details for trouble shooting. I had checked everything the FAQ mentioned to look for when problems arose. Including the use of penlights, magnifying glasses, new cable & triple checking connections. A few years back I successfully added the second drive w/no problems whatsoever so this really baffling me.

I gave up on the new drive it just won't let Hyperterminal connect so I tried another older drive. When attempting to trash the existing partition table I get the response 'device not configured'. Is this good/bad, should I proceed to next step or is there somethingelse I'm going to have to do first before continuing?
and what does Tried to mount /dev/hdc4 but got error 6 mean?

I know that some of the errors are okay, and I would expect them under your current situation. What did you want your end result to be? A one drive player with the new drive in it? A dual drive player with the old drive as the master and the new drive as the slave? Let me know what you want the final configuration to be, and I will try to step you through it. Example: new 40GB master, old 10GB slave.

I think I am getting confused, because I am counting at least four drives in play (possibly five) throughout your thread.

Also, is there any music on the old drive(s) that you wish to save and do not have backed up? Not that any of the steps are lethal to the old data if we are careful, but I want to make sure of it before we go on.

My original plan was to replace the master drive (IBM Travelstar 12.7G), the players original drive w/a new drive (Hitachi Travelstar 40G). I think it's on it's way out, but not sure. This same player (Empeg) had a slave drive (IBM Travelstar 30G) that I had added a year or two later w/no problems. I also have a Rio player that has only one drive (Fujitsu 10G). But now if I could just get any of them (new 40G or old 12.7G) dirves to work w/any other drives I have (the Empeg slave 30G, Rio master 10G). The drives are all IBM Travelstars except for the Rio stock Fujitsu, one Travelstar, the new one, is Hitachi.
So there is four drives in play here, one is still working as a master, in the Rio, the others work but won't boot in players. One should work as a slave for I haven't messed w/it it has music loaded but replacing any of the music while not fun certainly possible if it means getting things to work.
Have I explained it enough to help?
Thanks.

Okay... That was perfect. This works...

Let's try to get the new 40GB drive working as a master, solo, in one of your players.

Select a player.
Remove all drives from it.
Install the new 40GB as master (no jumper).
Open a hyperterm session.
Capture the information to a file, not just to the screen.
Boot the player.
Post the boot log.

- This will show me exactly what image is in your boot eeprom and what kind of OS (if any) is left on the 40GB drive and how best to proceed.

Here's the new 40G capture file, from the Empeg player.

Okay. This looks kind of bad, because the player is not detecting the hard drive. (See >s below) This could be caused by a loose cable (either end) or a bad drive. If all of your connections look correct, feel for vibration or spinup of the drive as you power on. It could be DOA.

> empeg single channel IDE
> Probing primary interface...
> Probing primary interface...

The drive does feel like it's spinning but no scratching. I'll try another cable from the Rio.

Okay. If it still fails, try swapping back your original 12GB and 30GB (in original master/slave configuration) and we will make sure that we can get those two back on line.

Edit: Please make sure you keep capturing your sessions, just as a double-check and so I can see what is happening. Thanks.

Similiar capture from Hyperterminal w/Rio cable.

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> empeg single channel IDE
> Probing primary interface...
> Probing primary interface...

So I take it the single should be a dual channel, I had never noticed in previous captures, when it worked, it was a dual.
I'll try your suggestion.

As a side note I did have to replace the display fuse that blew when plugging it in one pin off. You know the fuzzy display problem described here display fuse
The 'single IDE' wouldn't have anything to do w/it would it? I didn't think so I didn't mention it initially.

Well, the boot log you mentioned is normal. Any laptop IDE drive should work fine with this configuration (assuming it is not S-ATA, but the connector would not fit anyway). It is not that there are two test messages or the single vs. dual channel that is the issue - it is that the drive never responded at all. Typically, the drive will respond and correctly identify itself. Given that this is not the case, I suspect either cabling problems or a bad drive.

As for the fuzzy display - ouch! That is annoying, and I strongly recommend getting someone to replace that fuse.

I replaced the fuse & the display is fine that doesn't cause what's happening now does it?

Here's the capture from the original setup 12G master 30G slave. The boot stops where you see at the end it's not a capture cutoff.

Hmmm... Okay... And you have the master/slave configuration okay, where the jumper is on one drive? I have not seen this type of failure before.

Try disconnecting the slave drive and run only with the 12GB master. I am wondering if there are other problems on your mainboard, or if the drives do not want to coexist.

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or if the drives do not want to coexist.

These two drives worked flawlessly together before I tried to mess w/the master (12G) drive i.e. builder file.

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And you have the master/slave configuration okay, where the jumper is on one drive?

Yes, I'll check the jumper again.

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Try disconnecting the slave drive and run only with the 12GB master

Trying it now.

Here's the capture from the 12G drive by itself. This is the drive I think is screwed up.

Okay. I see what you mean - the 12GB is certainly not a happy drive. But I am surprised at the location of the error. And you said that the 30 was a slave drive.

I know it will not work, but disconnect the 12GB and put the 30GB as master. This will fail, but you should basically see the drive respond to the IDE query, and you should see it fail with a panic at the end. At least this will prove that the player hardware is okay.

OK it seems like this one works, strange. But I'm sure it was the slave maybe I have the jumper on the wrong one?
Here's the capture. 30G by itself master pos.

Position??? Um. No. Position is only important if you set your drives with a jumper using the "cable select" option. This can work, in theory. In practice for the empeg, I have always found it easier to set it by using a jumper to set a drive to slave, no jumper to set a drive as master. The position of the jumper on the drive may be different for different manufacturers and models.

This is certainly a master drive, with a fully bootable image on it. Okay. Does it have any jumpers on it? If so, remove it. This should force it as master.

Now, about that 12GB and 40GB - did either have jumpers on them when you were testing? Based on your posted logs, I am not sure it will matter. The 40GB did not respond to the probe and the 12GB seemed to lock up the boot cycle.

By pos. I meant as the master 'no jumper'.

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Now, about that 12GB and 40GB - did either have jumpers on them when you were testing?

To tell the truth I don't know for sure, don't think I did but can try again.

I tried the 12G as the slave this time w/the 30G as the master and emplode shows some of the playlists that the two of them had but yet some are missing.

Do you have a boot log? Curious to see if it saw both drives.

I suppose I could try the manual build method again now that I know that I have the right master.

OK

I agree with the manual build option for the 40GB. But make sure you watch that boot to make sure the empeg sees and recognizes both drives before you try.

I am going to be away from the computer for a little while, so you may not see an immediate response.

Here's the capture both drives connected, 12G slave & 30G master.
It looks like to me it shows the 30G, correct?

Actually, it looks like both are there...

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Probing primary interface...
hda: IC25N030ATCS04-0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: probing with STATUS(0x50) instead of ALTSTATUS(0xff)
hdb: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IC25N030ATCS04-0, 28615MB w/1768kB Cache, CHS=58140/16/63
hdb: IBM-DARA-212000, 11513MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=23392/16/63

Both drives responded to the probe, and...

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Mounting first music partition
Tried to mount /dev/hda4 as reiserfs but got error 19
Mounting second music partition
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only

Both music partitions were mounted. Ignore that error - it is normal.

Do you see everything on the player at the moment? If so, now would be a really good time to back up your music with emplode to your local machine.

It did sync w/Emplode fine like nothing had happened, however some of the playlists are gone. The playlists have changed quite a bit.
I tried to use the manual method of partitioning w/the 30G as master & the new 40G as the slave.
It doesn't look good here's the capture part of it anyways. After the capture I tried to connect w/Emplode & the player is stuck on syncing it won't stop.