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There's actually a guide on how to do it right here. Seems kinda scary, but then again I haven't done any hardware mods before (but the thought of losing my archos is scary...). It's also possible to upgrade the RAM from the standard 4mb to 8 - reduces skipping as well as HD access. The only link I found for it is dead... but I remember reading about it before.

I've just completed my second hard drive upgrade to the Archos Jukebox which I heartily recommend as a jogging companion. They are just a little wider than the 2.5 inch notebook drives inside them [about 6x as thick], and easily portable enough for a jacket pocket or on a belt.

Go here for detailed instructions on upgrading the drive, Toshiba 40 gig drives go for $150 and work fantastic.

I have every one of my 500 CDs [all purchased legitimately, I don't believe in screwing the artists, especially in obscure genres] on there with plenty of room to grow. Remember that the Kbps you rip your MP3s at affect how many reads from the drive the player does and therefore how skip-prone the hard-drive based players are - I rip at 128 and rarely have problems with it skipping due to movement while the drive reads.

Nothing is like having so much music in such a little space. My Archos and Gameboy Advance make all my commutes and air travel 1000x more enjoyable.

Maybe your friend has one of the older models. I have the 6GB recorder (which can easily be upgraded to any size 9.5mm harddrive) and it *does* support ID3 tags (version 1.0 or 1.1) as well as playlists (tip: use absolute paths, not relative paths in the lists). Helpful links: Archos faq at funmp3players
Upgrade the harddrive

Maybe your friend has one of the older models. I have the 6GB recorder (which can easily be upgraded to any size 9.5mm harddrive) and it *does* support ID3 tags (version 1.0 or 1.1) as well as playlists (tip: use absolute paths, not relative paths in the lists). Helpful links: Archos faq at funmp3players
Upgrade the harddrive

1. Make sure the battery is fully charged. It can give weird errors (e.g. "Hard Disk Error") when the battery is running low.
2. Get the latest firmware from Archos web site. Lots of bugs have been fixed.
3. Check out the FAQ for the Archos at Fun MP3 Players .

It's just a few screws but the outer ones are "torx" so you need a slightly unusual screwdriver - it's not that hard to get hold of one of these though. You also need a really small philips screwdriver for some of the other screws.

Other than that it's a relatively easy process - the hard bit is getting the blue plastic bumpers on and off without bending the case, since the case itself is very thin metal. I don't think you'd want to do it on a regular basis though, i.e. for transferring files, since the risk of bending the metal case is too high. If you have a static collection of MP3s and you want to do a single transfer you'd probably be OK.

I posted a brief description on the archos yahoogroup, and there is a much better description (with pictures) at this site. There's a good FAQ at the same site which might answer your questions.

Q.

It's just a few screws but the outer ones are "torx" so you need a slightly unusual screwdriver - it's not that hard to get hold of one of these though. You also need a really small philips screwdriver for some of the other screws.

Other than that it's a relatively easy process - the hard bit is getting the blue plastic bumpers on and off without bending the case, since the case itself is very thin metal. I don't think you'd want to do it on a regular basis though, i.e. for transferring files, since the risk of bending the metal case is too high. If you have a static collection of MP3s and you want to do a single transfer you'd probably be OK.

I posted a brief description on the archos yahoogroup, and there is a much better description (with pictures) at this site. There's a good FAQ at the same site which might answer your questions.

Q.

The Neo 2200 features a 20GB USB hard drive with a multi-line display that's easier to use than the Archos. I was considering either the Archos 20G model or the similarly priced Neo 2200 because both are MP3 Players that also double as USB hard drives for data storage. The Neo is larger in size, and a little more cumbersome as a result. On the other hand, they've placed the hard-drive under an easy to open panel so upgrading to 30+GB drives later is easy. Upgrading the Archos yourself involves voiding the warranty.

I've been using the Neo for over a month now, and it's working great for me.

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Any time you link to a company that has an affiliate program, make sure that you link using your affiliate code.

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And, no. That is not a real affiliate ID.

Any time you link to a company that has an affiliate program, make sure that you link using your affiliate code.

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And, no. That is not a real affiliate ID.

You can get a similar unit, and put whatever hard drive you want in it, for less. It's called the Neo, it's been out for quite a while, and is a decent piece of work. It connects to your computer via IDE, comes with connections for your car and a remote display so you can install it in your trunk, under your seat, wherever, if you can't fit it in your dash. You can get it with a 60GB drive for $549. Learn more at http://www2.funmp3players.com/. It's firmware is upgraded on a regular basis too. Be aware that only the people that have problems post to the message board there, don't let it deter you. (=

As for hard drives, I bought an 80GB drive solely for MP3s ($179), and it's a little over 40GB filled with my CD collection ripped (at 192KBPS). I can forsee 80GB being to small in a couple of years.

ScrO!

There's a fairly active AJB mailing list at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/archosjukebox6000. The email to subscribe is archosjukebox6000-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

You could ask there or maybe at
http://forums.funmp3players.com/forum/

Buy a Palm or Visor for palm computing.

Buy a Neo 25 for portable mp3 listening.

It's just that simple. I can't understand why anybody would even waste their time with a 64mb solid state player. I'll take a 20 gig player I can stick in my pocket any day.

Use the Archos Jukebox 6000 instead. It has a few similarities to the Nomad: it's an MP3 player built onto a ~6 GB laptop hard drive, which interfaces with your PC via USB.

However, there are a number of differences which make it better IMHO. The Archos appears as a FAT32 formatted drive with a drive letter, to which you can drag and drop your MP3 files and directories (yes, that's right: directories, nested as deeply as you like). The Nomad has a proprietary closed means of getting the music to the device, and you need to use their special software to do it. And since the Archos is just a USB hard drive to the computer, you can use it to store more than just MP3s. The display for the Archos is smaller than for the Nomad, but full text of the song title (ID3 tag info) will scroll past, so that's no sticking point.

Windows 2000/98 treats the Archos as a USB storage device, loading the appropriate drivers for that. This is at least a degree closer to being hackable than the way Creative does it. I think most linux hackers would prefer to write a driver for a generic USB storage device than write a driver for a proprietary device with a narrow range of usefulness. Also, Archos, or the people who they license their USB bridge technology from, may be more willing than Creative to open up their interfaces for writing open-sourced drivers.

Here's some links:
Archos website
Review of Archos Jukebox 6000 at Fun MP3 Players