After 10 years of trusty service, my favorite audio player of all time, a Mk2 with Hijack 5.04 installed, began throwing drive read errors and then showed the No Hard Disk found error on the front panel.

So, I tried replacing the drive with a new 80GB Seagate IDE drive.

Several attempts at formatting the disk with builder_bigdisk_v6.upgrade have resulted in an "Error: "bad pump response" occurred during stage 0x25", from the v2.01 emplode upgrader.

When I boot up with either the old or the new drive, log looks like this.

empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 (hugo@empeg.com)
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the kerne
l.
Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg55-hijack-v504 (hijack@rtr.ca) (gcc version
2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Mon Dec 29 23:29:04 EST 2008
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000000: wrote ffffffff, read e28cc001
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 10101903) 16MB DRAM
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15000k/16M available (996k code, 20k reserved, 364k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 67706d65 'empg'
Tuner: loopback=0, ID=-1
show_message("Hijack v504 by Mark Lord")
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0004b80).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd580
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xab80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
Probing primary interface...
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5580
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xab80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xff80
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaa80
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5500
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman (erik@vt.edu)

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:22:07:6
f
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Cannot open root device 03:05
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05

I am at a loss over what to try next. Could it be that the ide cable failed after 10 years? Or is the upgrade failing because I am using a usb to serial cable? Not sure if the latter is the culprit, as I can read logs from HT just fine.

Does anyone have an idea on what the issue could be?