Fostex VF 160 EX trouble

[Swineburner]

I have a Fostex vf160ex. Went to turn it on the other day and it will not start. Display comes on , acts like it's starting , then says "unformat?" Cannot do anything. Is this thing fried and what kind of options or repair cost am i looking at? I have owned this for several years and never had a problem. I'd appreciate any info. I have years of music on here I'd rather not lose.

Thanks~

 

[CamilliLarry]

My guess is that the hard disk failed. My VF-160 came with a 20GB IDE/PATA PC disk. When it died, I scrounged and found one the same size from a very old (Windows) PC. I "formatted" it on a Linux box with a common Windows-style partition table (and an empty Linux partition, I think), popped it in, and the Fostex said it needed formatting (which the Fostex did). It's been fine since. I've since found some spares being thrown away by an IT department. IDE/PATA is old and hard to find these days, especially in small sizes.

And, I don't know what the disk size limit is. I'd guess that the VF160 has the old 137G limit of early PCs due to cylinder/head/sector addressing vs. Logical-Block Addressing. Maybe it's OK with a small partition.