I am writing this to help you, so if you mess up your $400 RD2780... it is your fault, and I and this site assume absolutely no responsibilty for anything. Follow this guide at your own risk. If you are cautious, you should not have any problems.

Step 1: Preparing your new 9.5mm Hard Drive

I purchased a HITACHI/IBM 80GB 08K0635 2.5" 9.5MM 4200RPM 2MB NOTEBOOK HARD DRIVE from www.mwave.com for $199. I also purchased an aluminum enclosure for $25.50 to house the 20GB Hitachi drive that I will be removing from my RD2780. Here are the links (if you are interested)

80GB Hitachi Drive

2.5" HD Enclosure

1. Install the HD inside of the enclosure.
2. Hook it up to your USB 2.0(preferably) or USB 1.1 port.
3. If you are running Win2K or WinXP, the enclosure will be auto-detected and install the correct USB Mass Storage driver automatically. If you are using WinME or 98SE, you will have to install drivers off of the bundled install CD.
4. Right click the "My Computer" icon and select "Manage.."
5. Click on "Disk Management" in the left panel.
6. (Sorry, I am going from memory here... so the actual terms may differ slightly) Find your new drive in the right window and right click on it's bar, then choose "Create Partition".
7. Create one Primary Partition that is of the FAT32 flavor at it's maximum size. (DO NOT USE NTFS.. IT WILL NOT WORK)
8. A window will pop up asking you if you want to format it... Choose "Do not format at this time". The reason for this is that Win2K and WinXP will not let you format a FAT32 drive any larger than 32GB. If you are using Win98, you can simply format a FAT32 drive without any problems. My 2K & XP workaround for this problem took a bit of research.
9. Once the partition is created and it says "Healthy", Right click it and set it to be "Active".
10. Close out of the Computer Management Control panel.
11. Download H2Format (it is freeware).
12. Unzip the file and copy the H2Format.exe file to the root of your C drive.
13. From the Start menu select "Run..." and type in "cmd" then press Enter.
14. Your DOS prompt should read "C:>". If not, type in "c:" and Enter.
15. Then type in "H2Format H:" (Substitute your drive letter for H if it is different).
16. In a couple of seconds, it will format your drive to it's full capacity as a FAT32 drive.

Step 2: Copying your Movies and Videos to your new 9.5mm Hard Drive

1. Attach your RD2780 to your USB 2.0 port.
2. Copy your audio, photos and video folders from your RD2780 to your new hard drive.
3. Do NOT copy the "lyra_sys" folder.
4. After the files are transferred, safely remove both the USB HD Enclosure and your RD2780 from your computer.

Step 3: Replacing the Hard Drive of Your RD2780

1. Remove the 3 screws from the bottom of the unit.
2. Remove the 2 screws that are hidden underneath the Compact Flash cover.
   
   
3. Keep your screws organized. The 2 top screws have a courser thread than the 3 you removed from the bottom of the unit.
   
   
4. Pry up the bottom end of the back panel with your finger nails. The photo shows the bottom end pryed open.
   
   
5. Slowly pry open one of the top end corners with your finger nails. Be very gentle here... you do not want to have your volume button go flying.
   
   
   
   
6. Remove the 2 mounting screws from the side of the hard drive. Note that a ground wire is attached to the right screw.
   
   
7. The IDE connector seems a bit fragile, so hold it steady with your right hand and gently lift up the back of the drive a 1/4" while pulling back and rocking left to right to allow the IDE pins to release from the IDE connector. TAKE YOUR TIME HERE.
   
   
8. There is an electric tape-like material applied to the top and bottom of the HD. It is up to you if you want to remove this from your drive and place it on your new drive or you could simply mimmic this with several strips of electric tape.
9. Make sure that you have the jumper set on your new drive to make it the SLAVE. Apparently the Compact Flash slot is the MASTER. (Forgetting to do this will cause your unit not to show up on your computer when you plug it in).
10. Carefully attach your new drive to the IDE connector and put in the 2 mounting screws. Make sure you remember to connect the ground wire.
11. Replace the back cover and screws. Don't forget to place the Compact Flash cover on the 2 posts. You can see the 2 posts in the above picture.

1. Plug your RD2780 into your computer's USB port, plug in the AC adapter and power up your unit.
2. In your system tray, right click the LYRA icon and select "Update System Files..." It will load in the "lyra_sys" folder and tell you that one or more files were missing.
3. Right click the LYRA icon again and select "Profile Device Contents...".
4. You have successfully upgraded your RD2780. Now go fill 'er up and get to watching or listening. Your lunch breaks will never be the same again.