Errr.....

There isn't a "Drive Upgrader program" - there is the standard Updater, and when it asks for the firmware upgrade image file, you point it to a builder image. You need to make sure you use the right one for your player - don't confuse the Mk2 and Mk1 versions.

Once the builder image is loaded, and as long as you have the new disk installed as master, the builder should reboot, find the unformatted disk and start formatting it. After this, you re-update your player to whatever version of the player software you want with the appropriate image file as before.

If you are having problems with the Upgrader finding the player, then it implies you are using a duff serial cable of some sort. Are you using your original? Are you feeding it through any kind of 9-25 adaptor? You should be using a Null Modem cable, not a DTE DCE or other pinning.

Which software version have you got on there at the moment, Developer or Consumer? If it's Developer, can you break the boot with a Ctl-C and get a shell prompt from Bash? If you can then there's nothing wrong with the cable. If you can't, then either you have your term software settings wrong (115k, 8N1, NO handshaking) or the cable is duff.