iPod mini CF to IDE

Do you have a technical question that doesn't really fit a specific console? Want some general info on electronics, hacking, making cookies, etc? Here's the place to ask! Go nuts.

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Sparkfist
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Post by Sparkfist » Fri Aug 11, 2006 10:08 am

All hard drive iPods use 1.8" hard drives, a.k.a microdrives. I have seen a hack, don't know if it was on digg or hackaday, but they replaced the hard drive with a Compactflash card. As Compactflash cards and microdrives have 100% compatible pin sets you should be able to just plug on it. And to clearly answer your questions, yes it's 100% compatible with IDE/ATA connections, just need an adapter.

You will have to look into a way to format the hard drive and set it up so iTunes can recognize it. I do know they cover this in a hack posted on hackaday. Search for "ipod" and it should be near the top, says something like "300GB ipod"
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Post by vb_master » Fri Aug 11, 2006 10:09 am

Once you put in the CF, if you plug it in to your computer and use the latest iPod Mini updater, press restore, you should be good.

SurfinFool
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Post by SurfinFool » Fri Aug 11, 2006 4:30 pm

i read that hack on hackaday, he connected a 300gb drive to his dead ipod, if i remember right he had to make a custom firmware but the hardware was compatible

tom61
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Post by tom61 » Fri Aug 11, 2006 4:54 pm

All hard drive iPods use 1.8" hard drives, a.k.a microdrives.
1.8" harddrives are not microdrives. Microdrives are the size of CF cards, whereas 1.8" hard drives are about the size of PCMCIA cards. The larger HD based models use 1.8" hard drives, the mini models use microdrives.

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