Official Ipod Video / Classic 5g+5.5g+6g+6.5g+7g SSD Mod thread - Page 31

I'm pondering getting a 240GB HDD for the iPod Video that I use as external storage instead of SSD. I'm not going to use it for music on the go —I use my DX100 for that— so SSD is a bit overkill, really.

Edit: while I was looking for said Toshiba ZIF HDD, I came accross this thing:

That looks awesome, even more flexible : just plug a USB pen-drive into it ! With a Mini to female standard USB-A adapter, it should work.

Has there been any luck finding a drive for the SATA "fat" 160 GB 6G? I just bought the CF kit to realise I have the odd model out. 

Most likely you should have this 18-pin connector called CE-ATA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE-ATA

I did a search for CE-ATA adapters that will fit inside an iPod but nothing really came up at all.

Only Toshiba and Samsung made 160GB hard drives with that CE-ATA interface so far. Most likely you are better off with replacing the logic board with ZIF or just get an older one for cheap like iPod Video. Then you could also save some money with mSATA SSDs that way.

Of course previous generations might not be compatible with new USB DACs supporting iDevice such as Sony PHA-1 and CEntrance HiFi-M8 etc. It really depends on what you will are pairing with your iPod before you decide what your options are.

I also have the 6th generation 160GB iPod (A1238 / MB150LL-A model codes) and am looking for a 240GB / 256GB solution.

Reading through >30 pages of comments on this thread & on other boards leaves me none the wiser : which drives are compatible & are there any SSD's that will work ?  Which connector is used on the board ?  

There seems to be very little (specific) mention of, or details about the 6th gen iPod, for some reason....

Thanks !

6th Gen iPod's use a different type of connector for the hard drive. pretty sure it's mentioned on page one. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by rolski 

I also have the 6th generation 160GB iPod (A1238 / MB150LL-A model codes) and am looking for a 240GB / 256GB solution.

 

Reading through >30 pages of comments on this thread & on other boards leaves me none the wiser : which drives are compatible & are there any SSD's that will work ?  Which connector is used on the board ?  

There seems to be very little (specific) mention of, or details about the 6th gen iPod, for some reason....

 

Thanks !

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenman345 

6th Gen iPod's use a different type of connector for the hard drive. pretty sure it's mentioned on page one. 

Thanks, I've seen that, but has anyone upgraded one of these iPods ?  I'm not clear whether there are any 240GB / 256GB CE-ATA drives available (can't find any on the web) and I'm not sure if a ZIF-PATA drive + CE-ATA adapter would fit inside the casing : this is the kind of detailed information I'm looking for help with !

Have you tried searching this thread for variations of the word, "CE-ATA"? I know it's a lot to read over if you're looking for one particular thing, but searching the thread may lead to you getting some clues into what's been tried. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by rolski 

Thanks, I've seen that, but has anyone upgraded one of these iPods ?  I'm not clear whether there are any 240GB / 256GB CE-ATA drives available (can't find any on the web) and I'm not sure if a ZIF-PATA drive + CE-ATA adapter would fit inside the casing : this is the kind of detailed information I'm looking for help with !

Yep, thanks, have read it closely from start to finish (!) which is why I think it's all a bit unclear / confused - not what it appears to have been intended for !  Have also read several other threads on the same topic on this site & others and no-where simply lists the compatible drives for this model.

Never mind, it appears that no-one likes the DAC in the 6gen 120GB model anyway, so I'm considering going for a 7th gen + SSD.

Regardless, thanks !

DAC in 6th & 7th is the same AFAIK, same Cirrus Logic. No reports of them sounding any different.

The differences between the 6th gen and 7th gen iPods hasnt really been discussed much as the two are both not Wolfson DAC's and so most people dont give it much thought. I have had both, they sound different. Very different in my opinion. Not sure about the internals, but I remember noticing a difference when i traded in my 6th gen for a 7th gen and the immediate difference involved.

Quote:

Originally Posted by the wizard of oz 

DAC in 6th & 7th is the same AFAIK, same Cirrus Logic. No reports of them sounding any different.

Wow, ok! So, which one of the two iterations do you prefer?

Personally a rockboxed ipod 5g with a good pair of IEM's is all I need for portable music. They are sounding damn good to my ears.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crashtack 

So I've had some partial success with a 128GB mSATA SanDisk drive in my gen 5.5 30GB ipod. iTunes and the iOS on the iPod work but Rockbox didn't.

 

I used a mSATA to Zif adapter from amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009BA5JU6/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M3T1_SC_3p_dp_i1

 

I preformated the drive to FAT32 in Linux to get around Windows 32GB limit for fat32. It was a bit of a pain since the only mSATA connector i had for a PC was in my laptop. After removing my mSATA from the laptop and installing the new one. I booted to a thumb stick USB drive Ubuntu image that i downloaded just for that purpose. 

 

After installing it in my 5.5g I let iTunes restore the drive and ever thing looked good. I copied an album over, gave it a listen and I was all grins.

 

Next up I installed Rockbox with no problems, ejected the iPod via the taskbar and rebooted. Rockbox would boot, but then error out. And that's where i am currently. Well actually recovered it with iTunes and re-installed Rockbox a couple of times just to make sure. Currently I have a functioning iPod 5.5g with 119GB capacity. No FLAC support though. 

 

My next step is to repartition drive slightly smaller (120GB), reformat, and try Rockbox again. Probably won't happen till Monday though.

I have followed this thread through all pages and finally I wanted to give up about the subject Ipod+Sata+SSD 256 gb.... and then I found this answer!

So, it seems that it is possible!

- Could you give me more information please about what you did, so I can try it to.

- And did you made any further progress allready?

- And are there any other people arround here that succeeded with this same method (Sata ssd+Ipod Video)?

And if I am going to search for a 1,8" 256gb SSD Sata (3,3V) for my Ipod Video, can I just take any of these? Or, are there even within these searching boundaries, still other limitations of SSD's why they won't fit or work?

And does someone know where to find the cheapest 256gb SSD Sata?

I am sorry for all these questions, but I am so curious and this is the only place on the internet where I could find more info about this specific subject!

Greetings,

Lennart

razortje,

I am still working on trying to get my 5.5 30gb ipod to work with an mSATA SSD and Rockbox. I have a Sandisk 128gb drive working with the iTunes iPod OS but not Rockbox. I have also tried a Hynix 120gb mSATA SSD partitioned to 120GB and down to 64GB and 60GB. Each time iTunes will recover it and it works as an iPod, but after installing Rockbox i get ATA errors. (I did have Rockbox working with the original 30gb drive btw).

I'm going a little backwards, but tonight i am going to try a 64gb Sandisk drive and see if Rockbox works. 

I have some photos of the install, but i still don't have enough forum rights to post them.

Specifically what I did to partition and format the drives was to pull the drive out of my laptop and insert the mSATA drive to be partitioned/formatted. Then I booted to Ubuntu Linux off of a USB thumb drive. I used Linux DiskTools to partition and format the drive to FAT32. Once that's done install it in the iPod via the mSata to ZIF adapter and boot to disk mode. Then plug it into the computer and let iTunes recover it. (I was hoping that the system would recognize it as a drive before iTune recovery, but this was not the case for me. An error box popped up saying it was an unformatted drive and did i want Windows to format it. Which I did not. So maybe I am not quite formatting it correctly in Linux for this to happen.) Anyway, once iTunes recovers it it's an iPod again and functions.

I don't have any spare 256gb mSATA SSD's to try, but i'm guess Rockbox would not work with them either in my particular 5.5G 30gb iPod. On the list of things to do is to source a 5.5G 80gb mother board and see if things work.

As far as 3.3V mSATA drives. I think they are all 3.3v compatible, but i could be wrong.

"And if I am going to search for a 1,8" 256gb SSD Sata (3,3V) for my Ipod Video, can I just take any of these? Or, are there even within these searching boundaries, still other limitations of SSD's why they won't fit or work?" - 

I don't think a 1.8" SATA SSD and adapter will fit.

I'll post an update about the 64gb Sandisk drive once I try it later tonight.