[bba1973]

I recently acquired an 80GB 5.5G iPod, but the hard drive seems to be toast. Tests say it has bad sectors, it'll only load a short amount of files before freezing up, and hitting it doesn't fix it (it worked with my 4th gens...). I'm in need of some advice. Other than loading music up on the hard drive, the iPod seems to work fine. Looks like I'll need to replace that hard drive with either another hard drive or do a compact flash mod. 30GB is my bare minimum amount of storage. So, that's either take the hard drive out of my 30GB Zune (which I'm pretty sure still works) that I never use, or get a $3 ZIF/Compact Flash adapter off ebay from Hong Kong and get a 32GB CF card, or get a hard drive off ebay. Does anyone know if the 32GB Dane-elec card Newegg has for about $41 would work? Would I just be better off getting a replacement 80GB hard drive?

Honestly, I really don't need this iPod, but I got a good deal and wanted to try out a 5th gen. The 64MB buffer and Rockbox port really did it for me, but I'd like to have more than 5 minutes of music on it.

Thanks for reading. Any input is much appreciated.

 

[nozr]

i ordered 2 of those 32gb dane-elecs couple days ago. i'll let you know

 

[stingx]

You can use any compact flash card with adapter or you have the option to go as high as 240GB with a HDD swap with higher cap from the web. I decided on the latter as I wanted capacity. I still ordered the ZIF/CF converter from dealextreme just in case I go the other route down the road. Still haven't received that yet though.

 

[bba1973]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stingx /img/forum/go_quote.gif You can use any compact flash card with adapter or you have the option to go as high as 240GB with a HDD swap with higher cap from the web. I decided on the latter as I wanted capacity. I still ordered the ZIF/CF converter from dealextreme just in case I go the other route down the road. Still haven't received that yet though.

Some CF cards apparently don't work with iPods (ATA compatible?). I wanted to make sure the Dane-Elec worked before I spend my college kid money on it. With the HDD swap, it's limited by my budget. 240GB would be nice, but $225 for just a hard drive is way too much for my budget right now. For now, I'll just probably keep watching ebay for 80GB hard drive deals.

I've been reading up on the subject, and apparently there's a way to remap bad sectors of a hard drive and even put them in their own partition. Has anyone had any luck with this on an iPod? HHD Regenerator doesn't seem to like working with my iPod.

 

[bba1973]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nozr /img/forum/go_quote.gif i ordered 2 of those 32gb dane-elecs couple days ago. i'll let you know

Sounds good. Hope they work for you.

 

[nozr]

yeah i thought abou the 240gb, but id rather have a new ipod classic with warranty so they could just hand me a new one if anything went wrong

 

[tds101]

TBH the 5.5g w/a CF mod is 1 of the most stable & reliable daps around. I'd opt for the mod myself.

 

[bba1973]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nywytboy68 /img/forum/go_quote.gif TBH the 5.5g w/a CF mod is 1 of the most stable & reliable daps around. I'd opt for the mod myself.

Yeah, but getting a 32GB or bigger CF card that I can afford AND one that will work with the mod is my biggest holdup. I can cut my music collection down to 30GB (and I still have a fully functional Rockboxed 60GB Photo), but I really don't want to go any lower than that. I've got a little over 35GB total.

Of course, if a Rockbox port ever surfaced for the Zune 120, I'd be all set. Either that, or a firmware update with OGG support and a fix for all the little things about it that I can't stand. But I'm not holding my breath for either one at this point.

 

[nozr]

the 32gb dane elec CF is a no-go on my ipod 5g

but it is working on my ipod mini

 

[bba1973]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nozr /img/forum/go_quote.gif the 32gb dane elec CF is a no-go on my ipod 5g but it is working on my ipod mini

Thanks for letting us know. Which adaptor are you using in the 5th gen? If it works with the mini, which doesn't need an adaptor, it could just be incompatible with the adaptor.

 

[smrtby123]

I would go with the CF. Look in the reviews for newegg usually you will see one or two that mention the ipod version and if it worked. That is how I knew my mini would take the CF I bought. It will be much faster than the HDD and won't crap out if the ipod takes a spill, but you get lower capacities.

 

[bba1973]

I'm going for the CF mod, but I'm going to try it out with a 1GB Kingston card I have lying around first. Might as well try it with that first before I spend alot of money (for me anyway) on a 32GB card. I did try the CF mod with a broken 2nd gen mini, but I've replaced everything and it still won't work.

Has anyone tried an SD to CF adaptor with this mod?

 

[andrewmorio]

Go here on info on compact flash compatibiliy:
iFlash Compact Flash Compatibility – Help Needed… » Tarkan Akdam’s BORED
Go with the CF conversion.

 

[bba1973]

Got a CF adapter in today thanks to a very generous member here. So far, my Kingston 1GB card (from 2005) doesn't work, but a 6GB microdrive from my failed attempt at reviving an iPod mini works fine. Should I go ahead and go get the 32GB Kingston CF card? I know it has a history of working fine, but has anyone here had any issues with it?

 

[EchoRepairs]

Has this worked out... As im still intrested?