[ThinWalls]

Now I've started down this route, I realise it might have been worth trying to first initialise it with iTunes, then use AOMEII to expand the partition from 552gb to the full size (perhaps that's what mueslitoeter was suggesting to dp with Gparted, but I didn't twig that was the implication, as opposed to just creating the full sized partition from fresh?). Can't face going back to that step now, though, have already started a full sync in Rockbox mode (hoping for the best - if file transfer works OK in that mode then I don''t need the OF anyway). At least event viewer isn't showing any disk errors.
I don't think you can use OF disk mode if the OF isn't on the iPod at all. That was always the problem with the old emcore method.

 

[Mil Pop]

Can't face going back to that step now, though, have already started a full sync in Rockbox mode (hoping for the best - if file transfer works OK in that mode then I don''t need the OF anyway). At least event viewer isn't showing any disk errors.

How is it going? I also had always problems with file transfer under RockBox. Do you use the latest RockBox version?

 

[ThinWalls]

How is it going? I also had always problems with file transfer under RockBox. Do you use the latest RockBox version?

! don't know if it had file-transfer problems or not, because while it seemed to sync OK, it stopped playing halfway through a podcast - but turns out that is because the iFlash has become disconnected, as now it's giving an ATA error and not booting!

I think that's another problem entirely, because of the way I orientated the battery, causing it to press on the drive cable (the other way of putting the 2000mah battery in requires bending the cable 180, and I've found on previous occasions sometimes that causes the cable to fracture...so this time I tried putting it in the other way up, so as not to need bending the battery cable back on itself - but it seems that means the battery then presses on the iFlash cable, and I suspect it's either fractured that cable or just caused it to become unseated.

Now I will have to struggle to reopen the wretched thing to fix that issue. Sigh. Not sure this is all worth the bother!

Edit - seems that different instances of these large-capacity batteries have the cable on different sides, so have to be oriented differently.

 

[ThinWalls]

I seem to have fixed the disconnected iFlash issue, and, so far, all the tracks synced with rockbox mode seem to be playing perfectly well. This really surprises me as it wasn't my experience in the past, and I know people are always having trouble with file corruption when they sync in that way.. Normally I'd only sync with OF disk mode. I hadn't noticed any mention of the rockbox ata driver being fixed yet, but for whatever reason it seems to have synched correctly this time.

The only remaining issue is that the click-wheel buttons are a bit unresponsive, I think because the way the battery is oriented puts too much pressure on the clickwheel from inside. This particular battery definitely has the cable the opposite way round from other instances of the same capacity battery I've had- which means it ends up closer to the connector-end of the ipod than the headphone end, hence seems to squash the click wheel buttons slightly.

 

[Mboom]

Looking on ebay for a 120GB/160GB ipod classic, the cheapest ones i see are being described as "cannot sync to itunes". google is showing its a itunes update issue. is that correct or could it also be a hard drive issue ?

 

[Mil Pop]

Looking on ebay for a 120GB/160GB ipod classic, the cheapest ones i see are being described as "cannot sync to itunes". google is showing its a itunes update issue. is that correct or could it also be a hard drive issue ?

Why are you looking for 120 OR 160 GB Classic? Only because of the disk size? Because regarding the internals, the 120GB model is closer to the 80GB (6th Gen) than to the 160GB (the 7th Gen).
I mean the disk size limit, which is 128GB for both the 80 and 120GB models.
If you a re planning to upgrade to flash/sd with more than 128GB and use the original firmware, you'll need the 160GB "Thin" model

 

[Mboom]

Why are you looking for 120 OR 160 GB Classic? Only because of the disk size? Because regarding the internals, the 120GB model is closer to the 80GB (6th Gen) than to the 160GB (the 7th Gen).
I mean the disk size limit, which is 128GB for both the 80 and 120GB models.
If you a re planning to upgrade to flash/sd with more than 128GB and use the original firmware, you'll need the 160GB "Thin" model

I've already got a 30gb 5th gen video with a iFlash Solo. Originally was looking for 160gb slim but decided on 120gb in silver. With those models being more expensive the only way to get them under $150-$200 is through parts and repair listings ob eBay, which some are detailed as not being able to sync to iTunes.

 

[morefilling]

Looking on ebay for a 120GB/160GB ipod classic, the cheapest ones i see are being described as "cannot sync to itunes". google is showing its a itunes update issue. is that correct or could it also be a hard drive issue ?

My biggest concern with an ipod that won't sync is a motherboard issue. I've bought a few broken ipods from ebay & its a gamble. The worst one had a broken motherboard, screen, clickwheel & battery. Guy obviously took all his broken parts, put them together & sold them. The best one just needed a charge.
Decide for yourself if the price is worth the risk

 

[Glendo90]

New one for you all to mull over...

There's plenty on here about huge size modded ipods (4TB?) and I myself have a 512gb 7th gen (which is as big as I could possibly need). However, I am seeing if I can mod an older gen ipod for as cheaply as possible... I am trying to Mod a 4th gen Ipod with an IDE to CF adapter and a CF card with an 8gb Micro SD inserted. The PC recognises the drive as being 8gb and its been formatted with AOEMI. However, when I try to restore with itunes it goes into a restore loop.

Is it the small size of the SD card (Is the software expecting something bigger)? Is it the CF to IDE adaptor (I have tried two different ones this way computer says no)? Your thoughts would be appreciated...

 

[ThinWalls]

My biggest concern with an ipod that won't sync is a motherboard issue. I've bought a few broken ipods from ebay & its a gamble. The worst one had a broken motherboard, screen, clickwheel & battery. Guy obviously took all his broken parts, put them together & sold them. The best one just needed a charge.
Decide for yourself if the price is worth the risk

Had both those experiences - one that really had nothing wrong with it apart from needing to be charged, and another where every part - logic board, screen, battery, audio jack - was independently broken. Most annoying issue is when they say it's "never been opened" and then you open it and find the motherboard battery connector has been broken off.

 

[Mboom]

My $60 120GB classic with sync issues arrived. Well lets see..


1. Scroll wheel works and buttons work, some clicking when holding down the play button to turn it off. Turned ipod off. Play button works.
2. Opened it up. Battery connect pops out. Slid it back in the pronged holder.
3. Everything looks good. Dusty. Am i the first to open it ? find out on the next episode of ......
4. Remove the faceplate. Everything looks good again. Clean it up a bit
6. Removed the Click wheel. Looks normal ...
7. Put everything back together
8. Plug it up to the computer. Nothing
9. After 3 minutes it shows in File manager / devices . IPOD
10. (I'm using linux) open GTKpod and....Nothing.
11. Reboot to diagnostic mode and start tests
12. Start the auto test and get to buttons, guess what ?
13. Play button isn't working...
14. Dissasemble again put back together
15. Another diagnostic test and Play button isn't working

So the issues are; Sync issues with PC (Taking too long to show up under devices, and then not showing up in GTKpod or itunes if you're using it) , Play button now not working. Checking ebay logic boards are either $50 from china or $95 from a reseller.

What should i do ?

Here are HDD smart data test results
Retracts: 12
Reallocs: 8
Pending Sectors: 8
PowerON Hours: 393
Start / Stops: 77196
Temp: Current 33c
Tem: Min 3c
Temp Max 61c

 

[zedhed]

My $60 120GB classic with sync issues arrived. Well lets see..


1. Scroll wheel works and buttons work, some clicking when holding down the play button to turn it off. Turned ipod off. Play button works.
2. Opened it up. Battery connect pops out. Slid it back in the pronged holder.
3. Everything looks good. Dusty. Am i the first to open it ? find out on the next episode of ......
4. Remove the faceplate. Everything looks good again. Clean it up a bit
6. Removed the Click wheel. Looks normal ...
7. Put everything back together
8. Plug it up to the computer. Nothing
9. After 3 minutes it shows in File manager / devices . IPOD
10. (I'm using linux) open GTKpod and....Nothing.
11. Reboot to diagnostic mode and start tests
12. Start the auto test and get to buttons, guess what ?
13. Play button isn't working...
14. Dissasemble again put back together
15. Another diagnostic test and Play button isn't working

So the issues are; Sync issues with PC (Taking too long to show up under devices, and then not showing up in GTKpod or itunes if you're using it) , Play button now not working. Checking ebay logic boards are either $50 from china or $95 from a reseller.

What should i do ?

Here are HDD smart data test results
Retracts: 12
Reallocs: 8
Pending Sectors: 8
PowerON Hours: 393
Start / Stops: 77196
Temp: Current 33c
Tem: Min 3c
Temp Max 61c

What should i do ?

The HDD with Reallocs and Pending Sectors means it is failing and may be why it's slow to show and sync. I test a HDD by doing a full-format, fill it to capacity (by using the iPod as an external drive rather than syncing music with iTunes), then copy it all back to the computer. Assuming no IO problems with the last step, recheck the reallocs/pending. If they've increased then the HDD is deffo on its way out.

The non-functioning Play button could be the clicky button on the logic board itself. You can carefully peel these off, clean the metal contacts with isopropyl, and refit by using a small piece of celotape. Don't use too much tape because the clickwheel can lose it's nice clicky feel.

If you've already sunk $60 on this, then buying another logic board doesn't seem worth it. You could buy a working iPod from ebay and if it turns out to be a dud , you're covered by ebay's buyer protection.

Oh, and be careful with the battery connector. Don't just pull up on the cable. The connector needs to be released first otherwise you could pull the whole thing off the board. Then you'll definitely need new iPod!

Do you particularly want a 120GB model? Are you going to mod it with an iFlash? Just thinking an 80GB model has the same size limitations as the 120GB and would be cheaper.

 

[zedhed]

This will be my first attempt to mod an ipod, so forgive the newb questions. I have 5.5g (80gb thick) and 7.5g (160gb thin) ipods I'm getting ready to mod - batteries & memory.

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to using micro SD (iflash quad) vs plain SD (solo or dual)? Cost of the cards? Seems like I've read more people are using the quad, but maybe that's incorrect? Does choosing one or the other dictate the size of replacement battery that can be used, or is that solely determined by a thick or thin case? For now, I'm planning on just using iTunes, so I think I'll go with either 256gb or 512gb total in each.

For the 5.5g:
I can use the 3000mah battery with any iflash adapter, correct?

For the 7.5g:
Is the 1900mah the only one that will fit with an iflash adapter?

Thanks for your help.

iflash quad is slightly thinner meaning you can just about squeeze a larger capacity battery into your 7.5g iPod but you'll have to look around for the right sized battery. Sounds like you've already found it.
Being able to take 4 micro SDXC obviously means you've got more room for expansion in the future.
A quad is slightly more expensive but not much and I'd say the advantages outweigh the extra cost.

Your 80GB 5.5 gen with its thick back is more forgiving with fitting a large battery. On mine, I changed the back to a thin to give it a sleeker look (with the correct size battery, of course).

 

[zedhed]

New one for you all to mull over...

There's plenty on here about huge size modded ipods (4TB?) and I myself have a 512gb 7th gen (which is as big as I could possibly need). However, I am seeing if I can mod an older gen ipod for as cheaply as possible... I am trying to Mod a 4th gen Ipod with an IDE to CF adapter and a CF card with an 8gb Micro SD inserted. The PC recognises the drive as being 8gb and its been formatted with AOEMI. However, when I try to restore with itunes it goes into a restore loop.

Is it the small size of the SD card (Is the software expecting something bigger)? Is it the CF to IDE adaptor (I have tried two different ones this way computer says no)? Your thoughts would be appreciated...

It could be the CF-SD adapter and/or the 8GB SD card.

I've got a CF-SD adpapter that just won't work in an iPod. Works fine in a card reader, though.

You'd probably be better off by getting a cheap CF card and use that directly in the IDE adapter. Having said that, I have found that not all CF cards work with iPods, although my experience was with 5th gens.

And I do find the 3rd and 4th gen iPods particularly wayward. I've got one at the moment that syncs really badly on my PC except on one USB port. My other iPods work fine on all ports so I can't work out whether it's my PC or the iPod at fault.

 

[Mboom]

The HDD with Reallocs and Pending Sectors means it is failing and may be why it's slow to show and sync. I test a HDD by doing a full-format, fill it to capacity (by using the iPod as an external drive rather than syncing music with iTunes), then copy it all back to the computer. Assuming no IO problems with the last step, recheck the reallocs/pending. If they've increased then the HDD is deffo on its way out.

The non-functioning Play button could be the clicky button on the logic board itself. You can carefully peel these off, clean the metal contacts with isopropyl, and refit by using a small piece of celotape. Don't use too much tape because the clickwheel can lose it's nice clicky feel.

If you've already sunk $60 on this, then buying another logic board doesn't seem worth it. You could buy a working iPod from ebay and if it turns out to be a dud , you're covered by ebay's buyer protection.

Oh, and be careful with the battery connector. Don't just pull up on the cable. The connector needs to be released first otherwise you could pull the whole thing off the board. Then you'll definitely need new iPod!

Do you particularly want a 120GB model? Are you going to mod it with an iFlash? Just thinking an 80GB model has the same size limitations as the 120GB and would be cheaper.

I was gonna save the 120gb and eventually swap in my iFlash from my 5th gen with a 128gb SD card down the road, But with these issue that's on hold.

I'm looking at the logic board play button, how would I go about getting it off ? Looks like I need a heat gun as it's not budging using my fingernail