iPod Mini 2.G + Flash

[Kostecki]

Hello

For some time now, I've been struggling with a little DIY-Hack-project on my iPod Mini 2.G. This with help from the following guide
http://www.geektechnique.org/projectlab/753/how-to-turn-your-ipod-mini-into-a-flash-based-ipod.html

For the purpose of this mod i bought a Transcend 16GB TS16GCF133 CompactFlash card. A card that i know other people have had great success with. In other words: i know it CAN work.

However, for me it doesn't:

When i change the original harddrive with my compactflash card and connects it to my mac (or a windows computer) my iPod freezes, and i have to take out the battery to "kill it".
iTunes detects the ipod with the new drive and wants me to restore it, but as soon as it's done restoring and an active USB-connection is made the problem occurs.

If i change back to my original harddrive and restores the ipod there's no problems of any kind.

Naturally it must be the software restore combined with the new card that confuses the little ipod? I just don't have any idea on how i can fix this..

[gevaerts]

I don't know if this will help, but I'm aware of two possible problems when converting a mini to CF:

(a) make sure the CF card is not upside down
(b) (unlikely to be your problem, but something that *many* guides don't mention), make sure you put in some cardboard to make up for the CF card being thinner. Not doing this can lead to the buttons not working reliably.

[Kostecki]

(a) make sure the CF card is not upside down
(b) cardboard to make up for the CF card being thinner.

(a) i'm pretty sure it's facing the right way. At least that's how it fits in my cardreader.
(b) Didn't know about that. Ofc, it didn't solve my problem, though 

[bluebrother]

(b) (unlikely to be your problem, but something that *many* guides don't mention), make sure you put in some cardboard to make up for the CF card being thinner. Not doing this can lead to the buttons not working reliably.

I've CF-modded two Minis in the past and never put some cardboard in. Never caused me problems but others might have different experiences here

[Kostecki]

Well.. Either way, i can assure you, that it didn't fix the freeze  

[yapper]

One of the steps mentioned in the link on the original post (after Restoring) is to connect to an external powersupply.

You can simply connect the iPod to your Mac/PC which has iTunes on it and hit restore. This way there will be a fresh firmware written to the iPod. After this you need to connect the iPod to an external powersupply. I’m not sure why that is, but you have to do that. This also works on aftermarket Non-Apple USB-powersupplies by the way.

[Kostecki]

^ Problems is: I restore it, with itunes and when it's finished it tells me not to unplug it because it will unmount itself and mount again - showing up in iTunes when it's done.

When my iPod unmounts it never appears again since it freeze as soon as the data connection is attempted again.