iPod Video, Flash Memory and You

[Oehr]

Looking to upgrade your iPod as well? Here's my adventure:

After running out of space on my iPod 5.5G (60GB), I decided to to upgrade the the internal memory.
There are multiple ways to upgrade your iPod's HDD:

• get a bigger HDD
• get some kind of adapter that allows CF or other cards

Since flash memory is now roughly the same price as older ZIF drives, I decided to go for it.
First up, I looked for the cheapest flash memory out there:
Secure Digital, despite not being royalty free (unlike CF).

So for the cheapest route, I had the following setup:
2x 64GB microSD -> Dual microSD to Memory Stick adapter (china stuff @ ebay) -> Memory Stick to CF Adapter (Sony AD-MSCF1) -> CF to Zif Adapter (china stuff @ ebay)

Unfortunately, the CF to MS Adapter I used is not supported by the iPod. While it works fine with all other devices I have tried, the Sony branded MS to CF Adapter was not supported by the iPod (I/O errors), so I had to scrap that idea. Btw, it was also super slow for some reason. Shitty Sony

My next route was simply getting a SD to CF adapter and bought another noname product. Since it has no name, heres a picture:

(also available in blue, orange and probably other colors).

There are also SD to ZIF controller available, so those might work as well...

With the memory itself still lacking in my setup, I got a no name 128GB card for less than 20€. It was a fake ADATA card which already made you not to buy it, being labeled SDHC, lol. Quality and branded SD cards of the same size should cost roughly 100€ and up. I didn't expect much and it couldn't really hurt, so I went ahead and bought and tested it beforehand: 124GiB available despite being a 128GB card (I expected 119GiB). Already not a good sign.
Using H2testw, I concluded that either the flash memory was horrible quality or that merely 8GB are actually available. The conclusion is, don't buy this:


So I got my money back and looked around the internet more for a cheap alternative.

I went with a new Patriot EP 128GB SDXC card for 70€. I was real lucky with this one, since it is listed as 150€ on Amazon Germany.

Passing H2testw easily, I restored my iPod (via iTunes in VirtualBox of course) I installed Rockbox and put all my music on there, with still having ~30GiB left. Once I fill those, I might as well upgrade to 512GB or whatever is available by then :-)

Also, flash makes Rockbox so much faster. Booting normally took around 20seconds and up, I have now a near-instantly available Rockbox. Just lovely. Long live Rockbox!

Edit: I have opened up that fake 128GB and discovered a 8GB memory chip installed instead of a 128GB or a multiple of other other sizes...

[cereal_killer]

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

2x 64GB microSD -> Dual microSD to Memory Stick adapter (china stuff @ ebay) -> Memory Stick to CF Adapter (Sony AD-MSCF1) -> CF to Zif Adapter (china stuff @ ebay)

This is a lot of adapters :-)

Nice, that you have gotten the sdxc card for 70€. A 128GB SSD is the same price as the card at amazon, so that might be worth considering if the price for the ssd drops.

[Oehr]

yeah, i thought about using that instead first, but then thought, that new ssd with zif will probably get really rare, so i got the adapters for future-proof hardware (CF and SD).