How to increase storage in Ipod 5.5 gen (ipod video 80GB)

[ohnoitspono]

Hey guys,
I have an iPod video 80GB with rockbox on it and love it. Unfortunately 80GB is not holding my music collection anymore.

I've seen some threads where people swap out the internal harddrive for an SSD or a compact flash card that takes two microSD cards.

I'd like this player to have 256GB of storage, what is the most stable way to do this? I don't mind spending a bit extra, I just don't want to muck around for hours trying to get software to work properly. I'd like things to work seamlessly like rockbox currently does.

Links to actual pieces of hardware I can purchase would be great!

[cereal_killer]

I'd like this player to have 256GB of storage, what is the most stable way to do this? I don't mind spending a bit extra, I just don't want to muck around for hours trying to get software to work properly. I'd like things to work seamlessly like rockbox currently does.

I have put a Super Talent ZT3 SSD (ZIF interface) into my iPod. I had troubles at first, because the pins (of the iPod, or the ssd, i don't know) were bad, but by adding a second layer of foampad between the housing and the ssd I could solve that issue and everything works fine now. I chose this option, because I don't need an adapter for this SSD. Some people use mSATA SSDs, but the adapter is power hungry. Some use CF cards and an adapter what works quite well, but as far as I know the best way is to use a SD card and an adapter. 256GB SD cards are quite affordable now in contrast to CF Cards.

I gathered a lot of Information from the following thread:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/566780/official-ipod-video-classic-5g-5-5g-6g-6-5g-7g-ssd-mod-thread

I suggest to check the website www.tarkan.info too. There is a lot of information about modding an iPod.

Links to actual pieces of hardware I can purchase would be great!

Check the store at tarkan.info, there are a lot of components for modding.

Greetings,
c_k

[ohnoitspono]

Thanks mate, I ended up ordering the dual SD card board from the tarkan site and I have two 256GB SD cards also on the way.

Unfortunately the screen on my iPod is starting to go, I have a few horizontal lines.. but I'm hoping its just the connector or something once I open it up again.

Looking forward to using Rockbox again. I bought a Pono Player thinking it would replace my old Rockbox'd ipod, but it doesnt' come close. Tiny touch screen is a pretty bad interface and pono's SD card doesn't seem to mount in Linux without a bunch of command-line gobbleygook that I don't have patience for. 

[cereal_killer]

Thanks mate, I ended up ordering the dual SD card board from the tarkan site and I have two 256GB SD cards also on the way.

Nice, I am thinking of such a mod too.

Looking forward to using Rockbox again.

I wonder if file transfer works well. A user at head-fi reported problems with a 7th gen iPod and the dual SD adapter. But the USB mode of the 5.5th gen should work flawlessly. I am thinking of transferring files using a SD-card reader and then put the cards into the iPod (of course installing Rockbox first). Should be faster to fill the cards.

Would be nice if you could report your experiences.

Greetings
c_k

[Frankenpod]

File transfer with dual adaptor, rockbox and 7th gen works, but is annoyingly slow.

I don't  know that using an external reader works with anything above 5.0 gen, due to the non-standard disk formatting the 5.5gen and later use.  I have tried to find out what exactly apple does to the disk formatting on later ipods but nobody seems to know.

Also, rockbox, 7 gen, and sdxc cards don't play well for certain brands of card.  PNY works, kingston doesn't.

Finally, to OP - its pretty simple to replace the screen with a fully working one, if it isn't in fact the cable that's the problem.

[[Saint]]

You can get the MK2431GAH for $150~$180, which from memory is a 7mm 240GB 40pin ZIF.

I have a couple of iPod 5.5G devices (one in a currently non-functional disassembled state, totally unrelated to the HDD ) with this drive due to a fortunate opportunity to purchase a total of 8 units (all the vendor had available at that time) at a fairly remarkable discount for that particular time period (~4 years ago) of which I kept 2 of and sold the others to pay for the ones I kept and make an additional sum of profit that was more than fair.

I have had several dozen or so more of these disks pass through my hands thereafter as well.

During a time where I was purchasing unwanted or "broken" iPod 5/5.5G devices and then selling them off as "Premium" devices. This was a gamble that worked out more often than not in my favor, where all that was needed in a lot of cases was forcing an update via the iPod Manual Restore process, or reflowing the solder on the fairly dodgy battery connectors on the mainboard these devices have.

I would furnish them with a new (or refurbished) MK2431GAH, a new 800mAh battery (at that time I had access to a manufacturer of custom cells), new front and back plates, if necessary a new hold switch (the aluminium-esque coating on the top of the hold rocker sometimes peels/flakes off), and of course Rockbox. I would even optionally on request install Rockbox on the device using the OSOS Contains Only Rockbox method which completely removes the original firmware image and even the option of dualbooting from a copy of the original firmware image from a backup on the disk (like in OSOS Contains Only Rockbox Bootloader), and makes the process of updating Rockbox thereafter convoluted, but offers a fairly significant decrease (~4s) in total boot time.

This was before the market became saturated with ten million people all doing a similar thing targeting the audiophile market...but I digress.

My point is that this is a fairly high capacity modification that is literally as simple as popping open the iPod and plopping one disk out and another disk in and is absolutely guaranteed to "Just Work" for all intents and purposes exactly as the one it replaces does, only...larger. No weird issues real or potential from varying layers of hardware compatibility, no (often badly constructed - sorry Tarkan) adapter plates, no many more additional potential points of failure being added, no need to pad the interior of the device out when you realize that the disk is a fairly major structural component and the aforementioned adapter plate and your sdcard is a lot thinner in several places and nowhere near as resilient. Just a good old fashioned retractable head mechanical platter doing what retractable head mechanical platters do.
You can even partially offset the price of the new disk $40~$50 by reselling the disk that was in the iPod originally after the fact.

Edited to add:

On the other side of the fence I have also done solid state storage solutions on a pretty fair number of iPods (iPod 4G/Color/Photo, iPod 5/5.5G, iPod 6G) , using a number of different approaches and solid state storage is definitely a very attractive solution. However, I did still want to point out that for the iPod 5/5.5G particularly, the MK2431GAH is a very attractive solution that brings with it the benefit of a higher capacity with none of the obvious downsides of some of the paths to solid state conversion.

[Saint]

[cereal_killer]

I don't  know that using an external reader works with anything above 5.0 gen, due to the non-standard disk formatting the 5.5gen and later use.

I don't know about copying files that can be read by the apple firmware, but I was thinking of only using rockbox. Once Rockbox is Installed, you take the cards out of the iPod and put the card into a card reader and fill it with music. That should work, or am I wrong? I don't know about this JBOD thing... Could that be a problem, when filling the cards with a reader and then put them back into the dual adapater?

[Frankenpod]

I don't  know that using an external reader works with anything above 5.0 gen, due to the non-standard disk formatting the 5.5gen and later use.

I don't know about copying files that can be read by the apple firmware, but I was thinking of only using rockbox. Once Rockbox is Installed, you take the cards out of the iPod and put the card into a card reader and fill it with music. That should work, or am I wrong? I don't know about this JBOD thing... Could that be a problem, when filling the cards with a reader and then put them back into the dual adapater?

Yeah, I mean with Rockbox (I only use Rockbox these days!).

The problem (at least with an ssd, I think it is likely to be the same with sdxc, though I'm not certain) is that in 5.5 gen and above _even with Rockbox_ Apple uses some special low-level format, that means the drive can't be accessed outside of the ipod itself.  With a 5th gen and Rockbox you can certainly take the drive out and fill it up externally, but I don't think you can do that with 5.5,6,7,7.5 gen.

Anyway, apparently there are moves underway to allow dual-booting with 7th gen, which would mean at least one can sync using OF, which is faster and more reliable than Rockbox's USB.

[Frankenpod]

@Saint

I built a 240gb hd pod a couple of years ago, but those drives rather disappeared a year or so ago - first the price went through the roof, then they became very hard-to-find.
I gather Toshiba even announced a 320gb drive at one point but as far as I know it never actually appeared on the market.

[[Saint]]

It most certainly is available. If someone wanted to acquire the MK2431GAH presently there's certainly nothing stopping them from doing so.

Regarding the 5/5.5G HDD, the IpodManualRestore wiki page gives a nice summary about it in the notes section.

The TL;DR version is: "sector size is kinda fucky".


[Saint]

[cereal_killer]

My point is that this is a fairly high capacity modification that is literally as simple as popping open the iPod and plopping one disk out and another disk in and is absolutely guaranteed to "Just Work" for all intents and purposes exactly as the one it replaces does, only...larger.

That's true. This is surely guaranteed to work.

no (often badly constructed - sorry Tarkan) adapter plates

Could you explain this a little further, please? What aspects do you think of here?

Greetings
c_k

[Frankenpod]

It most certainly is available. If someone wanted to acquire the MK2431GAH presently there's certainly nothing stopping them from doing so.

Regarding the 5/5.5G HDD, the IpodManualRestore wiki page gives a nice summary about it in the notes section.

The TL;DR version is: "sector size is kinda fucky".


[Saint]

My point is merely that the price seems to have tripled in the last couple of years - which makes solid state more attractive in comparison now.  Besides, 240gb is no longer enough for me!

Thanks for the info about the formatting issue.  Am hoping ultimately the 7th gen will be dual bootable, which would greatly improve transfer times.

[[Saint]]

Am hoping ultimately the 7th gen will be dual bootable, which would greatly improve transfer times.

This is already possible.


[Saint]

[tekron]

Hey guys,
I have an iPod video 80GB with rockbox on it and love it. Unfortunately 80GB is not holding my music collection anymore.

I've seen some threads where people swap out the internal harddrive for an SSD or a compact flash card that takes two microSD cards.

I'd like this player to have 256GB of storage, what is the most stable way to do this? I don't mind spending a bit extra, I just don't want to muck around for hours trying to get software to work properly. I'd like things to work seamlessly like rockbox currently does.

Links to actual pieces of hardware I can purchase would be great!

Hey I currently have a 240 gb toshiba iPod hard drive for sale. if you or anyone reading this is interested shoot me a pm. looking to get 160 shipped