Support and General Use > Hardware
Having and using two volumes on an iPod 6th Gen classic
iPodVT:
In order to experiment with exceeding the 128GB LBA28 addressing limitation of a 6th Gen "Original" iPod classic, I flash modded it with a 256GB Samsung Pro Ultimate microSD in an iFlash adapter. Then I restored/reformatted the iPod with iTunes on a Windows 10 laptop. As expected, this resulted in a 127GB FAT32 partition/volume and left the rest of the 256GB of storage unformatted. Then I installed the current dev build of Rockbox, booted into Rockbox Bootloader USB Mode, and used AOMEI Partition Assistant to add another FAT32 partition/volume that filled all of the formerly unformatted portion of the storage.
After all that, when I rebooted into the Apple side, the iPod displayed "Use iTunes to Restore" but I ignored that and connected it to my MacBook Pro (which is where my music library resides). That caused the iPod to go into Disk Mode and I was able to fully access the first volume for USB file transfers to and from my Mac. The second volume was nowhere to be found. But when I again rebooted, this time into Rockbox Bootloader USB Mode, I was able to access both volumes for file transfers to and from my Mac. The same proved to be true when I rebooted into the regular Rockbox firmware and used its USB mode.
Then I copied my various config/data/etc files onto the first volume, and also copied in all of my music which I divided between the two volumes. Lastly, I selected the directories for Rockbox to scan and had it build its database. Everything went well and the database now seems to be happily operating with a music library that is spread across the iPod's two volumes, and I now have a 256GB 6th Gen Classic. This is fantastic! There doesn't seem to be any corruption occurring from booting into the Apple side despite the fact that "Use iTunes to Restore" gets displayed. The only 'loss' is that I can no longer use the iPod as a DAP when booted into the Apple side, but I don't care very much about that because I already have been using Rockbox pretty much 100% of the time.
Windows 10 doesn't seem to allow me to access the iPod at all in Apple Disk Mode - it seems to require Rockbox Bootloader USB Mode - I don't remember whether or not it allowed access via Rockbox Firmware USB Mode.
At some point I hope to figure out how to get the necessary software libraries installed onto one of my computers in order to get mks5lboot to work for me so that I can prevent the iPod from booting into the Apple side at all, and then I would be able to have a 256GB 6th Gen classic with a single volume that won't get corrupted by the Apple firmware. But for now I'm more than happy. And in my 6th Gen's present setup I can still access the iPod's Apple Diagnostic Mode.
A few stats:
I use an old Windows 10 laptop for reformatting/restoring iPods with iTunes, and I use a 2012 MacBook Pro running macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra with iTunes 12.8.3.1 and the FreeFileSync app for managing the iPods. With this particular newly modded 6th Gen Classic, I'm generally seeing file transfer speeds between 13.5 and 14.4 MB/Sec regardless of which mode I'm in; Rockbox Bootloader USB Mode seems to be a little bit faster than both Apple Disk Mode and Rockbox firmware USB Mode.
Frankenpod:
So you have two separate partitions, rather than one >128GB partition/"disk"?
What happens if you use Rock Box's file browser, rather than the database? Can it "see" the second partition? How does it show the contents? Would seem a little odd if the database can access the second partition but the file browser can't.
iPodVT:
As far as I can tell from what I have observed so far, everything seems to be as fully functional as if the iPod had only one volume. The file browser has <HDD1> as its first entry at the top of the list - that is the second volume. The first volume is specified by <HDD0>, though that does not appear in the File Browser. If you click on <HDD1> the browser enters the second volume.
I've attached three photos: the first shows the top level of the file browser, the 2nd shows the top level inside <HDD1>, and the third shows the Rockbox Info screen (accessed via System->Rockbox Info). Notice that the two volumes are listed at the bottom of the Rockbox Info screen, and each one's capacity and available space are specified. The first volume, <HDD0>, is listed in the "Full Path" entry in the Rockbox Info screen.
iPodVT:
Only the third photo was uploaded so I am trying again, here, to upload the first two photos.
iPodVT:
Well, in my second attempt only the second photo was uploaded, so here is the first one (I hope)...
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