Hi, sorry if this is a newbie question, but I've got a 1st generation (scroll wheel) iPod with a 5GB drive in it.

I'm interested in upgrading the drive (and the battery, and perhaps modding the case a little too : ) and would like to know what the limitations are on the size (capacity) of the hard drive I could put in there?

Does the firmware only accept drives up to a certain size? Is there a hardware / BIOS limitation of some sort?

I know people will probably ask why I'd want to do it, when I could just buy a new 60G iPod, but I really like the first generation ones and I only want to play music on it - so putting a 60G drive in there would be ideal (or an 80G, if they're going to bring them out anytime soon).

If anyone's got any advice, information or opinions, I'd like to hear it!

Thanks,

P.

I gather its fairly straightforward to adapt an iPod to a standard IDE drive. If you can build a connector, it would be an easy way to test the limits of the iPods capacity.

actually the firmware prevents anything but the original drive from being formated to work
apple put up quite a barrier to one adding a different drive to one's ipod. though there is hope and this is real, and it DOES work check out the link HERE


macDeivant

You can actually buy upgrades for every model. They are somewhat limit and not cheap, but you can. I think OWC might sell them. http://www.macsales.com. You may have to try and google reaplacements up.
-maestro

Quite simple, really: http://www.ipodmods.com.

EDIT: It seems that 1G uprades stop at 10 GB... My suggestion would be to try the 20GB 2G one.

Post edited by: JediJoker7169, at: 2005/12/30 09:30

Bet I made you look...

Post edited by: JediJoker7169, at: 2005/12/30 05:37

Stick with the same generation unless you find it has worked well for others to mix em. 10gb can hold quite a bit. Mine is now full though,lol. But that is just an excuse to buy a new video ipod!

-maestro

check out the featured mod this week too. it might help

if you took a look at that link in my previous post. (which actually linked to command-tab.com) the guy fit a 300 gig 3.5in hdd to his ipod. the larger 1.8 in drives can be used in any generation of ipods. the tricky thing is partitioning the drive correctly and loading the right firmware. in might just be worth it to try it out. i would try it out on my 1st gen but it unfortunatly was unpluged during a fimware upgrade. it is forever dead.

here is a link directly to the ipod-super mod guide at http://www.command-tab.com

I wonder if it would run a master and a slave......?

now THAT is something i want to see

macDeviant

iPod RAID!!!!!!!

you are the 2nd person in the last 12 hours to say something about ipods and raided HDD together.

macDeviant

"I'm pulled over, i can't pull over anymore." " that guy's really starting to freak me out MAN"

Yes, I saw the super-ipod site and a couple of others - my problem is that he _didn't_ attach a 300GB drive to his iPod. If you read the article, he fitted a 6GB 3.5" drive to his iPod, in place of the 40G with which it originally came. It just looks like techno-geeks with poor attention to detail saw the article and automatically assumed he could attach the largest 3.5" drive at the time, 300GB.

Likewise the front-page featured mod: a replacement hard drive was fitted (no problem, I've done that myself before, like for like with a 3G) but the capacity was smaller. I'm after evidence of anyone fitting a drive to an iPod that is larger than any of the drives that generation came with - for example, the guy who played with the "super-ipod" actually fitting a huge HD to it, formatting it and making it work...

anyone?

There was the guy who swapped his Nano's flash memory for a compact flash to IDE adaptor and plugged in a 200GB drive. He reported it working.

Now I have put 5gig g1 drives in g2s and 10 gig in 20 gig g3, but never a bigger drive that the original. mostly because of money:blink:

Waragainstsleep wrote:


thought that was a hoax... if we are thinking of the same one. the modguide looked horribly photoshoped


and as far as the super-ipod goes, it's the fact that he got a drive which was completely unsuported working on his ipod. so if theory is correct you could fit a 300 gig onto it. or any other sized ide/ata driver

macdeviant

Post edited by: macDeviant, at: 2006/01/01 03:17