I have 2 5GB iPod hard drives leftover from 2 dead iPods that I don't know what to do with. I see that there are USB 1.8" drive enclosures on the internet that are pretty cheap but I am unsure if my iPod drive would work with them.
I also have 2 batteries from those iPods but the performance on both batteries is pretty weak. I have the rest of the guts from one of the iPods and not the other. The iPod actually plays music but it won't connect to a computer because the firewire connector is broken (and it looks too difficult to solder). These iPods belonged to myself and my sister and we've both got newer iPods now, so I don't know what to do with these parts. The reason I don't have both whole iPods (they both had the same problem) is because I sent one of them into Dell (minus hard drive and battery) to get a $100 rebate on a Dell DJ, which I then resold on ebay.
...and some questions
I am not familiar with the drive connectors, are the drives from these IDE (like a laptop might have) or some variant thereof? I just do not know what the internal connector is, but I can think of a couple of suggestions based on what it is.
You could always put the complete iPod up for sale as parts or as a complete unit. Some folks (myself included) have parts/catalogs/sources that they may be able to get a replacement part for the broken connector.
Other than that, you could look into adapting a connector to the drive that would allow you to use it as a secondary hard drive. For example, if you had a early iMac, you could add this as a secondary hard drive (albeit the geomoetry would present its one set of challenges). You could also pursue your idea of recasing the drive as a USB device.
--DDTM
If you don't want the iPod with the broken FW port, I'll take it.
I've repaired a couple of similarly injured 'Pods.
The HD itself has an odd pin arrangement, I've not been able to find any ready-made adapter to connect to other systems, eg: PCMCIA or ATA. You'd have to roll yer own, not exactly an easy task. If you have been hesitant to solder the FW connector back on, I 'spect yer not a good candidate for such a hack.
Otherwise, I'd just suggest you sell off the bits.
dan k
When I took mine apart I thought it looked like a cf card connector. Probably not though.
sorry, I didn't mention that in my first reply. It's nearly the same as Toshiba's PC card HDs (MK5002MPL), just with an oddball(?) 50 pin ATA connector. Interestingly, Toshiba's drive model listing says MK5002MAL is 68 pin. Hmmmm. So no, it's not a CF card connector, good guess though. Here's the pinout, if anyone cares.
If that url dies (likely!!), drill down from http://sdd.toshiba.com -> Documentation -> User guides . . .
My thought was to source or build an adapter so I could use it in a PC card slot. Toshiba at one time did sell a 1.8" HDD Developer's Kit which included a 2.5" adapter. Dunno if it's still available, I searched for it just now but no joy.
adapter board
1.8" connector
2.5" connector
adapter board pinout
adapter board power info
boardart.JPG
jumperdrawing.gif
adapter board dimensions (pdf)
I ended up using my spare working 5GB iPod drive to fix another 'Pod, so I never followed up.
dan k
Hi Guys,
Recently I had a problem with my old iPod (the old firewire version with 5 Gig drive). It just kept on reading from the HD (clicking noise) but the display was frozen, I tried to switch it off with button combinations without success. I couldn't wait until the battery was finished so I opened it. I also stripped a CompactFlash to PCMCIA adaptor (ex. Kingston) and removed it's cover so I only had the electronic part left. Pin 1 should be inserted at the side of the HD where a round hole is located on the connector. The oval hole is the side of pin 25. If you insert this into your (PC) laptop you get the message that an PCMCIA\UNKNOWN_MANUFACTURER is inserted! So I suppose it will work if we have the correct drivers, not?...
Something else I heard on the net was that there are FireWire system files located on the HD, so if you like to insert a bigger HD into your iPod you also need to copy the files to the new one. I'm not really sure I can read the data from a PC, but I will try to read them from a Mac G3 Laptop later on.
I keep it posted in this section.
I saw an for the WiebeTECH BittyDock in this months Mac World.
http://www.user-groups.net/news/bittydock.html
It allows you to use both Toshiba and Hitachi 1.8" drives via USB.
I believe the iPod's HDD is just a PCMCIA-ATA drive but with a non-PCMCIA connector. Don't put it in your laptop
See hackaday, they recently had an article about a guy who made an IDE adapter for his iPod.
No it isn't. If you do "just poke it in" it will probably destroy your pcmcia card slot, i.e. lots of bent pins.
Speaking of 5GB iPod drives, I was just given a 1st gen 5GB iPod with a bad hard drive. Interested in selling one?
I have an iPod (3rd gen.? touch pads, not buttons) with a bad HD.
Anybody know if the 5GB HD will fit? My busted 'pod is pretty slim.
I think if you insert a new hard drive you just run the iPod updater utility in Apps -> Utilities and this will put it all there and make it work. Any confirmations of this?
Also at iPodlinux.org in the installation guide they copy the apple firmware off and then put it make on with the new boatloader so you presumably could do this as well... I can remember what the specific files are *-)
About needing new hds i think u can buy them at stores on the net ...
Just got a 20GB SmartDisk FireFly drive, and just as I 'spected it's got an iPoddish drive inside. I forget the exact model number, but it's the same formfactor (and thickness!) as the one inside my gen1 5 gigger. I paid less, but brand new 20GB FireFly USB2 drives generally ebay for ~US$110.
I popped the FireFly's 20GB drive into the iPod, but of course the iPod updater balked. Bloody thing said the disk had the wrong structure or somesuch.
A bit of research later I belatedly discover the required 32mb boot partition my FireFly disk is of course lacking. Oh bugger. Now I gotta do some pdisk-type stuff, how dreadfully non-Maclike for an old Mac hand like me.
Still, I'll give it a go one day soon, looking forward to having a gen1 20 gigger iPod, just for giggles and sh1ts. :coolmac:
Yeah baby!!
dan k
This is the ultimate version of that
http://www.command-tab.com/index.php/ipod-super
anyway theres a basic explanation of the partitions if thats what you want but im guessing u already know
Alright, I stand corrected. Sorry if anyone busted their slot
The problem is getting the firmware. I've got every thing all soldered together and can't find teh firmware....
Grrrrrrrrrr. My 20GB drive ain't working in my 5GB iPod.
I succeeded in using pdisk to partition my 20GB Tosh MK2004GAL drive just the way it's supposed to be, but the drive just won't work properly in my gen 1 iPod. The drive keeps doing a weird clicking thing, over and over. The mechanism itself is fine, testing it with the FireFly USB-ATA bridge shows it to be working. But once in the iPod it becomes unresponsive.
I did get it to through the iPod update once, but the update failed (apparently) even though it seemed to go through it OK. I also tried directly loading the firmware from my 20GB gen 2 iPod, but that didn't work either.
Ah well, that's enough endless futile masochism for one evening, time to . . .
STOMP THE F&*%*%*(% THING INTO LITTLE PIECES AND SEND IT ALL STRAIGHT TO H*&%*%)^(_(^(^)()&%*% Mwahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Whew! I feel better now. Thank you and goodnight,
dan k
it's not PCMCIA, it's straight ATA. You can adapt it to ATA with no electronics at all.
I gathered a bunch of Toshiba docs 'bout the MK5002MAL drives into a .zip file here.
Of interest to anyone contemplating any sort of hacks involving this formfactor.
dan k
are you sure its not simply a compactflash port? since the size looks about right and the cf should have also exactly 50 pins, is compatible with ata (passive adapters); etc?
"bittydock" from http://www.wiebetech.com
look at this pdf file, from what i think they're saying it should be not only the same connector, but EXACTLY the same, minus some plastic tab to keep the cf from moving or something
http://www.wiebetech.com/specsheets/SS_BDK.pdf
_
just to be cautious:
it may be ATA but the drive requires 3.3v not 5v like a 2.5 laptop drive. so a straight pin to pin cable wouldn't work. i've been looking at weibetech's combo dock adapters to fit my ipod hardrive into my g4 cube.
I recently got a 60 ipod hard drive to use in a computer. I scoured the internet and finally found the answers to your and my questions about connecting a drive. The Toshiba drives in the Ipod is a ata interface drive that almost straight connects to ide. The drive itself has 50 pins, but even the toshiba tech support could not tell me why because it only needs 44 to connect. A standard compact flash slot has 50 pins in the same layout as the hard drive. This means that it is possible to plug a drive into a compact flas connector, but the hard drive will NOT be read as a compact flash card. To solve the prolbem you could buy a compact flash connector and then solder it to a laptop ide connector, as all of the pins but power are just straight through, or you could do like I did and order one pre made. Mine cost 30 pounds, about $45 at the time from http://www.span.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=4267, but it took over a month to get in. Now that I have connected it to my computer, I have run into another prolbem and that is that the computer sees this drive as the primary drive. I want to know how to make it a slave drive. Maybe that is what the other pins are for.
After a week of research, this forum has been the most helpful - I feel like I'm getting much closer to my goal. I have a 1G iPod with a dead hard drive. I do not want to replace the drive with another Toshiba "GAL" series. I want, no WILL, replace it somehow, with flash. I am continuing my research, and will make attempts in the next week or two to get it done. I will post my results when the experiment is done. And any help or advice anyone might have would be much appreciated.
Here's what I'm about 80% sure of. CF, like the Toshibas, are 3.3V. The pinout is not exactly the same, but similar. The goal is to 1.) make it work, and 2.) make it all fit in the original case. I'm feeling optemistic.
[quote=bobjones931]...The drive itself has 50 pins, but even the toshiba tech support could not tell me why because it only needs 44 to connect. A standard compact flash slot has 50 pins in the same layout as the hard drive..
My dad just gave me his ten-year-old Toshiba laptop. The model is "Libretto 50CT".
As a personal project, I'm planning on souping the little thing up. It's really phenomenally small, and has a decent display. Only problems are that it has .8 Gigs of HDD space, 64 Megs or RAM, and runs at a whopping 70 Mhz. (sigh)
After getting a compatible CPU and installing it, which will be the toughest thing (just finding the right CPU), I plan on installing an iPod HDD. Anything's better than this HDD, and I was wondering if you could give me some input. The pins are as follows (on the Toshiba HDD):
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxox1<--------First pin(These four pins are for power)
xxxxxxxxxxxxoxxxxxxxxxoxx
What, exactly, will I need to connect an iPod's HDD up to this laptop's motherboard. Will I even need a connector? And is there a driver out there, somewhere, that might work? Can I just slave the iPod HDD in (with a lot of custom wiring) and then format the HDD and reset the pin configuration?
the pin config is getting cut off. the config is the same on the bottom, but with the thirteenth pin (from the left) missing. There are 47 pins total, 4 of which are dedicated to power
which don't really exist. At least not in the generally-available-as-a-finished-retail-part sense. Might be better to use a CF-card in a 2.5" adapter, at least those you can source. Or heck, even better, why not drop $5 or $10 on a larger 2.5" HDD? For that kind of scratch you should be able to find a 5 or 10 gigger, which ought to be quite usable in such a venerable old box.
I suggest you sell the iPod drive or save it for a iPod repair. However, if you need some specific infos on Toshiba's 1.8" drives, I've collected all I could find into a zip file, see my post above for the link.
dan k
Those are sweet little machines, if you can deal with the limitations. Almost the Duos of the PC world. It should take a basic 2.5" IDE drive, and I know you can probably find several for very cheap at the local PC repair places around you. Heck, if you wanna chance it, you can buy a new 20GB drive for under $60 in some places. Of course, the old Liberetto might not see all 20GB, but you can drop a 5GB or so in. Even if it isn't an iPod drive. It would likely be much cheaper to find a used drive than to adapt an iPod one. At least with a used drive it should be plug-n-format. Otherwise you'll have to work on making sure it is all adapted right, THEN worry if the Liberettos can even use it. THEN try plug-n-format.
I like experimentation, but sometimes doing somet hings one way "for hack value" isn't really practical if it can work by doing it the "normal way" much cheaper.
I came back here, almost a year later, and started looking again at what I can do with the drives. Apparently this enclosure will work with the iPod drives:
http://sewelldirect.com/i-rocks1.8inchharddriveenclosure.asp
They sell an aluminum one but they say that only the white and black ones work with the iPod drives. The dimensions are .5" X 4" X 2.5". I was about to buy one and try it out but I'm not so sure anymore. Those dimensions are pretty close to that of a newer iPod and I already have a 3G 40 GB, 4G 40 GB, and will be receiving 2 5G iPods soon. Carrying around 5GB of storage in the same amount of space doesn't seem to be worth it to me.
However I do have a PCMCIA compact flash adapter that I bought cheap a while back. My main camera doesn't use CF so I feel like I could gut this thing, if I only knew how to take it apart. Since there are no screws I have no idea how to get it open. It seems like it might be possible to use the adapter end to get the drive to work as a PC card drive. That would be cool.
so, is there anyone able to make a simple diagram called ipod_hdd2ide ? or am i totaly out of topic??
Sure what do you want me to put in it?
I just recieved my i-rocks IR-9100 1.8" enclosure (Black) from sewelldirect.com I'm using my 20GB drive from my old 4th Gen iPod and it works just fine. My only complaint is that my drive is just a little too thick and the lid bows slightly when I snap it in place. It also comes with a carying case that you can just leave it in so I don't think the lid is going to be a problem.
I just thought people would like to hear if that enclosure is the right one for iPod drives. It is.
Hi Dan
Didyou ever manage to do the 1.8" Toshiba iPod drive to PCMCIA conversion? If so how? I have two 20GB drives for a 2gen iPod that I want to use as a PCMCIA drive in my Jornada 720 Handheld PC.
still to do with iPods , i have a gen 2 iPod shuffle, and recently removed the gubbins from the dock to use it as a straight cable. i resoldered every connection, and renewed the wired on the 3.5mm jack. when i connect it to the comp and the 'pod, a green light flashes but it does not automatically sync. have i wired the plug wrong? if so, can someone point me in the direction of a simple diagram to show what wire goes where ? i wired it as far as i know, the way it was originally which is ; red cable on the outer most ring, black cable to the centre of it, and the green cable to the neck of the centre rod (beneath a small divider). someone help ... please !!
On the e*bay, you can find various flavors of adapters.
Compact flash to 1.8" HDD to plug in CF in ipod also
compact flash to pc card adapters.
What I am getting at is, the pinouts for the toshiba drives do not match up with CF but are the same small spacing as CF. You could get some of the wrong gender adapters and just bridge between either with wire or some simple soldering to create a 1.8" HDD to PCcard adapter.