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Smaller Hitachi Microdrives

Re: Re: Re: What about a flash iPod Mini?

Originally posted by sethypoo
Interesting idea, but it wouldn't quite work. First off, you'd have to spend a fortune just getting certified so you know how to wire the thing, and then you'd have to worry about hooking up the battery to you flash card, not to mention having to re-work the interface so it'll accept the smalelr 1GB capacity.
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The whole point is that there is no wiring requried. The CF interface is right there... out with the Hitachi, in with a flash card. They definately don't need to be hooked up to the battery (I'm not even sure where that came from. Neither does the Hitachi.). If the mini's OS is fairly robust it would have some means of measuring free space on the drive, which is all you really need. Really, that's the only valid concern of those you listed.
 
Re: Re: Re: What about a flash iPod Mini?

Originally posted by sethypoo
Interesting idea, but it wouldn't quite work. First off, you'd have to spend a fortune just getting certified so you know how to wire the thing, and then you'd have to worry about hooking up the battery to you flash card, not to mention having to re-work the interface so it'll accept the smalelr 1GB capacity.
You'd also have to find enough people to buy useless 4GB drive ripped out of all those iPod mini's. They have no really feasable use, since they are without cases and probably have weird, propriatary interfaces.
Nice idea though.
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Um, no.

The whole point of this article is that the iPod mini's hard drive is a STANDARD Compact Flash Hitachi MicroDrive. A drive that sells for over $500 new. (Lots of people do in fact use them, largely in digital cameras.)

The trick is, most people that have tried this (that I've seen,) haven't been able to get the iPod mini to use ANY other Compact Flash cards, and they haven't gotten any digital cameras to use the iPod mini's card.

(Clarification: "Compact Flash" is the name of a standard computer interface. Many digital cameras use this interface, as do lots of PDAs. "Compact Flash" is the name of the interface, and does not, by itself, imply flash memory. It was originally designed for flash memory cards, but since then, other devices have come out, such as the MicroDrive, which is a real hard drive. Other things, such as WiFi cards, bluetooth cards, modems, ethernet, and more, are also available. So, the iPod mini uses this perfectly standard Compact Flash interface to attach its hard drive. Heck, if someone really felt like doing some serious hacking, they might be able to get a Compact Flash WiFi card working, so your iPod mini just streams audio from your desktop! But this would require a complete rewrite of the iPod's OS, so I doubt this is something that will actually be reasonably possible.)
 
format as fat32?

Maybe all they need to do is stick the hitachi into a PC, then format it as fat32?

no card reader is going to understand an HFS filesystem, period. But formatting the card as fat32 (on a windows machine) should work.
 
"CF" is

Originally posted by ehurtley
Clarification: "Compact Flash" is the name of a standard computer interface.
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Basically, the "Compact Flash" connector is very close to a PCMCIA connection. (Have you seen the "CF to PC Card" adapters - those are passive gender changers that connect the 50 pin CF card to the 68 pin PCMCIA interface.)

The CF cards (flash and I assume MicroDrive) appear to the host as an IDE controller and single drive.

Thinking of the CF connector as a "PC Card" connector also makes it easy to understand how "CF 802.11b", "CF Bluetooth", and other devices can use the CF connector. A more-or-less standard PC Card driver would work for these devices.

Perhaps the problems getting the Ipod Mini drive to work means that the Ipod isn't "real" CF, and the Ipod's MicroDrive isn't a IDE device.... That would also explain why IDE-format flash cards won't work in the Ipod.
 
The Mini isn't even on sale yet for a week and already there are some guys taking the thing apart and attempting to modify it.

What's next, you buy a Porsche, rip out the engine and throw the rest away?
 
Originally posted by ph8te
The Mini isn't even on sale yet for a week and already there are some guys taking the thing apart and attempting to modify it.

What's next, you buy a Porsche, rip out the engine and throw the rest away?
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If there's an engine worth $60,000 to me (or someone I could sell it to) in a $25,000 Porsche, then I would buy it & sell or use the engine. For kicks I would put the chassis up on blocks in my front yard.
 
Not to kill anyone's entreprenuerial spirit, but these things are going for about $250-$280 on ebay right now. So making a profit on the swap might be difficult.
 
Originally posted by Hansel USA
If there's an engine worth $60,000 to me (or someone I could sell it to) in a $25,000 Porsche, then I would buy it & sell or use the engine. For kicks I would put the chassis up on blocks in my front yard.
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Exactly, in classic stock market terms, it's called an arbitrage opportunity.
 
Re: Re: Re: What about a flash iPod Mini?

Originally posted by sethypoo
Interesting idea, but it wouldn't quite work. First off, you'd have to spend a fortune just getting certified so you know how to wire the thing, and then you'd have to worry about hooking up the battery to you flash card, not to mention having to re-work the interface so it'll accept the smalelr 1GB capacity.
You'd also have to find enough people to buy useless 4GB drive ripped out of all those iPod mini's. They have no really feasable use, since they are without cases and probably have weird, propriatary interfaces.
Nice idea though.
Click to expand...

Okay, which part of "silly money-making idea" was confusing to you?

Seriously, all you people who are taking time to shoot holes in my admittedly silly idea need to chill out.
 
i actually read some guys blog a few weeks ago where he was overseas and needed a microdrive for his camera. he knew there was some (non-apple so calm down) MP3 player that had a compatible drive and they were chaper than the standalone memore cards. he pulled the thing for his camera and later put in a smaller one (after he got home). his camera was happy enough to reformat the drive and all was good.

yeah i don't remember links and it wasn't an ipod, but the point it that it might work out the same. if nothing else this might make your ipod and ipod mini that much more upgradable in the future (for the brave hackers out there).
 
Re: format as fat32?

Originally posted by usarioclave
Maybe all they need to do is stick the hitachi into a PC, then format it as fat32?

no card reader is going to understand an HFS filesystem, period. But formatting the card as fat32 (on a windows machine) should work.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't iTunes for Windows do this?
 
Itunes could, but not sure why it would

Originally posted by ryanw
Wouldn't iTunes for Windows do this? (FAT32 format)
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Windows will do it quite easily....

Itunes for Windows could do it as well - the Win32 API to reformat is available and easy to use. Itunes wouldn't need to understand FAT32 or how to format, a simple call to the O/S is all that would be needed.

Not sure why it would bother though - it's a rather unusual task that's already handled by Explorer (the "Finder"). Don't see why any application would really need to add code to duplicate what's already available in Explorer....
 
What I'm waiting for is the full cellphone/ipod/camera with a 2GB or better storage in a super compact size. And yes it's possible, maybe even this year.
 
Originally posted by Petrus
why would you spend $250 on an ipod when you can get a nomad muvo with the EXACT same hard drive for $200....
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001BXCFS/ref=nosim/brianruthshom-20/002-2392948-1289661
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Very simple: That muvo is unavailable nation wide in the USA. No store (BM or online) has them in stock. I believe they are selling like hot cake world wide because it's well known how you can rip out the 4GB CF and use it in a digital cam. Besides *IF* you can successfully install a 1GB CF micro drive on the iPod mini, you will have spankingly cool MP3 player to boot! 😀 Way cooler than the muvo, and justifying the $50 diff (for me at least).

Also, there is at least one successful report on ripping out a 4GB CF and use it in a digital camera and then installing a 1GB CF on the MP3 player. This has been done on the Creative Lab's MuVo2, however, which cannot be found anywhere in the US right now. I do not know if anyone has perform the similar thing w/ an iPod mini. Here's the link:

http://www.andymack.com/mylog/archive_2004-m01.html

enjoy
 
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