iPod Using/restoring iPod Mini 1st Gen

[Andy_2341]

Hey everyone! I got a functioning, decent condition iPod mini 1st gen 4GB off eBay for $20. I only played on it for a day or two before deciding to try to sync it with my library (had someone else’s on it) through my M4 Mac Mini. Finder connected and it appeared to work. Then it didn’t. Long story short, I ended up corrupting the hard drive by accident and then killing it with several attempts at trying to restore for long periods.

My question is this: Is it worth the effort/money/time to try to replace the hard drive and use this thing. And if so, do I need to buy an older Mac (circa 2012-2015?) just for it? If I need a whole separate computer that makes it less economical and easy for me.

Thank you for your replies in advance, and sorry for the long post!

 

[sunapple]

When I collected iPods, many years ago, I switched out some hard drives for flash memory. It's a perfect fit and increases battery life. I'd also advise to get a new battery while you have it open. There are lots of guides on this but I am not sure if these things are still available...

In my experience though, it is not always easy to take the Mini apart without damaging anything, depends on your skills and patience. If it already shows damage, then no worries I guess. Otherwise I do wonder if the hard drive can't still be saved?

BTW I believe this should work with a modern Mac, it did so at the start already right?

 

[Andy_2341]

When I collected iPods, many years ago, I switched out some hard drives for flash memory. It's a perfect fit and increases battery life. I'd also advise to get a new battery while you have it open. There are lots of guides on this but I am not sure if these things are still available...

In my experience though, it is not always easy to take the Mini apart without damaging anything, depends on your skills and patience. If it already shows damage, then no worries I guess. Otherwise I do wonder if the hard drive can't still be saved?

BTW I believe this should work with a modern Mac, it did so at the start already right?

I was figuring on battery + storage upgrades. I guess I could save the drive, but it’s showing a sad face and won’t do anything, so I think it’s shot.

The modern Mac is the biggest question, since it’s what got me into this mess. The iPod was perfectly functional (minus the degraded battery) until plugged into the M4 Mini. That’s what started the problems, and it never could restore, no matter what I did. Different ports, cords, and resetting the Mac did nothing to help. Just restoring for hours and hours until failure. It could be the drive was already going, or that my mistake during the initial restore ruined it and caused all the problems. I’m wary to fix it though if I can’t sync it with my Mac without breaking it.

If someone has an iPod Mini 1st gen and a modern (M-Series) Mac could chime in, that’d be awesome!

 

[Grumpus]

My question is this: Is it worth the effort/money/time to try to replace the hard drive and use this thing. And if so, do I need to buy an older Mac (circa 2012-2015?) just for it? If I need a whole separate computer that makes it less economical and easy for me.

In my experience, restoring iPods using finder on an M3 machine running Sonoma does not work. The restore always hangs, and yanking out the usb cable will almost always corrupt the iPod's disk. You can use iTunes on an older Mac or on Windows to restore, and afterwards you can sync using Finder on your Mx Mac.

Elite Obsolete Electronics sells replacement parts for the 1st gen mini, including used drives. I've had good luck with EOE, but you'll find other parts vendors on eBay.

I don't know about the iPod mini, but some older iPods (my 4th-gen "Photo" for example) need to be connected to a firewire power source at the end of the restore process for it to complete sucessfully. EOE also sells firewire iPod power supplies. You need a cable too, since the connector is different.

It's not impossible that the Finder restore issue has been fixed by now, I haven't tried in a long time. I now manage my iPods with iTunes on an older Intel machine running Mojave.