Flash Modding an iPod Mini
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- We're back with the iPod Mini! And this time we're making it a bit more usable and reliable with a flash storage mod! So let's dive in, shall we?
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the minis (ideally gen2) are highly moddable, i've done a few, chromed cases, (re-coloured or bare polished) re-anodised cases, clickwheel and centre button swap from 5th or 6th gen classic (requires some filing), led backlight colour change for MADE IN THAILAND lcd displays, recolour the PVC endcaps with upholstery vinyl spray dye .. there's lots you can do .. remove the end caps without case damage by hot gluing a cable tie to them in two places, practical memory limit is 128gb, as there is a limit to the amount of songs they can keep track of .. maybe 20,000 or so, can't quite remember
Mate, you wouldn't happen to have some links to the shops for the modding parts would you?
@@tylerreid8500 not sure what u mean, the chroming i had done locally, the re-andozing & lcd led swap, i did myself, the end cap plastic recolour was via automotive upholstery vinyl dye aerosol spray can, and the clickwheels/buttons came from ebay or aliexpress. The compact flash cards i used from old cameras or from KingSpec in HongKong
@@antdavisonNZ ahh i see i see, thought you bought spare parts for the mods. I've been looking everywhere for new casings. And the LED backlight colour swap sounds cool. no worries
@@tylerreid8500 i did buy some unlasered new-old-stock cases back in 2013 from eBay - they may have been end-of-line spares, i looked recently, but nothing on eBay anymore
The iPod Mini 2nd gen can shuffle 30,000 songs at most.
“Cant go carrying around something everyday that has moving components”
See: mechanical watches
Touché
Mechanical watch motions have jewels as the pivots and need to be routinely cleaned and lubricated to keep functioning.
@@ObamaoZedong A mechanical watch should get full service every 3-4 years, a digital one just needs a replacement cell, but will eventually die, a smartwatch will die after 5 years. It sucks, but mechanical tech like tape players, watches etc will outlast modern tech and are sometimes more robust. A HDD though is much more fragile than most mechanical things you could carry every day, just look at guns.
This is really a neat video. When the iPod Mini's first came out, they came with only 4 or 6 GB of storage, which isn't much. So, when I first heard about this modification, I wanted to try it because I had lots of music to download, and it was an inexpensive upgrade, especially when you look at the cost of a new MP3 player with more storage. This is a cheap way to get more storage in an old MP3 player. I upgraded my computer in a similar way, I installed an SDD and took out the old hard drive. It's a great way to improve your PC.
More RAM easy pc better
I refuse to buy an audio jack-less phone, I refuse to buy £300 wireless earbuds with the audio quality of £30 IEMs that will die after 3 years if they don't get lost first.
I refuse to play into the tech enshitification game. I own my tech bc It has everything that I want & nothing that I don't want & if it breaks I can fix it.
Great video man, you've done us a service.
merci beaucoup ça fonctionne parfaitement
What neat little project. I had a 3rd gen nano to use as my iPod but the screen freezes and the tear down of that would be unpleasant, I’m thinking about one of these because it’s small and it just plays music!
Hey Garrett, was this a 2nd gen or 1st gen mini?
2nd cause it has the matched color click wheel
After restoring the iPod, iTunes says to unplug and connect to an external power adapter, but once I do all it does is sit on the folder with an exclamation mark screen. If I plug it back into iTunes it just gives me the same "iPod that appears to be corrupted" screen. The CF card tests good in a reader, and the iPod works just fine with the original Microdrive.
Same issue with me not sure what the problem is
Restore the pod in disk mode and go from there
@@MoikeIsJesus420 doesn't work.
@@ashton9699 do you have a firewire 30 pin cable?
@@MoikeIsJesus420 I do not unfortunately
DaNkPoDs
Gchmo
The big issue with restoring on my Windows PC was I needed to use a back USB 2.0 port. It did not like my front USB 3.0 port. Maybe it's the backward compatibility or a powered USB port issue. I'm not sure. But all itunes did was crash until I did this.
Thanks for the guide! It really helped me out when following the iFixit guide for replacing the battery, and I thought if I were going to go inside the device I might as well flash mod it. So far I've a working iPod Mini 2nd gen, hope that its new battery and CF card gives it even better battery life than stock!
How’s it so far?
@@zakarylakota It's been pretty good so far, the new battery is holding up much better than the old one lol, and the CF card is running as if the iPod came with it from the factory. I accidentally dinged up the exterior while opening the thing up, but it shouldn't be too noticeable because it's in the bottom of the device.
@@thinkindifferent bro i ordered 32 gb sandisk extreme CF for mini 2nd gen.
Any process apart of pluggin to itunes while using Windows?
@@batutasci after the flash mod you’d just plug it into your computer and it’ll say something like “corrupted hard drive” or “recovery mode”, from that point you’d just click restore and it should get everything working
@@thinkindifferent hows ur ipod?
Heads up, they put some Loctite on those little screws, they won’t come easy.
Any chance you’d do this to my iPod mini? I would more than happy to pay for parts and labor of course
Hi Garrett, I now have two 64Gb iPod Minis, cheers fella.
@X D Me.
@X D Me too
TKS Garrett, loved this so much after adding 64G to MY Gen1, I got a Gen2 Mini on Ebay to Flash to 32G; so far, so good. An issue with the Gen1, after adding some music, it became 'incompatible' with 'MUSIC'/iTunes (a much better name then generic MUSIC!)? So last night I did a full restore, will reload music & hope that's it. But a thing I had with BOTH Gen1 & Gen2 that you don't mention, is while restoring on Mac BP after awhile I was giving a Symbol to "PLUG into a WALL outlet". As the only owner of the Gen1, I HAD my FireWire. But WHAT if you haven't got that FireWire & Brick?? Would a USB Wire/Brick work too?
welp i know what i’m doing this weekend
Tengo uno de 2004, lo voy a intentar, incluso le cambiaré la batería, muchas gracias por tu video, muy útil y entretenido
Hi Garet, What kind of tool set do you have on the table for opening the iPods, can you tell me a source, I'm looking for the same tool set.
It’s from ifixit. They sell toolkits on their site
No matter what I did on pc after the restore it kept coming with sad face.
I went to a apple Mac and same thing. The folder on the screen disappears and now it’s a sad face.
However the pc and mac both can see the storage and size.
I’ve done the restore process 10 times or so now and it says disconnect and use a plug to finish the restore but then nothing happens
Will this work for the iPod Mini A1051 2004 Gen 1? I actually still have one that works, when plugged into a electric source? But would LOVE to mod this to a Compact Flash Storage Card!! Tks!
Yes. The internal drive connecting is identical.
@@GarrettCrespo Great! TY for responding so quickly! Originally thought, to just update the 4GB Mini Gen 1 Battery, since it still works! My 16GB iPod Nano A1285 Gen 4 also still works, but is getting the dreaded 'Black Spot'. My understanding, the Black Spot is a bloating battery; even though it holds its charge for a decent time? But was so bummed to learn, just updating the battery of the newer Nano is apparently a NIGHTMARE to attempt. So a NEWLY improved & enlarged Mini it will be, especially since so many MP3 (+) players today are getting reviewed as garbage & I KNOW my iPods will (& have) lasted the test of time.
Just wanted to let you know, I now have my iPod Mini A1051 2004 Gen 1 with both a new battery & a NEW FLASH Drive of 64GB, from a 4GB HD! Btw, yes, I am the original owner & it's in beautiful shape, I mean my spinning HD was still working after all this time! TY so much!
@@TheJoker-zt4nk bro i tried having a CF/SD adapter with a 64gb of sdxc.
After plugging it into iTunes its formatting restoring but then like nothing happened.Unplugging and plugging again and asking again for restore but nothing happens after the progress bar fills up.Tried making fat32 and other stuff but doenst work.
Now ordered a 32 gb Sandisk extreme CF.
Anything to make apart of plugging it into iTunes on Windows?
@TheRippeR Not sure what you're asking: "Anything to make apart of plugging it into iTunes on Windows?" But I would think it would work on Windows too, if you've downloaded iTunes/Music if that's what you're asking? I also never tried the Adapter, just went for the Sandisk extreme CF. So far so good. The only thing I've noticed thus far is that whenever connecting to my Macbook Pro to (manually) load or delete music (or audio books, same files) via (iTunes which is now) the Apple Music App the iPod creates a NEW 'On The Go' Playlist automatically? It's now up to about 8 of them, I can't delete them, they aren't playlists I created nor want?? But find no way to delete??? I've kind of given up on creating useable playlists for the iPod. Any suggestions out there @Garrett Crespo, or anyone would be appreciated. Tks.
On a Mac w/ Apple, how did you view, manage & play your iPod playlist (previously created in iTunes) on these older iPods , Mini's & Nano's, Videos & Classics?
Most of the iPod management is integrated into finder since they got rid of iTunes. Adding music is done through the music app.
hello sorry to use comment section but i did the same thing, format and everything now every time i hook it up to my pc it says that there is a problem with the drive swapped it for another one same thing put stock drive back in works fine ive been trying to find out what to do and its driving me nuts if you could help or if some one knows why its doing this would be very helpful thank you
Are you using an adapter or compact flash?
I'm using compact flash the exact same one he's got in the video and still no luck
@@gyrfalcon-6 Are you on mac? Have you tried reformatting the compact flash prior to installation via disk utility as mac os extended?
@@gyrfalcon-6 Not working for me either (Same ipod as in the video and same compact flash). Computer doesnt recognize it, but the old drive isn't getting recognized anymore either.
I tried a different compact flash 16gb kingston and I got it to work for some reason I cannot format the 64 to fat32 (I think that's what it's called) but the kingston worked no probs so I have no idea
Wont charge battery. Triangle show s up says ask support
Most likely a dead drive and battery.
This after you modded it?
Do we have to plug it into ios?
On windows, updated today's itunes or the original cd of ipod works while restoring?
I'm having a 2nd gen mini.
I used a cf/sd adapter with a 64 gb of sdxc but after restoring its like nothing happened, unplugging and plugging again its asking for restoration again....That progress bar ends and itunes warns about its formatted, but after that its like and harddrive again.Hundreds of tries and same again.Tried with some other sd and microsd cards but the same result.Dont know whats the problem :(
Now ordered 32 of sandisk extreme CF.
Any process apart of putting cf in?Formatting or sth?
Same problem. iTunes recognizes but won't restore properly.
Same problem as me not sure what to do next
do you have to launch ipod in disk mode after flash modding to import your songs? it ejects and freezes on the do not disconnect if i don’t connect via disk
I only had to use disk mode once to format it. It may not have formatted correctly for you. You may have to try it again.
@@GarrettCrespo wait you needed to put it in disk mode to format?
@@StrawHatLuffyD Thats the best way to make sure it's a clean install across the board. Yes.
@@GarrettCrespo I’m redoing it like the video but putting it in disk mode, how do I know it’s done though? There’s just a full circle on the hard drive and it now senses an iPod but it hasn’t restarted or anything
Would this work with a gen 1 ipod mini?
Yes. Both iPod minis used the same drive type
Where is the small little piece on the board that is easily damaged? I hear about it all the time but I can't like, see it in any videos
The c78 chip near the 30 pin connector
$180 for 256gb card???? No thx. I’ll stick to 1024gb on an iPod classic for $152 all in WITH a new 3000 ah battery.
I recommend that if you do the Flash mod, you also replace the original 750mAh battery while you are at it. The batteries do wear down and stop holding a decent charge. There are upgraded batteries available with 1300 mAh capacity.
The original batteries are 450mAh, the replacements are 750. Under no circumstances can you fit 1300mAh in a mini.
No such thing as a 1300 for a mini…
if you added a “1300 mAh” battery in your mini i’m sorry to inform you you’ve been scammed
It keeps telling me windows cant recognise the usb device I'm so close to buying a mac
Pluggin to Mac makes difference?
İ tried every way but after restoring nothing happens, SD/CF adapter with 64 gb sdxc doesnt restore at all.
After the process bar fills up it goes back to back again like i didnt format it.
now ordered a cf, any tips?
Sup
Dankpods us edition lol
This did not work for me. I I used a CF to SD adaptor from iFixit with a 128GB Micro SDXC. For some reason it only shows the sad face when I go to boot up the iPod. My PC and Mac will not recognize it so I'm a little stuck there. Is there a resolution to this?
I’ve had issues with some adapters, but it’s more likely that the format didn’t work correctly. Did you format the SD card before installing it into the iPod?
@@GarrettCrespo no is this necessary ? Windows asks me do you want to format it and I said no
MATE
Yes?
I just did that to my ipod a couple days ago, didn't need a tutorial and I did it quickly
So
*compact hdd* lol
Good video overall but maybe change the title a bit…. don’t need a 20 minute video to say “unplug the old drive plug in the new one” lol
I mean… I could just say that, but then no one would know how to safely disassemble the iPod, or how to format the iPod once it’s done. So the “unplug and plug in” part is the center of a three phase process. Lol
@@GarrettCrespo Fair enough, honestly I have no idea what I was thinking when I commented that… l think I just tired or something lmao, great video 👍🏻
@@HighFidelityFox No problem. Glad you enjoyed it either way! I appreciate the input.
Puts a 1TB drive on it
Its max is 256gb i believe
@@pixsled For the 2nd gen mini, Yes.
@@NOVAKINYT What’s the max for gen1?
@@diana-cy4kj people say you can maybe go up to 256 ish gigs if you use rockbox but for normal os it's 128. 64 would be the best choice tho.
@@NOVAKINYT I ordered 64gb card from eBay. I have this iPod mini lying around ( it says 2004, so I think it’s 1st gen ), it switches on but dies straight away. I think both battery and hd are busted. I never used it, it belonged to a friend who dumped it on me with a lot of other junk. I will try to mod it, hope it goes well. I changed a few batteries on iPod Classic ( both 5th and 6th gen ) in the past.