Convert your 4th Gen iPod to use Flash Memory

Step 6 Before And After

Some of the differences between the old HD unit and my new flash version:

iPod now weighs 22% less! 5.5 oz vs. 4.3 oz

iPod is now much more rugged and will no longer suffer from shock-induced hard drive failure.

Oh yeah, I'm still tallying up the battery gains but you can imagine how much less power the CF card will consume compared to the hard drive.

Now go and make yourself a Custom iPod Boombox!

Comments

[account3r2]

what kind of mem does the ipod touch run on? flash or HDD

[phant0m_sp00f3ra]

flash.

[showdog525]

Did this with my old 60gb photo and it worked great the first try, thanks. I wanted to add that I did this with a LARGE CF card and it worked perfect no problems. The material that I used:
1x 64gb Trandsend CF card (got it from a friend he only had one) $120
1x 1.8" to CF adapter from Amazon (wanted to get it quick) $10
1x piece of slim cardboard
1x set of ipod tools (got them with the battery) $10

I got all my parts from http://www.idemigods.com
I also replaced the battery at the same time, not to hard all you need is a new battery, a T6 driver, and a steady hand. Thanks again for all the info.

[voraz]

This worked great for me, on an Ipod classic 4th generation 20 GB thanks for the info. It was so easy I considered it more of a part replacement than an actual hack. Definitely doable by a beginner. I got the adapter from Deal Extreme for 4.44 free shipping. http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10886 I bought the flash card from NewEgg but get it from where ever you find the best deal. I installed a Transcend 16Gb card making sure it was ATA compatible before buying it. The package says that this card is an Ultra Speed 133x with MLC Flash memory. Don't know if the speed matters but this worked first time no fuss. I will try bigger ATA compatible cards soon and report back. The two pins that others are talking about bending are for the jumper to choose between Master or Slave. I used needle nose pliers to hold the base of the pins and with the jumper on I bent them forward until at a 90 so that now the jumper is flat with the circuit board. I used a pair of nips to snip off the excess leads sticking out of the solder on the other side of the board from the jumper as well. Didn't want them to poke or short anything. I didn't use any cardboard. I took the rubber off of the old HD and put it around the new adapter and stuck a small piece of hard pipe insulating foam at the bottom so it wouldn't slide down. All of this is resting on top of that thin piece of foam that is stuck to the original HD. When I connected the adapter to the HD lead in the Ipod it runs from the adaptors Pin 1 indicator to the other end leaving 6 holes unused on the adaptor not 4. Everything worked as soon as I connected it to itunes it said I needed to restore then I did the setup connected to external power and it synced the next time I connected it back to Itunes.
I ran a test with a full battery and it increased my battery life by about 40%. So my Ipod used to get about 3.5 to 4 hours out of a charge and last night it got about 5 to 5.5 hours. This is with lots of pausing and changing of podcasts ect. I am sure I would have gotten at least 6 hours if I had just put it on music and let it run without all of the back light usage.
Thanks for a great Instructable.

[voraz]

After you bend the jumper pins over, put a little bit of super glue at the base of teh jumper to prevent it from working it's way off later.  Be careful to only put it on the end as to not interfere with connectivity.

Hey if this was helpful view my profile and give me a patch if you want.
Have fun with the project.

[ebbs222]

What's the name of the adapter you used? Can this be applied to older generation Ipods as well?

[fstedie]

I've seen the adapter listed under different names, but the one I used called it "iPod SSD 1.8" to Compact Flash" or something like that. Here's a link to a recent listing on eBay: adapter

it is not the best quality, but it works.

[yjvsryyubvwlax]

Would this be the equivalent? www.startech.com/item/ZIF2CF-Compact-Flash-CF-to-ZIF-LIF-Adapter.aspx 
It was one of the top results when I did the quote you had into Google. I have the first iPod that was ever created with a color screen and I am looking at repairing it for my dad.

I always new it was a good idea to hold on to dead electronics!

[trefam]

I tried and it didn't work. After the restore process, I get the folder and exclamation error. I have two different CF. Transcend and ADATA both are 8GB. I tried both still got same error. Any suggestions? Thanks