Markus

I've had my 4th Generation 40GB iPod since September 2004. I replaced the battery last year with a 900mAh battery from Newer Technology as the original one was failing. As it was out of warranty I didn't mind cracking it open and doing a bit of DIY.

Within the last two months I've had to restore the iPod around 5 times. I'd go to use it in the car to find that it had zero songs on it, but the free space was listed as around 1.8GB, thus indicating there was data on there. When I connected the thing to the Mac I could see the music files on there, but the iTunesDB file was corrupt, as attempting to copy it generated an I/O error.

After a complete restore it would be ok for a few days, maybe a week if I was lucky.

I formatted the drive, writing zeros to it, which failed when trying to write the partition map, so I knew something was up. I could then restore again, and if lucky I'd get all the songs on there in one swoop (we're talking 6000 songs). Otherwise it would stop responding and after a reset I might be lucky to be in a position to complete the copy, otherwise I'd have to restore from scratch as the iTunesDB was corrupt.

It would be nice of Apple, or some third party to provide a Mac application that could create a new iTunesDB and probably iTunesCatalog file as well, from the data on the iPod, and allow you to save it to the iPod and also to somewhere on your hard drive as a back up, as if it's corrupt, even if the song files are ok, you have to completely restore your iPod. Copying the Library over simply adds new items as it does not "see" the existing items, so you'll run of of disk space.

The really frustrating thing was that Disk Utility and Disk Warrior reported that the disk was functioning correctly, which I knew to be untrue as I was having problems with iTunes accessing the disk, and also terminal was having issues copying items to/from it.

After having to restore the thing twice in six hours I was close to throwing the ****** against the wall. I remained clam however and did a little research into replacement drives.

iLounge.com was my first port of call, it threw up a few threads in the forums about replacement drives, as did a google search. However, there wasn't anything detailing exactly what I wanted to know, which was:

a) Is it possible to obtain replacement hard drives for the 4G iPod, and if so, where are the best/cheapest places to get them

b) Is any functionality lost when using a particular brand. I'd read things stating that some brands would only allow sync via USB rather than USB and/or Firewire and I'd prefer to keep the option of using both.

c) Can you fit a drive with a higher capacity into the 4G Monochrome, for example, I know the 4G iPods came with 20, 40 and 60GB drives, but only the Color iPod had the 60GB drive. I thought that if I'm going to replace the drive, why not upgrade it to a larger capacity.

So I posted my questions on iLounge, waited a while and was not at all surprised to receive no replies.

I had a look on ebay and saw a few drives, but I'm not overly keen on bidding on an item, I'd rather pay an outright price for an item.

I emailed a local Apple Dealer, they replied back saying it would cost far too much to replace the drive and I'd be better off purchasing a new iPod. I replied asking for prices and said that I doubt that for a 40GB or 60GB iPod it would be cheaper, especially seeing as Apple does not have a 40GB iPod anymore, it's 20, 30 and 60. Plus I didn't really want a new iPod. I won't use video on it, nor picture display, I only ever use it for music. The nano's are too small as is the 20 and 30GB sized models, I want to keep my complete collection of music with me, so 60GB was the only option and that was $499 plus tax.

I did a little google search and game up with iPodDepot.ca. These chaps were fairly local to me (about an hour away) and had various parts for almost all the iPod models. I found they listed the 40GB and 60GB drive for the 4g iPod so I fired of a quick email asking my various questions.
It was 5pm on a tuesday so I expected to hear back, ooh, I don't know, sometime during the next week. I was shocked and delighted when I got a response 10 mins later.
They said that the 60GB drive would fit with no problems as the case size of the 40 and 60GB models was the same, If it had been a 20GB model I'd have needed a bigger case. They said that it would work perfectly as well, I'd not lose FW synching.

At 5:30 I ordered the drive and picked it up on Thursday evening. Cracked open the iPod, took out the old drive, slapped in the new one, ran iPod Updater to restore it, then used iTunes to copy the music onto it. A couple of hours later it was ready for use. Lovely.

So, in case anyone needs to, it is simple to replace hard drive (and battery) on a 4G iPod, and you can install a 60GB drive from an iPod photo (guess the drive in the video might be the same, I'm not sure) If you're not worried about FW sync then you can probably find cheaper drives out there as well.

ScoobyDoo555

out of interest Markus, what was the spec of the drive and price.
I was looking to do this last year for my 3G. Can never have enough hard drive space!

Dan

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

So was it a good rave mate?

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

Sorry... thought it was astraboy with the post

Markus

Complete list of drives here (if the link does not work then go to ipoddepot.ca and then click on iPod hard drive replacement on under categories). If you select the iPod Parts and services you can view items by iPod model.

From the look of the part it's an Toshiba MK6006GAH drive, and the original 40GB was a tosh model MK4006GAH. Site says that it's pulled from a new iPod, so it could be they might get DOA iPods and just strip them.

price for the 60GB was US$169, so for me the total was around 132 quid, so not exactly cheap, but a damn sight cheaper than getting a brand new iPod.

Had a quick search and found this and this.
That is cheaper than I paid, but then I'd have to pay shipping from the UK, plus wait a little while longer for it to turn up. I could probably find it cheaper elsewhere as well. The other factor is that though the drive models are the same, I'm not sure what, if anything is done to the iPod specific drives. Possibly nothing, but I didn't want to take a chance.

Markus

Funny It was a bit of a long winded post, but nothing new there

mattbeef

ukipodrepairs.com

is also a good one to try

messiah

I was lucky enough (or should that be unlucky?) to need by battery replaced and had it done under warranty - it was only lasting around 3 hours so sent it off.

When it came back I cahrged it up and just left it running to see how long it would go - hoping it would reach the promised 15 hours - it lasted over 25!! Nice on Apple.

Markus

Apple does seem to get it right most of the time.

When it comes to batteries on iPods, I don't think everyone realizes how the batteries in iPods work, that ideally you should totally discharge the battery now and then, or at least let it run completely out and then charge it (guess that's the same thing really), rather then charging it when there is 50% charge left.

mattbeef

My god im so glad that someone realises this