The 32Gb Compact Flash Ipod
The Concept
Ever since I developed my iFlash - iPod compact flash adaptor, CF card capacities have not been in the same league as the equivalent hard drives. That has now changed with the introduction by A-Data of their new 32 gb Compact Flash Card.
Not only have they managed to get this card into the shops, but they have also priced it so we mere mortals can afford to buy one. At $64 (£35) (Newegg) this is one affordable card.
It was time for me to find out what it would be like to have a 32gb solid state video iPod!
The good, the bad, and the Ugly….
To create this very special Apple Ipod, you need to gather this motley crew of items.
- A-Data 32Gb Speedy CF Card (you can of course use smaller capacity)
- Apple Video Ipod (5g or 5.5g)
- Opening tool
- iFlash - Compact Flash Adapter
For this task I managed to pick-up a faulty 30gb 5.5g Video Ipod off Ebay - suffering from the very common click of death hard drive failure.
The Fitting
Installing the Compact Flash card in to the iPod is a pretty simple operation and normally takes less than 5 minutes to complete.
The hardest part of the fitting is opening the iPod. Place the iPod face up in the palm of your right hand, using the back of your thumb pull the front panel back towards your hand. This will hopefully create a small gap between the front and back panel - enough for you to push the thin end of the opening tool in to.
Pushing the opening tool deep in to the seam, run the tool up and down the side to release the retaining clips. Then keeping the tool buried deep in to the seam, move up and around towards the headphone socket and then down the right side. This should release most of the retaining clips. Using both hands manipulate the front and back till they separate - you may need to use the opening tool to release any stubborn clips.
On separation you need to carefully release the battery connection. This can be done by very gently pulling at the FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) to get it out of the connector. The safer option is to use a small screwdriver or toothpick to lift and release the lock which allows the FPC to slide out with ease. Place the front and back side by side, so not straining the headphone FPC connection.
You can now lift the hard drive away and down to expose the ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) connector. Using your fingernail or screwdriver lift the black bar on the hard drive to release the FPC, and then carefully remove the hard drive.
Take care not to strain the FPC or ZIF Connector on the iPod motherboard.
The black locking bar on the iFlash ZIF connector needs to be raised before fitting the adaptor in to the iPod. I normally get the hard drive ribbon in to the iFlash connector before pressing the adaptor down in to the iPod. Make sure that the FPC is fully inserted in to the ZIF connector - you can use a small screwdriver or toothpick to gently push in each end of the FPC in to the connector.
Lock the ZIF Connector by pressing down the black bar.
The CF card can now be installed on to the adaptor and the iPod can be put back together, make sure you re-install the battery connection.
I suggest restoring and checking the iPod works correctly before closing up the case.
On initial power-up you will be greeted by the connect to computer warning screen.
On the nextpage I cover the iTunes restore process.
iTunes Restore
To install the operating system on to the iPod, you need to install and run that necessary evil that is called iTunes. Once iTunes is correctly installed the iPod can be connected to the computer.
The restoring process is pretty simple and quick. iTunes will normally start when the iPod is connected and prompt you through the whole process. I have taken screenshots of each major stage, click on thumbnails for larger images.
Sync me baby one more time….
So after a short wait for the iPod to boot up, I was presented with the initial language selection screen. A quick check in the settings \ about menu showed the iPod report that I had 30.1 GB storage capacity and available for my video and music.
To test the iPod I added some media to my iTunes library - 35 music tracks total size 255MB and 10 videos total size 320MB. The A-Data Speedy 32gb CF card is not very fast when compared with the high speed types such as SanDisk?s Extreme range.
Timing how long the sync took on the above files:
- 2 minutes for the music (255 MB)
- 1 minute 30 seconds for the video files (320 MB)
Not exactly Speedy…. but useable.
In use the speed of the CF card is not relevant; Flash does not have spin up delays - so track changing, fast forwarding, etc is quick and smooth. With the additional battery life we may be able to retire the hard drives, finally!
On the nextpage I look at Rockbox the alternative o/s
Rockbox
Rockbox is an alternative open source operating system for various media players. You can find more information here.
I last tried Rockbox several years ago and it’s about time I gave it another try. I downloaded the latest version for the Apple Video Ipod (version: r16170).
Installation is pretty simple, you copy over the whole .rockbox folder to the root folder of iPod drive and then you run the iPodpatcher which modifies the Apple boot loader to start-up Rockbox instead of the normal iPod operating system.
I had some problems getting it installed - on start-up I kept getting a load error and the card size was being misreported as 7720MB. I tried several times restoring with iTunes and then re-installing Rockbox, but each time it would fail.
Placing the card in to my card reader - microsoft windows was also reporting that it was only 7.5Gb in size, even though when used in the iPod - iTunes reported 30.15Gb capacity.
I gathered that the partition table on the card must have been corrupted so it would need resetting, to fix this you can use various partition programs but I opted for a much simpler option.
Card went straight in to my Nikon D200 camera and I formatted the card in the camera, this works because the camera clears all the partition data and writes it’s own partition data.
Card was put back in to the iPod, iTunes was used to restore the iPod and then I re-installed Rockbox - this time it worked and I was greeted by the Rockbox boot up logo.
I did some listening tests, played a game or two and even viewed some of the demo’s - everything seemed to work as you would expect if installed on a normal hard drive based iPod.
Conclusion
The 32gb Compact Flash Ipod is a huge success story. We have got to the point where it has become affordable to replace the clunky mechanical hard drive with a solid state CF card.
I expect this card to get cheaper going forward so the value for money aspect will only get better.
So don’t throw your broken iPods away - iFlash them!
Pros
- Extended battery life
- Smooth User interface
- Sturdy and better impact resistance
- Less weight - Much lighter
Cons
- Sync speed
More information about the iFlash can be found here.
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