Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

Eug Wanker · Oct 26, 2006, 09:06 AM

I dropped my iPod mini, and broke its IBM MicroDrive. So, I decided to take the drive apart.

<-- Click to enlarge

Gossamer · Oct 26, 2006, 09:11 AM

Oh wow, i never realized how small they were. How small is the new video iPod's drive?

Dakar² · Oct 26, 2006, 09:12 AM

Cool. The pics, not breaking it.

mitchell_pgh · Oct 26, 2006, 09:15 AM

Very amazing. So tiny... and I'm guessing they will simply continue to get smaller and smaller.

QUESTION Are you going to replace it with a standard Compact Flash card?

Eug Wanker · Oct 26, 2006, 09:19 AM

Originally Posted by mitchell_pgh

Very amazing. So tiny... and I'm guessing they will simply continue to get smaller and smaller.

QUESTION Are you going to replace it with a standard Compact Flash card?

Already tried. It doesn't work. I tried two different CF cards. So, I bought a replacement MicroDrive. That's the one on the left in the top picture.

Gossamer · Oct 26, 2006, 09:20 AM

Is it a direct swap??

edit: I see, that would have been cool.

Eug Wanker · Oct 26, 2006, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by Gossamer

Is it a direct swap??

My old one was a 6 GB. My new one is a 4 GB.

P.S. If you want more details, I had posted about it in the iPod forum when I ordered it.

Originally Posted by Gossamer

Oh wow, i never realized how small they were. How small is the new video iPod's drive?

Smaller than a laptop drive, but MUCH bigger than a MicroDrive. The iPod is shaped as it is because that's more or less the shape of the drive.

Gossamer · Oct 26, 2006, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

My old one was a 6 GB. My new one is a 4 GB.

Actually I was asking about the CF card being a direct swap, but your post snuck in there. Would switching to a CF card (assuming it worked) save a noticeable amount of battery life?

Tuoder · Oct 26, 2006, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by Gossamer

Actually I was asking about the CF card being a direct swap, but your post snuck in there. Would switching to a CF card (assuming it worked) save a noticeable amount of battery life?

I imagine it would. It would also be more durable.

Gossamer · Oct 26, 2006, 10:30 AM

I found this during a Google search:

Note: iPods have drives with customized firmware so it is not possible to use non-iPod versions of the drives in an iPod (at least with full functionality.) It's doubtful that the minis will be any different in this regard. You should be able to use the drive from a mini in another device, but a drive/card which isn't from an iPod probably won't work in iPod mini.

Any truth to that?

tooki · Oct 26, 2006, 10:55 AM

Erm, I think that's backwards.

The drive in an iPod has special firmware to keep it from working in, say, a camera. I doubt the iPod prevents a CF card from working -- but I can't be sure.

tooki

Eriamjh · Oct 26, 2006, 11:04 AM

I believe there are people who have posted that all they had to do was drop in a new and bigger microdrive into their minis and then do a restore. So 4GB minis can be made into 6GB minis with no effort.

Do they make 8 or 10GB microdrives yet?

PS: iPod video HDDs are 1.8". Microdrives are 1", Notebook drives are 2.5", and desktops 3.5"

Gossamer · Oct 26, 2006, 11:06 AM

Yeah, I found a link to a guy that replaced his drive with a larger one. On initial startup, the drive flashed the question mark, but after running the iPod updater, it worked perfectly.

Eug Wanker · Oct 26, 2006, 12:24 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

Erm, I think that's backwards.

The drive in an iPod has special firmware to keep it from working in, say, a camera. I doubt the iPod prevents a CF card from working -- but I can't be sure.

tooki

It wouldn't work with my CF cards. I didn't try reflashing though. 2 GB CF cards are little much too experiment with

esp. since I wouldn't be using a 2 GB card permanently anyway. 2 GB doesn't give me enough space.

vmarks · Oct 26, 2006, 06:24 PM

iPod

is the drive out of a 15gb iPod drive.

Rumor · Oct 26, 2006, 06:29 PM

What kind of coin is that, and how big is it in relation to a US 25 cent piece?

tooki · Oct 26, 2006, 06:52 PM

Since it's a maple leaf on it, I'm going to hazard a guess of Canadian.

tooki

indigoimac · Oct 26, 2006, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by Rumor

What kind of coin is that, and how big is it in relation to a US 25 cent piece?

If it is canadian, which I think it is, it is pretty much the exact same size as an American quater.

Oh yes, those microdrives are amazing!

ghporter · Oct 26, 2006, 09:31 PM

Canadian quarters are indeed exactly the same shape, size and weight as U.S. quarters.

I think that there's some sort of instruction set in microdrives that is not in CF devices-sort of a head/cylinder kind of reference that the iPod looks for; if the iPod is supposed to be flash based, it would be logical for it to accept a CF device, but if it's supposed to be hard drive based, then it could look for hard drive-specific information and refuse to work if it didn't get the info it wanted. Pure speculation, but if there's one method for this to happen, there's bound to be a bunch of them.

Eug · 11:07 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

Since it's a maple leaf on it, I'm going to hazard a guess of Canadian.

Yes indeed. However, it's a special memorial one I hadn't seen before. I had gotten one in my change that day.

Originally Posted by ghporter

Canadian quarters are indeed exactly the same shape, size and weight as U.S. quarters.

Well not quite. Canadian quarters are very slightly smaller (and significantly lighter), and won't work US vending machines (and vice versa) most of the time.

US
Mass: 5.670 g
Diameter: 24.26 mm
Thickness: 1.75 mm
Edge: 119 reeds
Composition: 91.67% Cu, 8.33% Ni

Canada
Mass: 4.4 g
Diameter: 23.88 mm
Thickness: 1.58 mm
Edge: milled
Composition: 94% steel, 3.8% Cu, 2.2% Ni plating

Originally Posted by ghporter

I think that there's some sort of instruction set in microdrives that is not in CF devices-sort of a head/cylinder kind of reference that the iPod looks for; if the iPod is supposed to be flash based, it would be logical for it to accept a CF device, but if it's supposed to be hard drive based, then it could look for hard drive-specific information and refuse to work if it didn't get the info it wanted. Pure speculation, but if there's one method for this to happen, there's bound to be a bunch of them.

Hmm... That could make sense, especially considering that many eBayers sell 3rd party 8 GB drives that are claimed to be compatible with the iPod mini. Nobody advertises CF as being compatible with the iPod mini.

Rob van dam · Oct 30, 2006, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

My old one was a 6 GB. My new one is a 4 GB.

P.S. If you want more details, I had posted about it in the iPod forum when I ordered it.

Smaller than a laptop drive, but MUCH bigger than a MicroDrive. The iPod is shaped as it is because that's more or less the shape of the drive.

Looking at these drives i wonder just how much smaller apple could make the mac mini in the future.

ghporter · Oct 30, 2006, 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by Eug

Yes indeed. However, it's a special memorial one I hadn't seen before. I had gotten one in my change that day.

Well not quite. Canadian quarters are very slightly smaller (and significantly lighter), and won't work US vending machines (and vice versa) most of the time.

US
Mass: 5.670 g
Diameter: 24.26 mm
Thickness: 1.75 mm
Edge: 119 reeds
Composition: 91.67% Cu, 8.33% Ni

Canada
Mass: 4.4 g
Diameter: 23.88 mm
Thickness: 1.58 mm
Edge: milled
Composition: 94% steel, 3.8% Cu, 2.2% Ni plating

This is new. While growing up in Southeastern Michigan, I often got as many Canadian coins in change as U.S. coins, and they all worked interchangably. Being in Texas, I don't see as many Canadian coins, but I haven't seen one that didn't work yet (though I have had some "interesting" conversations with people who thought they got cheated by some percentage through getting a Canadian coin or two in change).

drnkn_stylz · Oct 30, 2006, 10:07 AM

Aw what a cutie