# iPod 3G Compact Flash Mod



## darkfury18

I had an ipod 3rd gen lying around and wanted to do the compact flash conversion that everyone has been doing. From reading around, I thought it would be a simple mod (at least for the mini, 4G and 5G). But after replacing the HDD with a CF card and restoring it, the ipod displayed a progress bar and then restarted in an endless loop (apparently, a common issue with the 3G).

 I found this guide, but in the end it didn't work for me either. After half a day of frustration and a lot head banging, I got it to work. To spare anyone who's interested in this mod a headache, this is what finally worked for me.

 What you'll need:
 - ipod 3G
 - CF card
 - CF adapter
 - external charger
 - a working HDD or the copied firmware from another ipod 3G
 - a computer with Ubuntu (any Unix based machine should work, Mac included, but I'm not sure of the exact commands for them)
 - iTunes

 Make sure you have a fully charged battery before proceeding.

 For those with a working HDD, otherwise, go to step 3:
 1) Open iTunes and update to the latest firware.
 2) Remove all songs from your ipod

 3) Turn off you ipod and remove the HDD, and install the CF card. Depending on which adapter you bought, there may be 4 or 6 pins that will be unused. (Mine indicated where pin 1 was so I aligned it to that pin when I plugged it into the slot for the HDD.)
 4) Connect to iTunes and it will ask you to restore the ipod. Once completed, it will ask you to disconnect the ipod and plug it into an external charger. Once you do so, the restore process will proceed, except that it will show the progress bar and restart in an endless loop.
 5) Disconnect it from the charger and the ipod will turn off.

 Now, you need to get onto a machine with Ubuntu.

 For those with a working HDD, otherwise, go to step 12:
 6) Remove the CF card and reinstall the HDD. The ipod should boot up normally once again.
 7) Plug the ipod into the Linux machine.
 8) Open up the ipod as a disk and back up all the folders on it. They should be small since you've removed all the songs. (Make sure to copy all the hidden files also if you're on a Mac.)
 9) Open up a terminal and as root, or using sudo, enter

  Quote:


 # dmesg | tail 
 

 Quote:


 Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
 usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
 scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
 Vendor: Apple Model: ipod Rev: 1.63
 Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
 Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
 SCSI device sda: 39063024 512-byte hdwr sectors (20000 MB)
 sda: Write Protect is off
 sda: *sda1 sda2*
 WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
 USB Mass Storage device found at 15
 USB Mass Storage support registered. 
 

Note that the ipod is connected at sda1 and sda2

 10) Now we will backup the firmware using the dd command. Normally it will be the first of the two partitions, but if the process takes longer than 30 seconds, hit Ctrl+C to stop the process. If it has copied more than 50MB, we're copying the wrong partition and try the other partition.

  Quote:


 # dd if=/dev/sda1 of=backup_firmware 
 

11) With the firmware backed up, safely disconnect the ipod and replace the HDD with the CF card.

 12) Restart the ipod and it will ask you to plug it into the external charger again. Do so. When the apple logo appears, hold the FWD, REV, and SELECT button until the screen goes blank, when you release it, it will beep and put you into diagnostic mode. Use the REV/FWD buttons to navigate the menu and SELECT the USB DISK mode. Plug the ipod into the Linux machine and enter

  Quote:


 # dmesg | tail 
 

13) Check where the ipod is mounted, it was in the same location for me. Now copy the firmware back onto the CF 
 card.

  Quote:


 # dd if=backup_firmware of=/dev/sda1 
 

14) Open up the ipod as a disk and copy the folders that you copied earlier back.
 15) Safely disconnect the ipod. You're almost done. Scroll to RESET and restart the ipod. If things went well, you've got a working CF based ipod!












 All that's left now is the diyMod


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## Thomas Benson

Does anyone have a part number and store where I can buy the CF adapter for a 3G iPod? Tarkan Akdam doesn't sell his Mk 1 any more.


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## darkfury18

You can get a CF adapter on dealextreme.com for $5.30 shipped.


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## froob

Looks like a good mod.

 I've read reports that once you replace your 3g iPods hard drive with a custom one, you will no longer be able to sync over firewire (e.g. Cannot charge 3G iPod via USB2, cannot use replacement drive in Firewire mode [Archive] - The macosxhints Forums). This leaves you with the problem of having to charge over firewire, but having to sync over usb. Can you confirm?

 Cheers.


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## Moontan13

Great post. Thanks!


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## azarel

is there any vendors who can help to do the mod for it? v tempting


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## ruZZ.il

tiny tidbit of the day: a thin strip of electrical tape, just enough to cover the 2 middle contacts on the usb plug, is enough to fool the ipod into thinking that you're using an external power supply. so an external charger is unnecessary.


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## robertsp

darkfury18, Excellent DIY post!!!

 I have acquired a 16GB CF card, and CF adapter, but now stuck at step 6 because I do not have a working Harddisk to copy files from....

 Can you post, or send me a zip file containing the files/folders backed up in step 8, and the firmware image dd'd in step 10 ?

 Without these I'm hopelessly stuck as I don't have a friend with a working 3G ipod 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Thank you!!!


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## robertsp

Ok, I figured out how to get the CF upgrade to work on my 3G iPod WITHOUT needing to clone firmware and files from a working harddisk.

 1) Follow steps 3 through 5 in darkfury18's DIY post. (This will successfully restored your iPod and update the internal boot flash, but at this point the ipod will be stuck in an update loop. The follow steps will correct this problem.)

 6) Put iPod into Diagnostic mode. (HOWTO: With all cables disconnected from the 3G iPod, Turn on iPod by pressing MENU button, then as soon as the APPLE LOGO appears, simultaneous press REW / FFW / SELECT buttons and then release them before the CONNECTOR ICON appears. You may have to repeat the several times until you get the hang of it.)

 7) Put iPod into Disk mode. (HOWTO: Use FFW key to scroll down until you see USB DISK MODE and then press SELECT button.)

 8) Now connect iPod USB connection cable to you windows PC. iTunes should load and then indicate you need to restore your ipod. Just go ahead and cancel and exit iTunes.

 9) Start up ipod wizard. (free download from iPodWizard) Select UPDATER tab and then select "Extract firmware binary from your iPod". And Save to a file. (The file size should be about 4MB, if not, try extracting a 2nd time as this is what I had to do.)

 10) Load the saved firmware file into a hex editor and modify the byte at offset 0x4230. It will be 0x00, change it to 0x01. Save your modified firmware to a file. (Here is a free hex editor that works for this task Freeware Hex Editor XVI32 ) 

 11) Use ipod wizard to write this modified firmware back to you ipod. (HOWTO: Select "Firmware" in the "Edit Mode" drop down box. Press "Open Firmware" and then select the modified firmware file. Then select "Write To iPod". And exit ipod wizard.

 12) Now eject your iPod using "Safely Remove Hardware" in windows system tray, and then unplug you USB connection from the iPod.

 13) Now reset your iPod. (HOWTO: For the 3G, press and holding iPod MENU and PLAY/PAUSE buttons simultanesouly until ipod reboots to APPLE LOGO and then release)

 14) iPod should boot up to its menu screen now!!! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 15) You can now reconnect the iPod to you windows PC and itunes should now allow you to setup and sync you iPod. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 FYI: What we have done here is manually set a flag indicating that the iPod flash update is completed. For some reason the 3G firmware has problems doing this itself. It may have something to do with the compact flash modules head/sector/track defaults, ...my speculation. (Note that this is not a problem when putting a CF in an iPod mini, so seem something peculiar to the 3G iPod.) If in the future you want to do a Restore/Update in iTunes, you will need to do this procedure again.


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## Stikk

Hey there,

 I'm gonna try these steps with my 4G iPod, I think, because I cannot get it to work.. It just reboots in an endless loop, showing the apple logo, then the broken file logo then blank screen and repeat indefinitely. If I reboot it, it shows me the "battery dead" sign, even though the battery works.. Stupid iPod, I nearly smashed it, I'll try some of these steps but I don't hold out too much hope..

 That CF adapter you have, darkfury18, looks exactly like mine! I got it from dealextreme. Is it the adapter's fault? Would I be better off just buying a better one?? Also, do you have it set to slave or master? Or does it not matter? And do the LEDs come on when it's working or when it's NOT working?

 Ahem, ok, sorry for all the questions...


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## robertsp

Quote:


 Also, do you have it set to slave or master? 
 

Master. i.e., put on the jumper.

  Quote:


 And do the LEDs come on when it's working or when it's NOT working? 
 

LED on the adapter card is on when the CF card is being accessed. Does not indicated success or failure, just accessed.


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## bundee1

Any updates? Success?


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## karmatose

Thanks for the step by step, robertsp and darkfury18! I had a dead HDD in my 3g iPod and was bashing my head against the wall for a few days trying to figure this out. My once long dead (been sitting in my closet for almost three years) 15GB 3G iPod is now alive with the help of a 32GB aData (speedy) CF card! Now to install Rockbox and tote around some FLAC. 

 A quick question though, what's everyone else who did this mod getting for battery life?


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## smrtby123

Great work getting this mod to work on a 3G. This mod works the best on an ipod mini if you know someone that has one or you have one lying around. The mini-HDD pin attachments hooks up directly to the CF. I have mine with a 32gb CF and rockbox for my Flac files, and a larger battery. Apparently the audio out of the mini leaves a bit to be desired but using the lineout with a mod will negate most of the bad things I've heard about the headphone jack I think.

 With Rockbox most people see the battery life halved from the standard Apple firmware. I'm pretty sure according to Rockbox the Apple firmware can do on-the-fly adjustments to the ipod processor speed saving battery power while Rockbox doesn't have access to the code to be able to do this so the processor stays at a locked speed the whole time. On my ipod mini I get about 5.5 hrs of battery life, but thats with a 900 mAH battery I think.


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## karmatose

smrtby123: Thanks for letting me know what your battery life is. I've read a lot about the Mini being a good candidate, but I dislike the click wheel which is why I've not pursued another iPod since the 3G. IMHO, the interface and controls on the 3G makes it one of the best MP3 players ever made.

 I just installed a new 850mAh battery and my battery life seems far less than what I was getting with the HDD which is why I asked the question. Who knows, maybe it just needs a few cycles to hit it's stride.


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## flashman

Hi darkfury18,

 thank you for your description.
 I tried before the cf mod with my 3g ipod but never worked. now i found your advice to change a byte. i am curious if it works....
 i cant find the right byte at 0x4230 Please can you or someone tell me how to get there? the value i found was 61. I was simply following the bytes until the program XVI32 showed the location 4230. Was this right? Were is the offset 0x? I thought its just in the beginning of the file....


 thank you very much for a short reply...


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## robertsp

Search for this string "ATAdpua". The byte immediately after it is 0, change it to 1. This byte occurs at offset 0x4030 and 0x4230 as shown below. I changed only the byte at 0x4230 and that stopped the endless rebooting after flash update.

 0004000: 2141 5441 736f 736f 0000 0000 00c2 0000 !ATAsoso........
 0004010: c8fd 3100 0000 0028 0000 0000 907b 3211 ..1....(.....{2.
 0004020: 1002 0000 4000 8d04 2141 5441 6470 7561 ....@...!ATAdpua
 0004030: 0000 0000 00c0 3200 a8fb 1000 0000 0028 ......2........(
 0004040: 0000 0000 6916 680c 1002 0000 4000 8d04 ....i.h.....@...
 0004050: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004060: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004070: 0000 0000 ffff ffff 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004080: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004090: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ffff ffff ................
 00040a0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00040b0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00040c0: 0000 0000 ffff ffff 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00040d0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00040e0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ffff ffff ................
 00040f0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004100: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004110: 0000 0000 ffff ffff 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004120: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004130: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ffff ffff ................
 0004140: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004150: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004160: 0000 0000 ffff ffff 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004170: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004180: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ffff ffff ................
 0004190: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00041a0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00041b0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00041c0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00041d0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00041e0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00041f0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004200: 2141 5441 736f 736f 0000 0000 0044 0000 !ATAsoso.....D..
 0004210: c8fd 3100 0000 0028 0000 0000 907b 3211 ..1....(.....{2.
 0004220: 1002 0000 4000 8d04 2141 5441 6470 7561 ....@...!ATAdpua
 0004230: *00*00 0000 0042 3200 a8fb 1000 0000 0028 .....B2........(
 0004240: 0000 0000 6916 680c 1002 0000 4000 8d04 ....i.h.....@...
 0004250: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004260: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004270: 0000 0000 ffff ffff 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004280: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 0004290: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ffff ffff ................
 00042a0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00042b0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00042c0: 0000 0000 ffff ffff 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
 00042d0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................


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## kevino

Can anyone confirm that this mod kills the ability to transfer files and sync via Firewire ?


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## double-gauss

I have a 3g but was bought without the hd. I have the same cd adapter as pictured and a 4gb ultra2. The card is formatted for fat32. I have both fw and usb cables and neither of them will work no matter what I do. On win7 during usb disk mode it would keep trying to find or install a driver but won't work. On OSX it would show up on sys profile under usb but neither OS would actually show a disk on the controller.
   
  On ubuntu the tail shows the ipod in disk mode but also no disk on any sda.
   
  I have no access to a working disk image. All I have is the blank CF and of course the .ipsw and firmware inside. I am baffled on how to actually put the firmware on. Would I have to put the CF card in a card reader and manually partition and then dd the image on?
   
  With or without usb disk mode or just plain pluggin in, nothing- rockbox installer, ipodwizard, itunes nothing would acknowledge there is an ipod plugged in.
   
  I need to at least put on some kind of bootloader whether apple or rockbox but cannot seem to find the right way to do so because there's also the issue of partitioning it the right way. Rockbox only seems to want to work if there's already the basic ipod fundamentals already on the cf card.
   
  Would there be anyone willing to image their working cf card without the music? That would probably be a good asset to future modders who would just need to copy that onto their own blank card and then be set to connect to itunes right away...


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## iddqd

Inspired by the flash mod, I bought a CF adapter from DX and a Kingston 32GB CF card. Removed all the songs from my 3rd gen iPod, opened it and installed the CF card. iTunes recognizes my iPod but doesn't say that I need to restore it. When I try restoring my iPod, my pc totally freezes. No matter what I do.
 So I figured the adapter wasn't good and bought a new one. Still the same problem. Used another CF card (brand less 128MB). Still the same problem. Scoured the internet for a solution but to no avail.

 Do you guys have any idea's why I am stuck at restoring?

 ps. connecting my iPod using a firewire cable


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## CanisLupus

I got this mod to work for me on my 3rd gen 20Gb iPod . With iPodWizard and the freeware Hex editor , everything went fine . The funny thing is that I'm not sure how I got it into Disk Mode , it seemed to be in that mode by itself . The one thing that I'm thinking about now is the upper address limit for available memory . The 'About' screen only indicates 28.X Gb available . If I'm not utilizing all of the CF card , is there an addressing limit value that can be hacked in order to use the entire 32Gb CF . Thanks for any help/replies .


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## CanisLupus

With the 32Gb Compact Flash , the HDD Diagnostic takes only a couple of seconds to complete . My concern is still regarding utilization of the full card . With capacity showing 28.3 Gb , I suspect that only 30Gb is being used . What capacity are you showing in your 'About' screen with a 32Gb CF card . Mine is a Kingston Elite Pro 133X . Is there an upper address limit value that's hackable ?


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## Thomas Benson

Can anyone explain to me how to do this on a Mac?


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## Sicilian0

Where can I find a tutorial to open the iPod up and which cf adapter to buy in the website deal extreme?

Thanks!


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## yazoo

I replaced the hard drive in my dead 3g 20gig classic with a 16 gig compact flash card. Pluged it into the computer to restore it. When it said ok to disconect and to plug it into the charger it got itself into disc mode and the only way I could get it out of that was to disconnect the battery and reconnect it. when I plugged it into the charger it just started working without having to edit the firmware. So that was great job done?. But no. the battery life is crap 3 and a half hours and whats more it discharges from full to zero in about 8 hours when it is turned off. The battery is new and runs a Hard drive 3g for 9 hours. So has anyone got any ideas. Should I have done the firmware edit anyway.


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## mrAdrian

does the ipod 3G take a 64gb CF card?


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## lynley

Hi there,
   
  thanks for your instructions.
  Using the iPodWizard with Windows 8 I had could not access my iPod in USB-Disk-Mode.
  After a lot of tries I found the hint to start the iPodWizard with Administrator privileges ... than it worked (and I also had to extract the firmware twice, but no matter ...).
   
  Best regards,
  Uli


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## ambchang

I did the CF mod on an iPod 4G, and would like to report that cheap, generic CF cards works just as well.  Actually bought a modded iPod with an 8GB card, and just upgraded to the 32GB card.
   
  I bought a 32GB card from here http://www.ebay.ca/itm/200813077402?var=500093040706&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649, and is working perfectly.
   
  Just got a 64GB CF Cisco card for $7.50 (yes, $7.50, not $75), and is waiting for it to arrive, will see if it works.


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## caseyfriday

I've been trying to figure out which CF cards to use in a batch of diyMods I'm doing.  I've tried a 32GB TOPRAM card from Amazon, and it didn't work.  Perhaps foolishly, I've just ordered a 64GB variant of the card, to see if it works better.  I've also read that it might just be the IDE -> CF adapter that is causing the problems.  I also got that on Amazon.
   
  Has anyone else successfully used a specific brand of CF card - preferably 32GB and bigger - and if so, can you let me know what brand/model you used?  Thanks!


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## cadillake

hello;
  i am waiting for de cf adpt, does any one nows if it will work with the first ipod?


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## cadillake

ok, so i got this to work on ipod 3g only with win 7, i only need to restore and done, but now i cant use firewire, and on ipod first gen i cant put it to work, does anyone know what to edit on hex to ipod 1 work? sorry the bad english


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## caseyfriday

I'm trying to get a 128GB IDE SSD to work in it, but I'm having no luck, no matter what I do.  Getting 1429 restore error in Mac, and Windows won't recognize it.  I've tried a firewire and USB cable.  Really frustrating.


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## cadillake

trie carbon copy cloner and clone the old hd to the new ssd


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## caseyfriday

Quote: 





cadillake said:


> trie carbon copy cloner and clone the old hd to the new ssd


 

 That's a good idea.  Do you think I'll need enclosures for both of the drives that plug directly into USB?  Or can I do it while the drives are installed in the iPods?
   
  Edit: I'm going to get two of these, to make transferring the files easy whether I'm working with 3rd gen, 4th gen, or 5th gen iPods.
   
  Also, instead of buying CCC, do you think I can just use dd if=/old/drive of=/new/drive to move the contents?  I'm guessing that will work just fine...


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## cadillake

yes you can do that terminal line, but i got erros on being use, but, dont spend money on this, me 3g only works wen restarted -- i used kingsotn CF 266, i rely dont encorage this mod, if you want do it with  a mini, i did and worked like 80% ok


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## caseyfriday

I run a business refurbishing old iPods and adding the diyMod - I call them retroMods, since my business is called RetroSonicFidelity.  So I've been looking for a way to get flash storage into the 3G iPods, but I'll likely just end up getting some large capacity 1.8" hard disk drives.
   
  I've tried the KingSpec 1.8" SSD, a TopRam CF that works in the mini, and some KomputerBay CF cards as well, since they're the only cards <= $1 / GB.  I don't want to spend much more than that, and the only other route is going HDD for the 3G iPods.
   
  Anyhow, I'm still going to try to 'dd' one of the working 3G hard drives onto one of the flash drives I have laying around to see if I can make it work.  Otherwise, my 3G line will just include hard drives.
   
  Thanks for the info!


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## cadillake

unfortunately the best option is Hard Drives, CF is just for mini´s, this is me opinion of me frustration on put it to work, is constant crashing with 32gb cf


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## caseyfriday

I bought two 50-pin IDE to USB adapters and plugged one into an original iPod 3G hard drive w/software still installed, and I plugged the other one into the 128GB KingSpec 50-pin SSD, and I did a Disk Utility restore from the iPod HDD to the KingSpec SSD.  They then both showed up as the same device on my desktop, but when I plugged the KingSpec into the iPod, it gave me the bad hard drive (folder) icon.  I reset it, and still, no dice.
   
  I've settled on buying a batch of 80GB 50-pin IDE hard drives for my retroMod audiophile iPod 3G's, since the new metal housings I acquired are for the 40GB models, so they should accommodate an 80GB drive just fine.  I'm looking forward to actually finishing this batch, so I can see what a revitalized iPod 3G really looks like!


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## cadillake

Try to format the ssd on win, it may work


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## cadillake

inside of the ipod 3g ofcourse


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## caseyfriday

I tried using a 60GB HDD from Amazon, and I can't get it to work in the 3G while attempting a restore in 10.8. I'll try again in Windows when I charge the battery. Strange though that the HDD wouldn't work in an iPod built for OSX...


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## cadillake

what CF did you use?


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## caseyfriday

It's an actual hard drive - this one.  Works fine when I plug it into a USB adapter and view it / format it in OSX, but it won't work in any of the 6 iPod 3G's I have laying around...


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## cadillake

wont show ipod to restore on itunes?


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## caseyfriday

It does, but I get a 1429 error every time I try to restore.  Only tried in Mac - I haven't tried in Windows yet.  I'm trying with a FireWire 800 to 30-pin cable.


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## cadillake

hum, try clean itunes, like install itunes from start  (clean instal of itunes)


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## caseyfriday

I got it to work!  I ordered the previously mentioned 60GB HDD from Amazon and had to follow the following steps:

 Put the new HDD into the iPod
 Reset the iPod by holding menu + Play, then once it resets, hold Prev + Next + Select to get into Diagnostic mode.
 I got into USB Disk mode (while in diagnostic mode) and on my MacBook Pro, I formatted the iPod to FAT32 (while plugged into USB).
 I then plugged the iPod into a Windows laptop with a USB cable and reset the iPod with menu + play.
 It recognized it in iTunes, restored the iPod, then said I needed to plug into an external charger to complete the restore process.  I only have an iPad mini charger, and that didn't do the trick, so I plugged into my FW800 to 30-pin cable on my MacBook Pro.  It still didn't reset, but I could see it was charging (icon in top right).
 I then reset the iPod manually (don't need to do this if you have a FW400 wall charger) and it showed the "loading" progress bar.  It finalized the restore, and I was set to load songs over USB, whether on Mac or Windows (although it's formatted for Windows).
 I can't sync over FW any more, but I'm fine with that, as I'll just build a custom FW800 + USB to 30-pin cable, or find a cheap one on ebay.
   
  And that's all there is to it!  I'm going to try this with a new 128GB CF card I buy to see if it will work with these steps.  If that does, I'll buy the KingSpec 128GB IDE SSD again, and see if I can get that to work, as I like its form factor.
   
  I hope this helps someone else out trying to revive an old iPod 3G.  If you want to just buy one, I'm diyModding them and putting brand new cases on them at RetroSonicFidelity.  Enjoy!


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## caseyfriday

I also got a 64GB Patriot LX SDXC card to work in a Compact Flash Adapter, in an IDE - CF 50-pin adapter in another of my iPod 3G's.  This workaround seems to be able to work with any drive!  I'll be ordering another 128GB CF card an a 128GB SDXC card to see if they all work in this iPod.
   
  On a side note, this thing sounds INCREDIBLE with the DIYmod and a highpass filter.  The lows are ridiculously rich, and the highs are crystal clear.  I can't wait to listen to this even more!
   
  Here are some photos of the iPod 3G I just put together.  I'll be putting it up at RSF as soon as I've gotten all the photos prepped and burned it in for 100 hours.  Thanks for all the info from this thread!


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## cadillake

i want a tutorial for da card mod!!  PLZ?


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## caseyfriday

As far as I've tested, just format the card FAT32 in an external reader, then follow all the steps I mentioned above.  Once you do that, you've got yourself a CF or SD modded iPod 3G!  You do have to be sure to get the right CF to SD adapter, if you choose to use SD.  Visit Tarkan's site (tarkan.info) and see his post on the adapter to make sure you get the right one.
   
  I'll be posting all the tutorials I can come up with at RetroSonicFidelity as soon as I finish editing the videos and typing out the script.


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## conman

I just bought a Kingspec 128gb ssd from Hot Deals 4 less and installed it in a ipod 4G greyscale yesterday.  So far it is working great and there is already a noticeable improvement in battery life.  Hopefully, you can get one to work in a 3g.


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## ambchang

I recently had CaseyFriday do a diyMod for me on my already CF modded 4G iPod, and it's back today.  I haven't compared it to my normal CF modded only 4G iPod, but did have the chance to compare it to my Stoner Acoustics UD100.  The sound is different, but are on the similar field.  Both have good resolution, with the diyMod besting the UD100 in the highs, and the UD100 besting the diyMod in the lows.
  
 Given the price I paid for the diyMod, I consider it to be a great value.
  
 I used the RSA SR-71a as the amp, and a modded Fostex T50-RP and Westone 3 as phones.


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## caseyfriday

Here are a couple of photos from the retroMod I performed on Albert's iPod 4G.


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## Danthuyer

@ CaseyFriday - Hi mate. I too have recently jumped on the ipod (imod) train and I am currently in the middle of doing my own 3rd gen and 5th gen modifications. I have alot of information and wiring diagrams for the 5th gen however I am not so lucky with descriptive information and high definition pictures of the details around the 3rd gen.
  
 Last night on my 3rd gen I had a win with my CF upgrade and I am just needing some information around the wiring to bypass the intermal amp and go directly from the Wolfsen DAC using Black Gate capacitors and using the line out to an external portable amp.
  
 If you have any info or help in this area it would be greatly appreciated.
  
 Thanks
 Dan


----------



## caseyfriday

Hi Danthuyer,
  
 I used the guide from the "Collected diyMods" site to guide me through the mod.  For the high-pass filter, I chose a 100k ohm and a 100 ohm, to give me a high-pass right at about 20Hz.  If you have any desire to send frequencies below 20Hz to your source, you can change the resistor values to your liking.  Just remember f = 1 / (2*pi*R*C).


----------



## Danthuyer

caseyfriday said:


> Hi Danthuyer,
> 
> I used the guide from the "Collected diyMods" site to guide me through the mod.  For the high-pass filter, I chose a 100k ohm and a 100 ohm, to give me a high-pass right at about 20Hz.  If you have any desire to send frequencies below 20Hz to your source, you can change the resistor values to your liking.  Just remember f = 1 / (2*pi*R*C).


 
 Casey - thanks I will investigate the 'collected diymods' a bit further
  
 Sorry to say but your comments about 100kohm high pass etc are a bit over my electronics knowledge... are you saying that there are more things to solder inline with the capacitors ?
  
 also which capacitors did you use in the pictures above ?


----------



## Danthuyer

caseyfriday said:


> I got it to work!  I ordered the previously mentioned 60GB HDD from Amazon and had to follow the following steps:
> 
> Put the new HDD into the iPod
> Reset the iPod by holding menu + Play, then once it resets, hold Prev + Next + Select to get into Diagnostic mode.
> ...


 
  
 FYI this is exactly the same steps that I had to use to get my gen3 20G working with my CF
  
 go into disk mode on a Win32/64 machine + format to FAT32 (rockbox req.)
 restore with itunes on win32/64 machine then reboot ipod
 connect back on mac book pro with FW400 cable and allow system to boot correctly
 have to charge via FW
 have to sync via USB


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## Danthuyer

Just an update around the hardware i used in my gen3
  
 adapter:
 http://dx.com/p/cf-to-toshiba-1-8-inch-ide-hard-drive-converter-10886
  
 card:
 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Speed-32GB-CF-Compact-Flash-Memory-Card-32GB-Cameras-Cellphones-/400493903917
  
 no issues what so ever with it so far


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## CanisLupus

I originally created my CF 3g on an old PC about 3 years ago . It developed a bug that involves the point (X seconds into the song) at which the back button would , from there forward , restart the song instead of going to the previous song . Sometimes , not all , when reaching this point it would skip forward to the next song . I wanted to restore it's firmware but in the meantime , the old PC had died an ugly death . The hard drives were corrupt beyond use . Our house only has MBP's now . I tried a MAC restore but got the same result as I initially got with the original creation . I tried alot of things but what finally worked was similar to previous posts . I put the iPod in disk mode and with the MBP , I formatted the iPod 'FAT32' . Then I was able to use a Windows machine that is available to me , to do a Windows restore . While loading songs , I thought the battery was going to die but even though it showed zero at about half way through the sync , it made to the end and stayed alive long enough for me to get the firewire charger hooked up . With an old Airclick remote and the line-out hardwired into my car stereo aux-in , this modded 32Gb CF iPod works fine for me . I'm very happy with it .


----------



## CanisLupus

Oh , what I forgot to mention is that I'm curious as to why I didn't need to overwrite a specific bit using an editor , like I did the first time I created the CF iPod . Has the load been changed ?


----------



## CanisLupus

A question regarding the CF iPods . We're replacing a HDD of 10,20 or 30 Gb , with a CF of a different size . In my case , I now have a 32Gb CF iPod . But ! Am I missing out on 2Gb and is the firmware that downloads when I request a restore made for a 30 Gb iPod ? Can I overwrite the firmware again to utilize all 32 Gb of the Compact Flash ? It doesn't seem to be using all 32 Gb as it is right now .


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## suicidal_orange

canislupus said:


> A question regarding the CF iPods . We're replacing a HDD of 10,20 or 30 Gb , with a CF of a different size . In my case , I now have a 32Gb CF iPod . But ! Am I missing out on 2Gb and is the firmware that downloads when I request a restore made for a 30 Gb iPod ? Can I overwrite the firmware again to utilize all 32 Gb of the Compact Flash ? It doesn't seem to be using all 32 Gb as it is right now .


 
 That sounds right - some space is kept separate for the firmware and some of what's left is used in the background by the filesystem, plus lots is lost due to CF cards (and hard drives) being sold using 1Gb = 1000mb while computers think 1Gb = 1024mb so you "loose" 3/4 of a Gb from that alone.  My 5th gen only has 74Gb usable on it's 80Gb hard drive.


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## caseyfriday

I've just purchased a UHS-1 128GB SD card and a CF-SD adapter that allegedly supports UHS-1.  My number one complaint with SD cards in iPods is how slow they sync, so if this ameliorates that problem, this could be huge!  The card will be arriving in 2 days, and I'll be posting the iPod 3G I put it in, on RSF for sale with Rockbox and iPod OS if everything works out on it.


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## caseyfriday

So far, so good!  I followed my own tutorial from earlier in this thread, and I was able to restore iPod OS to the 128GB Komputerbay SD card I got from Amazon.  I'll try to sync 30GB of music and see what the speeds are like, and I'll report back here (with pictures too, of course!)


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## caseyfriday

Yep, this combo works fantastically well.  Song transfers are insanely fast - they actually even seem quicker than using a CF card by itself, which is quite puzzling to me.  Anyway, I'm going to keep using this combo for my iPods at RetroSonicFidelity.  I'll have this 3G up on the site later today, hopefully.


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## CanisLupus

Some research shows that indeed , even though a CF card can be labelled 32Gb , it really only has the 30.53 Gb that shows up on iTunes and   Disk Utility . Sorry if I created a false alarm regarding the firmware .


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## Danthuyer

All of a sudden my 3G is booting up and constantly showing the battery pic with the exclamation mark with it 
  
 It reboots and repeats and gets stuck in this loop
  
 I have tried to reboot it however it gets stuck in the same loop consistently
  
 This is after replacing the battery with an after market replacement (which used to work in the same unit)
  
 Cheers
 Dan


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## CanisLupus

I now realize that my 3G CF did not develop a bug but instead , somehow , my iTunes library , through an update or something , ended up changing some songs' options . I didn't know of the option 'Skip on Shuffle' . I've now gone through my library and cleared up all songs with this option set . All's well again .


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## teejaylala

I have had much difficulty since trying this hack although it's been a lot of fun so far and Casey has been such a great help with advising me thus far!

I'm using an iPod 3rd Generation

128GB Komputer Bay 600mbs UHS1 SD card

CF Compact Flash to 50pin micro-IDE HDD Hard Disk Drive mini adapter

SD to CF adapter

I cannot seem to get this to work- I have been following Casey's instructions on Head-Fi but I'm getting stuck!!!!

After plugging the SD card into an external card reader on windows 7, I'm using the GUI version of FAT32 Formatter to format in FAT32.

I then plug the SD card back into the adapter and boot up the iPod. I get the Apple Logo followed by the Folder icon with exclamation. Windows gives me the "unrecognized usb device" notification- that's all.

At this point I reset the iPod as per Casey's instructions and boot into diagnostic mode... then from there I select USB disk. Nothing happens at this point. Sometimes the "unrecognized usb device" notification appears but that's all.

I have completely uninstalled iTunes and reinstalled iTunes 7.6 to see if this makes a difference but nothing works.

On Mac, Disk Utility doesn't see the iPod or the storage device. If I connect the SD card to the mac with an external reader, I can format in FAT but once I try connecting the iPod to be recognized, nothing happens.

Every tutorial I have read out there says it's as simple as replacing the drive, connecting it to iTunes (sometimes in Disk Mode) and restoring the iPod. But for some reason this just doesn't want to work.

I have tried different iPod HDD cables but nothing changes.

I was wondering if maybe I have purchased the wrong CF to IDE adapter as this one is a 50 pin where is I have been reading that you actually need 44 pin such as this one here

When the CF to IDE adapter is connected to the iPod HDD cable, there is 6 open female connections at the end

Does anyone think this has something to do with the issue I'm experiencing???

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I swear that once I have successfully completed this project, I'm going to create a definitive guide so people in the future like me can create something like this and not have to struggle through it.

AND I'm more than happy to pay for people's expertise!


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## suicidal_orange

Are you sure you're connecting the right 44 pins?  Is there anything in diagnostic mode that shows the capacity of the card (to prove it's recognised at all)?
  
 If the extra pins are the same as on a laptop hard drive adaptor they are used for power, if the adaptor is relying on that it won't work.  Also not sure about the one you have specifically but cheap adaptors often have quality control issues, you might just have bought a dud...
  
 As for offering to pay for expertise you're not likely to get any offers without saying where you are and you'll want a quick offer before the postal system suffers from Christmas overload


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## teejaylala

Thanks for the advice...
 I'm in Sydney Australia... so I don't know if that helps.
 Your refer to the right 44 pins...I've tried a whole bunch of different positions but not working...do you have any advice on which pins? I've attached the links for what I purchased, but i have a strong feeling that the CF to IDE adaptor isn't right which is why i have purchased a different one. Hopefully it works, because this is turning into a very expensive project...
 Meanwhile i"m still waiting on some refurbished casing from IFixit!  and a SD card from Komputerbay- it's actually taking forever! 
 I should of just purchased one off Casey Friday's www.retrosonicfidelity.com


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## suicidal_orange

Ah Australia... guess you won't be wanting to send it round the world for me to have a look!
  
 I can't remember which end but one had 4 pins for power so if you've tried both ends it's not that.  Hopefully you'll have more luck with the new adaptor, the lighter weight, increased battery life and storage capacity will be worth the time and effort


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## teejaylala

I wouldn't mind sending it- Are you in the US?

 I have an adapter arriving soon I hope so I will test that. If I can get it to work, I will spend the extra money and try and find a replacement display as my one now has a small artifact! GRRRR it's just one thing after another!
 If  the new adapter doesn't work, I will be returning it and buying one of Casey Friday's RetroMods.
  
 Can anyone recommend where I can purchase some good quality iPod 3rd Generation Parts? I still haven't received my order from iFixit. It's actually getting ridiculous been nearly 1 month.


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## cadillake

i am glad to tell you all that i did it, i put me iPod 3G with 64GB, i am doing a documento to give you all, for know i tell you!!!
  
 parts used
  
1- tools to open the ipod; ebay
2- IDE to CF converter; ebay
3-CF to SD card converter; bought in this link very quick and good quality
4-Dock conector to USB 2.0 + FireWire; ebay
5- micro Sdxc  Kingston 64GB class 10
 after put all together just plug ipod with usb and charging with FW restore and done!!! both on mac and Win


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## hotmagnets

Hi all
 I've been attempting to do the CF mod to my 20gig 4g clickwheel and this thread has been really helpful so far
 However I'm having some different issues I'm using a Micro sd to CF card (64gig micro sdcard) and the 1/8 IDE adapter
 It fails to restore every time with the 1429 error BUT when i unplug it i get the connect to power supply step which is fine
 plug it into firewire power supply also fine get the language setup screen also fine and dandy (about menu shows the 62 gig free etc)
 plug it into iTunes (11.3) and get the welcome to your new iPod guff all seems to be going swimmingly
 however if i sync and album sometimes all the songs don't sync (both firewire cable and usb)
 eventually after ejecting it and plugging it back in normally about three times it will say that the ipod needs to be restored 
 i can't figure out what is going wrong so close yet so far....
 i'd like to try and extract the firmware but i can't find a good tool to get it done in osx mavericks? does this step matter for the 4g even?
 any advice would be appreciated
 cheers!
  
 *edit now nothing transfers across


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## cadillake

You have to do it with usb, i had the same probleme withe the ipod 3g but with usb is ok, FW never worked for me, and i dont care about speed, just all music being in the ipod XD


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## hotmagnets

hi cadillake
  
 I've tried both FW and USB
 no dice


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## cadillake

ok read this and see if it helps,
  
http://www.tarkan.info/20121226/tutorials/ipod-and-sdhc-sdxc-cards
  
http://www.tarkan.info/20140310/tutorials/prepare-sdxc-exfat-for-use-with-the-ipod
  
 guive  a shot


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## DR650SE

I've done this mod to my 3G, 4G and 5.5G iPod and all use 128GB SD Cards. It's a great mod. I also have a 2G iPod Classic that I will do this mod to if I could somehow get iTunes to see the 2G as an iPod. Still no luck.

Anyhow, have you tried formatting it to FAT32? Maybe iTunes is already doing this. Have you tried transfering small batches of songs?


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## cadillake

Or maybe trie put in disk mod


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## hotmagnets

hi tried both of those things
 thanks for the links i'm starting to think it's my microSD card and how it's formatted after looking at those links
 i'll try and get on a windows machine to follow those steps exactly
  
 i did get it working well for a while by copying all the hidden files off the root of another working 4g clickwheel
 until eventually iTunes decided it was corrupt and needed to be restored again
 so i think it's the sdcard not the firmware at this point
 thanks for the help


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## cadillake

To passe the corrupt part just connect on disk mode and is all ok


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## hotmagnets

OK! 
 so i've been going round in circles with this thing and tried everything
 as a last ditch i tried restoring it on my Hackintosh downstairs
 it still gave the 1429 error after restoring BUT it is now WORKING!
 there are a few variables at play here my Hackintosh is running iTunes 10 and is still on snow leopard 
 my macbook is running iTunes 11 and is on Mavericks
 my gut says that the iTunes 11 is the problem?
 happy enough to just use the hackintosh to sync my music if that's what it takes
 hope this helps someone else out
 thanks above for the help!


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## duydangle

I can see excellent posts here. Can these solutions to iPod Video CF card boot loop?


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## hotmagnets

ha 
 spoke too soon
 same problem is back
 after about three normal syncs no songs turn up on the ipod
 and then the next time you plug it in itunes wants to restore it
 sigh
 i feel like the mircroSD card just isn't up to snuff


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## hotmagnets

working.
 new microSD did the trick.


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## DR650SE

Nice, but why a Micro SD and not just a regular SD card now? You can get a 128GB SD card cheaper now days.

$95 128GB Compact Flash Card
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008O7N0W6/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1C0E2G2LZFK00

$54 128GB SD Card
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003SGCO3E/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1C0E2G2LZFK00


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## hotmagnets

I went with microSD because I had a spare 64gig one sitting in my top drawer along with the old click wheel
The point of the project was to use bits lying around now that I'll probably buy another sd card the micro doesn't make the best sense money wise


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## bobob123

What size ipod did you do this mod on? I have a 20GB and the case is too thin, the ipod won't close with the adapter in place.

The first adapter is the same as your image, I clipped the solder points on the back, clipped the and soldered the jumper, works fine, but obviously useless if the back of the ipod doesn't fit on. Second adapter, ipod fits together fine, but displays a folder and exclamation mark, so doesn't work.


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## bwinter88

bobob123,
 I've recently had success with the adapter on the left in your picture. The key is that you simply can't perform the initial restore in iTunes with a Mac. You have to use a Windows machine on USB 2.0 to restore and reformat the iPod for initial use. Format the card beforehand as FAT32 and Windows will recognize it in iTunes as a new iPod. Mac will do this too, but clicking Restore had no effect and the iPod would not boot.
  
 I am not sure why your case doesn't fit. I didn't have to clip the jumpers or solder anything and the 20 GB case fits fine for me.
  
 I'm using this adapter (Digigear SD SDHC SDXC to CF tpye II CF Ultimate CF Adapter) with this SD card (Komputerbay 128GB SDXC)


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## bobob123

bwinter88 said:


> bobob123,
> 
> 
> I've recently had success with the adapter on the left in your picture. The key is that you simply can't perform the initial restore in iTunes with a Mac. You have to use a Windows machine on USB 2.0 to restore and reformat the iPod for initial use. Format the card beforehand as FAT32 and Windows will recognize it in iTunes as a new iPod. Mac will do this too, but clicking Restore had no effect and the iPod would not boot.
> ...



 


Thanks, that's the exact sd card I'm using as well, no issue setting it up in itunes, using the double usb/firewire cable, had to use ipod wizard to hex edit but worked fine after that, just the case won't fit back together with the left adapter installed, closes fine with the right adapter, but that doesn't seem to work in the ipod, left one fits in our old 40GB, but the 20GB has no joy, I'll have another play.

Thanks.


**edit**

Solved, cracked open both ipods side by side, looks like the 3rd party battery I put in the 20GB about 3 years ago is about 0.5-1mm thicker than the 40GBs, seems to make all the difference. I'll have to source a new battery, at least it works now.


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## nyreal

Could somebody please send me a disk image clone of their iPod 3G!? It would be extremely helpful. 
  
 Thank you


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## rgarjr

Did this mod with a 3rd generation 30GB, I did not have to go into diagnostic mode or do any disk image cloning.  Very simple.  
  
 Parts:
 * 3rd Gen iPod
 * Compact Flash to 50-pin IDE adapter
 * CF-to-SD adapter
 * PNY 128GB SDXC
  
*Using Mac OS, if I clicked restore in iTunes it asks you to use FireWire cable, on Windows it does not ask you that, which is why you need Windows to do this with USB.  *
  
 1) Use an SD card reader or if you laptop has a built in one insert it.  I used Disk Utility to format the card to FAT32 and MBR.  
  
 2) Take out card from reader and assemble the adapter and SD card in your iPod
  
 3) Use Windows and iTunes, open iTunes and it will detect the iPod once you connect the USB cable.
  
 4) Hit restore and then it will then ask you to unplug it and connect to a power charger, so use your FireWire charger.  
  
 5) The iPod will reboot and install the firmware, that's it.  
  
*Update:*
*On Mac OS, I was able to just hit restore and didn't ask for FireWire or if it did just keep trying again and it restored it using Macintosh format.*


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## Pearlwhite66

Hi,   ive just done the same 128GB flash upgrade on a 3rd Gen.    Mine gives 117GB free space.   the example above seems to be 120GB,   strange to see a difference?
 
On a different note.   
 
Has anyone managed to be able to easily restore a 3rd Gen thats already been converted to SSD and working?  just thinking of the longer term usability.  As per this thread its a pain to get Ipod OS 2.3 onto the ipod in the first instance,   just wondered if subsequent restores are always going to be the same.....or if a restore from an existing 2.3 SSD is easier than a blank SSD? or if there is a nack?
 
My first restore attempts  (on a pair of mac formatted 3rd Gen 32GB Compact Flash and 128GB  SDXC to CF adapter) using a recent macbook air and the famous Y cable and firewire wall charger gives me the "need to connect by firewire" message.  Even though it was connected.   Same as I'd get trying a restore on a blank disk.


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## rgarjr

Restoring is simple with Windows and USB.  This kills the ability to sync via Firewire, which explains why its not possible to do this CF mod on the 1st and 2nd generations as their only Firewire.


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## kahei036

I am trying to do this mod on a 3gen but it does't seem to work 
 I replaced the HDD with a SD to CF and a CF to HDD board.
  
 it booted up with a folder with a exclamation mark which is expected.
 I then tried to plug it in a windows 7 laptop, the iPod boots into disk mode and can be recognized by windows
 I formatted the iPod and restored in iTunes, everything is fine up to here.
  
 After restore iTunes says to complete the process with external charger, my iPod also says "OK to disconnect".
 However it won't reboot itself, I plugged it into a firewire charger, the top right corner battery icon indicates its charging.
 If i do a hard reset myself by holding menu and play button, it will give me the folder with exclamation mark icon 
  
 I do have a macbook air with usb only. Whenever I tried to restore from there it asks for firewire.
  
 Really running out of idea here, appreciated if anyone can shed me some light on this.
 Many thanks,


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## kahei036

For some reason I had that fixed.. Here's the story:
  
 I had some iPod minis on hand, to test out my 128GB micro SD on CF adapter works, I put the card to my iPod mini, and restored from iTunes on my Mac.
 That worked like a charm. I had a 128GB iPod mini without any issue.
 I then put the card with iPod mini FW (1.4.1) back to my 3G, as expected that still gave me a folder icon with exclaimation mark which indicates it still can't read the hard drive.
 But something miracle happened, when I plug that into my Macbook it boot into disk mode, and iTunes recongized it with FW 2.6.2 that doesn't exist I suspect, and prompt me there is an update on FW.
 I followed iTunes and updated the FW, this time it doesn't prompt for FW cable, and it is able to complete with USB. After all I put my 3G into a FW wall charger. The restore works and I am able to boot into the system!
  
 I suspect this method is pretty much the same concept as OP, that needs to have at least a system image on the card, before it can proceed anything. If it's a blank SD/CF card, even it's being restored from iTunes, the system is not yet loaded up on the card and it won't boot up.
 There're still some unclear to me, but at least I have a 3G working now 
  
 A side note Windows never worked for me, even for my 64GB or 128GB iPod mini, it can't restore with Windows iTunes with similar symptom above. ie. even restore completes in itunes it won't boot to system, and the next time I plug into iTunes it will prompt my disk is corrupted, endless loop. Unless I restore in my Macbook, and turns out to be Mac disk format instead of FAT32


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## rgarjr

whats odd about this mod is the loss ability of using firewire.  Wonder why it just doesn't work.


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## rdcoulthard

I succeeded in upgrading my 3G iPod using my Mac, but it was challenging.

 I tried restoring from the existing 40gb hard drive onto a new 256gb komputerbay sdxc card, using an iFlash sd-cf adapter, and an ide-cf adapter from eBay, but although iTunes recognized the iPod once installed and would even update the files on it, the iPod would not actually re-boot, flashing a folder on the screen instead. As others have noted, firewire wouldn't work at all, and froze the iPod on the disk mode screen.

 Following advice on this thread, I plugged the iPod into my 1G Altec Lansing inMotion speaker dock, which provides firewire power through its AC adapter, and connected to my MacBook Pro via USB 2. iTunes asked me to connect with firewire to restore the iPod, so that was a no-go. Still plugged into the Altec speaker dock, I then tried turning off disk use in iTunes before trying to restore the system. This yielded 1418 errors in iTunes. Finally, I disconnected the AC power to speaker dock when I clicked restore, and plugged the AC power back in immediately after clicking restore. For some reason this led to successfully restoring the system to the iPod. It then asked to connect to the firewire power adapter to complete the restore process. I connected it to the original firewire power adapter, but it was still stuck in disk mode. I reset the iPod by hitting Menu and Play, and it rebooted and finished reinstalling the system, landing on the language selection screen.
  
 So I have a Mac-formatted, 256gb iPod 3G. It updates quite rapidly over USB2, but doesn't work over firewire as others have noted, getting stuck on the "Do Note Disconnect" screen regardless of whether disk use is enabled or not. My MacBook Pro can see the iPod in System Profiler, and the iPod flashes the "Do Not Disconnect" screen, but it doesn't show up as a drive in the Finder or in iTunes.


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## rdcoulthard

As a follow up, my MacBook Pro has eventually recognized the iPod over firewire several times now. The first 2 times, it could could not read the iPod and offered to initialize it. The 3rd time, it showed up in Disk Utility and the Finder, although the Finder would not open the iPod and show its folders.. However, they could be seen with the appropriate unix commands in the Terminal.  It also showed up in System Profiler, as a 137gb iPod (I'd upload photos but I lack the proper permissions). 128gb/137gb was the old ATA 48 bit addressing limit, so it seems likely that although OS X isn't bothered by this limit, perhaps the iPod firewire firmware is bothered by it. That still doesn't explain others' issues with firewire and smaller cards though, or the fact that I can see all 256/241gb when connected by USB.


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## rgarjr

I'm guessing it's the Texas Instruments FireWire chip that doesn't like the flash media in it. The iPod mounts and shows up but takes a while and it's not possible to copy files over to it. The iPod 4th generation (Color) has a SoC chip with FireWire built-in and that works fine with Flash media and transfers over FireWire.


----------



## Tallorder24

danthuyer said:


> All of a sudden my 3G is booting up and constantly showing the battery pic with the exclamation mark with it
> 
> It reboots and repeats and gets stuck in this loop
> 
> ...




Did you figure out what the solution was for this? I have the same issue with a 4th gen classic.


----------



## Tallorder24

tallorder24 said:


> Did you figure out what the solution was for this? I have the same issue with a 4th gen classic.





rgarjr, 

have you ever seen this or know how to fix, the above but its on the 4th gen. 

After installing a new after market battery, the problem with the exclamation mark and empty battery warning. Its like a loop.

Is the logic board damaged?


----------



## kahei036

tallorder24 said:


> rgarjr,
> 
> have you ever seen this or know how to fix, the above but its on the 4th gen.
> 
> ...


 

 I've seen this on my iPod video. That time I got a bad zif to CF board that iTunes can recognize the iPod and do the restore, but after unplugging the iPod it will put to endless batt low screen and reboot loop (while I confirmed the batt is working well)
 After replacing the adapter board it works flawlessly. So you might also want to check on the hard disk part whether it is doing well.
  
 Just my 2 cents


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## Tallorder24

kahei036 said:


> I've seen this on my iPod video. That time I got a bad zif to CF board that iTunes can recognize the iPod and do the restore, but after unplugging the iPod it will put to endless batt low screen and reboot loop (while I confirmed the batt is working well)
> After replacing the adapter board it works flawlessly. So you might also want to check on the hard disk part whether it is doing well.
> 
> Just my 2 cents




Thanks,

I dont have a way of checking to see if the iflash cf board is faulty. Do you know any tests i can do?

The iflash sd to cf converter is just a push in type connector to the cf iflash board.

This is so annoying, there is nothing i can do to get it out of this low battery loop.

Someone suggested to try and restore without the battery installed and just use the usb cable to power it. Im not sure if that would work.


----------



## rgarjr

are you inserting the connector correctly?  There's like 6 pins that don't get used up.


----------



## Tallorder24

rgarjr said:


> are you inserting the connector correctly?  There's like 6 pins that don't get used up.




Yeah i know there are, it doesnt work. The way the iflash ide converter is, it only goes in one way and automatically misses 6 pins.


----------

