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General discussion

Solid State ipod MINI

Jan 21, 2010 3:39AM PST

the HD in my ipod mini has failed and I would like to replace it with a compact flash card. Does anyone know what the storage limit is? And also, I have a 4gb model. Will it accept other storage sizes? Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Don't think that is possible,
Jan 21, 2010 4:56AM PST

the Mini does not take a Compact Flash card, nothing to plug it into.

You can upgrade it to an 8GB drive though, but it's a drive, not a compact flash card

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it definitely can
Jan 21, 2010 5:06AM PST

There are many people who have done it in the past. It is a very simple thing to do. The IDE connector on the Micro HD is the same for a compact flash card. In fact I have installed a 32 mb card just to be sure it would work. Problem is the card is too small for the Ipod OS. It was just a test though. So naturally I want to max out the memory. But I do not want to buy something that is not supported by the device.

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I stand dejected,
Jan 21, 2010 7:58AM PST

and surprised.

However, further research shows that this in indeed possible.
As there is a standard for the physical dimensions of a CF card, the higher capacity ones will fit in the available space.

Theoretically, if you have the money, a 128GB Compact Flash card, like the one produced by Silicon Power would be possible. The price on that puppy would be well in excess of a couple of top of the line iPods though.

64GB is more financially viable, but still close in price to a similar size iPod but without the bells and whistles associated with newer machine.

32GB is probably the financially feasible size to go with.

The project does not seem that difficult, as long as you are careful and could actually be a fun project if you have a working mini laying around.

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I was just as suprised!
Jan 21, 2010 10:22PM PST

I would not have thought it possible due to a mechanical powering issue (I thought the current for the Mini HD would fry a flash card, but I guess not...)

Thing is that certain storage controllers cannot handle large storage spaces. A 16 gb card has been tried in a mini and it worked perfectly fine. Im looking to breath life into it for about $20 so I think a 4gb or 8 gb will be what I am looking at. Wish I had the money to throw at a 128 gb card though, just to see if it worked... Thanks for the advice!

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Welcome,
Jan 22, 2010 8:31AM PST

let us know how you get on

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