The HD looks remarkably similar to a laptop drive but I am almost certain that it is not quite as easy as it looks to get a PC or Mac to recognize it when it is not controlled by the iPod's OS.
I'm sure it is not impossible though.
Replacement batteries for that iPod are very cheap and available on-line. You already have it open so it might be worth laying down a few $, or the currency of your choice, and replace it. At worst you will only be a little out of pocket and, at best, you have a working iPod again.
Just a thought
P
Curiosity got the better of me last weekend. So, after over a year in a drawer, I thought I'd see what was inside my old 3G iPod. It had a 15GB hard drive which I popped out of the case and examined. The battery seems to have a bit of oxidation on the copper part so I'm assuming it's bad and thus cause the demise of the iPod.
The next step now is: How do I find out if the hard drive is bad too? Is there a way to hook up the hard drive to my PC to read the HD like an extra drive?
Before it died, there was no clicking noise or error messages, the battery had started to discharge quicker but it still held a charge for 5-6 hours, and there were some stuck pixels but not too bad.

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