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The thrill of victory and, yes, the other thing

December 14th, 2007 | Personal

I was on top of the world for about 5 minutes tonight when I successfully replaced the defective hard drive in my wife’s iPod mini with a 2GB compact flash memory card, which I learned how to do by following directions in this article:  Turn your iPod mini into a flash-based iPod.

The process is very straightforward, but I still felt like I was in DIY heaven when my Mac instantly recognized the transplanted drive and everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Ipod Apart
Ipod Guts
New Memory
Bingo

So I loaded some music for a trial run, put everything back together, and then discovered that the iPod doesn’t recognize the click wheel anymore — it appears that I messed up a few of the contact points in the data cable while unplugging it.

Just when I thought I was Mr. Fix-it.

There’s still a chance a bit of solder will do the trick, but I’ll leave that to the professionals.

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9 comments ↓

#1 Laura on 12.14.07 at 11:12 pm

WOW! You are very brave.

We were thinking about cracking open the G4 and updating the hard drive. It just sounded like too much effort….although I still have hopes of turning our old PowerMac into a fish tank. :)

#2 jgibbon on 12.14.07 at 11:29 pm

I’d love to see pics of the fish tank if you make it. :)

Here’s some inspiration (maybe you’ve seen it):

http://www.techeblog.com/index.....le-gadgets
http://home.comcast.net/~jleblanc77/cube/

#3 Jacob Christensen on 12.15.07 at 12:21 am

I inadvertently killed my Mini by dropping it one time too many. Bought a new Nano – but I had actually almost just changed the battery so I’ve thought about replacing the harddisk. (Which is another way of saying: Thanks for the link)

#4 jgibbon on 12.15.07 at 12:45 am

The “repair” I did actually came about because of one too many drops, so I know how that goes.

Going the CF route seems like a good option, especially since you can apparently install up to 16GB, it runs faster, and uses less battery power.

We really like the mini design, so it’s nice to know you can tinker with it to keep it working and also upgrade it if you like.

#5 Benjamin on 12.15.07 at 12:47 am

Jim, you are a true geek! :) This is the modern equivalent of loosing one of the screws when you put your atari joystick back together after modding it. Do you have somewhere to sleep tonight or is she letting you stay in the house ;)

#6 jgibbon on 12.15.07 at 1:02 am

:) I think there’s still a cardboard box in my parents’ basement full of Atari parts! (and remote-controlled cars)

Yeah, she’s not taking it too hard. She’s actually been consoling me since I got so frustratingly close to fixing the dang thing.

#7 Laura on 12.15.07 at 1:55 am

I’d like to confirm that the box of ‘junk’ does exist!! I saw it last year. Still there!! Yes, Jim is a geek!

If you aren’t going to ebay those atari parts…or give them to your kids…I’ll gladly take them off your hands! Or should I say..”out of mom’s basement.”

#8 Anomie on 12.15.07 at 6:45 pm

Hey–at least you’re trying!

#9 jgibbon on 12.17.07 at 4:03 pm

Hmm, I at least want to hold on to the battery-powered Pong console…I’ll have to sift through the rest. :)

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