How can I Replace a Hard Drive on a 160gb iPod Classic?

Hello there,

Yes, the red X icon is usually a sign of a bad or damaged hard drive. Sometimes, restoring the iPod will resolve the issue, but rarely. Other users were able to smack the ipod against the side of their leg and gain back full functionality of the iPod.

However, if no such luck with either, your next option would be to replace the drive. For this task, you can either opt to repair and replace the hard drive yourself, or opt to send it into a third party repair business to do the job for you.

I use the guides at [www.ifixit.com|http://www.ifixit.com> to help me replace broken parts on an iPod. These guides provide excellent step-by-step instructions as well as photos on how to repair any part from an iPod.

Some other good sites for purchasing repair parts include the following:
[iDemiGods|http://www.idemigods.com>
[RapidRepair|http://www.rapidrepair.com>
[iResq|http://www.iresq.com>

Lastly, I would also like to remind you that ebay also has several great deals on excellent iPod replacement parts. It's where I purchase a majority of mine. 😉

Hope this helps.

B-rock

Whaoooo... "A Red X" can be multiple things, while assuming the HDD is the only thing wrong with it is a HUGE assumption on your part!

The iPod classic series is not a simple little gadget, and could have serious implications... Unless the person tells you what has led to the "Red X" don't take it....

Places like iResQ.com will fix iPods, or even buy these iPods off of folks so that they can use these parts for repairs in scenarios like this... However apple is going to charge you big bucks for this...

Additionally you should know that the iPod HDD are a lot more unique that laptop HDD's... They're more compact and need to be more sensative on battery consumption as no battery that fits into a case like the iPod could ever power a laptop HDD.

I'd personally tell you to save your money and buy a new one before you even go this route!

I'd still head cautions on used iPods, unless you can actually use it... Kind of like a car you don't know what that owner did to it, and unfortunately there's not iPodFax.com (playing on the carfax.com commercials) to get the real history of the device...

iPods are seriously dropping and I don't know your music size, but if it's relatively small or something that youre only going to carry around a small amount of music for get a nano or shuffle...

I love my Nano for general things and places like the gym, while my classic is used at home, in the car and at work since it hold so much more.

Yeah, I guess I ddn't realize how that sounded after posting... But while the cost of the iPods remain about average over the years, we're getting a good amount for our money... I remember that the old iPod classic 160 (not this years) was a hundred dollars more than that of the 80 (I think it was almost 350-400)... So over the last 2 years, we've got a 160GB at the price of $249... That's phemonominal if you think about it...

So while they are pretty pricy, we're getting a lot more for our money now a days! So we should be thankful of that and kind of what I was getting at.

no so much when you consider that you can now get a fully functional netbook for $249.

grant roth wrote:
no so much when you consider that you can now get a fully functional netbook for $249.

You're comparing apples and oranges, so to speak. A netbook does not serve the same purposes as an iPod, therefore, saying netbooks are cheaper is like saying a boom box is cheaper than an iPod.