Building a 240gb IPOD classic 6th generation???

You obviously know A LOT about this already. I hear the "iPod classic" is known to be VERY difficult to pry open. If your current iPod classic is working well, do you REALLY need more than 80GB of music when you go mountain biking. If you replaced it with a new iPod classic, do you really need more than 160GB of music.

I have a smart playlist, where I start out with ALL of my music, but exclude things I don't usually want on my iPod, such as Holiday Music, Classical Music, Soundtrack Music, etc. For my smaller capacity flash-based iPod, I have a smart playlist that starts with ALL of my music, then randomly selects a subset of songs that fits below the capacity limit of that iPod. In both cases, I manage my iTunes library to fit the iPod, instead of making expensive and potentially damaging upgrades to my iPod to fit my iTunes library.

I understand that some folks just like doing these upgrades for the sake of doing the upgrade, and I can certainly understand that... 🙂

Here's another high-cool-factor approach. Replace the hard drive with a standard Compact Flash card (Type II) on an adapter. For example

http://www.amazon.com/Komputerbay-128GB-Professional-Compact-Extreme/dp/B008O7N0 W6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

(There is one customer review of it being used in an iPod.)

It's expensive, but less than any of your total upgrade costs. I have a much older 4th gen iPod with a Compact Flash card on an adapter, and here are the benefits I see. It's significantly lighter than the same iPod with a hard drive, especially if it has a double-platter "thick" hard drive. You can keep your iPod's sleek "thin" profile. It uses less battery power, because no moving parts. It is more shock resistant for the same reason, which I'm sure is an advantage for mountain biking. There is no "hard drive spin-up" delay; songs always start playing instantly (and no faint hum and vibration when the hard drive is spinning). I did not do any timing test, but I think it syncs faster.

I think you already know more about the topic than most people... 🙂

I have about 6000 songs in my iTunes library, and iTunes tells me it will take about 17 days to listen to that list, if I played it non-stop. So, your list will probably take around 150 days. That's one LONG bike ride... 😉

For me, it's better to manage my library and load a random (or selected) portion of my library on a smaller capacity flash-based iPod (instead of fitting my entire library on one iPod), especially for doing something active like running (or biking). Before I got my 8GB iPod nano, I previously used an old 1st gen shuffle for running, which is only 1GB. However, I use a random Autofill from my smart playlist, which has ALL my songs minus genres I usually don't want on iPods, such as holiday and classical music. Because I click Autofill, to get a random subset every time I connected the shuffle to charge, I am essentially shuffling from my full 40GB collection, using an iPod with only 1GB of storage. Having 17 days worth of songs (nearly 6000) directly on my iPod would not have made any difference in my user experience, and would actually make the experience worse, because an iPod with a hard drive is larger and heavier, and more prone to accidental damage.

i did the upgrade through a guy on ebay costed about 145 with shipping both ways, Guy put a 240gb toshiba drive in with a new backplate printed 240 and it looked just like my 7th gen ipod just thicker like the 6th gen 160gb. it works great i have 33000 song and because there all from my own music collection ive encoded them to vbr v0 to v3 so alot of big files and now i can get them all on my ipod with some room to spare. for awhile i started tacking my original cds and doing v3 and v4 encodes to save space but got tired of doing this. the guy even sent me back my old back plate and hardrive not to mention i had a zagg invisible shield on front of ipod and he sent it back intact. total time was one week i sent it off on saturday and got it back next saturday. works perfecrt have had 0 issues guy also gave me a 6 month waranty. so im so pleased. you cant even tell he ever opened it. from what i get from talking to this guy you could upgrade your ipod with him for 145 for 240gb hd if you want the 7th gen board its 50 more but i dont believe you need it but you could ask him.

What you need is an iPod classic 7th generation that ONLY had the hard drive and back plate replaced. One that was kept stock. This guy specifies that in the description. The back plate must be replaced because the 240 GB hard drive is slightly thicker than the 160 GB, it doesn't affect functionality, and it has 240 GB printed on it. Some people buy beat up iPods and replace the clicwheel and the front cover with bad quality precision built parts. I found these two listings that specify ONLY the hard drive and backplate were replaced from a new iPod Classic 7th Generation and it clearly says nothing else was replaced and stayed Apple genuine.

http://us.ebid.net/for-sale/genuine-apple-ipod-classic-7th-generation-w-upgraded -240gb-hard-drive-114303176.htm

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130951019245?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m15 55.l2649

I stumble upon people who buy things on ebay and don't ask enough questions. They make an assumption and go with it. They clearly don't ask enough questions before making a purchase of items that clearly lack description information.

My first question would be exactly what I metioned on my previous post: "Is everything else original?" if the pictures are unclear then "Can you please show me clear pictures" which raises the next issue. The seller doesn't want information that may drive buyer away and the buyer simply does not have time to ask all these questions about information that should have been there in the first place.

These listings have just the information that will make a buyer confident they've made the right choice.

Buying a new iPod to change the hard drive is simply a waste. Unless of course you sold the Apple hard drive for a reasonable sum and make some money back.

flaw5001

I have a new ipod classic 160GB and want to upgrade it to 240GB. You mentioned that someone upgraded it for you on ebay. How is that working for you? Who was that guy? Can you send me a link?

Thanks,

Drew H

i love mine works great no issues at all. heres a ebay auction for a moded 7th gen the guy did http://www.ebay.com/itm/251291777898. just message him about an upgrade. what he did was set up an auction for the return shipping/service amount with a description of the job. i then packaged up my ipod and shipped it to him. after the upgrade was done he sent me a paypal invoice for the hd and labor and then shipped it back. i sent it to him on a saturday and got it back the following saturday. through the whole process he messaged me threw ebay to keep everything on the up and up.

charges were

ebay service repair set up and return shipping $0.99+7.59 on 5/24/13

usps shiping to him $10.40 on 5/24/13 mailed on the Saturday 5/25/13

paypal invoice $185 on 5/29/13. mine costed $55 more because i had him replace the logic board do to a broken dock conector. $130 is the hard drive upgrade price. $130 covers labor hard drive upgrade, new thick back plate thats printed with 240gb and you get a 6 month waranty.

delivered on Saturday 6/1/13

One Week 🙂 so upgrade for me $203.98 without logic board your looking at $148.98. it could be cheaper depending on how you decide to ship it. so go to that auction link and then message arturoars7

hope this helps

forgot to mention he sent back my old 160gb hard drive, the back plate and broken logic board. so you can always try to sell the old parts to make a few bucks back.

I got a 240 from ebay as well. Can anyone tell me if it's possible to go above 240? Thank you all!

I recently builded up a 240GB iPod Classic out of a 80GB one.

Thanks to iFixit and several youtube tutorials I did it fantastically, only damaging a little bit the outer case because I was not careful enough.

Eitherway, I have now a major problem: iTunes only recoginces half of the Hard Drive (127gb) as if there was some kind of partition. I try to erase and format the HD thanks to the Disk Utilty but it keeps having the same problem over and over.

Does anyone know how to tell iTunes that the Hard Drive from this iPod is 240GB?

Are you saying the it worked properly at the full capacity for a while, but now has this "half-capacity" problem? Or are you saying it never showed the full capacity, and that is the problem?

If it never showed the full capacity, it may be a limitation of your iPod model. I seem to recall reading that the logic boards of some models have a maximum capacity limit. I think it applied to the 5th gen iPod. 80GB could be a 5th gen iPod, or the first "classic" (6th gen).

Otherwise, what capacity does Disk Utility show for the iPod's disk, after using it to erase (reformat) the iPod?

No way.... You can't be serious. I am officially stupid!!
I did the upgrade on an 6th gen 80GB iPod Classic. I thought I wouldn't had a problem on that since it was one of the latest models... (serial #8k735kexymv)
It recognizes only 127GB out of the 240GB since the beginning, no matter how many times or ways I try to format it.

Isn't there any solution? Am I stuck with a 127GB iPod classic for the price of a 240GB one??? Maybe installing some kind of pirate software or something.

Will it work on an 7th gen 160GB iPod Classic? I might be able to still buy one... Although maybe the inversion is already too high.

I don't have direct experience. If it's 6th gen, I don't recall that model having a capacity limit.

I asked previously, but are you saying that only iTunes shows the iPod with a 127GB? After you did the erase (reformat) using Disk Utility, what did Disk Utility show as the capacity of the iPod's hard drive? If Disk Utility also only shows 127GB, it is likely that there is some hardware limitation in the iPod that prevents capacity beyond that point from being recognized.

****....
Well it's weird because iTunes tells me the HD is 127GB, but Disk Utility shows it has 137GB...

But either way it means it won't recognize it beyond that size, isn't it? Or can I mod it somehow?