iPod Surgery

Yes, my iPod died again the other day. This time I realised it was far enough out of guarantee to make a trip to Sheffield a bit of a gamble, and anyway: Meadowhall should be called Meadowhell this time of year.

And yes, I've tried the "smack it hard" trick. It gave me about 2 months more usage, but dead is dead.

So, I reasoned it's time to stop being such a victim and take matters into my own hands. Knowing full well that 40GB clickwheel iPods were made with duff hard drives (and Apple really should have recalled), I did a bit of research on the internet and managed to order a replacement off eBay. Only I took the plunge and decided to put a different hard drive in.

Here's some notes.

1 The original hard drive was the Toshiba MK4004GAH. This has been discontinued. Damn right. The corresponding replacement is the MK4006GAH. Ambitious types may wish to go up to 60GB. If you like the sound of this, the drive you require is the MK6006GAH.

2 Getting in: DO NOT USE A SCREWDRIVER. You will scratch your iPod to buggery. Buy a specialist tool. You can get them from music shops for about 30p. It's called a 1mm guitar pick. Don't use the flippy nylon ones. They're about as much use as a one-legged man at an arse-kicking party. Rigidity is a good thing here, and you want a balance between rigidity and width. Ooer.

This is where guitarists have a colossal advantage. People who live in Eugene, OR have even more of an advantage, as they can go to McKenzie River Music on West 11th. They keep a goldfish bowl of picks on the counter. They are nice people. I bought my Ovation from them. Perhaps you could buy a Fender Musicmaster from them. It's pricey, but you'll get a handful of free picks, and an excuse to learn the guitar. It's all good.

3 Once you're in, the rest is easy. Take the rubber bumpers off the old drive and fit them to the new one. Use your guitar pick to scrape the foam from the old drive and glue it to the new one. It's a Zero Insertion Force socket, so just put the cable in the right place, seat the drive inside and snap the case back on.

4 It'll probably not work quite yet. If you're using a PC, I can't help you and I don't want to. You're in the majority. Plenty of help out there. On the other hand, if you're using a Mac, you'll get a dialog box telling you that the disk cannot be read. Click "initialize" and Disk Utility will be opened for you.

(Digression: Why do they call them dialog boxes? There's no dialogue going on, just a statement of how it is, with a limited number of options: one of them being effectively, "well, fuck you, then". It's more like a dysfunctional marriage box, if you ask me.)

The iPod will appear in Disk Utility. Click erase, and it will be initialised. The moment this finishes, iTunes leaps into action, just as it did when you first connected the iPod.

Et voilà! It works. One clicking iPod becomes a Frankenstein's monster with 60GB capacity.

My creation lives!!!