Teaser: The 1Tb iPod

Teaser: The 1Tb iPod

The Teaser

Yes the title is correct the 1TB iPod, as in 1 terabyte, or 930Gb useable for the lawyers…..

iTunes and the 1Tb iPod

iTunes and the 1Tb iPod

1TB iPod Screen

1TB iPod Screen

FAQ’s

This will be a complementary product to the iFlash, it will be designed for people who want more than 256Gb.

So for 256Gb or less in storage, the iFlash and SD or CF card will always be the better option – especially in terms of battery life.

Getting 1000 Gb in to an iPod is not going to be cheap and while I have a working prototype and development is still continuing, it may be that I will not move to production if the demand is not great enough and the resulting price would be too high!!!

Again while I have a working prototype, I am still at the very early development stage. I have many issues to solve including but not limited to:- power consumption, drive access stability, seamless compatibility with all iPods (5g,6g,7g) I am working on, and final product cost.

Some Stats

Transfer speed on my test 5g iPod Video is approximately 8 to 9MB/s, so syncing the full 930Gb will take around 30 Hours. On the 6g/7g iPod Classics transfer speeds are nearer 16 – 18Mb/s so about 15 Hours to fill.

Power consumption is not going to be great, and I cannot really tell you anything as my development/prototype boards are not using the iPod’s internal battery (Yes, it really is that bad!!).

The iTunes music database starts to struggle around the 50000 tracks, so to fill 1Tb you will need many lossless music files – rather than millions of low quality files.

I have not tried Rockbox yet, while I expect it to work ok on the 5g Video’s the 6g/7g Classics may not. Rockbox’s file/directory based music storage will probably allow much greater than 50000 tracks.

1TB will probably be the limit for the iPods as I suspect it is at the limitations of the firmware. I will post another teaser if I manage to squeeze more in to some of the newer iPods but I suspect 1TB will be it!!!!!

Timeframe

Not sure, it could be 4 weeks or 4 months or even 4 years – I am working on it and it will be announced when and if its ready for primetime……

56 thoughts on “Teaser: The 1Tb iPod

  1. Mark

    I’m having trouble with my Crucial MX200 500gb. When I plug the iPod in I get the Grey Apple, then the sad iPod, the “Low Battery Please Wait” message, and this loops continuously. Any suggestions?

  2. D.E.N.Y

    Hi, I just finished upgrade of my iPod 5th gen. with 1TB 840 EVO ssd, but there is a problem.
    As soon as I connected it to PC, iPod wrote: “Connected to your computer, use iTunes to restore” and then restart.
    This is repeated over and over again!

    Can be the problem, that I used original factory sealed SSD? What is a factory set of file system for 840 EVO ?

    Thank you.

    1. Support

      @D.E.N.Y – probably your battery cannot handle the drive, the battery has to be in great condition to power up and write to the 1Tb mSata drive.

  3. Reed

    I now have several 1TB iPod classics using 7th generation 160 gb mother boards with 2.0.4 firmware, an iflash dual and a 3000 mh battery in a 6th gen ‘thick’ case, For the sdxc cards I used PNY 512 but the Olatec Elite Pro 512gb from Amazon seems to be working just fine. Time to expand my library

  4. Eduardo

    Can I install a 256GB SSD with iFlash -SATA adapter into an iPod Classic 6th without putting on Rockbox ?
    detect correctly iTunes 256GB hard disk on the iPod?

    thanks

  5. Arturo Weasley

    Hello Tarkan. I have the same ipod. MA147/ LL
    I want more gb.
    What is better?
    I flash dual with 2 sdxc 512gb or i flash sata with 1tb.
    I wan change battery to.
    1300mah or 3000mah
    Thanks.

    1. Support

      @Kel – Yes the mSata will fit inside the original Slim case. Only thing to note is that the slim battery on a 5g iPod with 1Tb mSata will have an extremely poor battery runtime.

  6. Tonard

    Hello rubeN,

    I did but I am not a technical builder.
    Any way or place where we could buy such an iPod?
    (internationally as I live in Europe)
    🙂

  7. Tonard

    Was wondering where this project was now?
    This is like a dream for me to be able to put all my music library on an iPod classic…
    Even though 500Gb would have been fine, knowing that a 1Tb iPod could be feasible is top dram-come-true!
    😉

  8. rubeN

    Update on my 1TB 840 EVO/iPod Classic 7G build:

    Today picked up an mSATA-to-2.5″ SATA adapter, connected power and SATA cables to my Windows machine motherboard. Used AOMEI to rebuild MBR, delete all partitions, and create a new FAT32 partition. I closed the program and shut down the computer. Sticked the 1TB drive into my Classic and finally was greeted with the “restore in iTunes” message.

    Restored in iTunes and now I’m synching some music on the iPod.

    So yeah complete waste of time trying to get a mSATA to USB enclosure to try and clean the 1TB free of the red X.

  9. rubeN

    Tarkan, that does make sense I mean that drive is really power hungry and using an mSATA USB enclosure will surely not provide adequate power to it, especially on USB 2.0. I will attempt to format it using an internal adapter.

    1. Tarkan

      It is not just the power – USB2.0 to Sata bridge circuits do not handle the power down sequence correctly.

      I should add a few people have used USB3 and Thunderbolt (on Macs) enclosures with some success, I still prefer a direct mSata to Sata enclosure – as that is the only way to guarantee correct power down sequence.

  10. rubeN

    Tarkan, like fir1st I’m also having trouble with the 840 EVO 1TB card on a 7g slim.

    When I first installed the card it gave me the “Restore in iTunes” message which is what’s expected. I tried restoring it and it gave me an error 1463 I believe, so it didn’t restore it.

    Well now the problem is the iPod will give you a Red X no matter what you do. That “Restore in iTunes” will ever show up.

    I have tried removing the card and putting it in a mSATA to USB enclosure and launch AOMEI, do a rebuild MBR, then Apply. Then delete all the partitions, hit Apply. Then create a new FAT32 partition, and Apply. I eject the drive and put in the iPod and still keep getting the dreadful Red X all the time.

    It is pretty frustrating as you can imagine.

    1. Tarkan

      1Tb is a power hog, so the steps I outline in the instruction sheets need to be followed exactly.

      1st, mSata-USB enclosure will not work, you need a mSata-Sata enclosure to clear the red cross from a 840EVO’s. Only a direct connection to the SATA bus will allow the 840EVO to unmount and power down correctly – if the mSata drive does not unmount & power down correctly, it will always power up in the Power Corruption mode, which causes the red cross on the iPod.

      2nd, The battery has to be fully charged before trying to restore the 1Tb, if you are using the slim 580mAh battery then make sure it is in good condition (as in new, a weak slim battery will not work!!), even the ebay 2000mAh battery has to be fully charged.

      To charge the battery if you do not have a booting iPod – then you will need to enter the iPod diagnostics menu, drill down to battery A2D, and plug in the docking lead connected to a USB charger and wait till the voltage goes above 4150mV, and then leave it connected for a further 2 hours <- at this point the battery is charged.

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