Question is swapping an iPod Classic Hard Drive a good idea?

Carlos2109

Honorable
Feb 27, 2017
7
1
10,510
Hello everybody!

I really don't know if this is the correct forum for this particular question, Please allow me to explain:

My dad found his beloved iPod Classic, its a 6th Generation 80GB of great music, I haven't seen him so happy in YEARS...

We were looking for an USB Charging cable so we can listen to his favorite tunes, I ended up going to my friends house and borrow one of his, and this is where it gets ugly.
IT DID NOT TURN ON. I do repairs as a hobby so after inspecting the charging port, I noticed that the pins are all messed up, and the best option would be replacing the charging port, when I told my dad the problem, His memory suddenly comes back and He explained me that He tried to use an USB cable to charge his iPod and it did not fit, so he probably cause the damage and wanted to get it repaired by Apple so He put it away and forgot about it.

I really want to fix his iPod, but here is the problem. I recently moved out, and all my stuff is packed up, so my soldering station, and everything I have to fix this is stored and by the time I get to the correct box... well.

I came to the conclusion of buying a fairly used iPod (you know same color and same Generation) and just swap the Hard Drive.

I think of this as when you take your PCs hard drive and place it in a new PC with the same version of Windows, all your info will be there just need to update drivers and erase old ones. it is kinda the same principle right?
but with Apple you never know... Do you think its a good idea? does it matter it is not going to be the same information stored in the drive? (like Serial Number and probably firmware version)

I don't want to cause a problem and lose all of his data.
I am afraid that when I finish the job and turn on the device its going to ask me to restore with iTunes.

I am really looking forward to hear from you guys on this one.
 
It's likely that the firmware is on some flash storage in the device itself and the hard drive is only for music storage. But in any case, a problem with the hard drive used in the iPod Classic is it looks like a custom job. While the formfactor looks standard (1.8" drive), it's also a rare form factor and I doubt the connector Apple used is standard. However, there are converters that can let you use an SD or CF card instead.
 

DSzymborski

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