- When I would start the ipod, I would get an icon of a folder and a
warning sign. The ipod would then make a bunch of clicking noises. That
make me think that the hard drive was crapped out.
- Since it was already broken, why not take it apart and try to make
it work. There was no clear way to ebter the ipod, so I decided to pry
off the metal back using the thinnest screw driver I could find.
It wasnt that hard to work the screw drive between the metal and the plastic. I worked the screw driver down the side of the case, until it popped off.
- I flipped the ipod over, and opened it up slowly, I noticed that
there was a ribbon cable connecting the guts if the ipod to the jacks
mounted to the metal back. I was careful not to mess this connection up.
- The ipod uses an ide harddrive, the connector pulled directly off
without any problems. I now hard the bad harddrive free,
- The drive had blue rubber bumpers wrapped around it, and on the
back, there was a foam mat that was glued to the drive.
- Removing the bumpers was no problem, they pulled directly off with
out any fight.
- I tried to pull the foam off the drive by pulling on it, but that
wasnt working, so I desided to get a razor blade scraper and screape it
off. It worked well.
- Once I had the foam off, I could see that it was a toshiba drive.
Model MK2004GAL. I looke dofr replacements online, but was only able to
find the model MK2006GAL. I compared the MK2004GAL and the MK2006GAL,
and didnt see any big differences, so I ordered one. 3 days letter I had
my new drive. It didnt have the apple logo on it, but who cares, it was
only $100!
- The blue bumpers went on with out a problem, and fit like a glove.
- To get the foam to stick to the new drive, I went super ghetto and
reached in my desk, and came up with a glue stick! Hey, it goet the job
done.
- The new drive went in, just like the old one came out. I connected
the IDE connection, and I was ready to close it up.
- I put the back on, and pressed down on it evenly. The back snapped
without any problems.
- Next, I downloaded the ipod updater (11-17-2005) from apple.com, and
installed it. I hooked up my newly rebuilt ipod, and did a restore. It
went really fast.
- After the restore, I had to hook up my ipod to the wall charger. I
didnt have one on hand so i tried all kinds of methods of going around
it. In the middle of me trying to hack around it, My buddy chris called,
I told him to bring over his wall charger.
- 5 minutes later Chris showed up with a charger. I plugged in the
ipod, it reset itself, and then I was up and running with my newly
rebuilt ipod.
I was really supprised at how easy it was to replace the hard drive in a 4th gen ipod. Im sure that someone is going to call me an idiot for opening the case that way. I dont care though. I got this thing working and that all that matters, and I did it for under $100. Screw apple for wanting to charge $250 for 20 munites worth of work and $100 worth of parts.
I hope that through my experience, someone else can bring back to life one of their dead ipods.