32GB solid state Zune upgrade

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[Andrew] wrote in to show us how he upgraded a broken Zune to solid state. He had one that was giving the Error code 5 when it booted. This means the hard drive is bad. He was able to find a compatible solid state 32Gb drive that, with a little bit of case modification, he made fit. Everything fit back into the Zune and looked completely stock. This was all done for less than $130. He seems pretty proud of getting a 32GB Zune for $150, and we don’t think that’s too big of a deal. We found a bunch of them on eBay for under $100. He even states that he doesn’t see any performance or battery life improvements. So why do we post this? Well, we like to see stuff split open and we actually like the idea of a no-moving-parts mp3 player. We’re hard on our electronics and the thought of that platter getting jarred over and over and over and over really bothers us. Great job [Andrew].

Comments [18]

tagged: mp3, solid state, ssd, zune

Reader Comments

I don’t get you guys. If someone flashes an LED using an Arduino, you go crazy. When someone does something that’s actually a hack, you “don’t think it’s too big a deal.”

Posted at 8:30 am on Oct 10th, 2009 by thethirdmoose

Also, the only 32GB zune is the Zune HD, and that costs around $300 on ebay. If you were talking about the SSD that you could buy for <$100, so did he. If you read the article, he says he got the zune for $50 and the SSD for $75.

Posted at 8:33 am on Oct 10th, 2009 by thethirdmoose

^^^ no ur not,

Posted at 8:36 am on Oct 10th, 2009 by Hustle Life Live Life

Error code 5… red ring of death… I’m seeing a pattern.

On the other hand, wicked cool hack! Kudos

Posted at 8:55 am on Oct 10th, 2009 by JayNix

Definitely a hack. Woo!

Posted at 9:01 am on Oct 10th, 2009 by TheKhakinator

im almost not surprised that there werent any battery or performance improvements considering the software would have been constructed for exactly the drive he removed

Posted at 9:19 am on Oct 10th, 2009 by anon

Well I am still testing things right now to see if there is any variance in performance. There might be some some circumstances under which one drive performs better than the other, and I still trying to resolve that through testing. I plan on updating the article later once I have some reliable empirical figures to work with.

Posted at 9:25 am on Oct 10th, 2009 by Andrew N. Price

Been running a 32gb iPod mini for a while (replaced 4gb microdrive with a 32gb Compact Flash) and it works great! Next would be 64gb

Posted at 9:46 am on Oct 10th, 2009 by tim

I did the same with my 3rd generation iPod (the last decent iPod), but instead of an SSD, I got a 1.8″HDD to CF adapter and a 32GB CF card. Took some monkeying around to get things working right including hacking the firmware with a hex editor, but it was fun.

Anyway, cool hack.

Posted at 10:46 am on Oct 10th, 2009 by Karmatose

Thankfully I haven’t had to hack anything for mine but a Creative Zen (who the eff decided to name them all the same!!!) has an SDHC card slot. Bought the el cheapo one with 4gb internal for $100 awhile ago. Have been upgrading as my music collection expands! Up to 16gb external + 4 internal. Had an 8gb for $30 and 16gb for $50. I can also view my digital camera pictures on it and share music easy

Great hack!

Posted at 11:03 am on Oct 10th, 2009 by Greg

@thethirdmoose,
He built a 32GB non HD Zune for $150, you can buy a 30 GB non HD zune for $90 :
http://cgi.ebay.com/Microsoft-Zune-30-GB-Digital-Media-Player-red_W0QQitemZ250504264567QQcmdZViewItemQQptZOther_MP3_Players?hash=item3a5337bb77#ht_890wt_939

I guess I wasn’t that clear.

Posted at 6:30 pm on Oct 10th, 2009 by Caleb Kraft

Well it is also the bulkier 1st generation model. My mod uses the slimmer 2nd generation model. You can actually fit a 8mm drive with that model stock I think. It is of course also a smaller mechanical drive. (In its favor it actually does have graphic equalizer.) For the record total cost on my mod including the Zune, drive, and shipping was $120. Just wanted to clarify.

Posted at 7:00 pm on Oct 10th, 2009 by Andrew N. Price

“So why do we post this?”

Maybe because it’s a hack?

Caleb, what planet are you from where you can understand two Hotwheels cars acting as a switch, and yet don’t quite get why we’d be interested in the replacement of a hard drive with an SSD in a consumer device?

WTF?

Posted at 5:52 am on Oct 11th, 2009 by strider_mt2k

@strider_mt2k,
If you’ll notice, I DID find this interesting enough to post. That’s why it is here, I thought it was awesome. You wouldn’t be commenting on it if I didn’t think it should be posted.
Due to the negativity in the comments, I felt it necessary to point out the obvious negative point and rebuff it before the comments turned into:

“he just replaced the hard drive… not a hack”

Great job Andrew.

Posted at 6:17 am on Oct 11th, 2009 by calebkraft

First off I was wrong in my last post, I meant $130 not $120. Secondly, I apologize if things came across negatively, I was writing that kind of late, and I did not mean to come across condescending. I greatly appreciate you guys posting my mod, and I certainly appreciate the extra traffic. (I consider it more a mod than a hack.) I am sorry if things came across negatively, I was just trying to clarify, since there seemed to be some confusion on the matter. I really like hackaday, and I think you guys do a wonderful job of bringing attention to interesting projects that I would not come across otherwise. Once again thanks for the post, and keep up the excellent work.

Posted at 7:36 pm on Oct 11th, 2009 by Andrew N. Price

I did this awhile back to my 30gb Zune 1.0 with a 32gb compact flash card.

Ended up wanting more space, so went to an 80gb Toshiba drive instead.

Posted at 1:58 pm on Oct 16th, 2009 by theorie

forgot to include pics:

32gb CF in 1st gen zune:

http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/5531/dsc8218my4.jpg

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4576/dsc8220mm3.jpg

Posted at 2:00 pm on Oct 16th, 2009 by theorie

Who buys Zunes anyways?

It’s not like you can use them with any at least remotely decent software.

Posted at 7:34 am on Nov 10th, 2009 by atanok