Comments on: 32GB solid state Zune upgrade

By: Nintendo Guy

Nintendo Guy — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:21:32 +0000

That’s a pretty cool hack right there. But what I’m wondering is if you could get numerous say 8GB SD cards or Compact Flash cards and run them together in a RAID 0 format somehow so you can get like 4 cards at 8GB to make 32GB. Any ideas?

By: atanok

atanok — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:34:59 +0000

Who buys Zunes anyways?

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

By: theorie

theorie — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:00:33 +0000

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

By: theorie

theorie — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:58:16 +0000

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.

By: Andrew N. Price

Andrew N. Price — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:36:39 +0000

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.

By: calebkraft

calebkraft — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:17:09 +0000

@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.

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:52:19 +0000

“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?

By: Andrew N. Price

Andrew N. Price — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:00:57 +0000

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.

By: Caleb Kraft

Caleb Kraft — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:30:21 +0000

@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.

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:03:06 +0000

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!

By: Karmatose

Karmatose — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:46:21 +0000

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.

By: tim

tim — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:46:27 +0000

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

By: Andrew N. Price

Andrew N. Price — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:25:19 +0000

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.

By: anon

anon — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:19:57 +0000

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

By: TheKhakinator

TheKhakinator — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:01:43 +0000

Definitely a hack. Woo!