iPod classic - SSD conversion

In a previous posting I described how I got this iPod Classic 6G working again by just using an older 1.8" drive.
I did not provide any pictures, so here are two of them with the "roadkill".

As expected, the older harddrive started giving out (clunking noises, lost files) so it was time to fit and SSD. This is not really a hack since everything is plug and play.

 Part of my iDonor device collection:

Notice the [DeLock] item in the middle does not fit since it has a pin connector instead of the ZIF socket.

Oh well, time to order from China. Two weeks later the right item arrived:

The adapter sits in an awkward position, reverse of how you would expect it to sit with the activity LED facing inside (thus, serving no purpose).

Conclusion: I'm using Rockbox and the library scanning time dropped from around 10-20 minutes to less than one minute. Prebuffering the next songs is also faster, dropping from 5 seconds to around 1 second. Disk transfer rate is the same or possibly worse. Battery life seems unchanged.

If you want to make the conversion yourself just make sure you have the right part (pictured above), I've read some complaints about mismatched pins. Compact Flash and 1.8" IDE pinouts are not interchangeable, despite the fact they look the same.