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iPod Classic 6th Generation. Model A1238 / 80, 120, or 160 GB hard drive / black or silver metal front

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Solid State Drive Upgrade?

So I feel pretty dumb here because I asked something like this before, and it did work for a little while, but all of a sudden, stopped working. I have an iPod classic that I'd like to give to a friend that I have no working hard drives for. I bought this Super Talent 128gb zif drive to put in and see if maybe it would work. I've always preferred ssd's. My question is what am I doing wrong here? I'll tell you everything I've done.

All new click wheel and casing, 128gb label on back plate from China.

Same battery that worked before.

Used logic board bought from eBay.

Super Talent SSD.

I did all the work thanks to these great guides and it worked for a little while. I went to use it one day and it gave me the red X of death. Usually indicative of a hard drive failure, as I understand it. I tested the ssd on my computer and the computer wasn't even seeing it. I contacted Super Talent to get an RMA replacement. Replacement shows up. SSD can now be seen in my computer, but I get the same red X of death on my iPod screen after I install it. SSD is 3.3v and I've tried different hard drive cables since I have a treasure trove of old iPod classic parts.

Is this a logic board failure or a hard drive failure?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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Normally if you replace a HD with a SSD in a Windows or Linux machine you have to enable TRIM, which I presume is not possible on an iPod Classic. It wouldn't be such a big issue on an iPod as you won't be doing much writing, assuming you have a fairly static music collection, though the database tables containing things like play counts will be frequently updated. Also, as I'm sure you know, SSDs tend to use 4K blocks as opposed to 512byte on older HDs. Writing data in 512 byte blocks will be very inefficient and may result in accelerated wear. But whether either issue is causing your problem I don't know. Have you tried Spinrite on your HDs? It sounds like it could pay for itself if you have a stock of dead iPod drives. It's also been shown to offer some benefit on Level 2 to SSDs.

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