Hacking ipod as a USB drive...

[Inferior_Design]

I've got an 80GB classic ipod with about 60GB free. I doubt I'll ever use the whole 80 so...
Could an ipod be rigged as a USB drive for Mplayer/USB Loader?

Just goofing around with it, I tried connecting it to Mplayer and the ipod froze up. Had to let the battery die before I could regain use of the ipod. On the plus side, none of the data was lost. Mplayer didn't recognize it anyway. I hadn't upgrade the Wii's USB to 2.0 when I tried it, also didn't check the "use as hard drive" option for the ipod in itunes. Prolly have to reformat the ipod to FAT and partition it before this will even begin to work. Some extra code may be necessary since Apple doesn't like anything but itunes communicating with their hardware.

Wondering if anybody else thought of this, or if it is a worthwhile experiment. Pretty sure that lots of folks have an ipod even if they don't have a USB mass storage device.

Thoughts?

 

[Deleted-171178]

it would probably be possible but could damage it.

 

[david432111]

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1478

Follow that, partition it(Make sure that the partition for games is formatted to fat32) and it's ready!

 

[Inferior_Design]

That all makes sense. Thanks david.

The main reasons I haven't gone any further with the experiment is that I'm unsure of how well itunes will handle a partitioned ipod and I don't think the Wii will get along with an ipod. I really hope I can work it out so that I can still use the ipod as an mp3 player but also as a portable drive.
I just don't think it can do both.

Waiting for somebody to prove me wrong now.

 

[Aeroglyphix]

keep in mind that the FAT32 file system can only accommodate files that are smaller than 4 gigabytes

Wouldn't this pose as a problem since most Wii games go over 4gigs?

 

[mousex]

Most Wii games go over 4GB? No, just a few like SSBB and MP3. Also games go on a WBFS and not on a FAT partition.

 

[david432111]

keep in mind that the FAT32 file system can only accommodate files that are smaller than 4 gigabytes

Wouldn't this pose as a problem since most Wii games go over 4gigs?

It only needs to be formatted to fat so that the usb loader can format it to wbfs.

 

[david432111]

That all makes sense. Thanks david.

The main reasons I haven't gone any further with the experiment is that I'm unsure of how well itunes will handle a partitioned ipod and I don't think the Wii will get along with an ipod. I really hope I can work it out so that I can still use the ipod as an mp3 player but also as a portable drive.
I just don't think it can do both.

Waiting for somebody to prove me wrong now.

You can, see the second pic. You can choose how much to use for music(Music that shows on player) and how much to use for mass storage purposes.

 

[TheOtherMii]

Never got it to work with Mplayer, emulators or any other Homebrew really, but it has always worked with GeeXboX. I just wish GeeXboX would implement a driver to read the itunes library. You either have to store your media as regular files (which means the ipod and itunes can't see them) or you have to browse to the hidden files which all have erroneous names, so you can't tell what is what.

 

[Inferior_Design]

I just wish GeeXboX would implement a driver to read the itunes library.

Sounds like a worthy project. Hopefully somebody who can do it will read this thread and become inspired.

 

[sl33p]

This should be possible but I wouldn't recommend it for anything beyond media. I rememebr a few years back someone installed an OS to the iPod. But, the iPod wasn't designed tho handle so much continuous I/O and "burnt out" for lack of a better rerm after a rather short period of time. While loading Wii ISOs from an would likely be less stressful on the iPod I still wouldn't risk it.

But you will probably need a FAT partition in order for Mplayer to read the drive...I think NTFS (reading) works in Geexbox

 

[Tagg7]

Similar to what these guys have been saying... it is possible but not really recommended. iPod's aren't designed to handle the same data streaming that the Wii does.

 

[TheOtherMii]

I just wish GeeXboX would implement a driver to read the itunes library.

Sounds like a worthy project. Hopefully somebody who can do it will read this thread and become inspired.

I've mentioned it in the right places. It's been said that it is certainly doable. It would basically be like an Ipod manager merged with GeeXbox. The code is written, it's just waiting to be pasted together. Unfortunately nobody with the skills has the time or has stepped up with any interest. It is a niche, but you'd think enough people have iPods and Wii's that this should have happened already.

Wish I had the skills to pull it off, or the time to figure it out.

edit: maybe I'll give it a mention over at Mplayer CE... they seem to be doing some active developing these days.