Repairing 3 iPod Minis Saved From E-Waste

[@aydoyt]

12:54 "That's repairability I like to see" A stark contrast to the Apple we know today.

[@KoopaKid660]

@RERE.... 🕊️ go away japan bot

[@tomokokuroki2506]

@RERE.... 🕊️ I ain't clickin' that shit nigga.

[@adamno176]

I mean nano exist but I guess that does not count.

[@herioper3497]

​@@adamno176Those can be repaired not like iphones change part and disables features

[@JonathanDrahoss]

Everybody attempting to restore or fix their iPod Minis: Be sure to use circlip pliers for the bottom retaining clips, they are made specifically for those type of clips and safety rings and make taking them out and putting them back in about a thousand times easier! :)

[@markharrisllb]

I was thinking the exact same thing. Where it sounded like Jeffrey didn’t like the design I thought the way they were connected was a clever idea for keeping two tiny circlips and retaining layer together. Circlip pliers might not be something most people use every day, but when you need them you’re glad you have them and they are quite inexpensive. I’m surprised more people aren't making this comment or liking yours.

[@Stefan_Van_pellicom]

Came here to comment the same.

[@Montblanc1986]

exactly right!

[@GamezGuru1]

indeed, surprised Hugh didn't recognise this, or have the tools.

[@metraforce441]

*You got to admit that micro drive is adorable!*

[@dash8brj]

They are tiny little things, even the ones in the ipod classics were bigger, 1.8" devices.

[@Shady88Italy]

So cute!

[@Shady88Italy]

@@fadate7292 i'm enchanted already

[@NoMirrorReflection]

Just like watching kittens but it's a drive!

[@Anounymous79nl]

timestamp?

[@ShadowWizard123]

It's so funny how everyone throws their older electronics away and then 30 years later they all want to own them again.

[@Indrakusuma_a]

That's 'nostalgia' for ya. Like how I sold my Nokia 3660 back in the days and sometimes still want it back even though I won't be daily driving it anymore.

[@masterfunkstuff]

Gggyyhgguujhvfftyujkkppoiufcvmmmnnvv xxsssserttyuj

[@eddiew.4650]

You can't expect everyone to keep every single piece of electronic that they ever own. That's how hoarders and pac rats happen.

[@slowednation999]

That’s why I try to keep every single electronic device I get because I know someday I’ll want it again

[@beefman26]

That’s why I just keep it all

[@eathenalexander2836]

That mini hard drive is impressive

[@markharrisllb]

Definitely needs to go on display next to the regular size one.

[@ShoelessJP]

Love to see these iPods being saved. IPods were an incredibly iconic part of 2000s tech.

[@stephensnell5707]

You dick,iPods are no longer around but I myself I have the iPod Touch 6th Generation(my iPod Touch I have had it 5 years so far) and I will keep using it until the Flash Storage fails entirely and until the Battery is totally knackered

[@stephensnell5707]

I still happen to have an iPod that I've currently had for 6 years(mine is the iPod Touch 6th Generation). I plan to carry on using it until it fails on me entirely

[@deathsyth8888]

"Someone's been in here!" - A wise Australian nugget of a man

[@h0rze423]

The question is will this Aussie do a Shrek Pod?

[@jaxonsandwith502]

Will we see a bluetooth ipod

[@emdotrod]

*mini*

[@dead_bread3875]

will he have a 4tb ipod

[@munzlp]

was thinking the same

[@holton345]

I use my 2004 iPod Mini every day. It still works perfectly. I use it in a 2004 Bose SoundDock that has excellent sound and volume. My wife's iPod Mini (same model/year) gave up the ghost a few years back. I am certain it is the HDD. I will be learning to disassemble these using hers, so I can perform the same compact flash/battery upgrade. If it works out I will likely do this to mine, too, but not for some time since it still works so well. I love Apple products from the Steve Jobs era. Current iPhones and all of Tim's attempts to keep us from working on our tech? Not so much.

[@markredf150]

Be careful during disassembly, you've got this👍🏼

[@InsanercYT]

if you want a 100% chance of it working i recommend the tarkan iflash one

[@partitionhlep]

did you put a cf in your mini yet?

[@wombat1238marsupial]

I have several MicroDrives from IBM and of the 2 that I had presumed had failed, a gentle tapping with small hammer actually cured the sticking drives and have been in constant use for the last year. A genius of a mechanism and they can actually be quite robust😊😊

[@josefalconi5895]

I still have mine and use it often for the gym 😎. Only need to change the battery again. You gave me a good idea to change to a bigger hard drive. I still love the physical click wheel makes it easier to scroll through music.

[@fizzys26]

That micro drive is absolutely adorable!

[@cuentaeliminada7176]

Those mini hard-drives are a technical marvel! So small, yet so complex

[@cuentaeliminada7176]

@RERE.... 🕊️ okay baby, get reported

[@joshdoeseverything4575]

just a note hugh, there are compact flash adapters that are way cheaper than compact flash itself, and instead rely on an sd card inserted into them.

[@IntriguedLioness]

Even though I'm not enough of a geek to attempt these intimidating repairs I still enjoyed this channel. I had the iPod generation one and all the way through most of the generations. I did veer into the "non-serious" lineage of the iPod touches, simply because you could sync them wirelessly and not worry about iTunes or a dongle! *These videos always make me appreciate what the iPod was.* Ironically the only time I did crack open one of my iPods to get a little bit more life out of it was my pink iPod mini. I got an iFixit kit, as I recall and at that time the tool was a toothpick because it would not mar the aluminum. I held my breath and I was successful but as iPods got slimmer I definitely didn't have the courage! I still have all of them so perhaps someday. Cheers!

[@markm0000]

The Mini wasn’t my favorite but it’s nice seeing these little guys live another day. I’m partial to my Video 5G 30GB and the OG Nano 4GB. A friend of mine had a Nano and used it to bring homework to school.

[@spacekitt.n]

watching you clean them is so satisfying

[@Pinnacle_Music]

good good times with my ipod mini. Took mine traveling all around Europe in 2007!

[@BrokenPixle]

I just upgraded my 1st gen Shrek green Mini with a 32GB Micro SD card in a Compact Flash adapter. This video makes me super happy, love a good nugget repair. I can hear an Australian man cheering in the distance.

[@dead_bread3875]

a true Ozzy

[@HerrFresh]

Dankpods.

[@arfanmedni7294]

He owes you a beer mate

[@wickedmortals7039]

you know it's a dankpods viewer when the person says 'shrek green'

[@BrokenPixle]

@@wickedmortals7039 you know it mate 👍

[@SJPDurham]

Just love the fact that you lovingly restore these classic iPods. 👍🏻 Kudos to you.

[@ddimitrii]

Are you sure he does it with love? It's a disgusting recovery. He did it as simply and unprofessionally as possible. Read my previous comment. It's very sad that you don't notice such important details.

[@technomadmn]

This dude is saving planet earth, one device at a time.

[@morsine]

Thank you for taking apart that tiny hard drive. I really wanted to see how it looks inside

[@TheFlyingBusman]

A large flat blade screwdriver with a cloth wrapped around it could have been used on the blue unit. Twist the driver inside to lift the dented section. It’s a little like PDR repairs on cars.

[@pjplayz1695]

Hugh Jeffery’s is legit who I look up to for my repair business love this guy

[@samismydog]

Dankpods viewers: Immediate click

[@TomTheXboxSeriesX]

Yep

[@franzmuller9866]

Definitely

[@glass.hammer]

I feel very seen.

[@Sheepy469]

Dank pods Should make more iPod videos

[@tulippasta]

Glad I'm not the only one

[@MrAndzzeys]

Hugh Jeff at his best!

[@liamfahey8761]

This is what makes my Sunday

[@Gabriel87100]

I was expecting software locks and errors talking about "needing calibrations" after the repair was done.

[@Dracula.25]

@@kastielangel. are you good kumar ?

[@patrik_x86]

This was a few years before Apple started punishing people for repairing their stuff!

[@_LGD]

@@patrik_x86 yes 1tb iPods are a thing which apple never even thought of when making the iPods

[@byroboy]

I pulled my 20gb Creative Zen apart last night (similar age to these). The mini hard drives are really cool.

[@unskeptable]

These ipods were amazing. I loved it

[@unskeptable]

@long zisk Where ca i get the iphone bro ? I sent you so many messages. No reply ..,

[@mousemac4317]

I had one of these in the blue colour. I loved it! The battery gave out after about 2 years and we bought a repair kit. My dad (a car mechanic) tried the fix, but it didn’t work, sad days. I loved that little dude. Upgraded to a 30gb 5th gen classic, that only recently bricked (think the battery in that is cooked) I still miss my little blue dude though.

[@BogdanSerban]

These were the best players ever invented, and the click wheel is the best interface of this kind.

[@alisonsmith4436]

Good morning Hugh thank you so much for the great video 😊😊

[@ashliehiggins]

Circlip pliers make the bracket removal and instalation a doddle.

[@Pleiades55]

You can also get metal spudger style tools with a little hook/ elbow on the end, super easy to use.

[@usagold8]

For those retaining clips you may want to look at some snap ring pliers.

[@ChrisEpp]

This was an amazing video, I have refurbished/upgraded multiple iPad mini is all the way up to 128 GB with an iFlash to CF adapter and they make amazing music devices with all that space and a new battery!

[@warness6020]

Same i repaired some iPhone 3Gs . Great video ❤🔥💪🏽

[@justinlang313]

These brought back nostalgia 😀

[@thecakejaffa1044]

why are these videos just so satisfying to watch? i love seeing old gadgets back to life :)

[@stephensnell5707]

The iPod isn't that outdated,Apple only discontinued tgem back in 2017 which is not that far back

[@RestorationRelaxation]

I love when you fix up trash and turn them into treasure. Good stuff man

[@thewillsfamilyaccount6486]

I just love to see stuff like! Keeping things going years after! Brilliant!

[@LAUGHINGMANWILL]

A good way too avoid breaking solder joints on clickwheel connector is to only pry on the sides. Left to right then left to right again gently.

[@absolutely1337]

i JUST got one of these ipods...use hot glue or double faced tape to pull off the top and bottom...no prying. no damage, works a treat!

[@johnDingoFoxVelocity]

So let me explain something to you about that model of iPod usually the hard drive doesn’t fail what it is is it’s a read write error and the only way to actually fix it and to resurrect the iPod is to format the iPod in Mac OS X extended partition with it connected to a external PC source once formatted you then fire up iTunes restore the software

[@SchoenmakerijdeSaen]

Ho about if you have a PC. And no Mac OS X?

[@eazysmokes3743]

@@SchoenmakerijdeSaen follow same steps

[@eazysmokes3743]

@@SchoenmakerijdeSaen with pc iTunes

[@PercyPanleo]

@@eazysmokes3743 You can also use the version of iPod Updater from 2006-01-10

[@falxie_]

The small hard drives are super interesting

[@enriconeumann6142]

Technical approach flawless. Optical restoring leaves points to be desired.

[@bloodout666]

Hugh these restorations are awesome buddy cheers mate 🧉

[@TheColinputer]

Well this brings back memories. I used to run a iPod repair service on eBay back in my last year of highschool and through uni. The Minis were great. Much easier to open without leaving in marks compared to the 3rd and 4th Gen iPods. With regards to those clips. I found the best thing for them was a set of Circlip pliers. Regarding the microdrives. These were made to fit into compact flash type II slots. Mostly used in embedded systems thats didnt need much local storage aswell as things like DSLR cameras You could also get them with a PCMCIA card adapter for laptops. For the time they were great because flash sucked in 90s and early 2000s. Cost an arm and a leg. Almost used as much power to write to a spinning drive. The write cycle life was also terrible compared to todays flash. But i do think the microdrive was an odd choice by Apple. By 2004 flash had gotten a lot better. And i really cant imagine 4GB of flash would of cost THAT much different to the cost of the microdrive by the time you factor in the cable, rubber bumpers and all that. (assuming the flash here would of been soldered to the board so didnt need other components). The fact Apple dropped the mini after only 2 versions and moved to the flash based nano sort of backs this up. That being said though. The mini has a charm that the nano never did IMO. It also has a much better DAC compared to the early nano versions.

[@PileOfEmptyTapes]

Don't underestimate the prices of flash memory in the olden days. I just looked up some old CF cards, the cheapest retail price of a Lexar Professional 40x 2 GB dropped from about 600€ in early 2004 to about 400 in summer and later around 200 by the end of the year. A 2 GB Hitachi Microdrive fell from about 200 to 100 in the same period. A 2 GB iPod mini retailed for under 200 in 2005. My first MP3 player that I got for Christmas in 2005 was a Cowon iAudio G3 with a whopping 512 megs, a common size at the time (the 1 gig model would have been almost twice as expensive, the 2 gig 3 times). Keep in mind it was all SLC still.

[@mjesticfalco]

Someday, I'd love to see a Hugh Jeffreys and Dankpods collab

[@dead_bread3875]

we need it

[@ali645.]

same we rly need it

[@restfulbee3762]

I love how Dankpods fans are everywhere ipods are

[@ali645.]

same (im a fan of him too lol)

[@thedarkknight1971]

Go 'Danky'! (and Frank).... and SMOOREZ 👍😏 😎🇬🇧

[@dlb3232]

I have an iPod Nano 2nd gen from 2007 and it works great. I keep it in my iHome radio (from 2010) and it’s been my alarm clock for the past 10yrs. I hope to get 10!

[@SamBao]

Hugh Jeffreys you're like the Bob Ross of mobile device repair

[@MuscleCarLover]

The storage capacity change alone makes me happier about these repairs than the recent ones with the Classics

[@user-gj1lb6xp3t]

Snap ring pliers would be good for those metal clips

[@GadgetUK164]

Great job =D To bend outward that part around the screen on the blue one, next time try some pliars - press it down flat onto a table from the opposite side (so crumpled part is facing upwards), use the pliers the opposite way you would expect, ie. seperate them so they lever outwards! It would still be difficult but by far the easiest way to get leverage in that kind of situation.

[@williameverets2736]

Might look for a snap ring pliers, used for taking metal snap rings on Cars bearing, and other ways to lock something secure

[@notOEAH]

A certain aussie with a snake named frank for a pet and a Shrek fixation should watch this video and take notes.

[@ibrahim64ahmed]

I wonder who hmmm 🤔

[@stinkysocksgamer3535]

And likes pkcells a lot

[@GarbanzoBeansFan]

and likes calling MP3 players nuggets

[@MrBigGuy1977]

huh duh six hungos by ol' mate senny

[@restfulbee3762]

Take notes? Nah I think Hugh took notes from him

[@bellyisis]

I used to repair & do batteries for friends on their pods since so easy to open. I stopped doing this at the iPhone 3, btw needle nose pliers work to remove the metal clip. Right side then left

[@oliver_lauritsen_oa]

That hard drive is soo cute ❤

[@dead_bread3875]

thats what she said to the guy i mean what

[@r0guepix3l50]

10:21 Efficiency of motherboard was improved greatly improving battery life not a bigger battery.

[@MicrobyteAlan]

Interesting and well presented thanks from Orlando Florida

[@Wanted797]

These were the coolest things in high school at the time.

[@babylonfive]

Great Job, Hugh. I love all your videos. Please keep it up.

[@shiroseviltwin6532]

I'm still using my 1st gen 160gb silver/black plate cover ipod video.. It's pretty solid, can't beat it & the battery is in excellent shape.. at the time I paid nearly 350$ for the ipod & I still have it to this day & still use it.. I was watching a fellow on YT try to swap out the hard drive disk reader & use ssd's & micro ssd's it was pretty neat. If you're looking for something to watch movies get the ipod touch version. But Honestly using this for me is solely for music purposes. I love my music, I've nearly maxed out my device which is around 140 gigs, so you can imagine over almost a decade how much music i've gathered. Love these devices & i'm a total boomer for them.

[@prodbydanai]

160GB? 😳 Damn that's is way too massive for an iPod It's very cool tho 😎

[@shiroseviltwin6532]

@@prodbydanai I has all the music I ever need.

[@ahmadfauzanperdana5703]

"I've had enough~ I've had enough~ I've had enough~ We're replacing it anyway~" -Dankpods

[@dead_bread3875]

felt that

[@ali645.]

*dankpods laugh*

[@giannispolykratis6787]

hey mate, process is usually a series of procedures, so when perform a task this is considered a procedure, the whole repair from start to finish is a process.

[@tarassu]

Use not very old toothbrush (medium strength) for cleaning. You will have much better results. Also add some alcohol on the brush while cleaning. Also possible to use very thin paper tower between surface and brush.

[@garyandersontech]

They make pliers to remove those type of clips on the bottoms of those ipods. You need retaining ring pliers, it would make life much easier.

[@TheSpotify95]

Nice repair and restoration of these iPod mini's! I knew of them before (and their capacities) but didn't know that they used mechanical hard drives - I didn't even know that 4GB HDDs existed, let alone fit in that form factor. The Compact Flash upgrade is a good idea and something I'd do (or a CF to microSD adapter and then use a 32GB microSD card, depending on what was cheaper).

[@tituslafrombois1164]

> "I didn't even know that 4GB HDD's existed" Guess you don't follow retro computing much do you? When consumer hard drives were first introduced 4 GB was a faraway futuristic dream. Hell, when the CD-ROM came along with its astonishing 700MB it held more than most contemporary hard drives.

[@karnadyjuan]

@@tituslafrombois1164 i think he is referring to a tiny mechanical 4gb drive not 4gb size in general...

[@tituslafrombois1164]

@@karnadyjuan that's not how he phrased it.

[@jaxonsandwith502]

You can get 256 in a mini 2nd gen

[@dead_bread3875]

@@jaxonsandwith502 i need to find a second gen mini i really want to do that and live the good old mates days

[@hann43]

For that bottom clip you could use internal snap-ring pliers or cir-clip pliers, should be way easier. You just have to make sure that the pliers fit in the holes of the clip :)

[@dinkarfowkar999]

Top 4 Aussies 1) DankPods 2) Hugh Jeffereys 3) SAMTIME 4) Psivewri

[@dead_bread3875]

yes

[@arch1107]

who is samtime, you forgot darkviperau

[@dinkarfowkar999]

@@arch1107 I don't know who is he? Btw SAMTIME makes funny Parody tech videos

[@Ali-Bee]

no Dave Jones @eevblog???

[@aldabdoob]

as usual Hugh, Top Content .. Thank you

[@Daniel-fr3us]

I appreciate your Videos a lot. You inspired me to to phone repair. Thanks!

[@ddimitrii]

Bro, you can do better than him. Buy isopropyl alcohol, cotton pads, adhesive tape, paste for polishing plastic and metal use a hair dryer. This will be enough to bring back to life and a new shine to old gadgets. Peace and love!!

[@seajay5487]

Hey Hugh, always love to see your videos reviving still-usable devices !!! For this particular episode, may I suggest to go a bit further and CO2-blast (I know you also restore cars, so maybe you have a small blaster lying in the garage ?) the aluminum case and powder-coat it ?

[@ahmedshehatah1822]

Amazing work. Keep it up. It is lovely and I always look forward to your next video. well done 👍

[@katewilson2703]

Thanks for this video :) Was super useful for me when replacing the drive and battery on my own iPod Mini today. Perfectly detailed and very easy to follow. I am excited to be able to use it now!! Was getting the sad iPod message like the first one in this video.

[@francisphillips53]

That was awesome.. nice job.

[@aland7236]

A tool that could help with those clips are a pair of snap ring pliers, they are usually very inexpensive.

[@CubeBag]

1:23 2:25 This part can be done purely with plastic tools. Using a metal tool even just to wedge a plastic tool in can permanently scar both the plastic piece and the metal frame with scratches, and these marks are visible in eBay listings for hasty jobs. It's not as important for these iPods which look pretty banged up, but for an iPod Mini in very good condition, keeping it that way is important. I believe this prying is what caused the noticeable gaps between the plastic and metal at 12:15 and 12:21. 4:35 Buying proper compact flash cards is needlessly expensive; many SD card to compact flash converters are compatible with the iPod Mini. Available in the US is the Digigear CF adapter (~$15) and the iFlash SD-CF Adapter (~$20) although I'm not sure how available these parts are in Australia. For the same price as a 32 GB CF card, it's possible to put in 128 GB or maybe even 256 GB because SD cards are so cheap. Also worth noting is that the 1st gen. iPod Mini can only take a 128 GB SD card, but the 2nd gen. can do 256 GB. 7:32 Avoid pulling on the metal bracket since the connector and board are fragile 8:45 This is a really creative idea! I haven't seen anything like it before, so I'll definitely try it on my cracked one. 10:20 It's a misconception that the 2nd generation has a larger battery than the 1st generation; they actually have the same battery. The 2nd generation has nearly double the battery life because the circuitry inside uses less power than the 1st generation. I'm not sure exactly what it is they changed though (maybe some circuit runs on a lower voltage or it's just more efficient in general or something like that).

[@keisukebaji9049]

It's 4 am here still watching Hugh Jeffrey

[@TheAlphaWolf2013]

I've modded a 2nd gen model of these iPod Mini's. Fitted a new battery and instead of CF due to cost I picked up an iflash CF to SD adaptor and installed a 128GB SD Card. The adaptor and card cost around £50.

[@perpetualcollapse]

Understandable, have a nice day.

[@isellstolenchainsaws]

When I upgraded the storage in my green 2nd gen iPod Mini years ago, I just used a CF SD card adapter with a 32GB SD card instead of getting a 32GB CF card. Cut the cost way down for the upgrade.

[@mastacreepymoe6460]

If you ever do this again use a small pair of snap ring pliers mod the pins by sanding them down if they are to long. Great stuff!

[@ExperimentalExperiments]

Ha, used to buy these from ebay in 2008 as broken and upgrade and fix em up for resale. Originally I was also planning to reanodize them to unique colours but didn't get that far. I polished a few into mirror finish though. I still got three units left over from those days waiting to be fixed up. Would make for a good youtube video I suppose.

[@bibasik7]

Several years ago, I got a broken iPod Mini for free from a family member, and I put a 64GB CF card in it. It was a suspiciously cheap 64GB CF card from Amazon, but it seems to work fine.

[@AerinRavage]

Hugh, what about using a socket extension, like a 10-inch long 1/4 drive? You could put the case on a hard surface, dent down, and roll the dent with the extension? Not sure if it would give you enough leverage but maybe?

[@robsquared2]

3.5 drive: "don't ever talk to me or my son again."

[@dead_bread3875]

dandpod

[@CrayCrayslab]

that hard drive is so freaking CUTE

[@Danish11001]

i have an ipod 3 green fully working its quite cool

[@DavidMarvin]

I miss those Microdrives. I had one of those for my PSP.

[@caelari1722]

those microdrives are so cute...

[@yashvrm]

Thumbnail made me think it was Dankpod’s Video 😂😂

[@harleyz_clipz1123]

More iPods let's gooo

[@Durbanite2010]

CF Drives are still easily available because a lot of high-end digital cameras use them for storage - it seems like they are just very expensive in Australia, as the same SanDisk ones Hugh used are £30 on Amazon, there are also lower capacity ones that are cheaper, example being a Transcend 133 32GB Card for like £22, or, for more space, a Lexar 64GB card for like £60.

[@ted-b]

Nice work, should have used CF card to SD card adapters, much cheaper.

[@exalented]

SD cards are shit though

[@dj_noxxie]

Doesn't always work though

[@CapsuleCorpxz]

I have a first gen ipod touch and it still works perfectly. Because I haven't plugged it into a computer in years. But that means I haven't upgraded the music. Also the audio jack doesn't work. So I just keep it plugged into my car permanently. Since my computer crashed, it's my only source of a lot of the music on there so I'm not willing to get a new ipod currently

[@georgidemirov9376]

Brooo I’m literally watching ipod videos for 2 hours to cure the nostalgia and you just uploaded this vid

[@ThylineTheGay]

4:10 IT'S ADORABLE

[@xDRZLx]

That microdrive is so cute

[@Daksh_Mohan]

I like the way Hugh says "Whopping"