A wide variety of hard drive models have been used in iPods during their manufacture. No iPod in Apple’s current, or likely future product line uses a mechanical HDD.
One important factor to understand when replacing your iPod’s hard drive is the physical size of the drive; Thick and Thin drives (Dual and Single platter) take up a different amount of room in your iPods housing, Dual platter drives are roughly 8mm thick, whilst Single platter drives 5mm. If you are replacing a single platter drive with a dual platter drive you will likely need to change your iPod’s housing too.
If your iPod hard drive is faulty, why not make use of our repair service.
Below is a list of information on some of the drives that Apple used in production and also compatible upgrades/replacements.
Common faults
Faulty hard drives are one of the most common causes of iPod problems. The following list is some of the most common issues you are likely to encounter cased by a bad HDD.
- Sad face (Video) or Red X (Classic) on startup with link to www.apple.com/support/ipod
- Loud clicking or grinding noise
- Certain songs not playing or skipping
- iTunes failing to sync more than a certain amount of songs
iPod Classic (6/7th gen) hard drives
Toshiba MK8022GAA
Toshiba MK8034GAL
Toshiba MK8025GAL
Samsung HS081HA/HS081HB
Single platter, 80GB, ZIF
Toshiba MK1231GAL – Will not work in iPod Video
Samsung HS12YHA – Can be used in the iPod Video
Single platter, 120GB, ZIF
Toshiba MK1626GCB
Samsung HS161JQ
Dual platter, 160GB, CE-ATA
Used in the 6th generation iPod Classic
Toshiba MK1634GAL
Single platter, 160GB, ZIF
Used in the 7th generation iPod Classic, cannot be used in the 6th generation.
Toshiba MK2431GAH
Dual platter, 240GB, ZIF
Popular upgrade for iPod Classic (7th)/iPod Video
iPod Video (5th gen) Hard drives
Toshiba MK3008GAL
Samsung HS030GA/HS030GB
Hitachi HTC426030G5CE00
Single platter, 30GB, ZIF
Toshiba MK6008GAH
Dual platter, 60GB, ZIF
Toshiba MK8010GAH
Toshiba MK8009GAH
Dual platter, 80GB, ZIF