I’m posting several pictures of the hardware that I use to test iPod hard drives. First is the CF to IDE adapter. It is pictured here reading a 4GB Seagate ST1 from an iPod Mini.

Here’s the front view.

Here’s the setup for reading 1.8′ Toshiba drives. Essentially you’re adapting from 1.8′ to 2.5′ and finally to 3.5′ (standard IDE). Not pretty, but it works.

To prepare an iPod Hard Disk for reinsertion into the iPod unit after performing an IDE-access level recovery or repair you should follow several steps. First things first though–make sure you run a full diagnostic on the drive.

Perform this routine with only the iPod hard disk connected to the IDE bus in an environment provided by either a boot CD or floppy. The Ultimate Boot CD provides an excellent environment for executing hard disk diagnostics and a variety of useful tools and utilities. Along with others, I’ve found Hitachi’s Drive Fitness Test to be top notch when it comes to thoroughly testing iPod hard disks.

If your drive passes the diagnostic you should prepare it in a RAW format before placing it back into the iPod. Essentially, wiping the disk is what is necessary, and Collin over at Command-Tab first wrote of using Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) to accomplish this. I suggest reading the article by following the link for more detail.

I personally can vouch for the effectiveness of this procedure. The DBAN utility will take a long time to run in its default configuration so be prepared to entertain yourself doing something other than watching its progress. It took over 2 hours recently for me to DBAN a 20GB iPod drive.

Once this process is complete, though, it is well worth it. Simply reinstall the hard drive into the iPod, place the iPod into Disk Mode, and run the iPod Updater. This works for the simple reason that the formerly corrupt data on the drive doesn’t exist, and is no longer in conflict with the iPod and its attempt to boot malformed code.

Many people are aware that iPods can be placed into Disk Mode for diagnostic purposes, but it is always not as apparent to determine the reasoning for testing these hard disks at a more fundamental level. In many cases, the hard disk of an iPod will be inaccessible via its interface to the PC or Mac. When an iPod hard disk cannot be accessed via the abstracted interface presented by the iPod and its hardware, it is necessary to access the disk directly. In theses cases, the hard disk must be removed from the iPod and connected directly to the IDE bus of an Intel based PC. At this level it is possible then to load a variety of commercial and public domain tools to test the drive at a hardware level, recover data from the disk, and prepare it for insertion back into the iPod.

Presently iPods use three types of storage–NAND Flash from Samsung, 1′ Microdrives in the CF + form factor from Hitachi and Seagate, and traditional 1.8′ drives from Toshiba. To test an iPod Hard Disk, it is necessary to remove it from the iPod and connect it to an IDE bus for the purpose of diagnostics. After evaluating several manufactures, eXpress Tech has chosen two products from Addonics to fill this need.

For the 1′ Microdrives, we purchased the Addonics IDE CF Adaper.

For 1.8′ Drives, we picked up the Toshiba 1.8″ to 2.5″ IDE connector, also from Addonics, with a 2.5′ hard drive kit to convert the 2.5′ connection to a standard 3.5′ IDE.

It is frivolous to engage in detailed testing of NAND Flash storage found in the iPod Nano as no repair is possible. This memory can be replaced only, as a direct solder to the iPod Nano mainboard. We are presently looking for a supplier. Here are the specfications.

This is where I’ll be publishing details related to commercial iPod service, repair, and data recovery. The company I founded, eXpress Tech, is expanding into this market, and I’m choosing to share the details of our setup as it relates to equipment selection, testing and repair procedures, and the inevitable collection of technical knowledge.