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riker1384

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 29, 2007
198
20
West Coast
I have a chance to buy an old Ipod Photo real cheap. I'd have to order a kit and replace the batter myself as it doesn't hold a charge anymore. If I do that, is the hard drive likely to last for a few more years? Or do they tend to fail after a few years as well?
 
I've never had a hard drive fail, but I've replaced the battery in both my iPods.

You don't know how the hard drive's been treated so it's a gamble, but batteries are so cheap anyway that I'd just replace it.
 
The average mtf for most of the iPod drives is 300,000 hours. So if you were to run it 24/7 your looking at 12,500 days or 34.25 years.

Honestly I think your safe ;)
 
The average mtf for most of the iPod drives is 300,000 hours. So if you were to run it 24/7 your looking at 12,500 days or 34.25 years.

Honestly I think your safe ;)

My 4th Gen iPod (which I believe is only the previous gen to the iPod photo), had a hard drive failure after about 18 months (someone else I know with a 4th gen had a failure within 2 years as well). You really can't take the MTF as the definitive time, especially in an iPod which is going to be jostled about.

Personally, I think you're going to sink too much effort and time into a very outdated iPod.
 
My 4th Gen iPod (which I believe is only the previous gen to the iPod photo), had a hard drive failure after about 18 months (someone else I know with a 4th gen had a failure within 2 years as well). You really can't take the MTF as the definitive time, especially in an iPod which is going to be jostled about.

Personally, I think you're going to sink too much effort and time into a very outdated iPod.

Well, not if he/she just wants to listen to music and the iPod has enough capacity for them. I'd go for it. The HD in my 1G iPod (thats right, the original) failed after 3 or 4 years, but my iPod 5G is still going strong after a few minor repairs and a battery replacement, after 5 years of HARD use.
 
Might have been true as far as MTBF for high quality drives, but a lot of the consumer grade drives are more consumable ... but they are cheap these days also for replacing 2-3 year old drives.

Only got 16k hours on my iMac drive before it died, just 5 months shy of 3 years.
 
You have to realize what the MTF means. It means that you have a 50% chance of your drive dying before that point. MTF is statistically accurate, and to the individual, useless.
 
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