Modifying external hard drive to play .mp3's portably?

[RyanH]

Hi;
Is there a way to take an external hard drive and connect it to a rudimentary screen like the ones on the ipod's and have it play .mp3's?

The reason I ask is because external hard drives are fairly cheap, and I could use the extra storage anyways for my laptop. A 40 gig ipod is going for $350 or so on ebay while external 120 gig hard drives are going for less than $100 on ebay. I already have a 10 gig ipod but 10 gigs can only hold a portion of my collection.

Is there any way to gut my ipod to make it think it's playing off the ipod hard drive when in reality it's running the external?

 

[Harper]

In this day and age, I am surpised that no one has brought our a Laptop Hard Drive MP3 Player bare bone where all you need to do in install a new hard drive.

 

[wansingct]

buy an external hard drive case and make sure your head unit in your vehicle has the appropriate inputs. Several of them have usb inputs for just such a thing. Kenwood has something called a "music keg" I believe.

 

[RyanH]

I have a stock head unit on my mini and I feel that aftermarket units tend to look cheesy so I'm trying to avoid that at all costs.

Harper: Are laptop hard drives swappable with the ipod hard drive? I have a 30 gig internal HD sitting here which would be plenty of storage.

 

[RyanH]

OKay, so the connecter is a male connecter with 42 pins total in the ipod. A standard laptop hard drive has 48 pins and is male. Is there a converter that connects a male 42 pin to a male 48 pin? Size is not really a concern since it will just be sitting in my car.

Here's a picture of the Toshiba 1.8" HDD that the Ipod uses:

 

[jolancer]

just curiouse... u realy need more then 1500 to 2000 songs(average) at one time? u prolly cant finish listening to all that if u listened to it stait for 2 days. is it worth the hastle?

 

[RyanH]

Point taken but when I listen to music, it is usually to compliment my mood. Thus, if I find myself without a band that I know I have back home, it tends to aggravate me.

OT: I was originally planning on doing the car computer conversion but supposedly it's a hefty fine if the cops see a screen in the front seat. Is there a way to make it legal without getting constantly hassled by the cops?

 

[jolancer]

if your talking about a laptop, just close the screen. if your talking about a different kinda screen like thats built into the dash or what ever, id do 1 of 2 or both....

1. put something over the screen to hide it
2. dont get pulled over.

 

[RyanH]

It would be a 15" LCD screen, which would be highly visible by any cop in the area.

Anyways, are Archos Jukebox's compatible with laptop hard drives?

 

[_SiLv3R_]

easiest thing you can do get urself a 800 dollar clarion or kenwood head unit that plays dvds and has mps supprt as well... they have a built in lcd screen that pops out and up when u want it to... i think ur familliar with what m talking about... itll be cheaper than getting a laptop slide out of ur glove compartment trust me (my sister has that done with her navigator but she needs it for business reasons).. newayz just using ur computer burn your mps on dvds with different types of music and that way ull know which suits ur mood and ull have them on different dvds