my ipod's hard drive is finally failing 😔
it was still playing music but wouldn't go into disk mode, now it's completely gone 😢
hopefully reattached.. i really need a microscope soon
found these (and a random screw) stuck to the tape on one of the flex cables... for the life of me they don't seem to have come from my iPod at all
it had been opened by a previous owner to replace the battery
this bodes well
and somehow, the drive actually gasped back to life while i had it open (iPod trepanation?), long enough for me to back up all 1536 songs in it onto the new card!
i do miss the heft (the iPod feels much hollower and lighter now) and the feeling of the drive spinning and seeking though
i might look out for another hard drive iPod some day
@mavica_again I love a happy ending to these tales ❤️
@mavica_again repair yayness 
🎶
@mavica_again Everything’s coming up Milhouse!!
serendipitously, i bought the wrong adapter for something i needed years and years ago, and it so happened to be the one necessary to install CF cards in this model of iPod
and, from another project, i had a 64gb CF card that didn't work as a hard drive replacement for a Q1 Ultra
so, by sheer luck, the same day the hard drive in my iPod died, i had all the parts to replace it