Apple iPod hack for PCs. Would this work? (1 Viewer)

[MichaelPe]

I have been drooling over the iPod MP3 player for the last couple of weeks, but being a PC owner means that I can never own this baby. There have been rumors that Apple would release a Windows version of their software later next year, but I've thought of something that might work in the meantime. Making these assumptions:

1. Firewire cards are available for PCs for under $50.

2. Essentially, the iPod is a 5GB Firewire hard drive that is formatted in HFS+. When connected to a Mac, it is indistinguishable from a regular Firewire hard drive.

3. I know that Linux currently has drivers that allows HFS+ drives to be mounted and formatted.

Now, if my assumptions are correct, what would prevent me from buying an iPod, mounting it to my Win2K/Linux machine at home, and copying all my MP3 files to it?

I'd love to know if anyone has tried this.

PS: I wasn't sure if this post belonged to the Computer area or Hardware area of the forum, so feel free to move it if my judgment was incorrect.

 

[Charles Guajardo]

several third party companies offer windows drivers to read and mount HFS+ formatted disks. MacDrive is one of them.
The same company also offers a product called XPlay, specifically targetting the iPod and Windows user.
-chuck

 

[MichaelPe]

I guess my assumption #3 wasn't entirely correct. The Linux drivers for HFS+ are still in the beta stage, but HFS is supported.
Also, I just did a quick search on Google and found some interesting links:
Link Removed
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http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,48474,00.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0...01&mode=thread
Thanks Chuck,
I didn't know about MacDrive. Maybe the XPlay software is worth waiting for...

 

[Tim Holmes]

There are other, easier ways to support HFS+ on your Windows PC. There are companies which sell software to support it. This is irrelevant however as it's not as simply as just copying your MP3s to the device.

The Finder visible files aren't visible to the player. When iTunes copies them over to the iPod it puts them in an invisible folder.

Also, the FireWire cable would have to carry power if you wanted to power it while it was plugged in to sync, but that's not necessary, just nice.

Tim H.