Can an iPod be used as an external disk drive on a PPC?

[rocky_raher]

I suspect that you would need a PPC which has host USB capability, and special drivers. Do such drivers currently exist? Has anyone done this already?

Apple's website suggests that an iPod can be used as an external drive, but they no doubt mean that it could be used thus with a desktop.

[Sven Johannsen]

I would think there would be some sort of rejection factor..sort of like trying to run a windows OS on a Palm..oh wait;)

[cec]

I suspect that you would need a PPC which has host USB capability, and special drivers. Do such drivers currently exist? Has anyone done this already?

Apple's website suggests that an iPod can be used as an external drive, but they no doubt mean that it could be used thus with a desktop.

Noticed you live in Gloucester. I grew up in Manchester and spent my summers fishing out of Gloucester. The North Shore is a great place.

[JDTagish]

First: You do need to have a PPC with USB Host capibility, and you also need to have a Mass Storage Driver to enable your device to recognize the iPod as a hard drive.

If your PPC has USB Host, then Google Ratoc USB Mass Storage Driver, and you should be able to locate the driver.

Second: You need to have your iPod pretty well charged, as the reason that HD mp3 players work well in this capacity is that they have their own power source. Your PPC will not generate enough power to spin the HD otherwise.

It does work, but ONLY as a mass storage device. You should be able to get to the music, but since it is encoded in AAC format, I don't know what player in the PPC plays that format, since I believe that it is proprietary, although I could be wrong.

I don't have an iPod, but I do have a 20G Gateway mp3 player, which I add to my PPC, so I can store more movies & TV shows for longer trips, and have had no trouble using it in this way.

[Menneisyys]

Yes, the iPod can be used as an external HDD for USB host-enabled Pocket PC's - a lot of Pocket Loox 720 users use it.

Beware, however, that the iPod's battery life in sush a case will be around 15 minutes AFAIK - that is, you won't really want for example to stream big videos from it, unless it has an external power source connected.

[beq]

Beware also that the iTunes songs loaded on your iPod are not accessible from the USB mass storage driver (even if you were to have some non-FairPlay-protected AAC songs). As I recall they show up in some nonaccessible database or store or something... (?)

Otherwise I might recommend trying nonprotected AAC songs with BetaPlayer?

[rocky_raher]

Noticed you live in Gloucester. I grew up in Manchester and spent my summers fishing out of Gloucester. The North Shore is a great place.

cec,
Sorry it took me so long to respond. Things got rather hectic right after I posted.
I agree with you about the North Shore. I'm a transplanted New Englander, having grown up in Sioux City, Iowa. I really love this area.
--Rocky