Gutting a Rio Carbon for a 5 GB CompactFlash Hard Drive

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.greghughes.net/rant/PermaLink,guid,e9bdfa3f-da94-4c6e-a2f9-5ff3260040f1.aspx' target='_blank'>http://www.greghughes.net/rant/PermaLink,guid,e9bdfa3f-da94-4c6e-a2f9-5ff3260040f1.aspx</a><br /><br /></div><i>"As I described yesterday, I bought a very nice MP3 player, the new Rio Carbon 5GB model. It's awesome, and I already like it a lot. My original intent, though, was not to buy an MP3 player to listen to music, but instead to rip apart for its compact-flash size 5GB hard drive, for use in my Nikon D70 digital camera. I got the idea from a post on a message board..."</i><br /><br />It happened with the Creative Labs audio player, and it's happening again with the Rio Carbon - people want the massive internal storage for use in other devices such as their cameras. This is a fairly extreme step, but if you want to get a 5 GB hard drive, this is the cheapest way to go. If the companies selling these drives would price them accordingly, people wouldn't have to go to such lengths to get them though... :roll:

[BugDude10]

All I can say is God bless the guys brave enough to tear apart their new $250 MP3 player on the off-chance that they'll be able successfully to harvest the minid-drive inside. :beer:

[Neil Enns]

I did this with a Creative MuVo2 to get at the 4GB drive inside. Best thing I ever did for my digital camera! As long as you're competent with a screw driver and can read directions it really isn't hard at all.

Having tons-o-storage when shooting is fantastic. I never worry anymore about running out of "film" at weddings or on a day-long trip where I won't have access to a laptop to offload photos.

The only downside is the drive is s-l-o-w. When I know I'll be shooting high-action shots I use my 1GB CF instead.

Neil

[Crocuta]

If anyone decides to try this, don't pay the $250. Slickdeals.net has a link to buying one for $197 shipped.

http://www.slickdeals.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=40811&postid=495705#post495705

[Felix Torres]

The implication here is that the Carbon is *upgradeable* to larger (10gb+) in a year or so when the 1" drives hit 10Gb or more. :-)

Too bad Rio took the DJ out of the Carbon...