Table of Contents

• 1. Plug in and unmount (not eject) your iPod
• 2. Download the partition table
• 3. Apply the partition table
• 4. Format the main partition as FAT32
  • For 5th Generation and below iPods (including iPod Mini's)
  • For 5.5th Generation iPods
• 5. Check your iPod
• 6. Use Parted to resize the disk
• 7. (Optional) Install Rockbox
• Mounting the iPod in Linux
• Rockbox notes

Introduction #

There are many reasons to convert iPods into WinPods, one of which is Rockbox. This guide goes through a few steps involving a Mac and a Linux computer. I think it could be done with just Linux, but I have no clue.

The easiest way to make a WinPod is to plug the iPod into a Windows machine and format it there.

Prerequisites #

• Mac (for initial formatting)
• Linux (with parted, dosfstools installed)
• Flash-modded iPod

Mac #

1. Plug in and unmount (not eject) your iPod #

• In Disk Utility, find your iPod and unmount it. Alternatively, run the following in terminal:

  1diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk#
  

  • Replace # with your iPod's disk number. To verify, run diskutil list.

2. Download the partition table #

• Download the correct partition table for your iPod from Rockbox: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodConversionToFAT32.

I'm not 100% sure, but the disk size shouldn't matter, as long as the .bin is not larger than the actual storage installed

3. Apply the partition table #

• Open terminal, navigate to the directory where you saved your partition table, and run:

  1sudo dd if=mbr-xxxx.bin of=/dev/diskN
  

  • mbr-xxxx.bin is the name of the file you downloaded
  • diskN is the disk identifier for your iPod.
• Be careful. Applying this to the wrong disk number will overwrite that drive's partition table, rendering it unusable.

4. Format the main partition as FAT32 #

For 5th Generation and below iPods (including iPod Mini's) #

• You can use Disk Utility (Select iPod partition → Erase → MS-DOS (FAT)), or use the terminal:

  1sudo newfs_msdos -F32 -v iPod /dev/rdiskNs2
  

  • N is the disk number
  • 2 is the partition number; usually it's 2, but make sure to double-check.

For 5.5th Generation iPods #

• Use the same process but include the sector size argument:

  1sudo newfs_msdos -F 32 -S 2048 -v iPod /dev/rdiskNs2
  

5. Check your iPod #

• On your iPod, navigate to Settings → About; you should see
  • Capacity: 4GB (or whatever the size of the MBR binary was)
  • Format: Windows
• It is normal for the capacity to look lower than your actual storage at this stage; we will fix this in the Linux section.

Linux #

6. Use Parted to resize the disk #

• Plug the iPod into your Linux machine. It will usually identify as /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc; you should check it with lsblk or sudo fdisk -l.
• Open Parted:

  1sudo parted /dev/sdb
  

• Inside Parted interface:

  1(parted) print  # Note the partition number, likely 2
  2(parted) resizepart 2 100%
  3(parted) quit
  

• Format the expanded partition:

  1sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n "IPOD" /dev/sdb2
  

  • The name of your iPod can be whatever.

Mac #

7. (Optional) Install Rockbox #

• Download RockboxUtility.dmg, move the .app to your /Applications folder, and run it via terminal with sudo to ensure it has disk write permissions:

  1sudo /Applications/RockboxUtility.app/Contents/MacOS/RockboxUtility
  

Appendix #

Mounting the iPod in Linux #

• If Linux fails to mount the iPod automatically after this process, you can manually mount it with the correct permissions:
  1. Create a new mount point:

     1sudo mkdir /mnt/ipod
     

     The name of the mount point doesn't matter.
  2. Mount it:

     1sudo mount -t vfat  /dev/sdb2 /mnt/ipod -o rw,umask=0000
     

  3. Access the drive:

     1cd /mnt/ipod
     

Rockbox notes #

• Transferring music while booted into Rockbox can occasionally lead to file system corruption. For maximum stability during data transfers, always boot into the original Apple firmware before connecting the iPod to your computer.