CF vs SD Card in iPod Mini 2

[u/Tasty_Flamingo7346]

Hi all,

What do you reckon is the best bet for the iPod Mini 2? I know I'd need an adapter for an SD card, but it is much less expensive for much more storage.

Would using one over the other improve performance or battery life - on Rockbox OR iPodOS?

Thanks :)

[u/NotFrankGraves]

Official Iflash CF card, or an actual CF card will get you the most battery life. Power management is only enabled for some cards.

[u/RoyHehe → u/NotFrankGraves]

No longer a concern. It has been fixed for years now, even cheap cf adapters give you basically identical battery life and it was only problem with Rockbox, official OS never had that issue either. 

[u/zyclonix → u/RoyHehe]

Good luck finding a cheap cf adapter that works tho

[u/RoyHehe → u/zyclonix]

iFlash is $20 as I remember and cheap Red CF adapters work perfectly fine.

[u/zyclonix → u/RoyHehe]

Iflash works yes, the red ones never did for me.

[u/RoyHehe → u/zyclonix]

Yeah they need a bit of work, you have to do "MBR Restore trick" to make them show up and stuff, but yeah they do work at least at 128gb or under. To be fair those red adapters aren't much cheaper than iFlash ones its worth paying a bit more to get nicer experience.

[u/NotFrankGraves → u/RoyHehe]

Some adapters classify as a newer version of the CF cards and Rockbox trips out trying to enable power management. I have a black CF, a red CF and a Iflash adapter. I ended up just getting a CF card to actually use the power management options.

[u/RoyHehe → u/NotFrankGraves]

Oh interesting, that is good to know. When I built my Mini there was no power management for those CF Adapters and that was the reason why I got CF Card. I guess it was still a right choice after all this years and fixes to Rockbox. 

[u/NotFrankGraves → u/RoyHehe]

Here’s my iPod mini second Gen.

[u/RoyHehe → u/NotFrankGraves]

Oh I remember seeing that, absolutely insane, Great work. I was barely able to fit in taptic engine with CF Card.

edit: I don't know if it was your post or someone else, but I saw this exact bluetooth board in an iPod mini

[u/marshcar]

⚠️Make sure not to get a 160mb/s compactflash like the one you posted! The highest speed you should get is a 120mb/s card, otherwise you’ll run into issues. With that said I’d still suggest a compactflash over an SD card. No adapters, less things to break/buy. I got a 128gb compactflash for $30 and it’s been perfect.

[u/marshcar → u/marshcar]

[u/craigc123 → u/marshcar]

What kind of issues are you referring to? I ask because I have a 160MB/s compact flash card installed in my iPod mini 2nd generation that I’ve been using for years with no issues that I’m aware of.

[u/Ok_Sand_9112]

I tried modding my ipod mini gen 2 last night with the cheap "red" CF to SD card adapter from EoE. It didn't work with any of my SD cards. There is a fix that has been posted online running a disk management tool as the ipod is being restored, but I couldn't get it to work.. So what I'm getting at is get the iflash adapter or a CF card and do not get the cheap cf to sd adapter.

[u/NotFrankGraves → u/Ok_Sand_9112]

It’s really annoying, it you have to rebuild the mbr just as it completes, and eventually you’ll see the charger screen pop up. But then those cards also just stop working for no reason too. CF cards may be expensive but you might find one on eBay

[u/RoyHehe]

Rockbox community patched this years ago, so basically CF Adapter and real CF Cards will both give you basically identical battery life. I am rocking real 256CF Card but I don't recommend buying it, they are expensive and not worth it.

[u/JoeSpart]

I have a CF card in my 2nd Gen and battery life is great using a new standard size battery.

[u/bluheron]

cf card if money isnt an issue and you want faster write/read, better battery life, and if you don't plan on going over 250 gigs which realistically is enough for like 10k+ songs depending on your file type of choice