2.5 HDD for MP3 Player?

[Shack70]

I have several 2.5" IDE Hard Drives that I am not using. Does anyone know of a cheap way to make one of these into a portable mP3 Player? Something like an external case that has an LED display.

 

[kornphlake]

Putting it in a laptop would be about the only way I can think of to make a hard drive into a portable media player.

 

[Shack70]

Yeah I thought of that but it's too big to carry around

 

[bassoprofundo]

Find an older player that used 2.5" drives being sold cheaply due to a bad drive? (Ebay, etc.) I know the Creative Zen Xtra series used them because I still have the drive from one here.

 

[kornphlake]

Any solution will likely be about the same size as a laptop unless you can come up with some source for a smaller battery capable of powering a mechanical HDD for an appropriate amount of time.

 

[Shack70]

Thanks everyone I'll have to find something else to do with these 20gig drives

 

[0roo0roo]

yea any cheap device probably make navigation a pain, and the price of a cheap flash based unit is so cheap now, the battery life and form factor really make hd players for such low space hd pointless. 2.5" is huge.

 

[Emulex]

sell them on ebay dude

 

[0roo0roo]

eh get a cheap usb adaptor and use them for backups of backups.

 

[Muse]

Find an older player that used 2.5" drives being sold cheaply due to a bad drive? (Ebay, etc.) I know the Creative Zen Xtra series used them because I still have the drive from one here.

That'd be your best bet. My own iRiver player/recorders (H1xx, 30GB and 40GB) use 1.8" HDs. Or sell them now while they have some value ($5?). I remember when a 1GB 3.5" HD cost $1000 (a dozen years ago or so).