My Microsoft Zune 30 has been running out of room lately and I have resorted to deleting songs from it in order to keep space open for podcast updates for my long commute.<\/p>\n
I investigated a few options… buying a new iPod with new car accessories, or streaming Google Music to my car stereo using a Bluetooth receiver that would shoot the signal to FM (no aux-in jack on my commuter vehicle).<\/p>\n
I like the Zune because I’m used to its big buttons for fast-forwarding or rewinding in a podcast without looking at it, which avoids taking\u00a0 attention away from driving.\u00a0 Plus at home I have a dock and remote control, and prefer to upgrade rather than buy a new platform and accessories as Zunes are going bye-bye<\/a>.<\/p>\n I began looking into upgrading the hard drive in the Zune 30 and found a few choices, ranging from 40GB to 120GB.<\/p>\n I bought a used 100GB drive via eBay. The part number I bought was MK1011GAH.<\/p>\n I used the following links to show me how to do it:<\/p>\n Video of taking the unit apart here<\/a><\/p>\n More info here<\/a><\/p>\n Because the 100GB drive I bought is 8mm thick instead of the stock drive’s 5mm, I left the Zune’s drive cage out and removed the outer shell protection from the drive itself (it is a peel-off thin plate covering, don’t go for the screws to remove anything).<\/p>\n After putting the Zune back together, it booted fine and displayed a message to connect to the PC for firmware loading, which went smoothly.<\/p>\n After the Zune rebooted itself a number of times while installing firmware, I synchronized my Zune library’s 28GB of music and podcasts (took a while, over an hour). I now have 65GB free, more than twice as much as the original capacity and well worth the fun project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My Microsoft Zune 30 has been running out of room lately and I have resorted to deleting songs from it in order to keep space open for podcast updates for my long commute. I investigated a few options… buying a … Read more