Has anyone done a HDD upgrade on their iPad?

[jman995x]

Hello,

I'm thinking about getting an iPad, but 64GB is WAY too small for the amount of videos I want to put on it (I'm a student with just that amount in science and math videos alone).

I recently swapped out my MBP HDD (160GB) for a 500GB HDD and the cases were the same form factor. I'm assuming that the same would probably be true for the iPad(?). If I could get confirmation from somebody that they had successfully installed a larger HDD in their iPad, that might make me more willing to buy one.

Any feedback would be helpful.

Thanks,

J.

 

[Kash]

Your Macbook has a regular 2.5" laptop drive. The iPad uses flash memory that's very likely soldered onto the main board. It would be pretty much impossible to increase the memory on the iPad.

I have read that there are external drive options available for the iPad. Additionally, do you really need to be carrying around every single video you have? You can use the AirVideo app to just stream the videos to your iPad from your computer. Finally, when you convert the videos to an iPad friendly format, they will decrease in size, so keep that in mind as that 64GB will go a lot further than you may think.

 

[Buzzard2010]

iPads do not have a HDD. They have solid state flash memory, which is soldered onto the the devices board. So it cannot be upgraded i'm afraid.

- Simon

 

[mcbrew]

How many hours of video do you need at a time? I have a few full length movies on my 32 gig iPad 3G. However, I find myself usually watching Netflix movies (wifi or 3G) or Comcast Xfinity on demand movies (wifi only). No need for more space when you are streaming.

I thought I would fill up the 32 gigs pretty fast, but I only have about 16 gigs of stuff on there. That includes a lot of stuff that I could get rid of, but just don't need to. Everyone has different needs, though... but the most I could see would be loading up a half dozen full length movies for a long (overseas) flight. The 16 gig iPad could handle that pretty easily. I do have nearly 100 gigs of MP3/AAC music... but I only have a few gigs on the iPad at any one time. Usually listen to streaming radio on it. I use the iPod for the bulk of my music. To me, the iPad is more about web browsing, picture viewing, and streaming content.

 

[mrplow]

You may want to consider something like this:
HyperDrive iPad Hard Drive

It's an external drive enclosure designed to work with iPad. You can get them with various disk sizes or just get an enclosure and fit a 2.5" drive of your choice.

For info . . . here's a link to a 'teardown' of the iPad...... no room for hard disks in there!

 

[MacLicious]

HyperDrive iPad Hard Drive will solve my dilemma. I have been wondering if the 5in1 camera connection adapter I bought off amazon would allow me to insert SD cards so I could expand the memory of an iPad I have not yet bought. I have been waiting to find out exactly what specs the new iPad2 will have, hoping for more memory among a few others like the unlikely SD card port.
If the March 2 date for unveiling the iPad2 is correct, it's just too close not to wait and see at this point.