A crazy idea: original 2001 iPod on modern Mac?

[BadGoldEagle]

Hi all

I got a couple of months ago an iPod from Bolle in near mint condition (BTW, he's a great guy, great seller too!).

I planned to use it with my iMac G3, but iTunes requires 9.2.2. It has 9.0 and I don't plan on upgrading its SSW. I later got a Quad G5 which "works" but will overheat really fast (I plan on refurbishing its LCS but I can't do that right now). These are my only two firewire 400 machines...

I have a couple modern macs, 2x old gen rMBP and a 2016 Macbook. I like to have one iOS device per computer and the 2016 Macbook's the only one I haven't linked to an iDevice yet.

So I wonder, would it be possible to use the original iPod with the latest version of iTunes using a firewire 400 to usb adapter (the Macbook only has one USB type-C port which does NOT support Thunderbolt)?

Any ideas if that works?

 

[Themk]

See, the problem is that the Macbook has no thunderbolt expansion, otherwise you could use the official Thunderbolt to FW800 adaptor.

So will it work on a modern mac? Yeah, maybe, as long as you can get firewire. So, on the macbook with only USB expansion, I'm not sure how that will work. You mentioned Firewire to USB adaptors, but I don't know if those will even work!

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Yeah I've seen people complaining about how useless these firewire to usb adapters are... 

 

[Gorgonops]

I planned to use it with my iMac G3, but iTunes requires 9.2.2. It has 9.0 and I don't plan on upgrading its SSW.

Just out of curiosity, why stick with 9.0 over 9.2.2? I can't think of any particularly compelling reason to favor 9.0 but perhaps I'm too far out of the loop.

 

[Dandu]

USB to FireWire will not work. It's just "scam" : it works only with peripheral who can send a USB signal on FireWire connector (very very rare).

But on a modern Mac with Thunderbolt, you can use Thunderbolt to Firewire and use the first iPod without problem.

 

[Johnnya101]

Also wondering why you don't just use 9.2.2... You can always just boot off a 9.2.2 CD or external drive...

 

[johnklos]

Considering you can get a USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter, and a Firewire 800 to Firewire 400 adapter, it'll work fine. My Firewire iPod has no problems with Sierra.

Hold on - there's a Macbook with USB-C which ISN'T Thunderbolt? That seems dumb

 

[IPalindromeI]

Type C is pretty handy even without Thunderbolt 3. Obviously, everything is better with Thunderbolt 3, but Alpine Ridge costs money, board space, and power. Hopefully the new chipsets for Coffee Lake integrate it, and that Intel's royalty-free program expands its reach, especially onto AMD platforms.

 

[rsolberg]

I can confirm my 2004 4th Gen iPod 20GB still syncs with the latest iTunes in Sierra with a FireWire connection. (9-pin to 6-pin adapter) I expect yours will function on the rMBP with a Thunderbolt to FireWire and FW 9 to 6-pin adapter.

The USB to FireWire adapters are junk and can be a good way to damage equipment. The best they'll do is not work, the worst is short out and release magic smoke from your devices.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Well, I think i'll have to buy a Lacie D2 PSU if I want to sync this iPod anytime soon... I have the drive but no way to power it... That's unfortunate.

I got this iMac from one of my neighbours and I never change anything to the original HD if it still works (I know I should delete the personal data and all, but I'm the only one that has access to these machines and I doubt burglars will be interested...). That's why I don't want to upgrade. Plus I'm sure there are reasons to use 9.0 over 9.2 even if I can't think of one right now the same way as some people prefer using 6.0.4 over 6.0.8. Technically 6.0.8 is a lot better, but still some people still use 6.0.4...

 

[CC_333]

I can understand keeping a computer with it's stock OS for historical purposes, and if your iMac is a Slot Loader, then 9.0 would've been stock (9.0.4 on the DV models, I think).

For computers I want to use, though, I install the newest version of an OS that works, not necessarily the latest OS available for a given platform, as that can bog things down and make using the computer miserable (case in point: Windows 95 on a 486 with 4 MB of RAM. It'll work in a pinch, but it's *really* slow).

c

 

[rsolberg]

iTunes 2.0 is the first version compatible with your iPod. 2.0.4 is the latest version of 2.x and it recommends Mac OS 9.2.1, but only requires 9.0.4 at a minimum. Mac OS 9.1 is required for CD burning features. If you already have 9.0.4, it should work.

I've been fiddling around with iTunes 2 on Mac OS 8.6, but not on a FireWire-equipped system, so I'm not sure if iPod syncing is functional pre-9.0.4.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Cc and Rsolberg, my iMac is a Graphite DV so it should indeed have 9.0.4 on it. I don't remember as it's been quite some time which version of iTunes I tried to install but I'll give 2.0.4 a shot tomorrow. Will report back then.

 

[finkmac]

Not sure what's so crazy about this, iTunes supports every iPod sold.

 

[CC_333]

Yes, it does. I recently got an iPod Photo (can't recall exact generation just now), and it works perfectly with iTunes 12.6.x on my Mac Pro running Mavericks.

Also, to add an addendum to my last post here, I forgot to add that I will run the latest OS available on a machine if there is no other way for it to perform a certain task that requires software which isn't compatible with the "best" OS.

For instance, I like my machines to be able to browse the internet if they're new enough, and if it's, say, a G3, I would prefer Mac OS 9.x.x, but since Classilla isn't up to snuff for a lot of things, I want TenFourFox instead. However, TenFourFox requires Mac OS X 10.4, which isn't necessarily ideal for all but the fastest G3s; in my opinion, while 10.4 works okay on a G3, it tends to work best on a G4, as all but the earliest G4s tend to have better GPUs and faster RAM, both of which are a must for proper hardware acceleration, which, again, all but the earliest G4s can handle easily for reasons already stated (this includes everything but the early, pre-DVI TiBooks and the Yikes! G4, pretty much; everything else either has better stock GPUs, or have ones that can be upgraded easily).

Anyway, enough of my blathering for now!

c

 

[johnklos]

What's really cool about the older iPods is that people are almost throwing them in the trash when the battery and/or disk die. A new battery off of eBay or Amazon is usually around $5. A CompactFlash to iPod adapter is usually less than $10.

When my 60 gig iPod Photo's disk died, I got both and added a 64 gig CompactFlash. Now, I can literally play music for 24 hours on a single charge. It's awesome!

 

[finkmac]

CompactFlash adapters don't work with the 1st and 2nd gen without some… coaxing. More on that in the future.

 

[Cory5412]

Back in the day, I did a CF upgrade to an iPod for a friend, but when that iPod died, we just put the card in my camera. My own iPod 5th generation hasn't been updated to CF, and it's in a nice spot (I think) because of its compatibility. Although, I don't use it an awful lot. I might pull it out and poke at it again.

I got this iMac from one of my neighbours and I never change anything to the original HD if it still works (I know I should delete the personal data and all, but I'm the only one that has access to these machines and I doubt burglars will be interested...). That's why I don't want to upgrade. Plus I'm sure there are reasons to use 9.0 over 9.2 even if I can't think of one right now the same way as some people prefer using 6.0.4 over 6.0.8. Technically 6.0.8 is a lot better, but still some people still use 6.0.4...

9.2 is regarded as a better release in essentially every sense. 9.2.2 in particular, for the systems that can run it, was supposed to be a significant improvement. (ASIP6.3.3 as well, but that's less easy to get your hands on.)

In the system 6 era, my guess is that there's some system extension or software that started working poorly at 6.0.8 (which IIRC added the printing software from system 7 into system 6). In the 9 era, I can't honestly think of any reason you wouldn't update other than that you've got a machine that isn't newworld or "because I haven't" - which has its ups and downs.

To add about not upgrading the system:

Personally: Unless the neighbor was your best and closest personal friend, keeping all their data is a little weird. I personally probably wouldn't even bother keeping the whole install unless there's something really uncommon in there.

One possible idea is to use Disk Copy on an OS9 boot CD to copy the hard disk to an image on a server or on an external USB/FW disk and then do the update (or factory reload to 9.0.4?) so that you can get iTunes and use it with the iPod. In all likelihood, it'll be legitimately better to use that way, too.