Reddit reviews KingSpec 128GB 1.8" 5mm ZIF SSD KSD-ZF18.6-128MS

Purchased as a parts Zune but ended up getting it working with a battery replacement. It looked like the last person had opened it and gave up when they saw the bulging battery was soldered in with 4 wires, but it wasn't bad at all! Dropped in an SSD and now it's ready for the long haul, love this suave little guy. It has some wear and tear but it's growing on me because I'm not worried about keeping it in immaculate condition.

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Wallpaper - Resized and darkened for Zune menus

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Parts Links:

• 128GB SSD
  
• Replacement Battery(Requires soldering)
  
• Pry Tool
  
  

Here's what I used to replace my open hdd. KingSpec 128GB 1.8" 5mm ZIF SSD KSD-ZF18.6-128MS https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008NAI0YC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Hm9JzbG6H2EKD

Since nobody else is going to help out, I suppose I can.

The first thing you'll need to figure out is what generation you zune is. This will make a difference on how thick the HDD is, and possibly on how to take it apart. I've never worked with Zune 30GB, so I'm not sure, but it looks like they might all be 1st Gen. Which means you have a 8mm HDD thickness. Don't take my word for this here though, find out how thick your drive is before ordering anything.

This is the closest to OEM drive you will be able to find. It is 8mm thick, so should be plug and play.
But since you are willing to go bigger, this HDD is 120GB, but it's 5mm thick, so you'll need to create some kind of spacer to make it fit.

Now the next upgrade would be a SSD. The main difference you're going to see is in battery life, and probably longevity. Here is one that I have installed in my Zune, and it works great.

There are installation guides in the sidebar, and also on youtube. Once you've installed a drive, you'll need to work some computer magic to install the software. I have no experience with this, but there's a solid how-to in the sidebar.

Any other questions feel free to ask.

Edit: If you don't want to order anything off of rapidrepair, then just copy and paste those HDD part numbers into amazon, or ebay.

I have three variants of the second design and I could not get them to work on either my 80 or 120 board. Error 5 each time and this was with both a professional 8GB CF card, as well as an iFlash CF to SD adapter. These same adapters worked fine back when I had an iPod Video.

Some months back I also tried an mSATA to ZIF adapter but the one mSATA card I have did not work. I did read that these mSATA cards are very YMMV but I didn't investigate further.

The 128GB Kingspec 1.8 inch SSD (https://www.amazon.com/KingSpec-128GB-1-8-5mm-KSD-ZF18-6-128MS/dp/B008NAI0YC) is known to work with Zunes so that's your "safe" bet right now. I actually have a 256GB SSD in flight for another purpose but I plan to test that out with my Zune 80 in a few days.

I'm not sure if you'll have any success with the MicroSD (as useful as that would be!) - This has been looked into by burkjavier previously here. It was also looked into here, but was never confirmed if it was working or not - it kinda went quiet without a definitive answer.


I would say try it, if you have ordered the adaptor already. I'm still investigating whether your "bad drive" has any chance or not - will investigate further when I get the case for my "bad" drive.


Failing all of this, if you are serious about keeping your Zune alive and kicking, it's an expensive upgrade but I recommend this SSD drive. For around £80, it's a big spend, but will make listening a little more enjoyable (due to speed improvements) and guarantees a healthy drive for a long time (hopefully). Even if you don't want to keep the Zune, it will increase the value of the Zune tenfold so you can re-sell it for more than the SSD cost. It's definitely the route I will be taking if my current "bad" drive is fully dead.

Did your research say if this was also compatible?

Drive is up to you, I don't know of any "bad" ones. Just make sure it's a ZIF SSD. Also, I think 120GB is the highest we've tried. Some people have talked about putting a 250GB in their Zune, but no one has tried it to my knowledge and there was some talk about the file structure not supporting anything higher than 120GB. So I would stick with that size unless you're willing to get experimental (and return it if it doesn't work). A quick google search returned this which I think is what you want.

Incidentally I think /u/Jazzfan80 was going to attempt this but I can't remember if they said whether they went through with it or not, or what the result was. Could be useful for future reference.

Also note: RapidRepair now sells Zune SSD upgrades, but I wouldn't use them if you can. It's a lot more expensive than just doing it yourself, and I know some people have reported issues with them in the past. But know it's an option if you don't want to attempt it yourself.