Thread: Mod an MP3-CD player to accept HDD

Hey,

Is it possible to replace the CD-Drive in a Mp3-CD player with a IDE HDD? I don't have a Mp3-cd player but looking at designs of mp3-cd players, I guess that each one has a IDE/ATAPI controller.

A cheap chinese mp3-cd player costs ~US$25. That gives you a Mp3 decoder DSP, DAC, LCD, IDE/ATAPI controller. Pretty hard to match that price for all those components if one built an Mp3 player from scratch. Now only if I could mod the Mp3-cd player to replace the cd-drive with a HDD.

I forsee two problems with that:
1. The controller would be IDE/ATAPI. So some translation from IDE/ATA to IDE/ATAPI might be required.
2. The ATAPI controller might be programmed to read addresses covering only 650MB (size of a CD)?

Any help/comments/suggestions?

TIA,

Siddhartha