Opening Chace's semi dead ipod

This ipod came from Deirdre's co-worker, Chace, who accidentally submerged her ipod in water. The screen no longer shows anything, but when connected to a computer, one can read from and write to the drive.

These are the tools I used to open up the ipod. I started with a piece of blister-pack plastic, then worked in a seldom-used credit card whose corner had been sharpened with a knife. Once that piece was in, I took another credit-card-like item (my Von's club card) to pop open the case. The screwdrivers also may have come in handy, but it's better not to use them.

I googled "open 4g ipod" before starting and found some nice photos in the first link. The author there started on the left side and worked around three sides before opening the pod. I started on the right side, got frustrated on the left, and worked open all the clips on the right. Once they were undone, the ipod simply unfolded. I think the right side is preferred for opening, as it minimized risk to the ribbon cable.



The main board is held to the front cover by six Torx-head screws. I used a 0.050" Allen wrench to undo those screws. They're really not on that tight. I took the photo before I had all six out. The other two are underneath the hard drive (the object with the blue bumpers).