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Here’s a stab at answering the question.
How much space should be left depends on several factors:
The exact technical specs of the drive (which I do not know).
The operating system used to access the data. I am not sure what actual file system is used to locate files on the drive. Is it NTFS, Fat-32, whatever file system macs use? I don’t know this either but it can make a difference because the way the track and sector list is accessed depends on the filing system.
Your personal use habits (skipping songs frequently can degrade battery life because the i-Pod caches ahead so it always has data to play when you skip tracks, it has essentially wasted time and some space caching data that has to be discarded. Also, do you use your i-Pod for recording memos to your self or transferring data? That can make a difference as it must a lot additional space for disc drive use.
Do you use your i-Pod for movies or video? Decompressing video is a far more disc intensive task than music and extra cache space is a must.
Heck, something as simple as knowing how and if it ever defragments the drive can make a difference.
I n short, I don’t know the answer but my advice is that if it runs best with 3.5 free then that’s the answer. The only people who probably know the optimum answer work for Apple. Your buddy’s answers may be right but they could be talking about apples and oranges. I also suspect that the device under reports free space to maintain and preserve disc caching space, but I don’t know that either.
I would offer one other piece of advice. If you have the space on your hard drive, rip everything you THINK you might like to hear to iTunes and then set the iPod to manage the music manually. This will allow you to have everything ready to go when you are ready for it. All you have to do is drag to the iPod. I have a 250gig drive that I use for iTunes and just change out the odd 20 – 40 gigs worth of music when I feel the need for a change. With Western Digital selling a 250 GB drive for about 114 bucks on Amazon, this is a great solution for music gluttons!
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No matter where you go, there you are....Wait a minute! That's how it always works out.
Last edited by MWRuger on Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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