Does anyone know of a portable MP3 player...

Factual Questions
#1

I’m looking for a portable that’s based on a 2.5" SATA drive so I can expand it to some huge amount (I want to be able to keep my entire music library with me at all times, so I don’t have to choose what to put on the player). I currently have a 30GB iPod video and an old Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 (hacked to 60 GB from 20 GB). I prefer the Nomad’s UI over the iPod’s, but Creative’s filesystem apparently restricts it to 120 GB/15,000 tracks (and it uses parallel ATA drives, which would restrict it to 250GB at any rate, although at this point I’d settle for that amount).

iPods can be hacked to use larger drives, but they use 1.8" drives, which are significantly more expensive (a 240 GB 1.8" drive is over $200), plus, my existing iPod can only fit a 120 GB (single platter) drive due to its shallower form factor.

Also, it should have a UI that’s conducive to ease of use for music listening (for example, there are a couple of portable video players that would possibly fit the bill, but their music features are strictly rudimentary [for example, they don’t even remember their playlist when they’re shut off]).

Any suggestions? Does anything like this exist?

#2

This 240GB drive is even more expensive than the one you mentioned but they say it will fit in the iPod you already have. It looks like they will buy your old drive so that might offset the cost a bit.

If size is not a huge concern you could do something like this - http://hackaday.com/2005/03/13/300gig-ipod/

Or you could get an iPhone/Ipod touch and use the simplify media app to have access to everything on your computer as long as you have a cell/wifi signal.

#3

The main limitation is that your storage expectations are not considered usual or reasonable for normal consumer use so you are going to have to make some compromises re the size of the device. A 2.5 notebook drive is a fairly primitive old school method for storing songs on a portable device as everything (with good reason) has gone to flash. This is the closest thing I can find that’s not some old player. Here