So you are holding a Zune 30 GB Digital Media Player Brown, Black, White or Pink in your hand. OK, OK, probably brown. You have navigated all the features, exhaustively played the content and even enjoyed the WiFi capabilities. Now what? One of the first questions that comes to mind is can you use it as a portable hard disk? Since the Microsoft Zune digital media player comes with a storage capacity of 30 GB, the temptation is consistent.

And yes. You can use Zune as a portable HDD. It only involves a tad of hack. The hack is necessary due to the transfer limitations imposed by Microsoft on the users' ability to copy, transfer, upload or download content between Zune and a computer. Since the hack presented herein involves registry changes, I strongly advise you to backup the registry values prior to applying any modifications.

1. First off, unplug the Zune device from your computer and close the Zune software.
2. Click start and select "Run" to open up regedit. Type regedt32 and hit "OK".
3. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemControlSet001EnumUSB.
4. Search for "PortableDeviceNameSpace" in the "Vid_####&Pid_############_-_########_-_########_-_########Device Parameters" within the above …USB registry key. The "###" are used to replace the numbers and letters that individualize your copy of Zune.
5. Change the following values:
* EnableLegacySupport to 1
* PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell to 0
* ShowInShell to 1
6. Now plug in the Zune, and start the Zune Software.
7. You are now able to browse the digital media player via Windows Explorer.

Although the plugged in Zune will not show up as a drive letter, you will still be able to navigate the content and also to synchronize the device via the Zune software. But now you will also be able to transfer files to and from the Zune as if it were a portable HDD.