Another Ipod question
 

I know this question has probably been asked and answered before, but for the life of me I cant find an answer.
I have an old 30 GB Ipod that has no music on it, I wanted to load it up and keep it in my briefcase. It seems to work OK (all the screens work, Games and clock etc. all work. But I can't get Itunes to recognize it. I have tried updating it,Restoring it to factory condition all to no avail. I've looked at the folders and they seem to be there although I can't be sure I am not missing something.
Everyonne says Restoring it should do the trick but it doesn't work for me.


Any Ideas?

Had the very same issue with my nano. I bought a new one and just did a random test a couple of days later with the old and supposedly broken one. It works ever since without any trouble. I cannot give you an explanation but just give it a try every day over a week. Not much you can do anyway.

But just a few questions: are you sure the cable works? Tried another USB port? Did you do a new installation of iTunes? It's not mentioned but i guess you want to use it as music player? (I'm asking because a colleagues uses his HDD iPod as data storage and hi touch as music player)

How were you able to update/restore it if you can't get itunes to recognize it? Try removing and reinstalling a current version of itunes.

Other than that, I second the suggestion to try a different cable, different usb port, and finally a different computer and see if it works with any of those differences.

-David

In addition to what others have said, look at the port on the bottom of the iPod and see if it needs to be cleaned out. Blowing on it or taking a can of compressed air could do the trick.

Well I am getting closer, I am now able to see the ipod via Windows Explorer and it looks like I am missing the File Ipod_Control. According to all of the Apple/Ipod forums the fix is to restore the Ipod via Itunes, I have done that and I get a message that the Ipod has been returned to its factory state.

question Is it possible the Hard drive is shot even though I can see it via Windows and all of the other functionality is intact (Games, Clock,settings etc.)?

Thanks to all for the replies

Unlikely. Most failed hard drives will fail to be recognized and won't mount.

You could give this a try: http://www.applerepo.com/how-to-reformat-ipod/

If this is a FireWire iPod, do you have more than one FW device connected to the computer? I had trouble with my old iPod if I had a second FW device, like a webcam, attached at the same time.

If it's a USB iPod, are you connecting through a hub? If you are, try directly connecting without a hub.