so i broke my ipod

Ye' old general discussion board. Basically, for everything that isn't covered elsewhere. Come here to shoot the breeze, shoot your mouth off, or whatever suits your fancy.
This forum is not for asking programming related questions.

Moderator: General Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
shiznatix
DevNet Master
Posts: 2745
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:57 pm
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Contact:

so i broke my ipod

Post by shiznatix »

Howdy! Another fine winter day eh? So lets get to business...

My ipod was working fine until one day I decided I wanted to put more music on it. I plug it in and bam, no go. It charges fine of course and plays music just fine no problems there. The problem is that when I plug it in it mounts as a hard drive but iTunes does not recognize that it is there. When I try to open drive from my computer i get errors like 'drive is not formatted, format now?' and 'please insert disk into this drive'. I tried the standard 'reset your ipod' but that did not work. I don't want to format me ipod because a) i don't want to lose my music and b) I don't know if that will work and if it does not work then I would have ruined it entirley.

like I said, it plays the music on there now just fine and charges just fine. Is there any hope for recovery? I will format it only if I am positive that it will fix the problem so I have to know.

Thanks.
Roja
Tutorials Group
Posts: 2692
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 10:30 pm

Post by Roja »

Take it to your local Apple store.
User avatar
shiznatix
DevNet Master
Posts: 2745
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:57 pm
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Contact:

Post by shiznatix »

good idea but i am broke. I need so much money for everything right now that I dont think that would be possible for at least 2 months and I really need to listen to 'The Mars Volta' on my way to work
Grim...
DevNet Resident
Posts: 1445
Joined: Tue May 18, 2004 5:32 am
Location: London, UK

Post by Grim... »

Is this on a PC?
I had trouble when my E drive was mapped to something else - <span style='color:blue' title='I&#39;m naughty, are you naughty?'>smurf</span> iTunes still thought the iPod was the E drive and it all got confused...

Step one - try it on a clean PC.
User avatar
Chris Corbyn
Breakbeat Nuttzer
Posts: 13098
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by Chris Corbyn »

Have you still got the CD that came with it? You can format it using that and it will restore the firmaware back onto it too. Yeah, you'll lose your music though.

What happens if you mount it in linux? Sounds like it could just be windows screwing around with it considering the ipod still works...

Are you having any other problems with your USB stuff?
User avatar
Maugrim_The_Reaper
DevNet Master
Posts: 2704
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 5:43 am
Location: Ireland

Post by Maugrim_The_Reaper »

Reinstall iTunes and Quicktime. Download the latest iPod firmware and run it if it can detect your iPod. I found that iTunes one day refused to recognise my iPod - reinstalling iTunes solved the problem. Also try connecting directly to an onboard USB port (not a powered/unpowered USB hub).

If that all fails it looks like you may need to reinstall the firmware from scratch (not the update process above) which will delete all music. Before reinstalling anything be sure to export your Library list (an XML file) to be re-imported in a new iTunes install. No need to lose the music already available from your hard disk.
User avatar
Chris Corbyn
Breakbeat Nuttzer
Posts: 13098
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by Chris Corbyn »

If iTunes isn't recognising your iPod the iTunesDB is probably corrupted or something. I don't use iTunes to transfer music but the tool I do use can repair the database I think, and that's gtkPod for linux. Might start using iTunes now though since I'm playing with a Mac a bit recently :)

EDIT | Scrap that... if you're saying windows doesn't recognise the drive then it's either windows being, well, windows, or it's the iPod needs a reformat.
User avatar
RobertGonzalez
Site Administrator
Posts: 14293
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:04 pm
Location: Fremont, CA, USA

Post by RobertGonzalez »

Before you format your iPod, copy your entire iTunes folder (from your computer: My Document->My Music->iTunes) into a temp folder. The iTunes folder has the iTunes Music folder, the iTunes Library.itl file and the iTunes Music Library.xml file. After you copy this folder to the temp folder, do what you need to with your iPod. After it is all clean and working again, move the iTunes temp folder back into My Music and connect your iPod. All your music will get sync'ed back.

I've done this when moving from one PC to another. I have also done this for my brother and my boss. It works like a charm.

PS If you are using your iPod as a storage device you may want to back up the entire content of your iPod to your PC as well. That way you won't lose your data, pictures and other files.
User avatar
shiznatix
DevNet Master
Posts: 2745
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:57 pm
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Contact:

Post by shiznatix »

all good ideas. the syncing it back with my music is a problem. i loaded it up when i was in the USA last and they where my bros cds so i don't have many of the songs that are on here.

i don't think its the usb port because i does not work on my desktop or my laptop. I also tried my roomates ipod on my laptop and it worked although her firmware is either newer or older than mine (can't remember).

I dual boot fedora core on my laptop though so thats definatly worth a shot before i go and do somthing crazy like format. how can i mount the ipod on linux?

nice sugestions though guys. thanks a bunch
User avatar
shiznatix
DevNet Master
Posts: 2745
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:57 pm
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Contact:

Post by shiznatix »

alright here goes!

i booted up fedora and plugged in the ipod and seamed to be alright. it noticed that it was there and seamed to mount itself no problems. the problem that I am having though is that when I open the folder I see nothing. Also, sorry, I am not very good on linux. What is the root folder for the mounts?


ohhhhh snap i think linux formatted my ipod. it says 355 megs free and i definatly dont have that much space...


ideas?
User avatar
Maugrim_The_Reaper
DevNet Master
Posts: 2704
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 5:43 am
Location: Ireland

Post by Maugrim_The_Reaper »

Try /dev/sda1 for your iPod device. If its mounted it may have been switched to something like /media/sda1 or /mount/sda1 (Linux flavours may vary on how they organise mounts).

Kind of looks as if something may have happened to the iPod itself - you should see everything under Linux assuming your USB works (well, it mounted right?). Bleh :? Linux will definitely not automatically format anything by itself.

Maybe double check permissions to ensure your user can read the mounted drive? If you're already in as root that won't be an issue.
Roja
Tutorials Group
Posts: 2692
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 10:30 pm

Post by Roja »

Under Fedora, it should by default be under /mnt
AlecH
Forum Commoner
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 4:22 pm
Location: New Hampshire

Post by AlecH »

Hmm... An old friend had a problem like this and we tried it on my PowerBook after it wouldnt load on windows and it worked. It means that your iPod was formatted for Mac OS, so if you have ever had it serviced at the Apple store they did it on a Mac and thats what happened.
User avatar
shiznatix
DevNet Master
Posts: 2745
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:57 pm
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Contact:

Post by shiznatix »

first on linux:

its under /media but still says its empty. It registers the correct amount of space left but does not show any files.

Mac OS:

it has never been plugged into a mac computer but that is a good idea. I will try that as soon as I get in contact with a mac.
Post Reply