Do I need to reformat my iPod?

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Level 1

93 points

Do I need to reformat my iPod?

I was given a 40gb iPod (YEAH!!) by a friend who had formatted it on his PC and loaded about 3 gb of music. Being the orderly person I am, before I attempted to use it I upgrade my iTunes to 5.0 today, and also installed the iPod Updater.

When I connet the iPod it appears on my Mac but not in ITunes. I understand that Macs are able to read PC formatted iPods, so I had not planned to change it. (Since I checked here first about any problems, I already deleted the troublesome .kext file)

Everytime I connect it, I get a message that "an update is detected" and do I want to do this, and I check yes, and then it fails. At that point my iPod dismounts itself. I'm wondering if this is happening because my Mac has the update but my iPod is expecting a PC version of an update. What should I do?

Posted on Sep 8, 2005 5:29 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 8, 2005 5:47 PM in response to Tonia

Hello Tonia,
Due to Apple's Digital Rights Managment restrictions, you are not allowed to take music off an iPod into your library. However, if you either don't need or have a copy of the music on your iPod, you can reformat it.

Run iPod Software Updater
Plug in your iPod
Select Restore (this will erase your iPod)
When the process is done, launch iTunes again
You should now be able to pair your iPod with your iTunes library

Good Luck!
Daniel

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Answer 2

Tonia Author

Level 1

93 points

Sep 8, 2005 7:56 PM in response to Daniel C. Cox

Thanks Daniel,
I am happy to comply with the Digital Rights restrictions. However, when I connected my iPod to do this, I seem to be on eternal "Do not disconnect" mode, with the Restore button greyed out, of course. Waiting further intructions...

Tonia

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Answer 3

Sep 9, 2005 4:05 PM in response to Tonia

Your iPod may have a problem with its hard drive. When your iPod is plugged in, does it appear on the source list in iTunes? Does it have an icon in Finder? If neither of these are true, your iPod disk may not be mounting properly. Try running disk utility in Applications -> Utilities. Your iPod should be one of the items. If you can see your iPod on the source list, try clicking on it and choosing "Verify DIsk". I would like to know which applications you can see your iPod in before I can give you further advice.
Happy Listening,
Daniel

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Answer 4

Tonia Author

Level 1

93 points

Sep 12, 2005 6:48 AM in response to Daniel C. Cox

My iPod's icon appears just fine in iTunes, in the Finder, and in Disk Utility. It passed the verifications test. Still, when I open Updater (2005-09-06) and then plug in the iPod, all options remain greyed out in the updater.

Should I just use Disk Utility to erase the iPod completely?

Tonia

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Answer 5

Mitch 751

Level 6

11,645 points

Sep 12, 2005 7:30 AM in response to Tonia

Tonia,
Yeah, I have formatted many times for the ipods using the disk utility. But do remeber to do a reset and connect back with you Mac, open your ipod updater and hope they will allow you to do the Restore. If you are failed to do a format go to Partition and do a delete, then format again.

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Answer 6

Tonia Author

Level 1

93 points

Sep 12, 2005 8:45 AM in response to Mitch 751

I erased my iPod using Disk Utility. Nothing changed, so I went in and did the Partition thing. No change. I trashed and re-downloaded and reinstalled the iPod updater, restarted everything. When I connect my iPod now, the message comes, "New software update detected, do you want to install it?" I select yes, then comes the message, "An unexpected error occurred."

My iPod now appears in the finder, but not in iTunes.

The updater is not working for me, and I now have an empty iPod that seems unable to have software installed. I have also attempted to install the software from the original CD which came with it (version 3.0, updater 2004-7-15) and it refuses to install, telling me it requires the "MAC OS Networking Update." I can't find any such update.

Me & my blank iPod waiting to be rescued.

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Answer 7

Sep 12, 2005 10:31 PM in response to Tonia

Hi Tonia,

I ran into a similar problem after downloading and then installing iTunes 5.0 and iPod 2.3. I ended up restoring and erasing my iPod. I finally moved the window with the update or restore options and there was a small window behind it asking for the name of my iPod (it had the name already typed in the box, but I needed to ok the selection). Once I did this, it proceeded smoothly and I was able to restore my music/books to my iPod. Good Luck!

jan

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Answer 8

Mitch 751

Level 6

11,645 points

Sep 12, 2005 11:13 PM in response to Tonia

I finally moved the window with the update or restore options and there was a small window behind it asking for the name of my iPod

Hello Janice,
Can I ask you where is this small window ?

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Answer 9

Tonia Author

Level 1

93 points

Sep 13, 2005 5:27 AM in response to Janice Berghammer

Thanks for the tip Jan, but I have no such window behind my update options window. 😟

Tonia

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Answer 10

Tonia Author

Level 1

93 points

Sep 13, 2005 5:34 AM in response to Mitch 751

Mitch, although I followed your previous instructions to the best of my understanding, I'm wondering what you meant by "remember to do a reset and connect back with your Mac." I took "reset" to mean reformat, since there is no "reset" option visible in Disk Utility. (And does "connect back with your Mac" refer to the resetting you advised, or is that another special procedure?)

Also, I reformatted with Mac OS Extended Journaled. Should I have chosen the option without "journaled"?

Finally, do I have to install Tiger 10.4.2 for proper functioning? I'm still on 10.4.1. I'm thinking of reverting to iTunes 4.9, but my biggest suspicion is that there is some conflict between the Updater and something in my system or permissions. (I am root user.) If the updater would work, I'd be fine, I think.

Tonia

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Answer 11

Mitch 751

Level 6

11,645 points

Sep 13, 2005 6:25 AM in response to Tonia

1. Yes please make sure your reformatted with Mac OS extended Journal.
2. Once you finish the format, eject your iPod and press "select"+"menu" = reset
3. Connect with your computer
4. Open ipod updater and do the restore

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Answer 12

Tonia Author

Level 1

93 points

Sep 13, 2005 6:54 AM in response to Mitch 751

Sorry Mitch, I'm still not understanding. What window will I be in when I press "select" + "menu". What menu do I find these on (they are certainly not on my keyboard).

Tonia

Wait! I just realized, you mean on my IPOD! Still not used to thinking of what buttons are on there! Okay, I'm going for it. Thanks.

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Answer 13

Tonia Author

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93 points

Sep 13, 2005 7:09 AM in response to Tonia

Sorry Mitch, resetting did not do the trick. My updater options are all still greyed out.

Any other ideas?

Tonia

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Answer 14

Mitch 751

Level 6

11,645 points

Sep 13, 2005 7:22 AM in response to Tonia

Sorry Tonia,
I did not make it clear, yeah, press "menu"+"select"keys with your iPod.
Please read the following post and hope it works
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?128@@.68ae8668

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Answer 15

Tonia Author

Level 1

93 points

Sep 13, 2005 8:07 AM in response to Mitch 751

Mitch,
After following your link I decided to put the iPod in hard disk mode to see if that would lead to a solution. Doing this did send me into the setup routine which restored the iPod icon and caused it to appear in iTunes. However, the updater still is greyed out, and I still seem to have no operating software, updated or otherwise, on my iPod since the erase and reformat.

Is this an iTunes 5 bug? I wanted to go back to 4.9 but everytime I tried to download that again, Apple sent me into the 5.0 download page.

Tonia

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