Firmware update failure. Disk write error.

Upon first purchase, you must restore the iPod. This essentially re-formats the iPod for use in Windows. Now with the exclamation point folder, your only choice is to restore the iPod.

Let me guess... You are connecting via USB?

I'll let you in on a secret. The USB interface on the iPod is buggy. Still waiting for Apple to fess up and possibly fix it.

You have some options.

1. Go try connecting to a different computer.

2. Go buy the firewire cable, and possibly a firewire card if your system doesn't have built in firewire.

3. Go buy a different USB card.

4. Try downgrading your USB to USB 1.1

A bit of a let down, isn't it? Search the forums for details on any of the above.

Hea Dirk,
I am having the same problem. I am also not very well educated on computers. Anyway, how do you check to see if your computer has "firewire"? My Ipod Mini was working fine and then I tried to download more songs and came upon these problems. Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!!

I have experienced this "firmware update failure" and "disk write error" a couple of times. Here's how you fix it:

First, give it a full charge. Don't want the battery running out on you while formatting it. Then follow these instructions to force a format on it (which will force a bad sector remap) and restore it.

-Run the iPod Firmware updater on the PC.

-Connect the iPod to the PC. It should go to the "Do not Disconnect" screen. If it doesn't, force it into that mode (search for info on how to "Force Disk Mode").

-Run Start->Control Panel->Admin Tools->Computer Management. When it opens, select "Drive Management" from the left hand column.

-Find the iPod drive in the display. Right click it, remove any of the existing partitions (if it finds any), and then Format it. Format the whole thing as one big drive. You may need to use NTFS format, this is fine. Don't do a QuickFormat.

-It may take a while (about 20-30 minutes). When it's done, close the Management tool.

-Back in the firmware updater (which should still be running and not doing anything), tell it to Restore the iPod. It should only take maybe 5 minutes.

-If you had to Force Disk Mode, then the iPod will not automatically reboot when the firmware updater says it will. Reboot it manually (search for info on how to do that too).

If it's fixable, that will fix it. If it doesn't fix it, well, it's probably not fixable.

okay, im trying to format my ipod cause im having the same problem, but i dont seem to have a "drive management" when i open computer management so i havnt been able to find the ipod drive there yet....and suggestions where else i might need to look?

The computer management program has several choices in the bar that goes down the left hand side. Drive management is one of those. It might be "disk" management instead. Same thing.

On my laptop when I connect the iPod it prevents Disk Management from loading. It says error starting service.

Actually I have just noticed that downloading and install the latest Updater kills Disk Management. "Server Execution Failed"

Well I talked to two friends that have iPods. The said they have Dell computer and it worked with a problem. I wanted to use it with my laptop but that would not work. On my Toshiba laptop in save mode I finally got the thing to drive I: and that was a fluke.

I have a Dell here at home and connected to it and it was immediately recognized and stated that it did not need to be formatted. I was missing 6 gig of space so I did an restore and got back to 18 gig free. I'm coping my music over to the Dell.

Now I just need to learn the different features.

The iPod Software Updater does not kill disk management. If you can't get Disk management to work, then your computer has other issues. Reinstall XP.

Nice try Otto but I don't thinks so. The updater that I downloaded installs the program first with recognizing the iPod. The one on the CD that came with the iPod detects the iPod first. The CD resulted in Disk Manager not loading during the detection (while attached) of the iPod. With the downloaded updateder Disk Management would not load at all unless I was in Safe Mode.

Uninstalling updater (download version) [<- TURNS OUT THIS DOES NOT WORK.] or unpluging the iPod (CD version) would allow Disk Manager to load just fine.

I have had no problems with disk manger on my laptop before iPod. Now even though I have uninstall the updated disk manager is still screwed up.

This is all odd since install the iPod on my Dell computer happened with any problems.

Any it is installed now and I think I will be very pleased with it. I just had to copy my music to that computer. It will be a little while before I can create the playlists.

Nice try Otto but I don't thinks so.

Nice try Paul, but you're still wrong. Sorry.

The one on the CD

Don't use the CD. Don't ever use the CD. All you need is iTunes and the iPod software, both available online.

I have had no problems with disk manger on my laptop before iPod. Now even though I have uninstall the updated disk manager is still screwed up.

I don't much care how you got the problem, my POINT is that the Apple software in no way integrates that deeply into the system. At most, it installs the iPodService which does nothing but poll the drives every so often to see if one of them is an iPod.

Just to reiterate: If you have problems opening the disk management tool, something is badly wrong with your computer, and it's not the Apple software, and it's not the iPod. Sorry, but these are just the facts of life.

Maybe you don't care since you got it working on another machine. That's fine. And hey, if you don't want my help in solving your problem, then I'm cool with that. But don't be spreading misinformation that could mislead others in solving their issues. The software/hardware just isn't capable of causing the things that you think it is, and saying otherwise is silly. You have a deeper problem on the machine and ignoring that fact will not solve it.

Dirk,

I have known that sometimes there are really simple solutions to tough problems, but this is a benchmark. I have waited 4 hours trying to fix this error and after reading your advice I hooked the I-Pod to my second USB port and BANG.... It is working like new...

Thanks

we have exactly the same problem and have had the ipod for only an afternoon. we need help also.

We tried Ahmed idea of trying a different usb port and it worked!! hooray, we have been working on this for 4 hrs. Thanks so much for the help with such a quick fix...