cannot restore! error 28!

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1275 has information on a number of error messages and how to solve them. It might help you get past the error you are seeing.

In that case, I'd suggest a trip to the Genius Bar and see if they can help.

Don't know if this will work, but I had similar issue - restore wouldn't work. I just kept trying it again & again. On about the 5th try, it went a little farther before crashing. On the 6th try it worked.

Try this: Turn off the phone by holding the top button (sleep button) down until you get the red slide to power off message. Slide it and let it shutdown. Launch iTunes on your computer and attach the USB cable. Push and hold the "Home" button on the phone while plugging in the connector on the bottom of the phone. Keep holding the home button until you see the iTunes _ cable icons on the screen. Wait a few moments and iTunes will respond with the message "iTunes has detected a phone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before it can be used with iTunes." At this point iTunes will attempt to reinstall the software after you click the "restore" button. It might still fail, but this is pretty much the last ditch effort. If this doesn't work the phone is dead.