I have an iPod Classic that my MacBook is not recognizing. It shows up in Finder but in iTunes when I click on the iPod icon it says the iPod can't be found. Any ideas on how to get my MacBook to recognize the Classic?

So the pending sectors aren't cleared. You may need to repeat the erase/restore process a few times to clear all the pending sectors. You could try formatting as MS-DOS/FAT which will make iTunes reformat as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) when it restores. Switching between the formats might help with the conversion of pending sectors into reallocations. After restoring but before adding any media check the stats again. No point trying to add media until pending is zero.

From the user tip:

Break up large transfers

Once you've restored your iPod don't rush to dump all the data back exactly as it was before. I have found that lots of large or complex smart playlists can sometimes trigger constant reboots or dumping of the iPod's library. In addition, larger transfers can fail leaving data in an inconsistent state. Try this technique for populating the iPod in stages.

In iTunes select the menu item File... New Smart Playlist. Change the first drop-down box to Playlist, the next to is and the next to Music or whatever playlist holds the bulk of the content you want on your device. Tick against Limit to, type in say 10, then change the drop-down to GB, and set the last drop-down to artist. When you click OK you can enter a name for the playlist, e.g. Transfer.

Now sync this playlist to your iPod rather than your entire library. When the sync is complete modify the rule (File... Edit playlist) to increase the size by your chosen amount, then sync and repeat. You can experiment with different size increments, if it doesn't work just choose something a bit smaller until it works each time. Before long you should have all the music that you want synced added to your device. Once that's done you can move on to other media such as podcasts, videos, photos, additional playlists, etc.

tt2

Try reformatting the iPod with disk utility. If you cannot restore in iTunes after that find a Windows PC to restore the device with, then try restoring again on your own computer.

Many third party chargers deliver too much current for the classic and rather than cook the battery it shuts down the charging circuit. An original 1W charger or standard USB port should work.

tt2

The stats aren't that bad, but the 22 pending sectors may interfere with updates to the device if they cannot be reliably read back and hold important data. Try restoring or reformatting the device.

tt2

That sounds like you're doing something other than erasing or reformatting the drive. There is no need to copy any data to it. Aha, in the context of your device restore is an iTunes function. It means something different in Disk Utility, and is used to restore the state of one partition or drive from another or a backup. You only want to erase the drive before using the built in restore feature in iTunes to put the firmware back on the device.

tt2

No. You don't want to make any changes to Macintosh HD. You only want to erase the drive of the iPod classic. It may be safer to try restoring in Windows and then Mac if you're not confident working with disk utility.

tt2

Once DU has finished erasing the device you should be able to open iTunes and it should be detected. iTunes will likely tell you that it needs to be restored, otherwise the option is on the device summary screen or available in the menus.

tt2

You could try the suggestion above, or try using Windows. It might be that using an erase option to overwrite the free space would trigger the reallocation of those pending sectors, otherwise I'm at a loss as to why those aren't being cleared up.

tt2

See Corrupt iPod Classic - Apple Community. What are your HDD stats?

tt2

Back to Corrupt iPod Classic - Apple Community. What are your HDD stats now? Try the section break up large transfers. It may take a couple of rounds to get all pending sectors converted to reallocations..

tt2