Q: iPod Classic stuck in reboot loop

Hello BRDog and a warm welcome to the Apple Discussions!

First what I would do is wait for it to reboot itself and as soon as the screen turns off begin holding the Center + Play/Pause buttons until Your iPod Enters Disk Mode and THEN plug it into your iMac and select "Restore". =) Also when you get the chance, Hold Menu + Center and as soon as the screen goes out, Hold Center + Previous/Rewind. You will get a White Screen, select "Manual Test" and then go to "IO" then "Hard Drive" and then select Hard Drive Smart Data and type every character on that screen up here, I will be able to tell you if your iPod's internal hard disk is going bad. Also how big is your iPod classic? 80GB, 120GB, 160GB?

Regards

—Matthew

Hello BRDog,

Well I really appreciate your cooperation. =) I love to help people. Its my nature, ok, well first, how old is this iPod? If it is a 2007 160GB (the thicker model) than I hate to say, I dont think it is still covered. But from the results, your iPod seems to be experiencing some of the tell tale signs of Hard Disk Failure. =( But what I can tell you is call Apple Care at 1-800-275-2273. =) Explain your findings there, and see what you can do, also if you have one of the newer 160GB iPod classic models (2009), then check out this link: https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do type your serial number in thee and it will tell you what your options are. =) But if this iPod is still covered, get it repaired ASAP. Dont wait on it. Because it will only worsen as time goes on and your coverage will deplete as time progresses as well. I wish you the best of luck, also sweet-talking Apple over the phone really helps your chances, Ive gone through this process various times for several products.

Regards

—Matthew

Hi, i'm having a similar problem with my Ipod, its a 2009 classic. I pressed the play/pause button and the wheel. Now instead of getting the apple logo on the screen, I have a white screen with Disk Mode at the top and Do NOT Disconnect flashing. Any suggestions on how I can rectife this problem?

Hello Lefty,

PLease read up. Follow the procedure I described above. Hold the Center and Menu buttons firmly until iPod restarts. Then as soon as the screen turns off, press and hold Center and Previous/Rewind until screen goes white, then using the Next/Fast Forward and Previous/Rewind buttons, navigate to "IO". Select "Hard Drive", Then Select "HDSmartData" Like the previous user, post every last bit of info on the screen here in the forums. We will go from there.

With modern disc drives sectors are no longer marked bad by a disc scan, if the SMART firmware detects a sector it has trouble accessing it will attempt to invisibly reallocate it to a spare area of the disc.

To help explain what the numbers mean here is an extract from the Wikipedia S.M.A.R.T. article:
Reallocated Sectors Count
Count of reallocated sectors. When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping, and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps. This is why, on modern hard disks, "bad blocks" cannot be found while testing the surface – all bad blocks are hidden in reallocated sectors. However, as the number of reallocated sectors increases, the read/write speed tends to decrease. The raw value normally represents a count of the number of bad sectors that have been found and remapped. Thus, the higher the attribute value, the more sectors the drive has had to reallocate.

Pending sector count
Number of "unstable" sectors (waiting to be remapped, because of read errors). If an unstable sector is subsequently written or read successfully, this value is decreased and the sector is not remapped. Read errors on a sector will not remap the sector (since it might be readable later); instead, the drive firmware remembers that the sector needs to be remapped, and remaps it the next time it's written.
Large numbers of Reallocs or Pending Sectors would suggest your drive is failing and that you may need to repair or replace your iPod.

The fact that there are none pending is possibly a good sign, but 520 reallocs seems a lot for what otherwise looks like a new drive. I've a nasty suspicion that the high temp. reading of 62c might be the cause of your problems. If you've left the device where it has been allowed to get too hot it may have warped components in the drive. The iPod Classic tech. specs include the following:
Environmental requirements
Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)
Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)

Regards

—Matthew

null

Ipod Classic 2009 Version- updated to the latest version.
I followed what you posted in the earlier replies, and
what i got was

[Can't open device] ERROR! Diag Halt

thanks i will have to see if this works does it work on a ipod classic seems to work but does it let you do it on a windows format ipod