black and white ipod after a format fail

At last, people who sound like they know what they're talking about, unlike those 'customer service' folk at Apple who just refer you back to their website articles!!!

I bought a 5g 30gb ipod at christmas and have still had no success with it at all. This is the second one I've had after being told by Apple to return it for replacement when the magical '5 R's' failed to work, but (a month and a new pod later) the symptoms are the same. It works fine on a mac, but not on my PC (Windows XP sp2, 30GB, 1Ghz, 256RAM, USB 2.0).

It will not connect to iTunes or the iPod updater program (so can't restore), though appears in windows. I have re-installed everything multiple times, unplugged all other USB devices and tried as many of the apple articles I could find.

I got a friend with a mac to try it and they restored the factory settings, but then it was mac formatted, so in my infinite wisdom decided to format it in Windows back to FAT32!!! Ooops! Now all is Black & white and just shows the folder icon with triangle and the apple support web address. I tried Michael's solution of resetting the iPod into disk mode. Now I can't get it out of disk mode. Although the updater does now say "can't mount iPod" which is a step forward - i think!

Please someone help me, have I not suffered enough???

I am truly in a state of elation today after finally getting my 5g 30gb iPod to work. It's been three months and two pods since it all began, but here's how I did it (I really hope this helps someone - if it does pass it on, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of people out there suffering as a result of these **** devices):

1, (I'm not sure this had any relevance - I wouldn't do it unless the rest doesn't work), but I reformatted it in windows FAT 32 (Right click ipod in 'my computer' drives list, format, complete format), don't worry if ipod then goes black & white with folder icon & message www.apple/support/ipod.

2, (Again, I'm not sure if this had any relevance, but you can change this back). Change the drive letter. To do this go to: Control panel, Administrative tools, computer management. In the left window select storage, disk management and when you select that the right window splits into two. In the lower half is all of your drives, right click the ipod and there should be an option to ‘change drive letter’

3. Remove ipod via the 'Safely remove hardware' icon near the clock. Uninstall all iPod updaters & iTunes via the 'add/remove programs' section in 'control panel'.

4. Disable any Anti Virus (I have AVG freeware), Firewall or Spyware software inc, Windows Firewall (personally, I think this is the common element among us and something I didn't realise was running as I had other software with a firewall).

5. Restart. Install iPod updaters & iTunes via your original disk. Restart.

6. When completely restarted (leave a few minutes) open the iPod updater, only plug in your ipod when prompted - At this point I got a box with my serial no and other ipod details in and the option to restore, but hit the restore button and it said something I don't remember, but was an error message. Anyway, I couldn't disconnect the pod so pulled out the cable (not recommended I know) and restarted the computer again and repeated step 6 again (removing the Ipod first). This time the restore button worked - it took about 10 minutes and automatically opened itunes when done and asks you for a name for it.

7. I already had the latest iPod updater downloaded (thereby not having to go online without AV/firewall running) so installed it and updated the pod.

8. Close everything, disconnect ipod and re-activate your Anti Virus, Firewall and Spyware software inc, Windows Firewall and restart.


Hopefully the ipod will again open itunes when connected. I think the real issue is the AV/Firewall software running while installing, many are suggesting it as a cause but no one knows for definite - I read somewhere Apple are aware that their software has issues when installed with AV/Firewall software running, but no specifics or information is ever given buy so-called help staff!!!


Good luck.