iPod Classic

My stats, after my iPod has shown all kinds of errors in iTunes (predominantly -53) and will not sync at all. It's 5 years old, used for hours every day and has been dropped a couple of times recently, so I'm guessing the hard drive is failing, but would like your thoughts?

Retracts: 15

Reallocs: 992

Pending sectors: 0

PowerOn Hours: 587

Starts/Stops: 77780

Temp: Current 37c

Temp: Min 9c

Temp: Max 58c

When I'm back home, I'm going to see how it syncs on a different computer to double-check. But I suspect it may be time for a new one :'(

(Oh, and the reallocs figure was at about 300 yesterday, when I first did a diagnostics test before messing about with all kinds of methods to try to get it to sync)

Hi turingtest2,

Seeing as you seem to really know your stuff iPod wise, I was wondering if you could help me out regards my classic.

After disconnecting the iPod after uploading songs, it appears to be fully functional although displays 'No Music' 'No Artists' etc.

The status shows there is only around 45GB remaining so it knows data is there.

Also, iTunes cannot read any of the data on the iPod.

In diagnostics mode, the iPod found no issues with the HDD, and windows give similar results, even after trying a chkdsk in cmd no issues were found.

Also in diagnostics mode, the memory test was successful, which I thought could have been another issue.

I have tried as many non destructive fixes as I can, including disk checks and even a defrag - which I figured may potentially help with the iPod using a FAT32 filing system.

I have had no luck as yet, and wondered if you had any ideas to try before I try formatting the iPod?

Any advice you may have would be hugely appreciated,

Thanks!!

Hi turingtest2! Just to let you know thanks to your brilliant advice I've managed to get my iPod up and running and I am now undergoing to painful task of copying 12000 songs back across! :-)

Thanks a lot you've saved a very important part of my life ;-)

huebyt wrote:

I just looked up this information and it says my ipod has reached 250c? It works 100% and holds its battery life just like new. Is this even possible?

The 250c bit is probably an error created during some kind of crash. If it works, it works. That bit of the diagnostic system just won't ever have anything useful to say.

tt2

Retracts: 24

Reallocs: 0

Pending Sectors: 16

Power on Hours: 194

Start/Stop:7707

Temp Current: 34c

Temp min: 54c

Temp MAx: 255c

160GB iPod Classic, isn't recognized by my computer (Toshiba laptop running windows 7) or iTunes (latest update). Tried doing the DFU restore method. No dice. This iPod is just under 3 years old, and I would really like to see if there's anything I can do to save it. Trying to get it to work before i deploy to Afghanistan next month. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Temps are way out of bounds, but that is most like down to a crash which has spat random data in there. Have you tried restoring in another computer with a different cable? Also it may take a few restore/reformat attempts to map out all the pending sectors so they become reallocs. If the current device library is stored in pending sectors then iTunes is going to struggle to read the data from it.

tt2

also: iTunes will start to restore it and then just stop. i get these dialog boxes on iTunes:

iTunes needs to prepare your iPod for recovery. Please leave your iPod connected. {Continue} {Cancel}

i hit continue and it goes to this bar:

Preparing iPod for recovery...

it'll get to about 90% green and then just stops and closes the dialog box. still not recognized, no restore option, nothing...

The might be more that is wrong... Have you tried a low-level format? Another option is to have a Mac using friend wipe and and reformat it, then try again on the PC. Should release all known pending sectors and transfer them to the reallocated table. Of course they may be other bad patches yet to be found, but getting to the point where at least one or two albums can be loaded up should be possible.

tt2

The section after DFU restore in the link above. 😉

The idea is to use the native operating system calls to wipe the device instead of iTunes. For example iTunes may not rebuild the entire file system when it restores, but simply erase certain files & folders. If part of the existing directory structures are held in sectors that won't read & write reliably then the restore is going to fail.

tt2

Have you read the linked post? Near the beginning it describes how to enter the iPod's diagnostic screens and read off the hard drive SMART stats. These may give a picture of how good or bad the drive is and whether any restore attempt is likely to be successful or not.

tt2

Recent version of Windows have got funny about giving full control over the format. It may not offer FAT32 as an option, though that is what it should be. A quick format may work, and in principle if you use the "wrong" format, then a DFU restore should correct it, but at this point I can't make promises. I know I've done a low-level format at one point and successfully restored the device afterwards, but it was some time ago. There is also the idea of restoring on a Mac and then on a PC as suggested earlier.

tt2

Please can you help me, I have a 160gb iPod classic, someone gave it to me and said it had hardy been used. Trying to sync music is fails after a few minutes, likewise trying to copy files it fails after a few minutes. I have tried it on two computers one XP, one Windows 8. Here are the diagnostics:

Retracts: 4

Reallocs: 3360

Pending Sectors: 264

PowerOnHours: 170

Start/Stops: 17704

Should I try to format it or just send to Apple?

Many thanks, William

I scanned the drive and there didn't seem to be an issue. I "restored" again and the device button appeared but I am still unable to sync (the device - sync button isn't working. During the restoration it said my version of the software was up-to-date...but i have no music!

Any other thoughts on this? Thanks.

so my classic has become completely unusable. i tunes says a corrupt ipod has been detected and that i should reformat the device. i beg to reformat it and it says it is unable to be reformated. i have tried to format the ipod through my computer but it also says it is unable to complete the request

Retracts: 99

Reallocs: 4928

Pending sectors: 1248

PowerOn Hours: 517

Start/Stops:27956

Temp: Current 25c

Temp: Min 14c

Temp: Max 51c

Is the hard drive dead?

Since i restore the IPod and i always get this image: Do not disconnect and ok to disconnect screen. Can't access to the main menus even the ipod isn't connected to the computer.. Any solutions? Btw I already tried to format and nothing.