iPod Classic

Zeros for the first three numbers is exactly what you want to see. Min. temp. should be 0 or above and max. 50 or below so there is nothing to worry about there. If you can, keep a log of the resets in case it starts to happen frequently but I suspect it was just "one of those things".

As to hooking up to your car I used to use a cassette with a flying lead for the headphone socket and now have a tiny FM transmitter. I don't have any practical troubleshooting experience with units that are supposed to hook up directly.

tt2

Thanks for the quick reply.

So it looks like you're also saying that a reformatting/restoration is probably not going to help me with the way it interacts with my car? I understand you're not an expert in direct hookups but in trying whatever I can to make it work better, would a reformmating/restoration of the iPod be more like, "sure, why not, doesn't hurt to try, knock yourself out", or is it more like, "oooh, better not risk it, you never know what might happen, so if it ain't totally broke, don't fix it"?

Yeah, I've already done a number of resets. I was just thinking of starting off fresh with a restore, and then reinstalling my music and podcasts in stages to see whether I can identify a tipping point at which my car can no longer process the thing optimally. Thanks for your help!

I think I'm having the same problem as everyone else. I got given a used 120GB ipod classic for christmas. It's fantastic for me, as I work in a kitchen, and can listen to it through a speaker throughout a shift to break up the horrible loud noises of all the kitchen appliances.

Last few weeks though, everytime I've tried to connect it to itunes it's just made itunes crash. I've got about 8GB free space and I want to put some more songs on it, but itunes is just crashing everytime, a problem I suspect is with the ipod and not the program itself. Obviously I can't add or delete anything to it, or make any playlists.

After doing this check, this is the result I get:

Retracts: 16

Reacllocs: 3504

Pending sectors:8

power on hours: 1023

start/stops:25175

temp:current 30c

temp:min 7c

temp:max 53c

It's under warranty from the shop for a year, so should I go and ask them for another one? The thing is the music thats on it still plays, so they're probably going to be skeptical if I say it doesn't work.

It's got too hot at some point. Shouldn't go above 50c. The reallocs are higher than ideal, but it is the pending sectors that are probably causing the problems. If the device/iTunes tries to read data stored there it will most likely fail.

You could try a DFU restore. Like a normal one, but connect to the USB lead then press menu & select for 12 seconds. The device should reset and then the screen should go blank. The DFU restore might release the pending sectors. When all the difficult to read sectors are mapped out the device should behave normally. However the reallocated count is larger than usual for the odd random failure, so may indicate that a larger part of the drive has become permanently inaccessible, and there may be more as yet undetected problems.

For what it's worth, if I were to buy a second-hand iPod I'd want to check these stats in store and wouldn't accept one that had been outside the 0c-50c temp. range or had more than a few hundred reallocs, with none pending. And, of course, I'd want a no quibble return if I couldn't successfully load my media onto it.

tt2

Just wanted to say that I plugged my ipod classic 120 (about 7 years old) into computer for first time in a year, planning only to sync a few new songs. Whatever happened and all my music disappeared. I tried to reformat and resync about 12 times (about 70gb music). Each time I got to final symc and it crashed. I did the diagnostic test and numbers weren't good. i did one final try, except this time I deleted everything but music from itues (I had a few podcasts and some tv shows). This time it synced and completed. I was invited to eject, which I did. The music was finally back on ipod, but I plan never to plug it into a computer again.

One question:

Can I assume if I just play the ipod (and don't change any of the data) it will keep working? Or do the bad numbers (sorry I didn't write them down) mean the hard drive is going to fail sooner (rather than later)?

Actually, I may have spoken too soon. I cautiously copied just my podscasts to the ipod and everything went to plan. The only problem was, at the end of the sync iTunes had a very long think then told me it could not be synched because of an error 13010.

I was annoyed so I looked at the hardware test you mentioned and noticed that the Realloc number was something like 2 or 3 thousand and somthing! Obviously at that point I felt all hope was lost, but I decided to use disk utility to write a bunch of zeros to the drive (the second most secure delete).

This reduced the Realloc number to 64. I then plugged the iPod back into the Mac in DFU mode and it once again performed a recovery. I chose to simply copy 1 random song to the iPod ('I'm not in love' by 10cc - lol!) and it took about 5 minutes to copy this and complete the sync. It told me the sync was complete and to eject the iPod. Upon pressing the eject button I then got the candy cane progress bar with a message saying "Synching iPod."

It eventually ejected successfully but upon reviwing the iPod there was no music. A quick hardware test then showed the Realloc number had climbed from 64 to 6242.

I think it's time to bid farewell to the iPod. Ah well, I got it in 2007 so that wasn't a bad run I suppose. But hey, TT2's help and advice here really helped me figure this out and come to accept the death of my lil iPod 🙂

dsjour01 wrote:

One question:

Can I assume if I just play the ipod (and don't change any of the data) it will keep working? Or do the bad numbers (sorry I didn't write them down) mean the hard drive is going to fail sooner (rather than later)?

Updating the iPod shouldn't itself cause a problem, although that might be when underlying problems on the device become apparent. All hard drives fail, it is just a matter of time. Getting hot & cold, or being knocked stresses the components. Sometimes it is gradual, with the drive getting sluggish and taking longer to read back data from certain areas of the disc, sometimes sudden and the drive won't work at all, but it is inevitable.

tt2

Retracts: 585
Reallos: 0
Pending Sectors: 7
PowerOn Hours: 1655
Start/Stops: 458
Temp: Current 32c
Temp: Min 16c

Temp: Max 53c

My iPod Classic 160GB I have had a long time & use it, it's my life. Use it as a flash drive & music holder & always have been safe with it. Don't drop it, have it in a case, & treat it right. I still am able to access the music in it but when I connect it to a computer my iPod is sometimes unrecognized (Please insert a disk into (My Name's iPod) ) but I can still play music & see all my files. iTunes finally opened it & had all my files classified as "Other" & didn't read them on the computer. I can sometimes get in the disk on the computer & see my files (Pictures) I kept on there when my flashdrive crapped out on me (Have had zero money to get a 32GB one) but my iPod still has everything in it. It was suggested to restore it but my files on it are irreplaceable so I wanna try getting it back to normal before all else fails. Thanks again for your help. It started when I placed it on my mom's computer to transfer some files from computer to computer but her computer seemed to have a problem that day & my iPod didn't appear in iTunes even so I could eject it. Tried to safely remove the hardware as well but that didn't work so just unplugged it. Now when I unplug it from mine or my dad's computers which I normally use it on, it says "Ok To Disconnect" & then it crashes at the end of the loading-line on the bottom. It goes all the way & crashes then resets itself. I don't know what I can do but all my files are safe on it for now but I want them off.

Kind of found a way inside now. If I don't have any Apple programs open I can access the disk of my iPod with no problems. Got my files off (Not my music yet but I know it's hidden files that I can access) but when I try opening iTunes, it freezes & problems start with my iPod. What do I do now?

Retracts: 2

Reallocs: 9808

Pending Sectors: 0

PowerOnHours: 14

Start/stops: 2990

Temp: Current 34c

Temp: Min 5c

Temp: Max 54c

I'm having all the same problems and tried the DFU reset too. After I did that, everything seemed fine and itunes told me to restore my ipod. At some point during that process everything went back to the way it was. Should I try the DFU again or accept defeat?

Hi everybody, i have an ipod classic 6g (160 gb) from a friend, well i turn it on and i see that's working perfect but something is wrong cuz i open the Computer to see the deevices conected and the ipod is connected but i can't get into in the hard drive, and also i can´t restore ir with itunes, throw the error 1439, and i check the smart settings in the ipod and see that just 1 pending sector, so i dont know why i cant reformat it, and i try the DFU mode and nothing, Please help!

Hi, I have an 160gb ipod classic that I got about 10 months ago. I accidently unplugged my ipod on a sync and now it won't download anything. There are 10,920 reallocs on th ipod and 7 retracts. Is there anything I can do to save my ipod without physically repairing it from the outside? Thank you🙂

Unplugging an iPod during syncing might corrupt the database on the device, but it won't have caused errors that have led to the reallocations. If you bought it new talk to Apple about a warranty replacement. If it was second hand then I suspect you're seeing the evidence of earlier problems. 11,000 reallocs is a lot, but if they are all successfully mapped out and you can load data onto the device without things getting worse then they are doing what they are supposed to do. Try a DFU restore and see how you get on, otherwise look into the options for a replacement hard drive.

tt2

also i forgot to state that the problem occured suddenly one day...
the ipod autoerased all the content inside without me syncing it or connecting it to the computer...after it crashed and showed me the apple icon everything was gone and from then on i couldnt sync anything
also some days before that happened some songs werent playing and those that played ,played after some minutes of "loading"
and now when i tried to restore it the way you stated with 12 secs menu and select button an error message popped the i pod could not be restored error 1439