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iPod Hard Drive Failure?

My iPod classic 120GB will not finish syncing. It and iTunes will freeze on a random song each time. Sometimes it will sync over 3000 songs, other times it won't get past 400. I'm not sure if this is important but every time the sync crashes the iPod's hard drive makes a clicking noise like it's catching on something.


When I ran a diagnostic on it my results were:

Retracts: 156

Reallocs: 195

Pending Sectors: 7

PowerOn Hours: 296

Start/Stops: 160

Temp: Current 27c

Temp: Min 17c

Temp: Max 46c.


I have checked for corrupted files, reinstalled iTunes, restored my iPod at least a dozen times, run a disk checker on it on 2 separate computers (both times it said that areas were repaired but the drive passed the test), and tried switching out which ports I use to sync my iPod. Is this a sign that my iPod's hard drive failing? I am using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

iPod classic, Windows 7

Posted on Apr 16, 2012 7:44 PM

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8 replies

Apr 16, 2012 7:47 PM in response to vlfletch

*Check iPod hard-drive for errors*

Hold Select+Menu on the iPod for about 6 seconds until it resets, then holdSelect+Play as soon as the Apple logo appears, again for about 6 seconds to put the machine in disk mode. Open iTunes and in the Sync tab of the preferences menu check *Disable automatic syncing of all iPhones & iPods*. Now connect your iPod to the computer, wait until it connects, then close iTunes. Browse *My Computer* and right-click on the drive for the iPod, click Properties, then click Tools. Under Error-checking, click *Check Now*. Under Check disk options, select *Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors*. Click Start. Although at the end of the process it won't actually mark anything "bad" (see above) it should test every sector, causing unreliable ones to be remapped. Mac users should run *Disk Utility / Repair Disk* for the equivalent process. This should find and correct any errors in the logical & physical structures of your iPod's hard drive. Once these have been fixed you can reset the iPod (hold Menu+Select ) and should stand a better chance of a successful restore. It might also pay to check the status of the source drive containing your media, particularly if no errors were found on the iPod.

Apr 16, 2012 8:08 PM in response to vlfletch

vlfetch,

good that you have done the DD, although the numbers are not very high, it is a sign that it will give you more problems, especially the retract sound (clicking sound) that you hear, better to bring it in to Apple Store, if it is still under warranty.

or else, the other alternatives beside the one that was suggested by apple_master would be to run DOS chkdsk


chkdsk drive: /R /F


where drive: is the iPod ID like E: or F:


After the chkdsk, connect it to iTunes and Restore, but do disconnect all other USB devices when doing this.


or get the Hardisk repair software like HD Sentinel, to do low level format.


Have a nice day!

Apr 16, 2012 8:51 PM in response to vlfletch

Most likely your iPod Classic hardisk has got stuck in retract, but if you are lucky, try the Hard Reset

  1. After charging till full charge, at least 2 hours (preferably 4 hours)
  2. Toggle the Hold switch, make sure you dont see the red mark when you do the next step
  3. Reset the iPod -> Press Menu and Center button simultaneously for about 10 secs or till the Apple Logo comes ON
  4. Then release the buttons
  5. Select your preferred language.

Here is the Apple support Article on the 5Rs

http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/classic/


If this doesn't work, bring it to Apple Store or 3rd Party service vendor.

Good Luck!

Aug 21, 2013 8:00 PM in response to vlfletch

I appreciate this is an older thread now but hopefully the following may be of help to someone in a similar situation.


I recently pulled a hard disk from an old works Dell laptop which was prone to crashing due to bad sectors. The boss said I could take it to play with, so that's what I did.


The first stage was to hook the drive up and run a surface scan. I used Techtool Pro for this and, as expected, it reported a number of damaged sectors on the drive. This was accompanied by lots of repetitive clicking from the drive as it was struggled to read from the disk.


Now that I knew there were bad sectors the second stage was to launch Disk Utility and use its secure erase feature to perform a single-pass zero fill. While not widely publicised, this function serves more than to just overwrite your data on the drive, it also takes bad sectors out of play for good as a "low level" format would.


I ran Techtool a second time, and this time no errors of any sort were reported.


Now, being fairly untrusting of any mechanical storage, especially storage with known defects, I proceeded to fill the drive before running Techtool a third time to check for data loss or corruption. Again, no issues detected.


Finally I wanted to test the resiliency of this "fix" by repartitioning the drive a couple of times (multiple partitions/different sizes), with different partition types (Apple and MBR/FAT), to see if the "fix" was permanent or if it was reliant on the data within the user-area to provide it with bad sector data. A final run of Techtool again showed no issues after a full surface scan, and I've had no more issues with drive since. Although I'd never trust it with anything important I'm happy the drive is usable again and not resting in some landfill somewhere.


The point to all this is Disk Utility's secure erase function is worth a go when you've a sick drive and have tried everything else, especially on a hard-disk based iPod. Disk Utility works fine with my old 40GB Firewire-based 3rd gen iPod. I've no experience of USB-based "Classic iPods" but I presume they're accessible by Disk Utility in the same way.


Hope this helps someone out there, especially as the earliest machines are over ten years old now...


Steve D.

Feb 17, 2015 6:06 PM in response to Steve Darkly

I had the folder with the exclamation point. I tried all the Diagnostics, which told me it was the Hard Drive. Then I read this on another site: "Open up the iPod, and place a folded-in-half business card (or equivalent substitute) between the outer metal (back)casing and the hard drive itself. This puts a small amount of pressure on the hard drive, and has permanently fixed every iPod I've tried it on."


In essence, the Hard Drive pins weren't meeting up with their connectors. I tried out the business card solution and IT WORKED!!!!

iPod Hard Drive Failure?

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