ipod 5th gen video in a restore loop

It could be an indication or a damaged or dying hard drive. I would recommend doing a disk diagnostic on the iPod's HD using the instructions given by turingtest2 in this older thread. He also covers what the resulting numbers indicate.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3784647?start=0&tstart=0

If necessary, post the resultings numbers and we can verify what the next steps to take.

B-rock

Hi, I'm not the OP but I have the same problem (iPod 5th gen in a restore loop). I ran the test suggested in the previous thread and got the following results:

Retracts: 64

Reallocs:1023

Pending Sectors:0

PowerOn Hours:4036

Start/Stops:53296

What should I do next/are there any options?

EDIT: I've also tried formatting the disk with Windows Explorer several times. Most times it has said "unable to format", but a couple of times it has claimed to have formatted successfully, but even then it's stuck in recovery mode.

Your iPod's hard drive seems to be in a healthy condition overall, so the restore loop could be the result of a driver or drive letter conflict with your PC.

Have you tried changing the iPod's drive letter yet to see if that makes a difference?

Windows confuses iPod with network drive or hard drive and may keep iPod from mounting or songs may seem to disappear

If any other devices are plugged into your PC (minus the keyboard and mouse if applicable), remove them and reboot your PC. Then reconnect your iPod to iTunes and see if that made any difference.

B-rock

I've tried changing the drive letter, unplugging everything else, different USB ports, and restarting - nothing seems to have made a difference. Any other ideas? I'm glad to hear that the hard drive is in decent condition though.

Can you try and restore it on another PC or Mac running iTunes to see if that makes a difference?

B-rock

I've tried restoring it on two different computers, but I couldn't change the drive letter, etc. on one of them because Disk Management wouldn't open (explorer also froze on this computer, but it freezes sometimes anyway without the iPod). Both were PC's though, so maybe I'll ask around and see if any friends have a Mac I could try.

I just looked at those numbers again above and noticed the crazy high number of Start/Stops. Can you try and reformat it on another PC or Mac and then reconnect it to your main iTunes library?

B-rock