Cannot See Nano in Device Manager, ITunes or Ipod Updater

That's definitely sounds like what happened to me. My new nano was working perfectly for about 3 days. Then I applied the 03-23 updates and it hasn't worked since.

To restore to factory settings I have to run ipod updater, right? I can't get ipod updater to recognize that I have my nano plugged into the USB port on my computer. Unless I'm missing something I can't restore to factory settings.

Today I did find a way to get my computer to recognize my nano, at least briefly. I plugged it into the first port of my USB 2.0 pair and left the second port empty, then rebooted with nano attached. Unbelievably I finally got a "Found new Hardward Apple iPod USB Device" message. The little removable storage icon showed up on the far right of the Start task bar. If I click on it it says "Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device - Drive (F:)". However that's as far as I've gotten it to work. My nano just flashes "Do Not Disconnect." If I try clickly to "safely remove the USB Mass Storage Device" I get a message back that says "The device 'Apple iPod USB Device' cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later." My nano has been flashing "Do Not Disconnect" for approximately 9 hours now, and it was fully charged (via wall plug) before I started. To me this had to be a false message, and I couldn't hear the disk, so I finally unplugged it anyway and got the Delayed Write error message others have posted about.

All I can say is this is an awfully expensive gizmo for something that doesn't work. I spent $250 + accessories + warranty (obviously well over $300) and it worked for three days. I do have the warranty, so I can probably take it back to Best Buy and get a replacement, but I honestly don't think that will make any difference.

I tried googling for HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool and found a page apparently on the HP web site that describes this tool, but when I click on the link to download the tool I get a bad address error. I tried searching the HP site for the tool without success. Any suggestions GailPod? Do you have a working link for the tool you recommended?

Also, I thought my PC was completely current on software. I'm set to receive automatic updates from Microsoft. However I checked the Microsoft site this morning and discovered that while there weren't any High Priority updates that I didn't have, there were 7 optional software updates available that I had not yet installed. I installed those this morning and that has changed the symptoms of my problem.

Prior to installing the updates my computer was not recognizing my nano unless I rebooted with the nano attached. If I did that then I got the "Found New Hardware Apple ipod USB Device" message and the little removable storage icon appeared to the far right of the Start taskbar.

After installing the updates this morning my computer does not recognize my nano at all. Even if I reboot with the nano attached I no longer get the "Found New Hardware..." message and the little icon no longer appears. However, in Device Manager an "Unknown Device" now shows up in the USB list a few seconds after I plug in my nano. I've tried to update the driver for that device, and it says I have the most current driver. I checked c:\windows\inf (per someone else's posting) and I do have usbstor.inf. Based on the last update date it appears to be the original one from when we purchased our computer approximately 4 1/2 years ago.

I continue to be able to successfully plug other devices, such as my Palm, into my USB 2.0 ports. My Palm works fine in either of my two USB 2.0 ports.

Of the 7 updates I installed this morning, 2 were for XP, 2 were for Windows Media Player, 1 was for Windows Connect and 1 was .NET. I guess I'm wondering if the Windows Connect and/or Windows Media Player updates didn't result in the change I've seen today.

It seems like this problem has to be software related. I just wish Microsoft or Apple or both would figure it out. Anyone have any new suggestions?