Corrupt iPod classic

these are my first stats these are my second

retracts 13

reallocs 13216 13392

pending sectors 3160 2984

power on hours 203 204

start stops 25552 25561

temp current 34c

temp min 3c

temp max 62c

what do you suggest?

my ipod was working fine until it got synced by mistake, and i lost all my music. When i tried syncing to my library it got up to 10000 songs and then it froze. this happened a bunch of times ,freezing at different points. i tried to only copy 50 songs at a time, but after 300 songs it started going slow again.

P.S. will apple replace my ipod? (im still within the first year of buying it)

Thanx alot

Thank you SO MUCH! I'm so happy I could cry. 😁😁 I've been searching the internet how to solve this problem I had with my Classic from 2007 (holy crap it's 10 years old!) I only recently had this problem maybe 3 months ago after restoring just because my computer said there was an error on the disk everytime I plugged in the iPod. I tried resetting, restoring with no luck - had to manually add songs (20 at a time), still froze eventually.

Thank you! So far, I've added 7 GB back on and it seems to be working and fast!

That's what I was doing, and it still randomly freezes...although, after it freezes for a bit, the iPod almost boots itself off my computer...so, it shows 'syncing' when it syncs, and then when my iTunes freezes, the iPod shows 'connected' for a minute or so, then goes to the main screen like it's been disconnected and the computer thinks so too. Now, my computer is trying to sync the ipod again (without me doing anything - I was filling this out). 'Finishing sync' shows in iTunes...appears to be frozen. Now, I finally get an error message "The ipod "Krysta's iPod" cannot be synced because it cannot be read from or written to." I click OK and the iPod is completely disconnected from the computer. Is not showing in iTunes.

I can start this whole process over again by unplugging and plugging the iPod back in the usb.

Not sure if this is pretty much what others have dealt with the freezing process.

Does the device seem to be getting warm? Can you sync a smaller amount then let it rest before trying again? Any change in the stats?

You can try spanking your iPod or open up the case and attempt to re-seat the hard drive connector. Either approach is at your own risk, but if isn't working now it would seem you don't really have much to lose.

tt2

I realize that this thread hasn't been active for a while, but I'm desperate. I got a refurbished iPod classic 120gb and a couple of months ago, all of a sudden it would not play any songs when it was connected to any device (at the time that the iPod stopped working it was plugged into my car's "media" player) or headphones. It just kept skipping to the next song but would not play. The songs play fine in iTunes. I tried to restore the iPod but when I connect the iPod and open iTunes i get "iTunes has detected an iPod in recovery mode. You must restore this iPod before it can be used with iTunes." I hit the OK button, click "restore iPod," another window pops up and says "iTunes has detected an iPod in recovery mode. You must restore this iPod before it can be used with iTunes." I click "Restore" and immediately get another window that says "The iPod could not be restored. An unknown error occurred 1434)." I have tried to do all of the steps listed and used different cords, but so far nothing has worked. I have a 2013 MacBook Air, and I've done the Disk Utility/First Aid and the only thing it says when I run the First Aid is that it was completed. I have also tried erasing the iPod from this section too but I just keep getting error messages that say "Unable to write to the last block of the device" and that the operation failed. When I try the Restore option from the Disk Utility it immediately pops up with a red stop sign and says "Validating target..., Validating source..., The volume on device "/dev/disk0" is not of type Apple_HFS or Apple_UFS, Could not validate source - Device not configured, Operation failed…" And when I go to check the diagnostics, sometimes I get a "ERROR Diag Halt" message, and other times the only specs I can get from it are Temp: current 32c, min 0c, and max 0c. I don't even see any stats for Retracts, Reallocs, Pending Sector, PowerOn Hours, Start/Stops. I have no idea what else to do or if the iPod is still salvageable. Any help r insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Restore it again, then try the Break up large transfers process from Corrupt iPod Classic.

tt2

Here are a number of things to try...

Recover media from a manually managed iPod

What follows are tips for restoring your iPod, but if it is the only location currently hosting some of your media then the first task is to try to extract it. See the user tip Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device for some recovery tools. Most third party tools will probably require the device to have a functioning library however the techniques outlined in the iLounge Article referenced at the end should work as long as the device still shows up in Windows Explorer or Finder.

Check your iPod with Diagnostics Mode

It is possible that your iPod's hard drive has started to fail. Take your iPod and place your right thumb on the centre SELECT button and your left on the top MENU button. Press down both thumbs for about 6 seconds until your iPod reboots. Immediately move your left thumb around to the rewind button |<< on the left and hold this down together with SELECT for a further 6 seconds. Your iPod should now switch into Diagnostic Boot mode. Press MENU for Manual Test, then select IO > HardDrive > HDSMARTData to reveal your stats. For comparison here are mine taken when my 6th Generation Classic was about 2 years old:

Retracts: 889
Reallocs: 12
Pending Sectors: 0
PowerOn Hours: 2202
Start/Stops: 894
Temp: Current 24c
Temp: Min 10c
Temp: Max 50c

Take a note of your results. When finished press MENU+SELECT for 6 seconds to reset the iPod again.

With modern disc drives sectors are no longer marked bad by a disc scan, if the SMART firmware detects a sector it has trouble accessing it will attempt to invisibly reallocate it to a spare area of the disc.

Note that I've only 12 remapped sectors and none pending. To help explain what the numbers mean here is an extract from the Wikipedia S.M.A.R.T. article:

Reallocated Sectors Count
Count of reallocated sectors. When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping, and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps. This is why, on modern hard disks, "bad blocks" cannot be found while testing the surface – all bad blocks are hidden in reallocated sectors. However, as the number of reallocated sectors increases, the read/write speed tends to decrease. The raw value normally represents a count of the number of bad sectors that have been found and remapped. Thus, the higher the attribute value, the more sectors the drive has had to reallocate.

Pending sector count
Number of "unstable" sectors (waiting to be remapped, because of read errors). If an unstable sector is subsequently written or read successfully, this value is decreased and the sector is not remapped. Read errors on a sector will not remap the sector (since it might be readable later); instead, the drive firmware remembers that the sector needs to be remapped, and remaps it the next time it's written.

Large numbers of Reallocs or Pending Sectors would suggest your drive is failing and that you may need to repair or replace your iPod. Check your stats after another attempt to update your iPod. If the numbers increase that again points to hard drive failure. While it won't be good news at least you'll know it isn't some random software problem and you can decide what to do next.

Check iPod hard-drive for errors

Assuming the diagnostics give the drive a clean bill of health it may still be worth checking the drive for logical file system errors.

Hold MENU+SELECT on the iPod for about 6 seconds until it resets, then switch to PLAY+SELECT as soon as the Apple logo appears, again for about 6 seconds to put the machine in disk mode. Open iTunes and in the Devices tab of the preferences menu check Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically. Now connect your iPod to the computer, wait until it connects, then close iTunes.

Windows: 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 (Optional - takes ages but a good idea if you've reason to suspect physical damage). Click Start.

Mac: 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.

DFU Restore

If the device still won't restore normally try this method. Connect the device to the USB cable, press MENU+SELECT like a standard reset but keep holding for 12 seconds. The device should reboot as normal and then the screen should go blank. Now open iTunes and try to restore again.

Reformat Drive

If all else fails try Erase your iPod - The Super Fix for most iPod Problems. Basically a low level format of the iPod’s hard drive to get around whatever problems are stopping iTunes from restoring it properly.

Break up large transfers

Once you've restored your iPod don't rush to dump all the data back exactly as it was before. I have found that lots of large or complex smart playlists can sometimes trigger constant reboots or dumping of the iPod's library. In addition, larger transfers can fail leaving data in an inconsistent state. Try this technique for populating the iPod in stages.

In iTunes select the menu item File... New Smart Playlist. Change the first drop-down box to Playlist, the next to is and the next to Music or whatever playlist holds the bulk of the content you want on your device. Tick against Limit to, type in say 10, then change the drop-down to GB, and set the last drop-down to artist. When you click OK you can enter a name for the playlist, e.g. Transfer.

Now sync this playlist to your iPod rather than your entire library. When the sync is complete modify the rule (File... Edit playlist) to increase the size by your chosen amount, then sync and repeat. You can experiment with different size increments, if it doesn't work just choose something a bit smaller until it works each time. Before long you should have all your music on your iPod. Once that's done you can move on to other media such as podcasts, videos, photos, playlists, etc.

tt2

Here are my stats:

Retracts: 11Reallocs: 0Pending Sectors: 8PowerOn Hours: 2732Start/Stops: 36783Temp: Current 27cTemp: Min 1cTemp: Max 55c

Same problem, ipod classic 80gb from 2007 and I have never had problems with it until itunes was updated. I reinstalled an older version of itunes (10.3.1.55) but it still freezes whenever I plug in my ipod. The ipod itself still works when I use it but there's no way I can add music to it now because of the freezing.

Is there anything else I can do or will I need to reformat the whole thing?

Max. temp is a little high. The chances are that iTunes wants to read something in those pending sectors which is why it freezes. Restoring or reformatting the drive should free those up to be replaced with more reliable ones.

tt2

Is there anyway to delete the pending sectors? I don't really want to reformat my ipod and lose all that music :/

The pending sectors can only be released if the file or folder they are part of is deleted, Since there is no way to get that information deleting all data is the only realistic approach. You should have copies of all media on the device in your library, and that should be backed up too.

tt2

I have an ipod classic that is a few years old that keeps appearing as corrupted.

These were the stats I got:

Retracts 4

Reallocs 2848

Pending Sectors 0

Power on hours 123

starts/ stops: 11004

temp: current: 32 degrees c

min: 0 degrees c

max: 53 degrees c

When I did it a second time after trying to restore again the only thing that changed was starts and stops (to 11011)

Should I be replacing it or is it still fixable?

Thanks

Max. temp of 62 suggests you've let it get too hot at some point which may be the root of the problem, or it could be a symptom of the fact that the drive is having to work too hard to retrieve data. I can't answer for Apple, but it isn't likely to make a spontaneous recovery. I guess you could make an appointment with your local Genius Bar and see what they say.

tt2

thanx alot.

does it make sense that the reallocs keep going up but at the same time the pending sectors are going down? because these are my numbers after a bunch of attempts.

First attempt Second Third Fourth

retracts 13

reallocs 13216 13392 14208 14544

pending sectors 3160 2984 2168 1832

power on hours 203 204 214

start stops 25552 25561 25569 25590

temp current 35c 33c

temp min 3c

temp max 62c

P.S. Does it make sense that i cant even copy files onto the ipod in disk mode?