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After installation of Itune 11.0.5 on Win Vista, the Ipod stopped syncing and showed errors. Itune now freezes/does not show the Ipod after repeated Restore etc.

I use a 160 GB IPod Classic with ITunes on Win Vista. My Itunes library contains about 100 GB of music.


Recently, after installation of Itune 11.0.5 on Win Vista, the Ipod stopped syncing and began to show errors and hang up. I have tried 5 R, Format (Windows), Scan (Windows), Reset, and Restore again and again. After Restore, the Itunes and Windows Explorer hang or Itunes does not show the IPod at all. Sometimes, ITunes finds IPod corrupt repeatedly and prompts for restore. I have followed instructions in http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1372, without success.


Chkdsk initially did not find errors. But the disk check with the IPOD utility (Reset followed by Menu+Rewind), however shows very poor health of the disk. But why did the problem appear suddenly after Itunes update? Chance? Or is there any poosiblity that the update might have some flaw. Or can there be any other reason and hope for getting back the IPod?


Any help welcome.

iPod classic 160GB (Late 2009), Windows Vista, Other machines: IPad and IPhone

Posted on Aug 31, 2013 1:43 AM

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Posted on Aug 31, 2013 2:10 AM

The iPod has a database of all the media it contains. When the drive starts to deteriorate it may initially show up as songs that skip as the disk struggles to read the data for that particular file, however if the area containing the database becomes unreliable then the normal operation of the device becomes compromised. This can typically happen during an update as the old database is replaced with a new one which will be stored on a different area of the disk.


Try the DFU restore method in Corrupt iPod classic. If you can get all the problem sectors mapped out there may be further life in the device. Alternatively you could investigate the options for replacing the hard drive.


tt2

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Question marked as Best reply

Aug 31, 2013 2:10 AM in response to atanu2013

The iPod has a database of all the media it contains. When the drive starts to deteriorate it may initially show up as songs that skip as the disk struggles to read the data for that particular file, however if the area containing the database becomes unreliable then the normal operation of the device becomes compromised. This can typically happen during an update as the old database is replaced with a new one which will be stored on a different area of the disk.


Try the DFU restore method in Corrupt iPod classic. If you can get all the problem sectors mapped out there may be further life in the device. Alternatively you could investigate the options for replacing the hard drive.


tt2

Aug 31, 2013 3:26 AM in response to turingtest2

TT2


I have benefitted from your several posts. And this one is no exception.


While u posted, I was formatting the IPod (for 5th time) and then I DFU restored, as you suggested. The IPod has come back.


I had earlier followed the normal restore route. With that, usually, IPod would not show up on ITune and ITune would get hung. This time with, DFU however, the IPod showed up. I have blank synced it -- I cleared all sync selections and pressed the sync button. I now have an empty IPod that at least is shown in ITune.


But this had happened earlier also. As long as I was syncing/adding 10-20 songs, it would be OK. But the IPod would stop during bigger syncs. Let us see what happens now. I am not going to add anything to it for 2 days. Let it rest. 🙂



Thanks again.

Aug 31, 2013 3:56 AM in response to atanu2013

It may well be that adding the extra content forced the library up into a problem area of the disk that had never been used before. Once there any attempt to sync the device becomes erratic until the the files are deleted and the drive maps out those sectors to prevent further use. As far as I'm aware the version of iTunes used should have no bearing on when these kind of issues come to light. It is typical however of hard drive issues that everything seems to work fine until it doesn't. Drives often fail completely with no obvious prior symptoms, or the signs that have been there are put down to other things.


tt2

Aug 31, 2013 7:12 AM in response to atanu2013

You probably need to reformat again or use DFU restore. The pending count reduces when they file/directory stored in that sector is deleted. As long as there is still room in the space reserved for reallocations the affected sectors will transfer from the pending list to the reallocated list and the drive should no longer attempt to use those sectors. Depending on the reason for the failure you may find that after a few attempts all the unreliable sectors get identified and mapped out, or conversely it may be that as a larger area of the disk is explored more problems come to light. The 16 showing now are probably not a subset of the 32 listed earlier, but newly discovered problem areas. You'd need to pay attention to both numbers to get a better idea.


tt2

Sep 15, 2013 11:38 PM in response to turingtest2

I have struggled for a few weeks with repeated frustrating results. Main problems were freezing, iPod not showing music after update, skipping of songs (when update succeded), and not able to set up 'on-the-go' playlist etc..


But finally I discovered that it was all due to simple problem with windows often assigning same drive letter to different USB devices. I noted that when I yanked out the 3G data card from a USB port, the iPod vanished from the iTunes.


I also realise that the initial problem of bad sectors also began due to this windows problem of assigning same drive letter to different USB devices.


This problem is now apparently solved when I manually changed the drive letters for all the devices that I connect. This can be done from the Disk Management console in Computer Management utility, which is availabe by right clicking the computer icon in Windows.


I could sync 90 GB of music at one go and now the 'On-The-Go' playlist function of iPod is working fine. Although, due to the many untimely yanking out of the iPod, when it was frozen or something was being written on to it, the hard disk now shows poor state in terms of Reallocs.


Another problem that some others have also noted is that the iPod will not sync beyond 2-3GB etc. I think that might have something to do with temperature. I could sync the full 90 GB at one go. I did this in very cool ambience. Skipping and or not reading a music was another common problem all through this trial process. This is mainly due to hard disk problem but it can be solved to some extent by defragmenting or by full formatting the iPod.


But the main problem was Windows assgining same drive letter to iPod, 3G data disk and another external hard disk.



I hope some will find this useful.

Sep 17, 2013 9:57 PM in response to turingtest2

he he. But you are perhaps not fully correct. As long as I can enjoy 'The Fate' of Beethoven, attaching the iPod to my bigger systems that can rouse the whole community, it is not yet a paperweight.


Is there no way to mark out the bad sectors out of existence?


This iPod is not old. My 30 GB iPod is old but has no problem. The 160GB one is a recent purchase of 2011. I am sure that the bad sectors are caused not by any inherent problem of the HD, but due to USB port conflict causing 'Policy Paralysis' in the system leading to hang ups etc., and then frequent yanking off of the iPod due to my restlessness and impatience. I am almost sure that this started the problem.


Now, that the IPod otherwise is working OK, will Apple or someone suggest some way to mark out the bad sectors out of existence?

Sep 21, 2013 3:02 AM in response to turingtest2

Yes. DFU should solve the problem of hanging of PC, iTunes, or the iPod. But for some songs it keeps happening.


Now this problem is also overcome -- again as best as it could be under the circumstance. All music that were in wav or m4a formats were getting stuck or skipping. So now i have taken out copy of these songs and have replaced these with lower bit rate versions. I am sticking with 320 at present. Let us see.


I hope that a few more people benefit from this exercise.

Sep 24, 2013 1:45 AM in response to turingtest2

Hi TT2 and others who may read this


It has been almost 2 months when I have spent most time on the iPod. It has been a difficult and restless time.


Finally, I have found that the full formatting and the DFU/Restore will not solve the problem of bad sectors/blocks in the HDD. One will only waste time doing that repeatedly. If there are bad sectors/blocks in the HDD, there will be freezes, or no show of music in iPod after an apparent succesful sync or no show of iPod on iTunes etc. It is very frustrating.


To cut the story short and so that others who face the same problem may be helped, I have noted the steps that brought back my iPod fully.


1. I ran a surface scan of the full HDD (It may be easier to first fast format (FAT32) the HDD and create several partitions and check each partition through suface scan). Usually, as it happened in my case, the faults may be located in a part of the HDD. In my case, errors were found in the first 7% of the HDD only. At 7% any work would freeze. Rest of the HDD was found perfect with 0 errors shown during the suface scan.

2. I put the HDD into disk mode and formatted it with FAT32 and then restored the iPod through iTunes.

3. After restoing the iPod firmware on the full 148GB FAT 32 formatted HDD, I performed a resize/ move operation and shifted the active part with iPod firmware on it to the later 85 % of the HDD, leaving the first 15% of the HDD unassigned (The HDD has error on the first 7%).

4. I put the iPod in disk mode and ran a chkdsk with /r parameter. Found no error in the active 129 HDD.

5. I attached the iPod to iTunes. At this stage it shows 129GB available. I just synced my full library of 100 GB. When sync complete message came up, I clicked the 'sync' button at the right lower bottom side of each page to ensure that nothing was pending.

6. I ejected the iPod from iTunes.


And the iPod is working perfect. 😀


Note:

1. I used EaseUS partition Master free SW for formating and resize/move operation. During operations related to the HDD involving windows OS (such as formatting, checking disk, surface scanning, partitioning, resizing etc), I disabled Apple Mobile and iPod services in Computer Management panel and kept the iPod in disk mode.

2. After resize/move opeartion, a Restore or DFU should not be done, as this restores the iPod for full 148GB, including all the error sectors.


Hope this hepls others who are facing the same problem. I note that although, I have tried to note the precise sequence which brought back at leact 129 GB of the HDD, the actual events were not so systematic. The effort left me drained.


Best Wishes.

After installation of Itune 11.0.5 on Win Vista, the Ipod stopped syncing and showed errors. Itune now freezes/does not show the Ipod after repeated Restore etc.

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