4th Gen iPod will not mount or connect to Windows

Hello Bill, thanks for your response

When I attempt to do this, the following happens:

1 - Windows makes the noise that a peripheral device has been connected
2 - the iPod shows the "Do not disconnect" sign and sounds like the internal drive is stuck in a loop (whir, stop, pause, whir, stop, pause, etc)
3 - I open Computer Management>>Disk Management and I get the following message "Connecting to Logical Disk Manager service..." - This lasts some time
4 - I then get the another message at the bottom of Computer Management which says "Still connecting, please wait..." - This lasts some time before the meesage from point 3 (above) is repeated, then point 4's message is repeated.
5 - Throughout all of this time, the window to the right of Computer Management which should display the my HDD (C) and my external HDD (E), as well as the iPod (formerly F) remains ligth gray and displays no icons/letters/symbols

I can leave the PC and iPod for over an hour with nothing else happening 😟

I was going to attempt to remap a netwrok drive this way but the darn iPod jsut causes everything else to freeze up or get stuck in a loop.

I have tried resetting and restoring the ipod before, and I have put it into disk mode too (in order to restore it) but the ipod updater said it could not mount it

However, I did try Deanz advice by putting it into disk mode whilst attached to the mains and then connecting it to the PC has at least enabled me to see it in "My Computer" for the first time as (the "F" drive), even if iTunes is not recognising it.

However, when I attempt to see the ipod in Disk Management I get the same problem outlined above in an earlier post (grey screen).

If I try to browse the iPod via My computer that task freezes. Task Manager claims the function is "not responding"

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Anyway, all my music is backed up so that's not a problem. The iPod works, but I can't update it so it could be worse. Not really sure how to remap the iPod to a different drive letter

[edit] During the process of closing down the non-responsive "My Computer", Windows had a major gimp out and completely froze me out until I reset the ipod an put it back into disc mode (again). Then Windows reappeared in the same state before it crashed. I suspect this is due to some kind of conflict with the iPod as it has done this a few times now since my iPod started acting up (and only when the iPod is connected).

Thinking of some elaborate home insurance claim now..............

I couldn't find the diagnostic test you mentioned. However I did manage to access teh Diagnostic mode on the ipod myself:

Reset then press when the Apple logo shows, press the Select and Back buttons. You get the following:

* 5 In 1
* RESET
* KEY
* CHGRCUR
* REMOTE
* HP STAT
* SLEEP
* BATT A2D
* A2D STAT
* FIREWIRE
* HDD R/W
* SMRT DAT
* HDD SCAN
* READ SN
* DISKMODE
* WHEEL
* CONTRAST
* AUDIO
* STATUS
* DRV TEMP
* IRAM TEST

I ran HDD R/W whcih appears to be a HDD Test and got the message "HDD PASS TEST END"

I then ran SMRT DAT which read "RETRACTS 661 REALLOCS 0 PENDING 0"

I then ran HDD SCAN which read "START.... HDD PASS"

I then ran IRAM TEST which read "TESTING" for more than 5 mins without doing much before I reset it

The thing is I'm not really sure what I'm looking for here - perhaps some way to reformat? Anyone know what this stuff means? I did notice that the SMRT SCAN option is missing :-/

Well, it gets stranger - I can sometimes see the ipod in My Computer now - it appears as the E drive. However, when I go to Run>>cmd>>chkdsk /f <e> I get told that "The syntax of the command is incorrect" - not sure what I'm doing wrong here

Whn I plug th ipod in a system dialouge box opens asking me if I want Realplayer 10.5 to manage the device. If I select yes, then it allows me to browse the music contents of the ipod. Strange!

Right - I managed to access CHKDSK by using the following:

cmd
e:
cd\
chkdsk /f

But i was informed that the device was being used by something else and that it was unable to be locked this time. It then gives me the option to force a dismount or not and that I would have to check on restart.

When I restart with the ipod connected, it still doesn't appear in My Computer (although if I leave it long enough the system dialogue box may open with the option to either manage the ipod with Real or take no action


EDIT - I renistalled itunes (again!) after the Real player incident and it now seems like my ipod appears in itunes now....

Hello,

When I ran the test it took less than 2 minutes to complete but my iPod is faulty at the minute so I'm not sure if that tim eis truly indicative of what others should be

Hi again Bill

Thanks for sticking at this with me and poiting me in the right direction - it really is appreciated.

OK - I've been able to get the iPod and the PC to speak to each other recently (without having correctly run chkdsk). However, my iPod did lose about 11 gb of music that was on it for an unknown reason.

Reinstalling iTunes caused me a couple of problems this weekend too - I had to re-import my library (losing playlists and song ratings along the way GRRRRRRR). I run 3 iPods off the 1 library so I have a playlist dedicated to each iPod which updates automatically when an iPod is connected.

When I last connected the problematic iPod it began to update the revised playlist (I think it had about 2500 tunes to update from the 11 gb which went missing). However about 500 tunes in, the iPod got stuck in a loop, and windows gave me the following warning:

\iPod_Control\Music\F22\FOFW.mp3 is corrupt and unreadable please run the chkdsk utility

This is what I'm doing now. I managed to conenct the ipod and disable auto updates and I'm running the /r parameter. We shall see how it goes

BTW I miskeyed the another chksdk utility this morning before geting the /r feature to work - i typed this:

chkdsk e:f

It seemed to run a diagnostic of sorts but would not FIX the ipod due to me not selecting /f. However I did get a long list of errors which looked like this:

The \iPod_Control\Music\F41\WDCV.m4a entry contains a non-valid link.
The size of the \iPod_Control\Music\F41\WDCV.m4a is not valid.
...
The \iPod_Control\Music\F22\FOFW.mp3 first allocation unit is not valid. The entry will be truncated
...
\iPod_Control\iTunes\iTunesControlis cross-linked on allocation unit 255. Cross link resolved by copying

It then goes on to list a range bad links in lost chain clusters, some of which are tuncated before asking me to convert the lsot chains to files y/n? I selected no at this point as I ad run the wrong chkdsk