iPod Classic fails to restore or reset

A few times now all the music on my iPod just "disappeared".

Once while I was listening to music and it just stopped.

Looking at the iPod screen, it showed no music, no podcasts, no files of any type.

QUESTION: the hold button was on, so button pressing should not have made any difference.

"Where'd it go???"

I was able to restore the iPod and then resynch the music and it worked for a bit.

This time the music is gone and I cannot restore or reset the iPod and have it "take".

When I plug my iPod in both the Finder -and- iTunes will become non-responsive, although not at the same time.

After at least 3 minutes (feels much longer) the iPod will show up on the Desktop and in iTunes.

I've been through the trouble shooting page:

http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/classic/#

I get to the "Restore" section, all of the steps are followed.

All of the screens defined on this page show up as expected.

However, again both the Finder and iTunes will freeze (become unresponsive) for an extended period.

When the iPod shows up in the Finder it has 4 folders: Contacts, Notes, Recordings and Calendar.

The "Notes" folder has a file called "Instructions" in it. The other folders are empty.

When I navigate to the Notes folder to view "Instructions" the Finder will become unresponsive.

Eventually iTunes then shows the expected "Welcome to your new iPod" screen.

The iPod shows "Connected: do not disconnect"

Around this time, the iPod shown in the Finder -may- no longer show any folders.

Clicking on "Continue" I get the "Sync with iTunes" screen in iTunes and the iPod shows either "Connected" or "Synching".

Again, there is a bit of a delay that seems excessive.

The summary screen shows that the iPod is formatted for Macintosh with software 2.0.4

capacity is 148.87 with 148.40 "free" according to the sync bar at the bottom of the page.

Going back to the Finder to see what "Instructions" contains, "Get Info" shows that it is a Unix Executable File of 14 bytes dated 8/20/01

It can be opened with 'Terminal'. The "more info:" section of the Info window keeps spinning. My iPod was purchased in 2010.

Back to iTunes:

"Check for Update" show 2.0.4 is the latest version.

Just for the halibut, I clicked on "Restore iPod" (NOTE: i've been through this same process several times already so I'm just trying something different.)

The same steps as outlined on the troubleshooing page happen.

Stage 2 of the restore showing the progress bar on the iPod happens very rapidly.

The "Welcome" screen shows up on the iPod and then the "connected" screen follows soon there after.

And we're back to the "Welcome to your new ipod" screen in itunes. ITunes becomes unresponsive for a brief period, but much faster than the last restore attempt. All the summary information is the same.

Going to the "Music" tab I add only 717 songs (I mean, why bother to do more unless this works?) The synch bar at the bottom of the frame

shows 137.82 GB free and a blue section shows up. I then add one TV show and a light brown color shows up on the synch bar and 137.27GB is free

I added a couple of podcasts 137.12GB is free.

I click on the "Apply" button and synching starts (Duh, why would that happen? ie why doesn't the button say "sync"?)

The iPod shows "Syncronizing: Do not disconnect"

itunes shows: "Syncing iPod" alternatine with "Syncing Music to ...(Step 2 of 2)"

The sync is complete. iTunes says the sync is complete and that the iPod should be ejected.

I click on the eject button inside of iTunes and a "Synching iPod" dialoge box comes up.

The iPod itself just shows "Connected"

The iPod finally shows "Ok to Disconnect" with a progress bar.

The iPod does not show up in iTunes or in the Finder.

Having disconnected the iPod at this point only to have my music disappear again, I'm waiting to see what happens.

The "Welcome" screen shows up on the iPod and dims. A couple minutes later the iPod shows "Charged" and then it dims.

I disconnect the iPod and select "English".

There is "No Music" "No Podcasts" "No Video".

Settings shows 11.7 GB used and 137GB free.

The "Used" is all "Other". 11.7GB is about the size of the Music and Podcasts that I loaded.

Connecting the iPod again, the iPod shows up in the Finder immediately, but not on iTunes.

The iPod shows "connected eject before disconnecting".

Minutes later, the iPod again shows the Folders listed above in the Finder and iTunes is now "not responding".

Basically, we're back to where we started.

Any clues?