I just bought a used 30GB Gen 5 Classic that came loaded with nearly 20GB of content. The iPod was only used within the previous owner's house, mostly docked, and was always in a case. However, they stopped using it in 2010 so it spent a total of 5 years in service and 11 in storage. Before I wipe it and load it with my own content, I decided to save the content that was present because it was a good mix of pretty much everything.
The iPod was Windows formatted so I brought my old 2012 iMac out of storage (since it dual boots the much older Windows 8; didn't want to try with my main Win11 machine) and put it in disk mode to retrieve the contents. However, for approximately 60% of the copying process (which took hours), I would have to give it a "kick" every now and then as it would spontaneously stall. When the iPod stalled, the image on the screen would freeze (i.e. crossed circle stops flashing, sync icon stops spinning, battery charge icon stops moving) and the drive would stop spinning. The remedy was to keep resetting the iPod. Windows would throw a "device not recognised" message every time the iPod stalled and tell me it malfunctioned. I am using a brand-new genuine Apple cable that I just picked up at the Apple store specifically for this iPod.
For the last 40% of the copying process, the iPod behaved very well and barely stalled on me (only a couple times, after somewhat longer periods of activity with no issues). At first, I was worried that it had a dying drive (which would be no problem for me since it is of legal driving age after all) but the change in behaviour makes me wonder if it just needed a bit of a stretch after sitting unused for more than a decade.
When I'm just using the iPod (navigating the UI and consuming the media), it doesn't seem to have any issues.
The iPod was Windows formatted so I brought my old 2012 iMac out of storage (since it dual boots the much older Windows 8; didn't want to try with my main Win11 machine) and put it in disk mode to retrieve the contents. However, for approximately 60% of the copying process (which took hours), I would have to give it a "kick" every now and then as it would spontaneously stall. When the iPod stalled, the image on the screen would freeze (i.e. crossed circle stops flashing, sync icon stops spinning, battery charge icon stops moving) and the drive would stop spinning. The remedy was to keep resetting the iPod. Windows would throw a "device not recognised" message every time the iPod stalled and tell me it malfunctioned. I am using a brand-new genuine Apple cable that I just picked up at the Apple store specifically for this iPod.
For the last 40% of the copying process, the iPod behaved very well and barely stalled on me (only a couple times, after somewhat longer periods of activity with no issues). At first, I was worried that it had a dying drive (which would be no problem for me since it is of legal driving age after all) but the change in behaviour makes me wonder if it just needed a bit of a stretch after sitting unused for more than a decade.
When I'm just using the iPod (navigating the UI and consuming the media), it doesn't seem to have any issues.
