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iPod hard drive icon...but it's not the hard drive!

thejadedmonkey

thejadedmonkey

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 28, 2005
9,475
4,084
Pennsylvania
I'm plum out of luck. A few days ago my iPod took a dive, and it started skipping songs. then it couldn't find any songs. then it died. It was a sad day, but alas, the iPod had survived 3 years, so I wasn't too bumed out.

I ordered a new hard drive online for $94.50. Then I asked a friend if I could borrow his IDE>1.8" HDD reader. I pulled my iPod's hard drive out and plugged it directly into my computer. My computer recognized i and I could use it just like any other hard drive.

So why does my iPod give me a hard drive error whenever I turn it on?
 
thejadedmonkey said:
I'm plum out of luck. A few days ago my iPod took a dive, and it started skipping songs. then it couldn't find any songs. then it died. It was a sad day, but alas, the iPod had survived 3 years, so I wasn't too bumed out.

I ordered a new hard drive online for $94.50. Then I asked a friend if I could borrow his IDE>1.8" HDD reader. I pulled my iPod's hard drive out and plugged it directly into my computer. My computer recognized i and I could use it just like any other hard drive.

So why does my iPod give me a hard drive error whenever I turn it on?
Click to expand...

It could be that the hard drive is failling it's 'SMART' test, which the iPod checks, but most USB adapters don't.

Or it could be that the iPod's hard drive controller went bad.

I'm leaning toward the iPod detecting a problem that the computer doesn't. Try doing a 'full format', see if it finds any problems.
 
It could be that certain sectors or blocks of your iPods hard drive are corrupt. Have you tried excessing the music of your iPod while plugged in like that.

I wonder if you could use disk utility to see how bad that drive is. Maybe it's fixable?
 
I wonder if you could use disk utility to see how bad that drive is. Maybe it's fixable?
Click to expand...
The adapter I have makes an IDE cable into something you can plug the iPod hard drive into. I only have a mac mini, howeever, so I used my XP box and did a disk check in there, and it didn't tell me that it found any problems (I did not zero the drive, however). I was also able to transfer files onto and off of the iPod, so I don't think it's a disk problem. However, I will plug it in again and check the smart status on it.
<some time later>
This is what it looks like. What you can't see has an OK next to it...BTW, I have no idea what any of this means.
smart.JPG


I also formatted it using the OS X file system, and it still didn't work.

Or it could be that the iPod's hard drive controller went bad.
Click to expand...
How could I check this?

P.S. I zero'd the drive, and it didn't do anything.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
I ordered a new hard drive online for $94.50.
Click to expand...

have you tried this new hd in your ipod yet? if you have it give it a shot, if it works it would rule out everything but the hd and then maybe you can try and repair it.
 
whoops, old info there. sorry. It never actually came...they were having troubles shipping it, and I just canceled it since the drive worked fine as a regular hard drive in my PC.
 
If case anyone else has this problem, the issue was the blue cable that connects the hard drive to the ipod. It's a $10 piece off of ebay and it restored my ipod to working like new!
 
musiclover137 said:
What's the best way to get my 3G iPod opened up. I think I might have a similar problem.
Click to expand...

Get one of the plastic fake credit cards that get sent out with some credit card offers. Take some sandpaper and hold the sandpaper on a table with the rough side up, then hold the edge of the credit card at a 45 degree angle to the sandpaper and rub back and forth. You want to sharpen the edge of the card a little.

Now, carefully work the sharpened edge in between the plastic and the metal of the ipod, slowing easing the metal away from the plastic.

Code: 
 fake credit card
    ||
    ||
    ||
    ||_________________
    \|______iPod_______|
     |                 |
     \_________________/
 
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