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iPod Help a complete idiot

sunfast

sunfast

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2005
2,135
53
Guys - whilst getting frustrated trying to transfer a big file from my pc to my Mac I formatted my iPod as NTFS. I didn't know until after I'd done it what an unbelievably stupid thing to do that was.

Anybody know how to fix it?
 
Well that's what I thought but it won't show up in either Windows or OS X. Something I'm doing wrong?

In XP it says the USB device has malfunctioned and nothing at all happens in OS X. I am really going to kick myself if this means new iPod time.
 
Update: I've spent the afternoon on both my Mac and PC and can't get either to recognise or sort out my ****** iPod! Is there maybe some software that will find it and force it to appear / reformat?

I'm really at my wits end facing the journey to work with out an iPod. It's been with me for two year and (pathetically) I'm going to feel quite lost without it :(
 
sunfast said:
Update: I've spent the afternoon on both my Mac and PC and can't get either to recognise or sort out my ****** iPod! Is there maybe some software that will find it and force it to appear / reformat?

I'm really at my wits end facing the journey to work with out an iPod. It's been with me for two year and (pathetically) I'm going to feel quite lost without it :(
Click to expand...

Why not use disk utility in OSX to reformat the iPod HD...
 
A couple of questions/pointers:

Does it show up at all in Disk Utility on the Mac?
Does it show up if you open the iPod Updater utility on either machine?

If not, then possibly the partition table is messed up. In that case, you'll need to do some low level repair in order to restore the partition table -- unfortunately Disk Utility will not do that for you. The exact details of the repair depend on whether you want it to be FAT32 formatted (usable on both PC and Mac) or HFS (Mac only).
 
Also, since your iPod is a 3G, you might want to try connecting it via FireWire instead of USB and see if Disk Utility or the iPod Updater sees it then.

B
 
Thank you all very very much for all the advice.

So far...

bankshot said:
Does it show up at all in Disk Utility on the Mac?
Does it show up if you open the iPod Updater utility on either machine?

If not, then possibly the partition table is messed up. In that case, you'll need to do some low level repair in order to restore the partition table -- unfortunately Disk Utility will not do that for you. The exact details of the repair depend on whether you want it to be FAT32 formatted (usable on both PC and Mac) or HFS (Mac only).
Click to expand...

It doesn't show up in Disk Utility on yhe Mac or iPod updater on either machine. I've tried connecting it to both via USB and FireWire.

I want it formatted Mac only as the PC is on it's way out as soon as I can replace it with a nice Mac laptop.

So I guess I am looking at the low level repair bankshot mentioned. Could you tell me some more about that?

Thanks again.
 
Fixed it!

I forced it into Disk Mode and it then appeared in the iPod updater. And from there it was easy.

Thanks again - I'm so relieved! :) :) :) :) :) :)
 
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