iPod How to get around bad sectors on iPod

[djsven]

My 160GB iPod Classic has bad sectors at the beginning of the drive (only in the first 200MB or so), where iTunes likes to put the firmware files.

Is there a way I can partition / delete this space so that I can force iTunes to put the firmware somewhere else in the available 159.8GB on the drive?

(Yes I've tried everything else: resetting, restoring, disk mode, diagnostic mode, etc)

 

[backwardsK126]

I have the same problem with an 80g classic. No matter what I do it doesn't work. Try to run CHKDSK maybe it will pick something up that you haven't seen before. I took it to an apple genius and they told me that I needed to replace the hard drive (although I haven't ordered a replacement for it yet)

 

[djsven]

I have tried chkdsk. It does nothing.
The silly thing is that I actually know where the bad sectors are... I just need to avoid them.