iPod Zero all data on iPod - advice?

[jholzner]

My roommates iPod is acting up. It keeps skipping songs randomly. I've read that others have had this problem and it was fixed by zeroing all data using disk utility and then reinstalling the software. However, I've also read that this wil make the iPod unusable and that it won't allow you to reinstall the iPod software. It seems some have had no problems though. Has anyone here tried this? The theory is that by zeroing all data it will find bad sectors and disable them. I know it's basically a temp fix and that the HD will fail eventually but he would like to buy some time with this tactic. Any advice/help would be much appreciated.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Zeroing all the data on a drive does not kill the drive. But why zero it all out? Just reformat it using the iPod software updater (applications>utilities folder) and see if that takes care of it.

 

[pianoman]

use the iPod updater first. if it still doesn't work, try fooling around with it in disk utility. but the updater is a good first step.

 

[jholzner]

use the iPod updater first. if it still doesn't work, try fooling around with it in disk utility. but the updater is a good first step.

I've done a restore several times and it doesn't help the problem. Once, I started to zero all data but then read about someone having a problem with it so I stopped it part way through and then restored it. It worked much better for a few months so I think the zero all data idea could fix it for a bit longer.

[edit] okay, I bit the bullet and zero'd all data and had no trouble reinstalling the iPod software. It's reloading all the music now. I'm not going to test it to see if it worked since I don't know all the details of the problems he was having. I'll just give it back and have him let me know if it's "fixed." Thanks for you help!