It appears that my iPod hard drive is dead. This is deeply distressing news. Anyone who has tried fixing the drive in an iPod is welcome to offer advice.
I have also added it to the very top of my Amazon.com wishlist, so interested parties should feel free to support the vital work of TfK that way.
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If your iPod Touch does not work on your Windows XP, you can ...
A. Uninstall and reinstall everything (Hint: Don't actually try ANY of this, it doesn't work!):
Apple, Inc. joke week continues here during an all star World's-Fair-Scheduled-Posts-While-We're-Away Link Week. This one was originally published here, back in 2005, and remains one of my favorites of technology satire.
This week's Casual Friday study was about the hearing loss problem associated with headphone use, and whether readers would adopt a technological solution to the problem.
So why enter one in particular. The SCQ makes a case for their iPod and truth experiment giveaway. It starts:
Josh -
The drives are standard IDE laptop drives that you can get relatively cheaply online and the replacement is easy. See http://www.notpopular.com/blog/comments.php?blogID=63
-john
If you aren't feeling daring enough to fix the 'Pod yourself, but don't want to trash it, an outfit called iPod ResQ out of Olathe does a very good job fixing iPods.
Their URL is here: http://www.ipodresq.com/
I've never used them, but they did a presentation at the Apple Users' Group in Lawrence a few months ago and seem like a pretty sharp group of folks.
Just to rule out the obvious, did you try rebooting it? I only ask because I know a lot of iPod users who aren't aware of the reboot sequence. Hold down Play/Pause+Select until the Apple logo appears (about 15 seconds). Then wait, oh, about 30 seconds for the menu to come up.
My apologies if you've already been through this. My old iPod needed to be rebooted every couple of days, especially after the hard drive neared ~90% full.
I'm afraid I did try rebooting. It's the "click of death."
As for replacing the hard drive, it seems pretty expensive compared to the price of just replacing the thing. A new drive would cost $100-150. It's 2-3 years old now, so the battery is probably due for replacement, adding $40-50 while I've got it opened up.
I dunno, I just feel naked without it.
Josh, if it's any consolation, you can get a 30G video iPod at WalMart for $200; for the Generation 6 version, expect to pay $249. I hear a 60G version is coming out soon, so prices on the smaller ones are dropping.
My iPod defied attempts at resuscitation, too. The Sad Frowny Face of Death still haunts me.