Nano Died - Got a New because of Insurance - Computer Not Findng New Nano

Question

My Nano recently died. I had an insurance policy with the retailer. I took my old one in and they gave me a new nano...but, nothing else...no software, etc.
Can I use the software I got 5 months ago? If so, what the heck is going on? I can't do anything to get my computer to recognize this new ipod.
I've restarted the computer, uninstalled and reinstalled ipod and i tunes software, followed all the instructions I found through technical support, and I can't get the new nano to work.
Specifically, after all the above, I turn on my computer, turn off my Norton security, connect the ipod, and the nano screen reads "Do no disconnect" but I don't hear the nano hard drive turning. itunes doesn't load automatically like it should.
when I run the updater, it asks me to plug in the ipod though it's already plugged in. Eventually the program just freezes.
If I click safely disconnect the device, not only does "Apple IPOD USB Device" show up but also something I'v'e never seen before..."Generic Volume - (E:)" When I try to select disconnect "Generic Volume - (E:)" I get an error message and then my computer whigs out.
I'm using a relatively new laptop and have NEVER had issues with my computer recognizing my old Nano until it died. I'm relatively computer savvy but have literally been working on this for 5 hours.
What is going on? Did I get a faulty replacement? Any help would be appreciated before I throw this thing across the room and/or return it back to the retailer. Thank you!

Answer 1

I recently got an Ipod and experienced somewhat the same as you. I also did what the article about laptops and Power Management with the USB ports said, but this made no difference. Actually I did all kinds of things as suggested by Apple, but neither solved my problem of not being able to run the Ipod Updater and hence iTunes.
Eventually I followed another piece of quite common advice in the forums - I formatted the Ipod myself. Then I ran the most recent Ipod Updater and chose to Restore instead of update. After restoring I started iTunes manually and it picked up the Ipod and let me do the final setup.
I don't use iTunes to manage my music so I specifically selected the option to have iTunes not start automatically and have it recognize the Ipod as a disk/drive, but I suppose you can set it up differently.
In this and other forums there are several posts about how to format the Ipod and the advice I chose to follow was:
1. Put the Ipod in Disk Mode
2. "Kill" the service Ipodservice.exe using Task Manager
3. Format the Ipod using a tool called HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. Set the file system to FAT32 and choose Quick format.
NB! When I click 'Safely disconnect the device' I also have an item called "Generic volume ". From what I understand it tells you that the Ipod has been identified by Windows as a separate drive, just like any other USB drive would.