'Cannot be read from or written to' problem..

I have an ipod mini 4gb.
When I plug it in and start syncing my songs it says
'The disk could not be read from or written to'
what does this mean?
Is it my songs that are damaged or my ipod?
All my songs play fine in itunes.
Im getting the new ipod nano soon.
Will it also affect this?
pleas help.
thanks

Have you had a chance to look at this troubleshooting page? It may be of some help: "Disk cannot be read from or written to" when syncing iPod

Similar Messages

Disk cannot be read from or written to

When transferring files from a Windows XP Pro system to an iPod Nano, I will get an error the gist of which is "Disk cannot be read from or written to". The error is repeatable and only occurs on certain files. The nano is connected via a USB 1.1 port through a hub. (The machine has no USB 2.0 ports.) You can load other files with no problem both before and after the error appears; but not on the file which caused the problem.
The problem smells like a firmware bug.
(Note: I tried all of the standard resets and other workarounds - updater, etc. None of that works.)
iPod Nano Windows XP Pro

I have been getting the same error as well. The only thing I can figure out is to restore your ipod with an older version of the updater. I fortunately had an older version on my laptop, restored it to factory default, put it back on my pc where I originally had it, opened up itunes 5.0.1 (it wanted to update it to the newer version I had on my pc but I told it no) and I have been able to save songs. I tried the advice of others to reformat my ipod with the computer management and that didn't work either. I uninstalled, reinstalled, uninstalled, reinstalled, yada yada which did nothing. The only thing I have been successful with is using an older version of the updater. I can't figure out why the newer version won't work but every time I update, I get errors like you are having. I can save files to the ipod as well as songs with the older version. I can drag and drop files to the ipod using my computer as well. Can't do that when I update to a newer version of the ipod updater. Hope this helps and if anyone has any other insight into my problem, it would be greatly appreciated.

2nd iPod in a row saying "Disk cannot be read from or written to." Help!

My setup is as following:
MacBook Pro 2.16 Ghz Intel Core Duo
Mac OS X 10.5.2
Lacie 250GB External Hard Drive attached via Firewire
iPod Classic 160GB Black
iTunes 7.6.2 - Library has about 16,000 songs
Using the above setup, my 5th Generation iPod, my iPhone, and my iPod Nano all work just fine. My newly purchased iPod Classic however, refuses to work. Here is the story so far...
I have all of my music on my external hard drive. On the external, there is a folder entitled "iTunes." Inside of that, there are 2 folders. One entitled "Album Artwork" and on entitled "iTunes Music." The music folder contains all of the actual AAC and Mp3 files that makeup my iTunes Library. The actual library data itself, the files entitled "iTunes Library" and "iTunes Library.xml" are on my computer HD, in User>Music>iTunes. Now, I dont know why the library file is on the computer when all the music is on the external, but maybe thats just the way that works.
Anyway, I plugged in the new iPod Classic, it started to sync, and about 15 minutes in, I got a pop up box that said "iPod Sync failed. Disk cannot be read from or written to." So I did a few things to try to make it work. I reinstalled iTunes, I restored the iPod a few times. I set it to only sync music and not TV shows or Movies or Podcasts or Photos. I tried to sync it again. Nothing worked. So, thinking I had a bad iPod, I brought it to the store and swapped it out for a new one. Not a "new" one, but one from the back, so it was refurbished. I tried that. It still didn't work. So I called Apple tech support.
Tech support had me set my iPod for Manual use, and then alphabetically import songs by artists. In other words, bring over all the "A" artists, followed by the "B" artists and so on...So I did that, I got to importing a few songs by Cyndi Lauper, and it got to one song, called "Shine" and the error message came up. So I figured, there it was, the corrupted file. So I deleted it from my computer, and proceeded to go on importing manually, just in case. Well I continued for a while, and at the end of the day, there were about 100 songs that would not copy over. These were songs that worked just fine when you played them through iTunes, and worked just fine on all my other iPods.
So I manually transferred over all the songs that worked, which was about a 100 less than my full library. Along the way, instead of deleting the corrupted songs, I unchecked them. After I did the full manual transfer, I set up the iPod to an automatic sync, only syncing over songs that are checked, thinking the unchecked ones, the corrupted ones, would not even try to be transferred over and it work fine.
I was wrong. With the sync, this time it stopped on a song that was not corrupted the first time around. Not knowing what to do, I ejected my iPod, and it wouldn't eject. It said "iPod appears to be corrupt, please click restore." So I did that, thinking this would finally fix it, since the computer realized the iPod was messed up. I was wrong again. It didn't do anything, it just made it so I could eject my iPod.
So I'm now on my 2nd iPod classic. I've done what Tech Support has told me to do. Now I need help. Badly.

I had similar problems, it was a nightmare and on a 3 month ipod too!. I use a Powerbook G4 at home and a G5 at work - both were returning the same problems. so I sent it off to apple, they quickly sent it back saying there was nothing wrong with and it didn't need to be repaired. I tried it again and the same problems occurred "disc cannot be written to or read from." I could copy 20 songs onto it at the very most. A couple of guys at my work suggested updating it on a PC, then adding tunes via my mac as normal - guess what!? it works a treat!?. How ridiculous is that!? an Apple product works best on a PC. these generations of ipods are obviously designed to work best on Intel based Macs. What is wrong Apple? are you abandoning the G-generation!? still, atleast my ipod works for now - it will prove a problem when I have to update the iPod's software since I don't own a PC or an intel-based Mac.

IPod partially syncs & I get "Disk cannot be read from or written to"mssg.

Here's my initial problem:I think I Blew It. Tried to move iTunes from OS (C:) to DATA (D:). First I now realize that I should have come here first. But I didn't. I basically copied all of my iTune files into DATA (D:) and deleted them from OS (C:). Now when I open iTunes nothing is there. I left a couple of folders that wouldn't transfer from (C:) to (D:). One is a temp file 2, another is iTunes Music Library XML. doc. My iTunes music folder is empty and my iTunes library folder is pretty much empty too. The folders in DATA (D:) still have my 30 GB of music. So I wonder if I can undo this fiasco?
Here's where I am at today:Well I somehow got my library back. But I think I now have a couple copies of it on different drives. I configured the iTunes settings to feed off D drive but my problem now is I can't sync my ipod completely. I get the infamous "Disk cannot be read from or written to" when syncing iPod" message. I've tried restoring the ipod, creating a sync folder,checking and getting windows updates, and enabling the disc. I'm totally lost here.Please help all wise ones....

Let me add the advice Polydorus gave me to get back library: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1327455&tstart=0 You haven't give enough information to tell exactly what the problem is.
Did you copy the iTunes folder to the d: drive, this folder contains the library databases and the iTunes Music folder.
If you did that, you can try starting iTunes with the shift key held down, when asked to choose a library, navigate to the iTunes folder on the external drive and choose iTunes Library.itl.
This only works if you copied the iTunes folder and you had a default arrangement with all your music files in the iTunes Muisc folder in the iTunes folder.
If you didn't do that and you don't mind losing your counts, ratings and playlists you can do the following:
I am going to assume that you still have your iTunes folder on the c:drive. Close iTunes and drag iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Music library.xml out of the iTunes folder to the desktop.
Then open iTunes and an empty library is created, first go to Editit>>Preferences>>Advance>>Gneral and check that the location of the iTunes Music folder is correctly set, then add the iTunes Music folder to iTunes with File>>Add folder to library. If you have music in other folders, you add those too.
Note that these two possibilities do not cover all eventualities, you will need to explain exactly what you did for further advice. POST NOTE: I basically drug the libray to the desktop and opened iTunes with the shift key held down, when asked to choose a library, I did and it came back.

"The disk cannot be read from or written to" or

I recently updated my itouch software to the 3.1.2 software and when i restored it like I was supposed to my songs synced onto my itouch but you couldn't see them. On my computer it said my music was on my itouch but when I went to my library on my itouch, it said that my library was empty. When i plug my itouch into a different computer and turn it off and back on the music pops up. when i try to sync A message will come up and say the disk cannot be read from or written too and another pops up and says the required disk cannot be found. Does anybody have any idea how to fix this problem because i'm going on a trip in a couple weeks, and i want my ipod to be working?

bday10 wrote:
when i try to sync A message will come up and say the disk cannot be read from or written to
have you seen click this KB ?

This iPod cannot be read from or written to

I have a 5th gen 30GB iPod that's about 18 months old and has been working fine until recently.
When I connect the iPod to the computer (2Ghz Macbook, 1GB memory, 80GB HD, OSX 10.4.8, iTunes 7.0.1), a message comes up saying "This disk cannot be read from or written to". The iPod itself works fine, but I'd dearly love to be able to update it! I am reluctant to erase it to find the error because I use it every day.
I don't have access to any other computers with iTunes installed, so I don't know if the problem lies with the iPod or the MacBook. Should I update iTunes/OSX?
Does anyone have any idea what's up with my iPod? I hope it's not dying...

The mystery deepens! Althout the iPod SAYS it can't be read from or written to, it is apparently being written to - I found some tracks on it this morning that definitely weren't there when I connected it last night. I didn't update iTunes or anything.
I guess my question is now "Why on earth is the computer displaying this message when it's not true?" I'm not sure about upgrading because I read that the latest version doesn't allow you to get songs off your iPod onto iTunes - which ***** if you suffer a HD failure or even just buy a new computer!

IPod cannot be read from or written to on desktop but is fine on Macbook

I just got my iPod replaced (it was actually still under warranty when it died, I was astonished!) and my desktop keeps insisting that it cannot be read from or written to, yet when I plug it into my Macbook there is no problem. I've made sure that the software on all of them is up-to-date, I've run Norton and Disk Utilities on the desktop, but it still doesn't work with the iPod. I even tried to Restore the iPod from the desktop in case they just didn't quite match up but the computer said once again that it cannot be read from or written to.
Since the iPod works fine on the Macbook it seems like a safe assumption that the problem is somewhere on the desktop, but I'm running out of ideas.
Anyone have any brilliant (or just average) insights?
Power Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9) Picture 60 GB iPod freshly replaced from the store

Have a try of this
For Mac computer
1. Open the disk utility, hope your iPod appears there (left hand side), highlight it
2. Go to Tab “Partition”, click either “Delete” or “Partition”, if fails, skip this step and go to 3
3. Go to Tab “Erase” , choose Volume Format as “MAC OS Extended (Journaled), and click Erase, again if fails, skip it and go to 4
4. Same as step 3, but open the “Security Options....” and choose “Zero Out Data” before click Erase. It will take 1 to 2 hours to complete.
5. Eject your iPod and do a Reset
6. Open the iPod Updater and click “Restore”
Tip - In case you failed, find a window PC and do a Restore there, replug it back with your Mac and redo the Restore. Try to do several attempts

20gb iPod, error 1418, "disk cannot be read from or written to", and others

I am having a series of serious issues with my 4th gen 20gb. I have tried restoring it several times, syncing if and when it restores, then restoring it again when it tells me "disk cannot be read from or written to". Sometimes when I try restoring it i get the "unknown error 1418" message, so I disconnect the iPod and try again; sometimes it restores, sometimes it doesn't. I have also tried plain resetting it (select+menu) and that either gives me the dead smiley ipod or a folder with an exclamation point.
What can I do to salvage my beloved iPod?
Thanks for any and all help.

If a sad iPod icon or an exclamation point and folder icon appears on your iPod’s screen, or with sounds of clicking or HD whirring, it is usually the sign of a hard drive problem and you have the power to do something about it now. Your silver bullet of resolving your iPod issue – is to restore your iPod to factory settings.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60983
If you're having trouble, try these steps at different levels one at a time until the issue is resolved. These steps will often whip your iPod back into shape.
Make sure you do all the following “TRYs”
A. Try to wait 30 minutes while iPod is charging.
B. Try another FireWire or USB through Dock Connector cable.
C. Try another FireWire or USB port on your computer .
D. Try to disconnect all devices from your computer's FireWire and USB ports.
E. Try to download and install the latest version of iPod software and iTunes
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
For old and other versions of iPod updater for window you can get here
http://www.ipodwizard.net/showthread.php?t=7369
F. Try these five steps (known as the five Rs) and it would conquer most iPod issues.
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/
G. Try to put the iPod into Disk Mode if it fails to appear on the desktop
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93651
If none of these steps address the issue, you may need to go to Intermediate level listed below in logical order. Check from the top of the lists to see if that is what keeping iPod from appearing on your computer in order for doing the Restore.
Intermediate Level
A. Try to connect your iPod with another computer with the iPod updater pre-installed.
B. Still can’t see your iPod, put it in Disk Mode and connect with a computer, instead of doing a Restore on iPod Updater. Go and format the iPod instead.
For Mac computer
1. Open the disk utility, hope your iPod appears there (left hand side), highlight it
2. Go to Tab “Partition”, click either “Delete” or “Partition”, if fails, skip this step and go to 3
3. Go to Tab “Erase” , choose Volume Format as “MAC OS Extended (Journaled), and click Erase, again if fails, skip it and go to 4
4. Same as step 3, but open the “Security Options....” and choose “Zero Out Data” before click Erase. It will take 1 to 2 hours to complete.
5. Eject your iPod and do a Reset
6. Open the iTunes 7 and click “Restore”
For Window computer
Go to folder “My Computer”
Hope you can see your iPod there and right click on the iPod
Choose “Format”. Ensure the settings are at “Default” and that “Quick Format” is not checked
Now select “Format”
Eject your iPod and do a Reset
Open the iTunes 7 and click “Restore”
In case you do not manage to do a “Format” on a window computer, try to use some 3rd party disk utility software, e.g.“HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool”.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=501330&tstart=0
C. Windows users having trouble with their iPods should locate a Mac user. In many cases when an iPod won't show up on a PC that it will show up on the Mac. Then it can be restored. When the PC user returns to his computer the iPod will be recognized by the PC, reformatted for the PC, and usable again. By the way, it works in reverse too. A Mac user often can get his iPod back by connecting it to a PC and restoring it.
Tips
a. It does not matter whether the format is completed or not, the key is to erase (or partly) the corrupted firmware files on the Hard Drive of the iPod. After that, when the iPod re-connected with a computer, it will be recognized as an fresh external hard drive, it will show up on the iTunes 7.
b. It is not a difficult issue for a Mac user to find a window base computer, for a PC user, if they can’t find any Mac user, they can go to a nearest Apple Shop for a favor.
c. You may need to switch around the PC and Mac, try to do several attempts between “Format” and “Restore”
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2364921&#2364921
Advance Level
A. Diagnostic mode solution
If you have tried trouble shooting your iPod to no avail after all the steps above, chances are your iPod has a hardware problem. The iPod's built-in Diagnostic Mode is a quick and easy way to determine if you have a "bad" iPod.
You need to restart your iPod before putting it into Diagnostic Mode. Check that your hold switch is off by sliding the switch away from the headphone jack. Toggle it on and off to be safe.
Press and hold the following combination of buttons simultaneously for approximately 10 seconds to reset the iPod.
iPod 1G to 3G: "Menu" and "Play/Pause"
iPod 4G+ (includes Photo, Nano, Video, and Mini): "Menu" and "Select"
The Apple logo will appear and you should feel the hard drive spinning up. Press and hold the following sequence of buttons:
iPod 1G to 3G: "REW", "FFW" and "Select"
iPod 4G+ (includes Photo, Nano, Video, and Mini): "Back" and "Select"
You will hear an audible chirp sound (3G models and higher) and the Apple logo should appear backwards. You are now in Diagnostic Mode. Navigate the list of tests using "REW" and "FFW". The scroll wheel will not function while in diagnostic mode. For further details on Diagnostic mode can be found at http://www.methodshop.com/mp3/ipodsupport/diagnosticmode/
Try to do the 5in1, HDD R/W and HDD scan tests. Some successful cases have been reported after the running the few tests under the Diagnostic mode. In case it does not work in your case, and the scan tests reports show some errors then it proves your iPod has a hardware problem and it needs a repairing service.
B. Format your iPod with a start disk
I have not tried this solution myself, I heard that there were few successful cases that the users managed to get their iPod (you must put your iPod in disk mode before connecting with a computer) mounted by the computer, which was booted by a system startup disk. For Mac, you can use the Disk Utility (on the Tiger OS system disk), for PC user, you can use the window OS system disk. Try to find a way to reformat your iPod, again it does not matter which format (FAT32, NTFS or HFS+) you choose, the key is to erase the corrupted system files on the iPod. Then eject your iPod and do a Reset to switch out from Disk Mode. Reboot your computer at the normal way, connect your iPod back with it, open the iPod updater, and hopefully your iPod will appear there for the Restore.
If none of these steps address the issue, your iPod may need to be repaired.
Consider setting up a mail-in repair for your iPod http://depot.info.apple.com/ipod/
Or visit your local Apple Retail Store http://www.apple.com/retail/
In case your iPod is no longer covered by the warranty and you want to find a second repairing company, you can try iPodResQ or ifixit at your own risk
http://www.ipodresq.com/index.php
http://www.ifixit.com/
Just in case that you are at the following situation
Your iPod warranty is expired
You don’t want to pay any service charges
You are prepared to buy a new one
You can’t accept the re-sell value of your broken iPod
Rather than leave your iPod as paper-weight or throw it away.
You can try the following, but again, only do it as your last resort and at your own risk.
Warning !!!! – It may or may not manage to solve your problem, and with a risk that you may further damage your iPod, which end up as an expensive paper weight or you need to pay more higher repairing cost. Therefore, please re-consider again whether you want to try the next level
Last Resort Level
1. . Disconnecting the Hard Drive and battery inside the iPod – Warning !! Your iPod warranty will be waived once you open the iPod.
In Hong Kong there are some electronic shops offering an iPod service for Sad iPod, the first thing they do is to open up the iPod’s case and disconnecting the battery and the Hard Drive from the main board of the iPod. Wait for 5-10 minutes and reconnecting them back. The reason behind which I can think of is to do a fully reset of a processor of the iPod. In case you want do it itself and you believe that you are good on fixing the electronics devices and have experience to deal with small bits of electronic parts, then you can read the following of how to open the iPod case for battery and HDD replacement (with Quicktimes)
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=Video/directory.html
2.Press the reset button on the Hard Drive inside the iPod – Suggestion from Kill8joy
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2438774#2438774
Have I tried these myself? No, I am afraid to do it myself as I am squeamish about tinkering inside electronic devices, I have few experiences that either I broke the parts (which are normally tiny or fragile) or failed to put the parts back to the main case. Therefore, I agree with suggestion to have it fixed by a Pro.
2. Do a search on Google and some topics on this discussion forum about “Sad iPod”
Exclamation point and folder and nothing else
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3597173#3597173
Exclamation point and folder and nothing else
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2831962#2831962
What should I do with my iPod? Send it or keep it?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=469080&tstart=0
Strange error on iPod (probably death)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435160&start=0&tstart=0
Sad Face on iPod for no apparent reason
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=336342&start=0&tstart=0
Meeting the Sad iPod icon
http://askpang.typepad.com/relevanthistory/2004/11/meeting_thesad.html#comment-10519524
Sad faced iPod, but my computer won’t recognize it?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2236095#2236095
iPod Photo: unhappy icon + warranty question
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2233746#2233746
4th Gen iPod Users - are we all having the same problem?
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2235623#2235623
Low Battery, and clicking sounds
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2237714#2237714
Sad faced iPod, but my computer won’t recognize it
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2242018#2242018
Sad iPod solution
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=412033&tstart=0
Re: try to restore ipod and it says "can't mount ipod"
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=443659&tstart=30
iPod making clicking noise and is frozen
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2420150#2420150
Cant put it into disk mode
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3786084#3786084
I think my iPod just died its final death
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3813051
Apple logo & monochrome battery stay
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3827167#3827167
My iPod ism’t resetting and isn’t being read by my computer
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4489387#4489387
I am not suggesting that you should follow as well, but just read them as your reference. You are the person to make the call.
Finally, I read a fair comments from dwb, regarding of slapping the back of the iPod multiple times
Quote “This has been discussed numerous times as a 'fix'. It does work, at least for a while. In fact I remember using the same basic trick to revive Seagate and Quantam drives back in the mid to late 1980's. Why these tiny hard drives go bad I don't know - could be the actuator gets stuck in place or misaligned. Could be the platter gets stuck or the motor gets stuck. 'Stiction' was a problem for drives back in the 80's. Unfortunately the fix can cause damage to the platter so we temporarily fix one problem by creating another. But I know of two instances where a little slap onto the table revived the iPods and they are still worked a year or more later.”UnQuote

Error: The disc cannot be read from or written to. HELP!

We have two new Video iPods in the family... when we try to update them, we get the message: The disc cannot be read from or written to. We also cannot delete/edit the songs on the iPod. When we check certain songs to put on one iPod, but not the other, EVERY song is added -even with "only update checked files".
Is there away to create two Libraries -one for each iPod- and fix the Updateing problem? please!

Hi all,
I am sorry to report that I too have this same disc error problem when syncing my iPod to my iTunes library. I take no comfort in knowing that I am one of many that have this same error. I checked on the iPod lounge forum and I just couldn't count the number of users that had the same problem. There are just so many!
I too have tried "5 r's" and I have also tried using a few "s" words and others...lol.
It seems like there is no "fix" for this problem but I will say this: If there is no solution, then I will no longer be buying iPods. This is my third iPod that I have purchased. Which makes my Apple investment near the thousand dollar mark. That is way too much money spent to not have a functioning music player. I will be switching to another player to see if the grass is greener on the other side.
I have been most dissappointed with this error and I will not be "recycling" this iPod for ten percent off of my next iPod purchase.

"Disk cannot be read from or written to" when syncing 30GB iPod

"Disk cannot be read from or written to" when syncing classic 30GB IPod.
We have a few thousand songs and about 50 videos on the above ipod. Just yesterday, we received the "disk cannot be read from or written to" message when trying to sync and charge the ipod.
Our software is up to date, and we restored the factory settings, to no avail. The ipod actually starts to sync, but after about 20 mins. we receive this message and only 103 songs and 21 videos have been synced. We have a second newer ipod with 80GB which syncs from the same itunes account with no problems.
We recently added photos, so we tried to sync the 30GB ipdo without the photos, but still received the subject error message.
Please help!

Sounds like a hardware problem - a bad disk or, at the very least, bad sectors on the disk in the iPod.
There probably is not much you can do. You can try putting the iPod into disk mode and check the drive using Windows:
Open My Computer
Right click the iPod
Choose Properties
Go to the Tools tab
Click the Check now button
Windows may or may not be able to salvage the drive. You do not say if you can still use the iPod without errors; there is the possibility that you will lose data on the iPod during the repair.

When syncing iToiuch I receive an error "disk cannot be read from or written to".

When syncing iToiuch I receive an error "disk cannot be read from or written to". Sync fails at step 3 of 6.

Sounds like a hardware problem - a bad disk or, at the very least, bad sectors on the disk in the iPod.
There probably is not much you can do. You can try putting the iPod into disk mode and check the drive using Windows:
Open My Computer
Right click the iPod
Choose Properties
Go to the Tools tab
Click the Check now button
Windows may or may not be able to salvage the drive. You do not say if you can still use the iPod without errors; there is the possibility that you will lose data on the iPod during the repair.

ITunes will not load suddenly "the disk cannot be read from or written to"

Something happened in the last couple of weeks that has crippled our devices and rendered itunes useless as well as drastically compromising the processor in our laptop. Prior to that I had been running iTunes 10 (version unknown) strictly with my iphone 4 with no issues at all.
At one point my husband plugged in his ipod touch to charge (not sync). He got an error message that the device was not recognized and he closed out itunes and continued to charge the ipod. Upon my next attempt to sync my iphone, iTunes did not open upon plugging in my phone. I then disconnected the phone and tried to open it by double clicking the icon and received this error message:
(paraphrased: itunes cannot open)
"the disk cannot be read from or written to".
The disk apparently in reference is the hard drive of our laptop as the iphone was not plugged in at that point. I have tried many complete uninstalls of itunes and reinstalls of version 10.2.1 64 bit to no avail, each time I attempt to open iTunes I get the same error message. Also beginning at this time our laptop started hanging up on startup, it now takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 1/2 hour to startup. When iTunes is installed I did remove it from starting with the startup programs and this has not had any effect. I have run full virus and malware scans and no problems were found. It was ridiculously hard to uninstall the program(s) and I noted the incons did not appear as "installed" programs- they always had int "in the box" icon. Please help, this is driving me nuts, we cannot use itunes or sync either of our devices at this point and now our laptop as a whole performs like crap (everything but itunes works but it gets hung up and runs sluggishly now).
I have no idea if this is one of those notorious version 10.0 problems, we have a second nearly identical laptop (Acer Aspire 5336 running Win 7 64 bit and itunes 10.2.1.1) with both devices and no problems. (issue is my library is on the Gateway so my phone wants me to restore and resync with the Acer which I don't want to do... plus now the Gateway is just not acting right, and it all started with the itunes problem.
please help...thanks so much!!
Jen

I wonder if the disk being referred to is actually your iPod which is not plugged in. Maybe something has stuck thinking the iPod should be there.
Try completely removing all the iTunes related programs according to this method.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923
Restart you PC and see if startup improves.
If it doesn't improve you need to consider the possibility that there is something else going on.
If The problem goes away, hopefully a fresh install will be OK.

"disk cannot be read from or written to" -- help, please.

this started in perhaps the last week or so - i tried updating my mini and it took ages. so i decided i would restore it instead, and as it was doing so, a message popped up and told me that the restore process could not take place because the "disk cannot be read from or written to". so then i went to the apple site and looked the problem up. i followed each troubleshooting instruction and still nothing worked.
this morning i set up an appointment at my local genius bar, and my genius took one look at it, told me my ipod software needed to be updated, did so, and then handing it back to me told me it wouldn't be any more trouble.
well, i got home maybe about 45mins ago and tried syncing my ipod, and bam - 13 songs in: "disk cannot be read from or written to".
any suggestions would be fantastic. thank you.
dell inspiron 5150 Windows XP
dell inspiron 5150 Windows XP
dell inspiron 5150 Windows XP

Everytime I try to sync my photos to iPad or my iPhone. The sync freezes for a whilie then comes back with "the disk cannot be read from or written to". I have already exported photo library from iPhoto and readded the photos.

Work around "cannot copy to disk.....cannot be read from or written to.

While copying large files(movies or large amounts of music)to the iPod touch the error message" disk cannot be read from or written to" appears. Here is a work around for the failure.
1. Run the latest version of iTunes and connect the iPod. Perform the following after the failure (allow one failure to occur and repeat this after each occurence) This is only good for one movie or one large grouping of music files. Eject the iPod and allow 30 seconds after the plug is pulled before reattaching the plug to the iPod. Once the summary window appears you are ready to start.
2. In the movie tab behind the summary remove SYNC Movies check from the box.
In the Music tab remove the SYNC Music check from the box.
3. On the summary tab uncheck "manually manage music" in the options section. It will ask if you are sure, choose OK. Click "Apply" in the bottom right corner. Allow the iPod to try to SYNC... a message will appear explaining that there is not enough disk space, choose "OK".
4. Check "manually manage music" in the options section. Click "Apply" in the bottom right corner.
5. Drag and drop the selection of music or the movie over to the iPod icon on the left side of the screen under "Devices". The transfer should start and the progress graphic will start in the upper status window.
***I have only been able to move/ copy one movie at a time and one large music selection. When attempting the second transfer the error message returns and you have to start the process over. I tryed restoring, updating iTunes, different cables, updating XP, different USB ports, countless system restarts and threatening to smash it if it didn't work. I spoke with APPLE Tech support and they are aware of the problem and should be attempting to correct it. My iPod is @ its default settings. I have had no problems with single music files transfering but I have had it fail on as little as three in a group. Good Luck and I hope this helps.

Here is some more info on this issue. I've been having the same problem - I've tried disconnecting all other USB devices, making sure to plug into the back-side USB 2.0 port, I even went and bought a PCI card 2-port USB hub and tried that, but could never sync movies or multiple songs (usually less than 50 songs). Today, I was able to transfer 2 movies and a TV show and about 100 songs and the one thing that was different was that I was doing a video conversion in the background with FFMPEG (taking up about 90% CPU), so iTunes only had about 10% CPU while doing the sync.
Unfortunately, as I started typing this message, a third movie transfer just failed with the "cannot copy to disk..." read/write error. Oh well, just thought I'd get the info out, as this is an exteremely frustrating issue, and hopefully the more info we have we'll eventually be able to figure it out.

"The iPad/iPhone cannot be synced because it cannot be read from or written to"

Since updating to iOS 7.0.2, when syncing my ipad and my iphone I get the message, "The ipad/phone cannot be synced because it cannot be read from or written to." When I deselect all photos from being synced to my devices, the message no longer appears. This tells me the problem is obviously related to iphoto. Reading a few forums on this matter tells me the solution has something to do with emptying a photo cache, deleting photos, then reimporting; everything is rather vague. I always empty trash in iphoto, then I secure empty trash in finder, then I erase free disc space in disc utility. What exact steps must I take so that itunes will once again sync all images from iphoto onto both my ipad and iphone?

For those that follow~
After speaking to Apple Support for about 2 hours, the issue has been narrowed down to a corruption problem in the computers iPhoto Library.
To confirm this:
Problem: When ticking "sync photos" in iTunes, your sync fails with the error "cannot be synced, unknown error -50". (syncing other data is OK, only when ticking photos is there a problem)
Test: HOLD alt/option (mac) & open iPhoto. You will be prompted to create a new Library. (the old one will be left untouched)
Import a few photos to your new library.
Quit iTUNES & re-open it. Connect your device & go to the photo tab. Click Sync Photos, you will see your new library. Sync - it should now work.
In iPhoto you can switch between your old & new Library using the FILE >Switch Library option.
Additionally: You may also import photos to your device by using iTunes "Sync Photos *From Folder* " option.
This is a work around to get your photos onto your device without using iPhoto.
This is not a fix, my issue is ongoing. I am posting only to help future readers. In my case rebuilding the iPhoto Library (hold option/alt when opening iPhoto) was not able to correct the problem.

'Cannot be read from or written to' problem..

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