Click wheel ipod freezes up windows explorer/delayed write error

Question

Sorry for the length of this, but I have been dealing with this for a while.
I have two 5G 20GB iPod's that I can't sync to either of my computers.
I usually sync it on my desktop, which is a P4 2.4Ghz, 512MB, XP PRO, MoBo is Asus P4C800, I would connect them with the firewire connection directly from the back of the motherboard.
My iPod's Hard Drive failed. So I replaced it with another Toshiba Drive (MKGAL2006). It didn't have the apple logo on it, but I read that it really didn't matter. When I plugged it in, it immediately detected at first, but when it was auto-updating music, it would get to about 2/3rds of my music library (13 G's) and then I would get an unknown error -124 from iTunes. I would then eject the ipod from itunes, and eject it from the windows menu. When I would check to see what music made it onto my ipod, none would be listed. When I reconnected it, it showed in itunes that I had 9 Gigs of "Other" data on it, but none of it was music. I would then set the ipod to manual update. This locked up the computer, and wouldn't unlock until I unplugged the ipod from the firewire cable. The ipod would then lock up the computer the second I plugged it in, so I put it in disk mode. I would then need to restore my ipod when I plugged it back in. I was then able to upload music to it, however, I couldn't transfer more than 25 songs at a time without getting a "Unknown error -124" from itunes or "Delayed write failure" from windows. I was getting pretty far along with this system, until I finally got a BSOD, with a memory failure error, and memory dump. But there was no program specified. Now, when I plug it in, it shows as removable drive (E:), autoplay will run for 10 minutes, and itunes becomes unresponsive, as will my computer. When I right click on the ipod in my computer, it says the drive cannot be accessed or is unresponsive.
I tried my girlfriends ipod after this on her profile in windows. It followed the same process, during auto sync it would get to a 2 GB's of data, and then get error -124 in itunes. It was showing up as the name of her ipod, however in my computer. When I ejected, switched to manual, then reconnected, it now shows as removable disk in My computer.
I then tried it on my TOSHIBA laptop (1.5 Ghz Celeron, xp home, 504 MB memory,) through the USB cable and fresh install of itunes (7.41).
Mine made a connection, I had to restore it, and it began to sync up music, it got to 2.5 Gigs, and then I got a windows explorer message saying there is no disc in the drive, please insert one. I was able to eject the IPOD (as it was listed in itunes, but I named it something else when I restored it)from itunes, but ejecting it from windows froze up the system tray, and after waiting 15 minutes, I eventually just unplugged it.
I tried my girlfriends ipod, and it was able to install in windows, but won't get listed in itunes, but itunes is responsive.
I am very frustrated with this. Please let me know if there is any vital information with this that I am missing
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Allright,
So I tried sticking my girlfriends ipod back into the laptop through USB for a couple hours. iTunes locked up, and the iPod got hot. So I disconnected it manually, and I got a unhappy face, that wouldn't reset no matter what. In frustration, I just left everything alone for a couple days.
I found out online that people were having success with these unhappy ipod faces by slapping the back of the case after they hard reset the ipod (press menu and select). So I did just that. And it worked. The ipod was back up and running. I plugged it into the laptop, and it updated itself. iTunes warned me that it was preselected for another library, so to add any music, it would go into another playlist as a secondary library. However, it only added music that wasn't on there before. So Boom, I got one iPod working.
The one I had, whose HDD I replaced, wasn't so lucky. I was still getting stuck restoring it, then hooking it up, and it updated several gigs of music (very slowly) and then would freeze up itunes, and I would have to disconnect. After having read on some forums (I highly recommend you read http://www.notpopular.com/blogs/josh/2005/12/24/replacing-the-hardrive-of-an-ipo d, the comments taught me a lot) that reconnecting the IDE cable on their hard drives got rid of the unhappy faces and folder icons. So I cracked open my ipod, and replaced the replacement hard drive with the original one from apple. SOB actually worked. I put the ipod back together, and hooked it into the USB. It updated about 3000 songs, and showed that sync was complete. I unhooked it, but found there was no music listed under songs. Weird. So I set it into disk mode (reset with menu and select, and at the apple logo hold play and select) and plugged back in, I ejected after 30 or so songs, and found that those 30 songs were listed. I know that disk mode works. So I hook it back in, and I am happy to say that my ipod is working with the original hard drive. I didn't even have to pay the $54 bucks it cost for another drive. I also learned about diagnostic mode ,that isn't written about in the official boards (http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/ipodsupport/diagnosticmode/index.shtml)
I can check my hard drive, and memory, all sort of groovy tests on there.
And at this point, I am checking out my 3rd generation ipod that I long ago gave up as a hard drive problem. I reseated the hard drive connection and put it into diagnostic mode, which verified my hard drive was fine. So we'll see how that goes.