Going between sad and file error icon can't restore....

Question

I've tried resetting, putting in disk mode and everything I can seem to find. I can't get my IPOD recognized by the updater to even attempt a restore. A couple days ago the ipod just froze up no it flips between those error messages while making a clicking noise.
How can I get the updater to even see my ipod to try and do a restore?

Answer 1

First, I have to mention that I am not a techician, I may not understand the reason behind, I could be wrong and my suggestion may not work in your case. But, I must say that all the suggestions I made are basically from my past experienece fixing more than 10 iPods (from my friends and family members). I do not and have no intention to make a suggestion purely from what I heard and read (otherwise I would indicate). These have been tested and proved to work in my cases. I also have to deal with iPod problems such as:-
1. Sad iPod
2. Folder with exclamation mark
3. iPod failed to be recognized by the computer
4. broken iPod with 'clicking' sound
I can simply post a link from the apple article - which would suggest you to do a Reset and Restore actions, however, most of the users would agree with me that the iPod with the aforementioned problems would not able to get mounted with the computer. In that case, how could you do a Restore. Should I just suggest the user to send their iPods for repair?
I have tried myself with different ways, and I discovered a tricks to solve the above problems. First, we must understand what is the problem behind - in my opinion, the problem mainly caused by the head of HD of the iPod getting stuck at a certain point and unable to read the sector properly. If an iPod is an external Hard Disk, how are you going to fix it, I believe that all of us would suggest one to do a Reformat. Right, but unfortunately, the iPod could not be mounted, so what next? I find an interesting way - when the iPod is formatted in PC and connected with a Mac computer, it will "Force" mount, then why not do a Restore there. And once it has been completed, re-connect it with your original PC, and this time with the iPod being formatted to a different format, a window will pop up, indicating that it cant read the iPod and ask whether you would like to do a reformat. Then open the iPod updater and click Restore (back to PC version). Again, interestingly, it works the other way as well i.e. Mac's iPod fixed with a Window based PC.
I understand that there are people who do not agree with my point of views, but I purely do it for the base of trying to give some help. Again, I only make suggestions that have been proved successful in my cases before.