How I finally fixed my frozen 3g ipod after the ipod internal manager error

Question

My problem started after I formatted the ipod from FAT32 to NTFS. Sure it seemed to work for a bit, but then it froze and my computer would not recognise it at all. I got the sad face on the ipod and it would not respond to iTunes and neither could I apply the ipod updater to restore it back to its factory settings. If I tried to do an ipod update all I got was the ipod internal manager error. It also did not appear as a drive under disk management in XP. I also tried to reset by pressing the menu and play/pause keys together. I could see that it would reboot but then it would get stuck at the smiley face stage and nothing more would happen. I could still hear the disk spinning inside, but it continued to stay stuck.
I discovered my solution by accident but my ipod is now working again and is fully functional.
First of all, my ipod is 2 years old and does NOT have a warranty with it anymore. The solution requires that the ipod be opeded up so you have to decide if you want to void your warranty if you still have one. By the way, the local Apple repair centre said that unless it was under warranty they were not interested in doing anything with it. They suggested buying a new one!!
Ok here's what I did.
First of all, the ipod needs to be opened up. Here's a good link to have a look at, and in fact discusses replacing the hard drive anyway.
http://www.notpopular.com/blog/comments.php?blogID=63 Thanks to Josh Highland for writing the blog in the first place.
I used a couple of guitar picks to open the case to avoid scratching the casing.
Once the casing is open, detach the hard drive from its connector. At this stage you may need to toggle the ipod hold switch to "on" to make the ipod start up. After it's done this, press and hold the menu and press/play buttons together to force a reset. Once it's gone through this routine, plug the hard drive back into its connector whilst the ipod is still on. I found that by doing this, it forced the hard drive out of its frozen state. What this did was to cause my computer to recognise it as a drive. Yippee. I plugged the ipod back to the pc via the cable. The next i did was to run an ipod updater on the ipod. This caused the ipod to be restored to its factory settings and also formatted the drive back to FAT32. I used the original ipod updater that I got on the CD with the ipod. I then re-assembled the ipod.
Ok, so I ended up losing all of my songs and playlist on the ipod, but it's easy to transfer tham back to the ipod, and it's way cheaper than having to buy a new ipod.
My ipod now works the way it used too.
  Windows XP Pro  

Answer 1

Yes, you are correct. I did disconnect the battery
before it finally worked. Honestly, I'm not sure if
that made any difference. It did the same thing
(folder with exclamation and then apple support
address) after I took the thing apart (which was easy
but I would not recommend it). It was a day later
that it finally formatted. The key is to get
the ipod to format however you can. After that it's
a simple matter of reinstalling the software. Which
I had been trying from the "Administrative Tools" and
it would never complete a format. In any event, all
of this WAS caused by the 2006-01-10 updater.
I too had trouble getting the ipod into "disk mode"
but keep trying when ever the apple icon appears on
the screen. Just keep pressing the center button and
the play/pause button at the same time. Each time I
put it into "disc mode" it took many trys. Good luck!
Any tips on how to "pry open" the iPod without destroying the casing? I have a 15Gb touchwheel model.
Also, I may as well ask this inadvance. Where is the battery and what does it look like?