IPod Classic not syncing or connecting, and full of orange "other".

Question

I have a 120GB black classic iPod, and I received it as a Christmas present nearly 2 years ago.
I recently restored it, since I was already having troubles, and updated to iTunes 10. When I connect it to my computer, it will occasionally show up in "My Computer" as "Removable Disk L:" (I set it to L, since I named my iPod Levi. Laugh if you want).
However, when I click on it, Windows Explorer freezes up. I'm unable to reformat it through CMD, or through Disk Management. Disk Management freezes up, and CMD just can't find the drive itself.
When my iPod isn't connected, I go to the settings, and it says that 111GB are used, and it's full of the orange "Other"!
I have reset it, I have tried a different chord, computer, and USB port, I have restarted my computer, I have reinstalled iTunes (at least 4 times) and I've been trying to restore it. I've gotten errors saying my iPod needs to be reformatted to work with Windows... Don't you hate redundancy?
I have had this problem in the past, but that was only because of a corrupted music file.
I'm looking for help as to how to fix this problem, restore my iPod, and sync everything on to it again, only without having to fork out money for someone to do it, or tell me it can't be fixed.

Answer 1

Hi, welcome to Apple Discussions.
A few ideas for you to consider...
"Other" is the measure of used space on the iPod not taken up by Audio, Video & Photos. This includes the iPod's library and artwork plus any files you may have copied to your iPod in disk mode. The overhead for the library & artwork data is typically 1-2% of the size of the media, e.g. for 100Gb of Audio & Video expect to have around 1.5Gb of "Other". This information is needed for the iPod's operation and cannot be removed.
If you have significantly larger amounts of "Other", not related to files you've intentionally placed on the iPod, then these are probably disconnected copies of your media files or iPod libraries left over from failed sync operations. The only way to recover the space is to do a full restore.
If you have copies of all your media in your iTunes library this isn't a problem, but if you've been manually managing the content then I guess you'll want to try to recover the files from it first. See this post by Zevoneer on transferring files from the iPod to your computer. Some of the tools rely on the iPod having a healthy library which yours obviously doesn't however the manual method mentioned towards the end of the post would work.
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*Diagnostics Mode*
It's possible that your iPod's hard drive has started to fail. Take your iPod and place your right thumb on the centre SELECT button and your left on the top MENU button. Press down both thumbs for about 6 seconds until your iPod reboots. Immediately move your left thumb around to the rewind button |<< on the left and hold this down together with SELECT for a further 6 seconds. Your iPod should now switch into Diagnostic Boot mode. Press MENU for *Manual Test*, then select *IO > HardDrive > HDSMARTData* to reveal your stats. For comparison here are mine for my 2 year old 6th Generation Classic:
Retracts: 889
Reallocs: 12
Pending Sectors: 0
PowerOn Hours: 2202
Start/Stops: 894
Temp: Current 24c
Temp: Min 10c
Temp: Max 50c
Take a note of your results. When finished press *SELECT & MENU* for 6 seconds to reset the iPod again.
With modern disc drives sectors are no longer marked bad by a disc scan, if the SMART firmware detects a sector it has trouble accessing it will attempt to invisibly reallocate it to a spare area of the disc.
Note that I've only 12 remapped sectors and none pending. To help explain what the numbers mean here is an extract from the Wikipedia S.M.A.R.T. article:
*Reallocated Sectors Count*
Count of reallocated sectors. When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping, and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps. This is why, on modern hard disks, "bad blocks" cannot be found while testing the surface – all bad blocks are hidden in reallocated sectors. However, as the number of reallocated sectors increases, the read/write speed tends to decrease. The raw value normally represents a count of the number of bad sectors that have been found and remapped. Thus, the higher the attribute value, the more sectors the drive has had to reallocate.
*Pending sector count*
Number of "unstable" sectors (waiting to be remapped, because of read errors). If an unstable sector is subsequently written or read successfully, this value is decreased and the sector is not remapped. Read errors on a sector will not remap the sector (since it might be readable later); instead, the drive firmware remembers that the sector needs to be remapped, and remaps it the next time it's written.
Large numbers of Reallocs or Pending Sectors would suggest your drive is failing and that you may need to repair or replace your iPod. Check your stats after another attempt to update your iPod. If the numbers increase that again points to hard drive failure. While it won't be good news at least you'll know it isn't some random software problem and you can decide what to do next.
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If the drive is essentially OK but iTunes isn't restoring it try Erase your iPod - The Super Fix for most iPod Problems. Basically a low level format of the iPod’s hard drive to try to get around whatever problems are stopping iTunes from restoring it properly.
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Once you've restored your iPod don't rush to dump all the data back exactly as it was before. I have found that lots of large or complex smart playlists can sometimes trigger constant reboots or dumping of the iPod's library. In addition, larger transfers can fail leaving data in an inconsistent state. Try this technique for populating the iPod in stages.
*Break up large transfers*
In iTunes select the menu item *File... New Smart Playlist*. Change the first drop-down box to Playlist, the next to is and the next to Music. Tick against *Limit to*, type in say 10, then change the drop-down to GB, and set the last drop-down to artist. When you click OK you can enter a name for the playlist, e.g. Transfer. Now sync this playlist to your iPod rather than your entire library. When the sync is complete modify the rule ( *File... Edit playlist* ) to increase the size by your chosen amount, then sync and repeat. You can experiment with different size increments, if it doesn't work just choose something a bit smaller until it works each time. Before long you should have all your music on your iPod. Once that's done you can move on to other media such as podcasts, videos, photos, playlists etc.
tt2