IPod Disk Drive Dead?

Question

I have a 5th Generation 60gb video and it was originally formatted under Windows. After a year of ownership it refused to sync to iTunes in Windows XP Pro SP2. It would state that the required disk could not be found. I kept using it without syncing it for some time, all music and podcasts could still be listened to. Finally frustrated enough with having to watch all my new podcasts on the computer I restored the iPod through iTunes and attempted to sync again, the sync reached over one thousand songs and hung. I let it sync over night and it never moved past that song and eventually gave me the same disk cannot be found error. I then did multiple restores, and each time I would reconnect to sync the number song that the iPod would hang on became lower and lower (thus eliminating the possibility of a corrupt song or file.)
I decided to restore the iPod under Mac OS X 10.4.9 on my MacBook Pro. The iPod successfully restored under Mac OS X and it was recognized as Macintosh formatted under iTunes. I synced the iPod for the first time under OS X and it synced up into the two thousandth song, I became very hopeful that it might have been a Windows issue but then the iPod hung, however this time it never gave me the error that it did under Windows about the disk not being able to be found. After a couple more attempts at syncing, iTunes now hangs on the first file (a podcast) and never progresses past and eventually OS X force disconnects the iPod and I am given the 'Object was not ejected properly...' error. The iPod was put into disk mode and Finder successfully recognized the iPod however iTunes still attempted to force sync it, iTunes force syncs even if I disable that option in iTunes. Now each time the iPod is connected, iTunes attempts the sync, I am given the pinwheel and Mac OS X hangs until the iPod is disconnected and everything returns to normal. I attempted to repair the iPod disk under disk utility but the iPod is never shown in the utility.
I am at a loss here as to what to do. The familiar clicking noise of a dead drive is all too apparent when attempting to sync but it goes away after disconnecting. I am out of the 1 year warranty under Apple and would like to avoid any sort of monetary transaction if at all possible, however it is looking more and more like this may be the only solution. I have that fear in the back of my mind that it is a dead drive, but I do not understand that if it is a dead drive why it was able to be read from (listening to music) before transferring it to Mac OS X? I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions that any one may have. Thanks for reading my entirely too long of a post.

Answer 1

I have a 5th Generation 60gb video and it was originally formatted under Windows. After a year of ownership it refused to sync to iTunes in Windows XP Pro SP2. It would state that the required disk could not be found. I kept using it without syncing it for some time, all music and podcasts could still be listened to. Finally frustrated enough with having to watch all my new podcasts on the computer I restored the iPod through iTunes and attempted to sync again, the sync reached over one thousand songs and hung. I let it sync over night and it never moved past that song and eventually gave me the same disk cannot be found error. I then did multiple restores, and each time I would reconnect to sync the number song that the iPod would hang on became lower and lower (thus eliminating the possibility of a corrupt song or file.)
I decided to restore the iPod under Mac OS X 10.4.9 on my MacBook Pro. The iPod successfully restored under Mac OS X and it was recognized as Macintosh formatted under iTunes. I synced the iPod for the first time under OS X and it synced up into the two thousandth song, I became very hopeful that it might have been a Windows issue but then the iPod hung, however this time it never gave me the error that it did under Windows about the disk not being able to be found. After a couple more attempts at syncing, iTunes now hangs on the first file (a podcast) and never progresses past and eventually OS X force disconnects the iPod and I am given the 'Object was not ejected properly...' error. The iPod was put into disk mode and Finder successfully recognized the iPod however iTunes still attempted to force sync it, iTunes force syncs even if I disable that option in iTunes. Now each time the iPod is connected, iTunes attempts the sync, I am given the pinwheel and Mac OS X hangs until the iPod is disconnected and everything returns to normal. I attempted to repair the iPod disk under disk utility but the iPod is never shown in the utility.
I am at a loss here as to what to do. The familiar clicking noise of a dead drive is all too apparent when attempting to sync but it goes away after disconnecting. I am out of the 1 year warranty under Apple and would like to avoid any sort of monetary transaction if at all possible, however it is looking more and more like this may be the only solution. I have that fear in the back of my mind that it is a dead drive, but I do not understand that if it is a dead drive why it was able to be read from (listening to music) before transferring it to Mac OS X? I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions that any one may have. Thanks for reading my entirely too long of a post.