IPod won't format, won't be recognized by iTunes

Question

Okay so my problem involves a lot of history so let me give you the background information. I first got my iPod a year and a 1/2 ago and it worked just fine I was very happy with it and never had any problems. I set mine up as a harddrive so I could store a couple of text files in addition to about 5GB of music. Then my computer's harddrive died. So I reinstalled iTunes after I bought a new harddrive, but skipped the part about plugging in my iPod because I had to transfer all my CDs back into the music library. I did that then proceeded to plug in my iPod. Of course it didn't sync with iTunes because I had forgotten to reinstall my iPod software. I right clicked my iPod in my computer and clicked format because I thought then it would work. After that I remembered I needed to install the iPod software. So I tried to do that, but when I got to the screen about formatting my iPod the bar just goes up and down for 6 hours and nothing happens. I made sure my iPod was fully charged all the way and tried again with the same results. I then tried to use the iPod updater to restore the factory settings of my iPod and when it finally recognized my iPod it said it was being used by another application, but I had no other programs running. As you can see I've tried just about everything and although both my computer and my iPod are independently working fine they aren't working together. I need help!

Answer 1

I'm having a similar problem with my Ipod (40GB, now discontinued) here's my problem:
My hard drive would spin up and then down and then up and then it would turn off. Also I would turn it on and flip to a song, it would be OK and then if I went to flip to another one the screen would freeze on me for a few seconds, then it would work then continue doing that until I got it to turn off. It did that for a few days and then the other day I turned it on and it wouldn't take me to my music screen and it came up with an Ipod that was dead and a link under it. It did this for a while and now I can't get it to work either, I turn it on now and it comes up with a folder and the apple support website and when I tired restarting it, the screen would come up with a check mark and say "Disk Mode" at the top and "OK to disconnect" below the check mark, and now Itunes doesn't recognize it and the hard drive spins and it goes on acting like iTunes sees it when in truth it doesn't.
Hope someone can help!
Erin