IPod won't restore, format, or update

I received this iPod as a Christmas gift 2005. I received another one Christmas 2006 so I gave the first one to my 12 year old daughter (right after warranty expired). She has used it for a month, and now all these problems. At first I thought she may have uploaded a virus onto the iPod, either by song, or file. But I know if that was the case, a simple restore would fix it. No luck so far. Can anyone help? I have attempted to list below all the things that I have seen in the past two days of trying to fix this problem.
-Error messages seen on iPod:
Sad iPod icon
“Please wait.
Very Low Battery”
“Connect to your computer.
Use iTunes to restore.”
(Repeated in 3 different languages under the English version)
When iTunes DOES recognize iPod, these things happen:
System taskbar balloon says “Apple IPOD connected to USB”
-Error message seen in iTunes:
“iTunes had detected an iPod that appears to be corrupted. You may need to restore this iPod before it can be used with iTunes. You may also try disconnecting and reconnecting the iPod.”
Only the "Summary" tab comes up w/ this description under:
(the picture showing is of an older iPod model-the picture of my avatar)
"Name: IPOD
Capacity: n/a
Software version: n/a
Serial number: n/a
Format: unknown"
After I press the restore button (all other usb devices having been disconnected), it begins and then this error message:
"The ipod “ipod” could not be restored. And unknown error occurred (1418)"
I have taken a known working iPod apart, swapped hard drives. At that time neither work.
I have swapped batteries only…still does not work.
Forcing into “disk mode” works.
SRV “Diagnostics” boot Sept 09 2006 (auto/manual) works.
I have reset the iPod.
I tried different usb ports.
I have restarted the computer with iPod connected.
When trying to update iPod w/ software 2005-10-01:
It tells me that the iPod is not mounted after it recognized that I connected an iPod...
or it gives me error message:
iPod Universal Updater has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
and shuts down
I have also tried to use windows to format the hard drive, nothing happened.
I have tried on both my home computer and my work computer.
I hope someone out there has seen these problems before and knows exactly what I need to do. I really hope I don’t have to take it to a service center. I have tried to troubleshoot the hardware with a known working iPod. Maybe I didn’t do something correctly. But when I put the working iPod back together, it works fine Please help.
Thanx in advance!

Yes, as a matter of fact I did see that article...and I believe I tried everything that it suggested. And other sites that I visited kind of made me think its something reading wrong, because at first I thought it was simply the hard drive that needed to be replaced, but then when i swapped with a good one and still had the same issue, I realized that it could be several things. But not knowing the complete ins and outs of the construction, maybe I did something incorrectly. Can anyone tell me how to reformat with a windows disk or something. Because at times I can get it to mount, it just seems to be a game and cat and mouse. One thing works, when the other won't. I regained hope when forcing into disk mode was successful. Not sure if that was false hope or not. But thanx for the suggestion.

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