My iPod Nightmare (won't restore in itunes 7)

Question

My iPod Nightmare
My specs:
Windows XP Service Pack 2 (fully updated)
iTunes 7.0
iPod Video 60GB 5th Generation
Problems started about a month ago. At first, I stopped being able to eject the iPod, from iTunes or from Windows directly. This lasted for a few days. Then, iTunes stopped recognizing the iPod altogether, though Windows still recognized it as a mass storage device.
I then tried using the iPod Updater tool to restore my iPod. It gave me an "iPod service error", and refused to restore it. After restarting my computer multiple times, reinstalling the latest version of the updater tool, and still getting the same error, my iPod died completely. All it gave me was a folder with an exclamation point, and a link to the Apple support website. The batteries eventually dwindled away to the point where I could no longer turn on my iPod.
A couple weeks later, about a day after iTunes 7.0 was introduced, I brought my iPod to an Apple Store in hopes that they could replace it with a new one (I figured the harddrive was fried and it was beyond fixing). To my suprise, the tech guy actually got it to work again, though he formatted it for a Mac. So he went back to format it for Windows. About 20 minutes later, he came out and gave me some excuse about Norton Antivirus not allowing him to restore it, but that if I brought it home and reformatted it with iTunes 7, it should work fine.
So I took it home and plugged it into my computer, with my brand new installation of iTunes 7.0. To my joy it recognized my iPod, and said it needed to be reformatted/updated. So it downloaded the software it needed from the music store, and began the process of restoring it with the updates.
About halfway through, iTunes informed me that a restore error had occured, and that the iPod could not be restored. so I ejected my iPod, closed out of iTunes, restarted my computer, and tried again.
When I plug iPod in now, it first tells me that "iTunes has detected an iPod that appears to be corrupted. You may need to restore.....". It tells me that my ipod is up to date. When I click the restore button, it says "There was a rpoblem downloading the iPod software for the iPod "iPod". The requested resource was not found."
And now I'm stuck. I checked around on the Apple knowledge base and discussion forums for hours, found nothing to help me. I called Apple Tech Support, who's brilliant advice was to check the Apple support site (which I have been doing pretty much every day for the last month). He then wanted to charge me $50 for the phone call (rofl). After I told the tech support guy that I was under no circumstances giving them $50, he let me at least describe my problem to him. Then he recommended that I completely uninstall iTunes, reinstall, and try again (this did nothing whatsoever, although it gave me more headaches when the installer informed me that it couldn't start the iPodService the first time around).
I've been an iPod fan and owner for many years, but I am so frusterated right now that I'm seriously considering other options for portable music players. iTunes 7.0 is one of the buggiest, most overbloated pieces of software I have ever encountered that passes itself off as a "final" version (this release should have been a beta). But for now, I just want my iPod to work. Can anyone help me?
PC   Windows XP Pro   Service Pack 2

Answer 1

wel u can try few steps.
first click ALT CTRL DEL and go to task manager.click on processes tab and select "ipodservice.exe" and click on end process.
than uninstall itunes .
than go to c:/programfiles/ipod/
u ll c a "bin" folder there. delet this folder .empty recycle bin.
reinstall itunes 7.
this shud work.