Restore not working, please help

Question

I'm not very ipod or computer savvy so I don't know exactly what type of ipod I have, but it's not a mini or nano and I got it December 2004, and it was new then.
Ok, so I've never had any problems with my ipod, but I was listening to it one day and suddenly the songs started skipping all around. It would play a little snippet of one song and then jump to another one. So, thinking that it might be from putting songs from scratched cds on my ipod, I plugged my ipod in to my almost brand new Windows computer with the intentions of deleting the messed-up songs.
My normally fast computer took a long time to recognize my ipod, and then after half an hour or so, it finally said that I would have to restore my ipod, so I did. The next time I plugged it into my computer, it said the same thing. I've restored my ipod about four times now, but the same thing just happens every time. I've also noticed that my ipod becomes very warm when I restore it, I don't know if this is normal, or if it's overheating or something.
I really need help, this ipod was a gift and I can't afford to get it fixed.
EDIT: I just restored my ipod again, and the window now says "Formatting failure. Disk write error."
2004   Windows XP  

Answer 1

I was having similar symptoms with my iPod, and could never get it to be recognized at all by either a Windoze or Mac computer: not by iTunes, not by iPod Updater, and certainly not by the Windows Explorer, the Finder, or any disk utility that I had.
Fortunately, it was still under warranty. I took it to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store, and the "geniuses" have a utility that is not available to the public which allows them to determine the drive performance and diagnose problems like this. In my case, the hard disk itself was basically dead, and they replaced the iPod with a new and/or refurbished one. I asked if it's a good idea to restore your iPod to factory condition with iPod Updater periodically to wipe the whole thing clean, and was told that "it couldn't hurt," but that it probably wouldn't have helped in my case.
In any event, I wish good luck to anyone having this or similar problems.