Unknown Error Occured (1429)

Question

I recieved a NEW ipod upon request after have a malfunctioning one returned with my ONE YEAR WARRANTY!
Now this ipod, no more than a month after receiving it has shown me Unknown Error Occured (1429). It has not been dropped with exceptions to a few knocks. My MAC wont restore it because this unknown error shows up as well as when I try other computers. Assist is desperatly needed because it just seems to me like these new apple products have a weaker tolarance every generation!
Please help this very concerned customer and if there is not an appropriate way to solve this issue, am I covered on the RENEWED model with like a month warranty since I used the one year warranty?

Answer 1

I get kind of verbose about all the steps I take, so basically try a restore from an older version of the Apps/Utilities/iPod Software Updater. I used version 2005-06-26. Continue reading if you want my full, fun story. My iPods are back to factory settings and functioning, but I have not tried to update/sync from iTunes yet. Baby steps.
I hope I can explain what I did correctly (since I tried so many things and on 2 non-functioning 4th gen 40gb iPods both purchased Christmas 2004), but here goes nothing:
First, one of our ipods just stopped working. It sounded like the HD was caught in a loop (repetitive clicking, whirring, and restarting). I took it to a "Genius" at an Apple store and he looked at it and plugged it in and clicked his mouse around, took it to their back room for a few minutes and came back and pronounced that the HD was bad and the best I could do was either "trade in" for the recycling fee of 25% or pay upwards of $200 to have it repaired (this was in Aug sometime). I was so mad I just kept the ipod. After all I still had one functioning unit that I could use. I could keep the other for spare parts/battery whatever.
Anyway, yesterday while updating some of the music I just added to my iTunes library (v7.0.2(15)), iTunes locked up... my whole computer, so I did a hard reboot. After that, the ipod was stuck (keep in mind this leaves me with 2 broken iPods). So now I'm really mad (determined to fix). So I read some of these posts, try the restore from iTunes, keep getting the 1429 error, tried to basic erase from Disk Utility (failed), tried to secure erase - zero out data (failed - probably because my computer went to sleep - I let it go overnight). So lets pause on unit 2.
And come back to unit 1. In Aug I didn't do my research as I really didn't know where to start - I never got any errors to search the forums with and I was kind of lazy - afterall I still had one working ipod. Anyway, this time I tried putting the ipod into disk mode and it worked! I saw a ray of hope. Since my Mac was busy with iPod 2, I hooked iPod 1 up to my PC, that hadn't been online in a while and has an older version of iTunes & the iPod software. The PC recognized the device as an iPod and restored (I did the AC plug in) and the unit booted up just fine! Imagine my delight!
So back to unit 2 - it's processing overnight, I wake up, and see that it has failed, try to hook it up to my PC and it is recognized as a disk but not an iPod, so it won't restore. But I think maybe the trick is to restore using an older iPod Updater. So I bring it back to my Mac, go to Apps, Utilities, iPod Software Updater and select the oldest one I have on file (2005-06-26). I have unit 2 hooked up via fire-wire, in disk mode, and double click the app to open it. It tells me that I have an iPod plugged in, but not mounted (at least it recognizes that it's an iPod), so I click the restore button (get all the usual windows - auth, double ok's on the restore, etc.). It restores with no errors and the iPod mounts on the desktop, but the unit is still showing the do not disconnect sign and I'm just not sure, so I click restore again to let it go through that process again. The ipod mounts again and still says do not disconnect. So I eject it from the desktop and the iPod changes to the big check-mark with the OK to disconnect (disk mode) screen. That changes to the AC plug in screen (another delightful moment). I plug it in to the AC outlet, it finishes it's restore and I'm back to 2 clean-slate iPods!.