Why won't my iPod work on iTunes or my computer? It shows up (not on iTunes) and the iPod shows connected but it has to be "formatted." And why are half my songs unable to play on it anymore? It just skips them!

Question

I've read through several discussions and I've seen a lot of similar issues but none that were quite like mine.  Every time I plug my 3rd gen. iPod nano in it shows it connected on the iPod screen and iTunes opens up but the device does not show up in iTunes.  The icon on the iPod shows connected and gives the arrows circling showing syncing even though it still says connected.  But it won’t show up in iTunes.  It shows up on my windows computer but I can’t click it or make it do anything.  It keeps saying “You need to format the disk before you can do anything.”  And when I hit cancel it beeps and says "Location not available.  Dara error (cyclic redundancy check)."  As if I know what that means!!  And I have 800 songs on it but they aren’t all on my computer and some are on my parents’ computer but I can’t get to that one.  It shows it is a “FAT32” which I have no clue what that means but I’ve never noticed that before.
Windows "can't access the disk" and I don't know why.  It gives me that notification if I try to check the drive or disk or device for problems.  And if you click it on Windows it pops up a screen with formatting things (which I don't know anything about).  And then it closes and says that it CANNOT format the device.
The iPod works almost okay when it isn’t plugged in, but I’ve noticed that half my songs won’t play.  You click on it and it plays the next one in the album.  And it isn’t always the first song in an album but random songs.  And songs I listen to a lot.  You can’t go back (you can only go forward and you can’t skip over the ‘missing’ song) or even click to select those songs.  But other songs play normal, just not half of them that are on the iPod but all of a sudden no longer work.  And I don’t know why.  I have another 3rd gen. iPod nano that doesn’t have ANY of these problems.  It hooks up, it doesn’t need formatting, and all its songs play.  I don’t know what is wrong or what to do.  I’ve tried re-downloading iTunes and everything.  I don’t want to have to reset my iPod and lose everything.
I’ve tried locating the device in iTunes and it shows the iPod but it gives this weird symbol and I can’t select it.  It’s like a white box with a box that is outlined in blue with six random icons in the middle.   I’ve seen it before and it always means something is wrong or a file (which is where I have seen it before) is corrupted.  And like I said I have a second iPod nano of the same generation and it does not give this weird symbol.  Plus it connects just fine.  It’s this one iPod.
I don’t understand what is going on.  It worked just fine and then all of a sudden I noticed songs wouldn’t play so I went to plug it into iTunes and nothing has worked.  I’ve searched discussions and none of the tips help.  But I want my songs to play again and I want my iPod back.

Answer 1

Hey briannagrace96,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities! I'd check out the following article, it looks like it applies to your situation:
iPod: Appears in Windows but not in iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1363
You'll want to go through the following troubleshooting steps, and for more detail on each step follow the link to the article above:
Try the iPod troubleshooting assistant:
If you have not already done so, try the steps in the iPod Troubleshooting Assistant (choose your iPod model from the list).
If the issue remains after following your iPod's troubleshooting assistant, follow the steps below to continue troubleshooting your issue.
Restart the iPod Service
Restart the Apple Mobile Device Service
Empty your Temp directory and restart
Verify that the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver is installed
Change your iPod's drive letter
Remove and reinstall iTunes
Disable conflicting System Services and Startup Items
Update, Reconfigure, Disable, or Remove Security Software
Deleting damaged or incorrect registry keys
Take care,
David