Phil
03-05-2004, 02:03 PM
My mini has a defective hard drive in which one cluster is bad, meaning data can be written to that one cluster but can't be read off it correctly. In my case, one cluster means only 4KB of space is lost. I became aware of the problem by doing the mini's own self-disk scan.
To do the scan, plug your mini into the AC adapter. Reset it by pressing Menu and Center. When the Apple logo shows up, immedately press down Center and RW. That will put it into diagnositc mode. Use the FF button to move down to the test named SMRT SCAN and press the center button. The disk scan should start. If the drive is good, the test should finish within 20 minutes and say HDD PASS. If the drive is bad, it should still finish within 20 minutes and say HDD FAIL with a couple of more lines of text.
I've had three minis. Two froze all the time. The third has a defective hard drive, but it has had no problems whatsovever, and I've treated all three of them exactly the same. Nevertheless, I'd like to see how common this is.
To identify files that are in the bad sectors, simply copy the entire iPod_Control folder from the iPod to your computer. At some point, when it gets to file(s) in the bad cluster, there should be an error and the computer will tell you what file it was trying to read when there was an error.
I was able to mark that bad cluster using scandisk in Windows (or the equivalent in OSX) so that the mini, in either disk mode or mp3 player mode, should never access that cluster. Prior to running scandisk, when I would try to access the song file within that cluster in disk mode, the computer would give me the message CRC error, meaning the file was un-readable. However, I forgot to try and see what happens when I try to play that file on the iPod itself; perhaps it would crash and thus give insight into why so many people are reporting crash and freezing problems if the hard drive is bad.
To fix bad sectors, simply run scandisk with the option to "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors". You can do this either in the Command Prompt by typing (without quotes) "scandisk X: /r" (where X is the mini's drive letter) or in My Computer within Windows. Scandisk should find the bad sector and mark it bad so data is not written to it. It may also recover files from that bad sector and copy it to another location on the drive, but that file may still be corrupt (you'd hear a click or static in the song if you tried to play it). If you choose to run scandisk in the command prompt, it will tell you what file(s) were in bad sectors and recovered.
On a somewhat positive note, bad sectors on the regular third-generation iPod could not be fixed in my experience. When the bad sector was accessed, the iPod would stop functioning in disk mode and require a reset. It seems that at least now with the iPod mini bad sectors can be easily fixed and possibly (maybe probably) provide a permanent solution if it's the case that the hard drive is otherwise good and will not develop further physical defects.
To do the scan, plug your mini into the AC adapter. Reset it by pressing Menu and Center. When the Apple logo shows up, immedately press down Center and RW. That will put it into diagnositc mode. Use the FF button to move down to the test named SMRT SCAN and press the center button. The disk scan should start. If the drive is good, the test should finish within 20 minutes and say HDD PASS. If the drive is bad, it should still finish within 20 minutes and say HDD FAIL with a couple of more lines of text.
I've had three minis. Two froze all the time. The third has a defective hard drive, but it has had no problems whatsovever, and I've treated all three of them exactly the same. Nevertheless, I'd like to see how common this is.
To identify files that are in the bad sectors, simply copy the entire iPod_Control folder from the iPod to your computer. At some point, when it gets to file(s) in the bad cluster, there should be an error and the computer will tell you what file it was trying to read when there was an error.
I was able to mark that bad cluster using scandisk in Windows (or the equivalent in OSX) so that the mini, in either disk mode or mp3 player mode, should never access that cluster. Prior to running scandisk, when I would try to access the song file within that cluster in disk mode, the computer would give me the message CRC error, meaning the file was un-readable. However, I forgot to try and see what happens when I try to play that file on the iPod itself; perhaps it would crash and thus give insight into why so many people are reporting crash and freezing problems if the hard drive is bad.
To fix bad sectors, simply run scandisk with the option to "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors". You can do this either in the Command Prompt by typing (without quotes) "scandisk X: /r" (where X is the mini's drive letter) or in My Computer within Windows. Scandisk should find the bad sector and mark it bad so data is not written to it. It may also recover files from that bad sector and copy it to another location on the drive, but that file may still be corrupt (you'd hear a click or static in the song if you tried to play it). If you choose to run scandisk in the command prompt, it will tell you what file(s) were in bad sectors and recovered.
On a somewhat positive note, bad sectors on the regular third-generation iPod could not be fixed in my experience. When the bad sector was accessed, the iPod would stop functioning in disk mode and require a reset. It seems that at least now with the iPod mini bad sectors can be easily fixed and possibly (maybe probably) provide a permanent solution if it's the case that the hard drive is otherwise good and will not develop further physical defects.