Song Transfer Problems -- Advanced

[Scott549]

I have a Dell desktop computer and Windows XP Home Edition, a 4g (click wheel) iPod, and 3,692 songs in my iTunes music library. Here is my issue, and it seems to be a consistent problem, having been duplicated at least three times:

1. I restore the iPod to factory settings.
2. iTunes transfers about 2,200 songs, and then stops.
3. Usually when it stops I will get an error message, e.g. unspecified disk write error. The iPod is then left hanging in "do not disconnect" mode.
4. I reset the iPod by holding down the select and top buttons for about five seconds. iTunes restarts and starts transferring songs again. It transfers a few hundred more songs (roughly 200-700) and then stops again. Same problem.
5. I reset the iPod again. The songs start transferring again, but a smaller number of songs (100-200) transfer before it stops again.
The number of songs that transfer becomes smaller and smaller, and the restarts become more complicated (e.g. computer freezes and requires restarting). Eventually, the iPod reset causes all the data to be lost, and I have to start over.

This problem persists, before and after having done all of the following:

-- used both USB 2.0 and FireWire (Adaptec 4300 card)
-- installed XP Service Pack 2
-- reinstalled iTunes several times
-- reinstalled the iPod device driver
-- turned off all the startup programs, including anti-virus
-- sent the iPod to Apple and back

I am running out of ideas. I am wondering if the iPod's hard drive could be defective, causing it to be difficult to write to after there is a certain amount of data on it. I doubt Apple would have tested it to that extent.

If anyone out there has ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks.
Scott

[ericsgreen]

I had problems with bad mp3's, dont think I had a error message though, it would jsut hang....Try and take notice if it is one song after the first few thousand that it continously hangs on.

then try mp3checker or mp3test...that fixed me right up by finding files with errors and deleting them:)

[james_holden]

sounds a little bit like my problem...

i can only transfer songs once: right after just having formatted the ipod.
if i'm really lucky, itunes and the PC will see the ipod maybe once or twice after that. then it's always "ipod failed to be read" (or something of the sorts) and it says i have to reformat!

mp3test sound like a good idea. though i doubt it would the solution to my problem: i've tried so many different combinations of mp3s i transfer to the ipod...
i even tried switching to ephpod...

the only thing i haven't done that is recommended by apple (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93716)
or by users in a multitude of forums is a new XP installation.
i refuse to set up my entire system anew just because of the ipod!!

i think there is some sort of conflict between the ipod updater and itunes and my system and/or other software i have installed. does anybody know of some sort of blacklist of software that is known to cause conflicts with ipod software?

[Scott549]

Update:

I traded iPods with a friend for testing. His 3g 30 gb iPod works perfectly on my computer. My 4g 40 gb is "barfing" on his computer. This gives me hope that mine just has a bad hard drive. I will post another update when I have one.

Scott

[inalehk]

I am having a similar problem it is saying that the drive cannot be found. I do not understand what is going on. I have tried reinstalling itunes, ipod etc and have recently had my operating system reinstalled. What could the possible problem be and how might I go about rectifying it?

[spapino]

I have about 5.6GB worth of music in my Work iTunes Library on my Windows XP PC. I had 2.3 GB on my iPod (stored from my Home Windows XP PC). Today, I got the bright idea to update my ipod using the work PC - thereby deleting all my home PC tunes for those on my work PC. About 600 songs into the process I get the following error message:


iTunes.exe - Drive Not Ready: The drive is not ready for use; its door may be open. Please check drive/device/harddisk1/DRG and make sure that a disk is inserted and that the drive door is closed.

Any idea what the heck all this means and how to get it importing again? Thanks for your help/advice - Saku =)

BTW, I am using a dual USB 2.0 cable and firewire cable to charge my ipod at the same time. Haven't had a problem using this method to manually import data in the past - although I did receive the same error message if I tried to import too many songs at once (anywhere between 100+.

[Elhabash]

I believe it is possible to set the ipod on on disc use (format it first to have access to the whole HD) and run chkdisk or similar tools. Maybe sometimes the problem comes from a defective Harddisc...

Sorry for not being able to help more.