IPOD 40 GB Windows issue

[red_calx]

I've recently just given up on getting my PC firewire card to work and going to send it back. I've just bought a PCI belkin card for my desktop and it seems to be ok, well Ephod can detect the IPOD, however I still get the folder/ exclamation mark when I undock the IPOD, it just seems to do that or be at the ok to disconnect with the tick.

I need to rebuild my desktop as its currently running W2K server, I'll have XP on it in an hour or so, hopefully it will work then. Something tells me though that the hard drive in the IPOD is corrupt, maybe I can use ephod to reflash the firmware once I have XP on it, it doesnt work at the minute, prob because of W2K server I'm guessing.

hopefully it will be working tonight

cheers Ashawley in pointing me to the correct section of the forum.

[ashawley]

no problem red.

Here's what you're going to want to do when you get XP up.

1. Download and install the 2.0.1 Updater (http://www.apple.com/ipod/download) from Apple.

2. Run that puppy, you should click on the "Restore" button.

3. It will format the iPod and get rid of the exclamation error your getting. Basically, it reflashes the firmware.

If you get a "can't mount iPod" error, try formatting the iPod under My Computer/Explorer. Do a "Quick Format". Then run the update.

DO NOT install any of the software off of the Apple CD. Since you're using ephpod you don't need anything that's on there and it can just cause connection problems.

Adam

[Bordes]

the problem with my 40 gig ipod is when i run that installer so i can use the new musicmatch jukebox, it stops like @ 99% of the upgrade and says "Please leave the ipod connected and wait while it completes the restore process. and it never does, it just sits there. i left it on for 8 hours and it doesnt change. when i try to use my ipod, i just get the folder and the apple icon flashing. any suggestions?

[red_calx]

Thanks Ashawley.

I was just about to post exactly the same message as bourdes, my IPOD is sat there as I type and will remain so indefinately saying it is waiting to complete restore.

[red_calx]

Just tried it again after a restart of the PC and it does not complete still and has IPOD has now started to beep and power itself off while in the dock waiting to complete.

[red_calx]

I think I'm going to go nuts soon, the same thing is now beginning to happen as yesterday when I was using a PCMCIA firewire card on my laptop. When the restore fails it is killing the device in device manager, I am now getting an exclamation mark for the apple device on a freshly built XP sp1a desktop with a belkin PCI firewire card. I have rescanned hardware and it is back, I wonder for how long.

Do these new 40 GB devices actually work on a windows PC ? I'm ready to throw the towel in soon.

[red_calx]

Bordes maybe you can try this also.

Disk management in XP for me only gave the option of formatting the drive in NTFS. So I'm currently formatting in fat32 from the command prompt before trying the restore again.

format drive: /fs:fat32

[Bordes]

how would i go about formating it through fat32 with xp.

[red_calx]

You can try from the command prompt, but it will prob bomb and say it is too big. Best thing to do, worked for me to format as NTFS ( the only option disk mgmt gave me) and then run the updater to restore. This worked and the restore completed.

However moving swiftly on to the next problem, the LCD screen on my IPOD is unreadable, it is clicking away and working as it should,if I tilt it a certain away I can just make it out, I then browsed to the contrast and changed that which was fine for about 5 seconds, it then just dissapears and I cant see anything. Tried resetting it and it makes no difference. Is it now time to box it up and send it back or is this a common prob with a fix ?

thanks

[red_calx]

This is now is getting ridiculous, 20 hours plus later and I am right back where I started, because the screen on IPOD wasnt visible, I reformatted IPOD again under windows and now when I plug IPOD into dock to run updater it isnt recognised there or in my computer as a drive and nothing in device manager after multiple resarts.

This is without doubt biggest piece of s**t I've ever had the misplesasure of owning.

[red_calx]

ok - calmed down now, finally got it working, and am currently listening to some music with it, which I thought was beyond a reality given the past few days of grief.

One quick thing though, using ephpod I'm only getting firewire transfers of around 6 MB per second, about 15 seconds to do one album. Or is that the time it takes getting mp3's into ephod and when you click save to ipod it does it at 400 mbps or thereabouts ? I guess I'm asking at what point are the mp3's getting copied to the ipod, when doing add songs or when saving on close ?

cheers to all who have offered advice.