Laptop got new hard drive/40gb iPod needs reformat

[mullkoff]

So I had 2 simultaneous issues that are proving really hard to figure out. First, my 40gb iPod's hard drive got corrupted somehow, with the folder/exclamation point error message. Then, I needed to get a replacement hard drive for my laptop from Dell.

Now I got the iPod to play music again, but it still skips a lot and switches from song to song. And when I try to plug it into my old laptop with a new hard drive it says it needs to be reformatted. Is there a way I can get any computer to recognize my iPod so that I can transfer the songs from the iPod to a computer. A lot of the music isn't backed up, and I would really prefer saving it all before I reformat my iPod.

Thanks so much for any insight.

Dan

[honeybee1236]

Welcome. This is the reason why your music should have been backed up before this happened.

If you can get the iPod to show in my computer then open the drive & remove the songs:
http://forums.ipodlounge.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=96557

If not use YamiPod www.yamipod.com and see if you can recover the songs.

Data Recovery:
http://forums.ipodlounge.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45619

If they fail then you just lost the info and the iPod needs to be restored.

[mullkoff]

I gave up and restored my iPod to the factory settings, disregarding how much music I would lose. It seemed to work perfectly, and let me transfer songs to the iPod and play it. However, the same problem I described above returned after only a few hours to use. I restored the iPod again, and the same problem persists.

I would like to send it in to Apple and get it repaired/replaced, but I would like to be able to ask them through e-mail or instant message about my problem to insure that they will be willing to fix it for free. The lack of free phone support seems a bit absurd. And does the warranty last for 1 year?

Also, after I restored the iPod, when I installed the newest versions of iTunes and iPod software, iTunes would have an error message and close whenever my iPod was plugged in. Any thoughts on these issues? Thanks so much.