Hello everybody, I'm new on this forum and I have a serious problem with my ipod...

I was about to buy the new ipod nano, but my girlfriend kindly said that i could have hers So its a Ipod 5G 80GB.

So I managed to install Itunes (9.0.2.25) on my computer (Windows Vista). Took me a bit to understand how all of that work, but managed well with albums and all their cover, I was really proud

Plug the iPod, and it asked to be restored (i guess because my girlfriend used it with her macbook) ... Fine by me, i restored it, and put all my musics with the Automatic Sync. Perfect, all worked well and i could listen my iPod.

Few hours after, I wanted to upload a Video Podcast on my iPod so plugged it and added the podcast. Ejected the iPod, and when looking on my iPod, everything has disappeared ! It was all empty... Even though said that the hard drive is not empty. I plugged it back to my computer, and Windows tells me something might be wrong with this disk, and Itunes says the iPod needs to be restored...

And i did that 5 times now since yesterday... After the restore, everything is working fine, but after, when i want to sync, everything is stuffed up. (I also tried adding music manually without success)

I've looked on the internet but didn't find anything really who matches my problem. I also did the Diagnostic via the iPod menu holding different buttons together. Everything looked fine... (can't really understood all the Checksum, and things like that, but got lot of "pass")

If anyone has any idea of what is happening here, that would be a great help! And yes, i now understand why my gf gave me her iPod!!! It was not working since 1-2 months, but she didn't bother trying to fix it...

Hope you understood my English, as I am a French mother tongue guy, so please excuse any mistakes.

Thank you all a lot

edit: my firmware version of iPod is 1.3

Welcome to iLounge.

One thing you can try is to format the iPod's hard drive first in Windows before you restore it in iTunes. To do this, open up My Computer and look for your iPod there. Right click on it and choose Format (using FAT32). Once that's complete, open iTunes and restore it again to see if you still have the same problem with the space.

Thank you for your answer.

I tried format the iPod before, but Windows is not letting me doing it. (I don't have FAT32 but FatEx, i believe this is kind of the same). Windows tells me he could not format this disk...

I tried plugging in & plugging out the iPod tones of times, adding musics, deleting some, and my problem is not happening all the time, it is really variable.

I believe something might be wrong with the hard drive it self, sometimes i heard it doing some weird noises like if it was stuck & I know this is not a good thing to hear when it comes to hard drive. But, I have nothing to check the hard drive to see if anything wrong with it.

Thank you once again.

News: I formated my iPod with success !
I'm now synchronizing everything and hope everything will be better. I will keep you updated.

Thanks again

What was the problem earlier that prevented you from formatting it?

I am not really sure, but its either because the service "iPod" was running on my computer, so I killed it. Or either because i put my iPod in disk mode before formating it. Then i could format.

This morning, plugged my iPod and it sync by itself, it worked but when I Ejected & plugged it out, everything has disappeared once again And plugging in back, i need to restore it ! damnnnnnn.

The drive most likely will need to be replaced if it goes into this constant firmware restore loop.

Some more news...

It just sync by itself, adding a new album. Everything froze, Itunes & my USB port & i add to reboot my computer. But still, the songs didn't disappear, and the new album is on the iPod. But reading the songs of this album is just very slow, and makes the iPod doing crazy hard drive noises... Reading the others album songs is fine.

Gk17, i believe you are right, and the hard drive must be replaced. But does it worth it ? Or would it be better to buy a new Nano 16 GB . Thats my next step.

Thank you for all your help.

I suggest going for a new iPod. Buying a 80GB hard drive to replace it with will probably cost you over $60 at least.