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.

I got
HDD Pass

I am not calling you a Liar, but I find it funny how one person can have 3 bad mini's and me and my wife each have 1 and neither has a problem.

That's why I'm asking, I want to see if Apple's quality control is amiss. The first two were gotten from the same store, so they could have been from the same batch. The third one works fine but has a bad hard drive.

since fixing the bad sectors, has your mini frozen? b/c mine has frozen 3 times already, and i wanna know if doing this will fix the problem

thx

Could you do a iPod Mini restore with the iPod Mini Software Updater? Would that take care of the problem too?

Doing a restore will format the drive. I believe formatting will remove the marking that the cluster is bad until it is marked bad again by scandisk.

The bad cluster is a physical defect and can never be fixed. Doing a restore won't do anything to solve it.

Even though my mini has a defective hard drive, it works fine. However, I'm going to return it tomorrow. My local Apple Store has some minis that they will sell if the people who have them reserved don't pick them up by closing time tonight.

well, i did do a check, and it said the hdd was fine. and yet, it still freezes. i've had it three days, and its already frozen three times. i guess i might try to return it soon, but i'll wait for apple to say something about it first tho

My HD passed. I've had it since the day it came out and haven't had 1 problem. Couldn't be happier.

Well, I got another mini at the Apple Store today. So far, it has not frozen. But it has not woken up from sleep twice. And for awhile, it would always skip the first song I selected and skip to the next one, just like my first two minis did. Either moving files around or defragging solved that problem.

Now the only thing wrong with it is that 1/4 of the scroll wheel doesn't work, between 6 and 9 o'clock there's no response. It's annoying when scrolling because it's uneven and jumpy.

So now, it's 4 for 4 DEFECTIVE minis. And it's not me! My big iPod is perfect and flawless.