Slapping iPod fixes noisy drive that doesn’t play
My iPod stopped working last Wednesday for reasons unknown, during a song it stopped. During the next minute or two I tried to move on a song, back a song, etc, with no joy. After resetting it using Menu/Select, then following www.apple.com/support/ipod and the more worrying iPod displays a sad iPod icon link I left it for 24 hours, as advised.
The first time I left the iPod 24 hours it sprang back to life, I charged it and then tried to play a tune. Back to sad faces and a worrying disk “clunk”. I’ve heard this before. I think it’s called a bad block. My PC did it once when it didn’t like a CD-ROM I put in. It justs spins a bit, clunks a lot and won’t respond. I restored the PC from the bottom up, reformatting the drive.
So, in the second 24 hours the disk is noisy and won’t go to Disk Mode, so I take the drastic step of giving it a hard slap against my leg. I then listen closely. No clunking noise, and a menu appears. OK, calmly I connect it to the Mac via USB, fire up Disk Utility and do a Verify. Verify looks bad, it says:
“Incorrect number of thread records
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
The volume Dan’s Pod needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit”
So then I run a Repair job and get the following:
“The volume Dan’s Pod appears to be OK.
Mounting Disk
1 HFS volume checked
Volume passed verification”
And now my once “dead” iPod is updating all 4257 songs from iTunes. The proof will be in the playing. My concern is that this iPod is a replacement for one that died last year in the same way and is now out of warranty. Both had been dropped once or twice but worked OK. Without being recognised by the computer it’s hard to carry out any diagnostics. And the only moving part is the hard-drive which seemed to right itself with physical force.
For other info (aside from the Apple) try the iPod Hacks site, especially this more extreme repair method: Disembowling your iPod – the ULTIMATE guide!
