Rockbox Technical Forums

Rockbox General => Rockbox General Discussion => Topic started by: positron on May 14, 2014, 09:38:39 AM

Title: iPod Classic 6/7G, No Partition Found, Insert USB cable and fix it
Post by: positron on May 14, 2014, 09:38:39 AM
Hi All,
I hope you can help me out here. I'm getting the message as stated in the title.

The last time I had the same issue was a few months ago. That time I used EmCore to reformat the partition, and installed Rockbox again.

Yesterday when the device switched on, it took a long time to boot, and eventually it just started displaying this message. I used the EmCore's settings menu to reformat the data partition.
But now when the fallback image loads, 'No partition found, insert usb cable and fix it' is displayed. The device doesn't show up in the usb devices. I checked the dmesg log and it seems the device connects and then disconnects:

[ 7411.788727] usb 6-1.8: new high-speed USB device number 11 using ehci-pci
[ 7423.881115] usb 6-1.8: USB disconnect, device number 11

So any idea what's going on here? Is my iPod's HDD dead?
Title: Re: iPod Classic 6/7G, No Partition Found, Insert USB cable and fix it
Post by: [Saint] on May 14, 2014, 11:25:39 AM
emCORE main menu -> Tools -> Run Rockbox fallback image.

Mount, update, eject, viola!


[Saint]
Title: Re: iPod Classic 6/7G, No Partition Found, Insert USB cable and fix it
Post by: positron on May 14, 2014, 09:02:28 PM
Saint,

Thanks for the reply. I think this is what I did the last time too.

I'll update the rockbox image, but is there an underlying root cause of this problem?

The last time I tried to install the image and copy files, I encountered the error, and had to start over again. Then it somehow copied all the data. Now it's gone again, and I'll have to copy back all the 100+ gb of data.

So, if this issue should not occur, then I'll probably consider that my iPod's HDD is not well. I've heard clicking sounds previously when it's copying data.
If this issue is a known bug, then I can have some more confidence in the hardware.

Thanks again.
Title: Re: iPod Classic 6/7G, No Partition Found, Insert USB cable and fix it
Post by: [Saint] on May 14, 2014, 09:19:14 PM
USB in current revisions for this device is quite flakey in Windows for as yet unknown reasons.

Its also possible that you may be failing to safely eject the volume, further adding to the risk of filesystem corruption.


EDIT: Also, yes, the HDD (the firmware thereof, specifically) is absolutely notorious for committing suicide in these devices.

[Saint]
Title: Re: iPod Classic 6/7G, No Partition Found, Insert USB cable and fix it
Post by: positron on May 15, 2014, 03:11:41 AM
Saint,
I use Linux, so that removes Windows from the equation. The last time I updated my iPod it was ejected safely.

Now I also recall that with the default Apple firmware I had faced a red cross on the iPod once, and it had to be reset.

I'll try later at home and update here.
Title: Re: iPod Classic 6/7G, No Partition Found, Insert USB cable and fix it
Post by: positron on May 15, 2014, 11:03:05 AM
Update:

I used emCORE main menu -> Tools -> Run Rockbox fallback image

1. The first attempt failed. I still got the same error, 'No Partition Found, Insert USB cable and fix it'.
2. I used EmCore format again.
3. This time it showed up as a USB HDD.

But,
-- The disk access is intermittent. Sometimes it responds, other times it doesn't.
-- Running df on the mountpoint gave an Input/Output Error.
-- Rockbox installer aborts saying 'Not enough disk space'. I presume it's because of the I/O Error.

So it seems the HDD is giving I/O errors and in its final stages of demise. :-[