iPod 30GB Video battles bootloader

[justinlagestee]

ok, ive been browsing these forums for a few hours now trying to find the answer to my problem.

i have a 30GB iPod video.. ok u got that from the title.

i was listening to it the other day and all the screen would say is use iTunes to restore.. except i tried that, and iTunes wont restore it. ok cool. somebody recommended rockbox, and after checking it out, i figure it looks pretty bad ass.

so im going through the install now.. manually, because the auto doesnt work according to the manual, and the website.

now the bootloader wont load up. i get the black screen that tells me its trying to load it.. my iPod clicks and hums.. and it seems like its loading something on there. but then it doesnt.

 Error reading from disk: Data error .
[ERR] Read failed
: No error
[ERR] --install failed.


i cant seem to get past this. what am i doing wrong? any help is appreciated. id really hate to junk this iPod and have it still be salvageable.

thanks
Justin

justinlagestee@yahoo.com

[Llorean]

Um, your iPod was damaged to the point that iTunes couldn't restore it. Until you figure out what damage was preventing this, it's unlikely we can help you. It sounds like you've got a bad disk.

[justinlagestee]

i know electrical parts can just fail for no apparent reason.. but have you ever heard of that before? i was just listening to it in my truck.. then it froze up and died. i didnt think a fatal error would occur for no apparent reason.

seems like a bad product if u ask me.

[DoesItMatter]

If its still under warranty - get a replacement, if not, you could try and get a replacement Hard drive off of e-bay and replace it yourself.

The smaller HD's are much more prone to failure than larger Hard drives, and the more you use the ipod, the harder the drive is working.

It is THE most common failure in ipods, as it is the only moving part.
Other failure is battery issues, but that does not seem to be the problem.

Make sure you get a hard drive that has the same model #.
I had an IPod Photo 20gb, and thought I'd increase capacity and get a 60gb,
which was fine, except, I needed a different back cover to fit it in, so I had to
buy extra parts.  Don't make that mistake.

[AlexP]

The smaller HD's are much more prone to failure than larger Hard drives

I suspect here you mean in the sense of form factor, not capacity.  I don't know about your claim in the case of the former (although I wouldn't be at all surprised), but for the latter I would be extremely surprised.

justinlagestee:  Please use proper words.  Things like "u" are not acceptable here.

[Chronon]

Make sure you get a hard drive that has the same model #.
I had an IPod Photo 20gb, and thought I'd increase capacity and get a 60gb,
which was fine, except, I needed a different back cover to fit it in, so I had to
buy extra parts.  Don't make that mistake.

There's a page on the wiki that can be very helpful when trying to locate compatible drives: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/HardDriveReplacement

[robin0800]

I am sure that at one time when I had to restore my Ipod, so I could update the firmware, itunes would start the restore when you clicked the button and just hang.
Doing a google search I found this:
you hit the restore button and quickly disconect the ipod and reconect it,
do not know why this works but it did for me.