Troubles with ipodpatcher.exe (trying to install Rockbox)

[painless-shadow]

Hi,
My Brother's IPod 4G greyscale has given him nothing but grief. It keeps freezing and stuff like that, so much that it's hardly usable. We've tried upgrading the FW, but that didn't help (I also used the restore option, so now the IPod is quite empty).

So I thought installing RockBox on the IPod might do it some good.
I used ipodpatcher and found the right number (2), so I executed the command:

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ipodpatcher -r 2 bootpartition.bin

but then i got this result:

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ipodpatcher v0.3 - (C) Dave Chapman 2006 ...

[INFO] Reading partition table from \\.\PhysicalDrive2
Part    Start Sector    End Sector    Size (MB)  Type
   0              63         80324        39.2   Empty (0x00)
   1           80325      39054014     19030.1   W95 FAT32 (0x0b)
[INFO] Seeking to sector 63
[INFO] Writing 80262 sectors to output file
[ERR] read in disk_readData error (cyclic redundancy check).

A 28MB bootpartition.bin file was created.

When I executed this command:

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ipod_fw -o apple_os.bin -e 0 bootpartition.bin 

I got a 3.5MB apple_os.bin file (with no warnings).

and when i executed this command:

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ipod_fw -g 4g -o rockboot.bin -i apple_os.bin bootloader-4g.bin 

i got a 3.57MB rockboot.bin file (no warnings or nothing).

Now i fear writing this file to the IPod, since it might have come from a broken bootpartition.bin file.

I tried Formatting the IPod (which took several hours) and tried again. I got the same results.

Any Suggestions?

(I'm using WinXP SP2, administrator login, antivirus disabled).

[Llorean]

Yeah, it's not a good idea to continue with any of the steps if the one before it got an error message.
It sounds like it's having difficulty reading the firmware partition on your iPod, though I really don't know for certain.

[painless-shadow]

i took a little looksy in the ipodpatcher code.
i realized that the error messege is actually:

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[ERR] read in disk_read
Data error (cyclic redundancy check).

there's a missing space or new-line between the messeges.

Anyway, i run a HDD SCAN from the diagnostics menu, and it failed.
i don't know how long it should take, but i think it took more than 30 minutes.

My guess now is that the HD is busted.
Is there anything I can do about it (considering there's no more warrenty on the device)?

[Llorean]

Well, you can in fact buy used HDs (or new ones, as some people like to upgrade) for iPods on eBay, if it's definitely busted. They are transplantable.

I'm not really sure how long the scan should take though, in the case of an iPod.

[painless-shadow]

is there a good tool to test the IPod's HD?

[Looking for Help]

I installed it the same way onto a 5g, and those dont come up with warnings. Just a short pause, then the usual prompt. It's fine. Just make sure you have the loader.bin file in the folder you're doing everything, or else the last step won't work, I made that mistake