ipod nano not recognized after updating firmware

[tckw]

Ive seen a couple of posts on this problem, but none of them has a good solution. I plug my ipod nano in (rockbox is already installed, been using it for several several months now) and windows says its not formatted and asks me if I want to format it. I know the solution would be to format it and start over, but I have files on my ipod that I would like to keep. Has anyone tried mounting there "non formatted (to windows)" ipod on linux? I would try that but I do not have access to a computer wiht linux right now. I would like to at least copy the files off and then I can start over. Rock bx still works perfectly fine so I know the filesystem etc are intact. Thanks.

[Llorean]

So what do you mean by 'Updating firmware'? In no part of your post did you describe having updated it. Do you mean the Apple firmware, or Rockbox?

[tckw]

haha sorry. What i mean by updating the firmware is copying that rockbox folder and the .bin file in from one of the nightly builds about a little over a month ago. Im not exactly sure whether this is the cause or not though. I just know I updated it before I went out of town, and now every single computer I plug it into (windows xp) wont recognize it. Ive never encountered this problem before.

[Dwyloc]

I have had the same problem with my nano twice now using rockbox.  So far the only way I have found to recover is to format the drive and reinstall rockbox, then copy all my files back onto my ipod.

[Jon_]

What version of updater did you use?

[L]

lol Jon, I don't think you even bothered to look through the posts.

[Dwyloc]

What version of updater did you use?

The problem is not with installing rockbox.

The problem is the fat32 file system of the nano is some how getting damaged at some point after installing rockbox in a way that still allows rockbox to boot and play back music, but stops windows from being able to mount the file system so you can copy files on or off your ipod.

After the problem starts you can no longer mount your player under windows by plugging in the USB cable and booting into disk mode or booting up the stock apple firmware and connecting the USB cable.

At this stage the only known cure is to format the partition and copy all your files back onto your player under windows.

[anna777]

how do I format the ipod when I cannot mount it (neither under Windows nor under Mac)

I believe I have a similar problem. ipod was formatted for mac and ran with apple software. Then I reformatted with Windows and installed Rockbox. After unplugging the ipod from the computer I think something went wrong. Rockbox logo showed but ipod hangs with harddrive running all the time. After resetting the ipod and recharging it Rockbox starts up correctly (at least some of the time, other times it hangs again), but I cannot put files onto the ipod because it is not recognized anymore by the computers.

Please help!

[saratoga]

how do I format the ipod when I cannot mount it (neither under Windows nor under Mac)

You don't need to mount a disk to format it, otherwise it would be impossible to add new disks to a system.  Just bring up whatever disk tool your OS has, select the ipod and format it.  In Windows this is done from the "disk management" screen, which you can reach by right clicking on "My Computer" and choosing "manangement" or something like that.