bootloader without firmware

[Jillorious]

Being such a big fan of Rockbox as I am, I constantly reccomend it to all of my freinds. But since most of them can't be bothered, I usually end up being the one to install it for them.
So, one of my freinds that I installed Rockbox for came over to me totally upset that I messed up his iPod (4TH Gen). The story is as folllows: since I installed it (about a month ago) it worked fine, but today, after he loaded some music and disconnected, it stopped working.
Taking a quich look at it, I realized that it keeps on booting and rebooting non-stop. It doesn't connect to the computer, and it doesn't let me boot into the firmware either.
But, I might geuss what happened, for the last two lines in the booting screen are:
rockbox error: -1
loading original firmware...

So I searched for "error: -1" in the manual, and this is what I've got:
Note: If your Ipod displays the message “Error: -1,” you have either neglected to install a Rockbox build as described in the preceding section, or you have extracted the contents of the .zip file to some directory other than the the root directory of your Ipod.

So I think that, being totally ignorant as to the contents of the .rockbox folder, he might have deleted or moved it.
But since it wouldn't connect to the computer, I have no idea what to do.

[GodEater]

If you'd kept searching on the forums, you'd have found the following advice :

Turn the hold switch on, then off again.

Press and hold both the Menu and Centre buttons for anything up to 30 seconds until the iPod resets.
As soon as the display on the iPod clears, press and hold the Play and Centre buttons to force the iPod into emergency disk mode.

Proceed to repair your friends Rockbox install by unzipping a fresh build onto it.

[Jillorious]

I tryed that before ever I looked in on the manual.
But, although it went into disk mode, when I connected it to the computer it didn't connect properly; meaning: it evidently connected, but wasn't assigned a drive letter in windows explorer.
So I'm still in the dark.

[GodEater]

I'm not sure if that isn't perhaps a problem with the computer rather than the iPod. Have you tried multiple USB ports, or even a completely different computer ?

Edit: Actually I seem to recall someone with a similar problem recently - it turned out his iPod -> Computer USB cable was faulty.

[Llorean]

Is iTunes installed?

[Jillorious]

I'm not sure if that isn't perhaps a problem with the computer rather than the iPod. Have you tried multiple USB ports, or even a completely different computer ?

A different iPod on the same PC, cable, USB port... Does work.

Is iTunes installed?

Yes.

[Llorean]

Does the iPod show up in device manager when it's plugged in, and in Disk Mode?

It does properly say "Do not disconnect."

Does the iPod show up in iTunes? (Perhaps it is no longer set to show up as a disk.)

[Jillorious]

It shows up normally in device manager.
It displays "Do not disconnect" properly.
But in iTunes it says that it's in recovery mode. I recovered it, and it totally erased the rockbox bootloader, but it still won't get a drive letter.

P.S. iTunes still says that it's in recovery mode, but, no matter how many times I "recover" it (having to disconnect it and plug into the wall in the process), it still says that it's in recovery mode.

[Llorean]

Well, considering Rockbox has been removed, something is just wrong with the iPod.