Windows – Reformat iPod on windows

formattingipodwindows

I plugged in my 5th gen iPod to update during the latest iTunes update, but my computer crashed while in the middle of it.

Now I can no longer turn on my iPod.

Rebooting shows me the sad iPod face with a link to Apple support, iTunes does not recognize the iPod so I cannot do this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1339?viewlocale=en%5FUS

Is there some other way to reformat the disk so that it works again?

Thanks!

PS: I can charge the iPod by plugging in the USB to my computer, however it periodically tries to restart and makes horrible and annoying drive noises. I don't see an iPod disk in windows explorer either.

Whoa an update. After putting it into disk mode, not sure whether or not it is in disk mode, I followed the steps but did not get a confirmation. In any case windows explorer has it listed as a drive now. It says I need to reformat the drive before I can use it. This is windows explorer reformat, not iTunes reformat. Should I?

iTunes still doesn't give me any indication that it sees the drive.

Best Answer

If the iPod is makes horrible drive noises, then you have most likely lost the hard drive in the iPod. It might have crashed in the middle of the format and caused a crash.

You can try the disk mode to see if you can do anything with it, but sounds like it might be a dead drive.