my iPod won't mount or sync anymore!

[Calhoun]

I have a P4 notebook at home and the office provides me with a G3 iMac at work. My iPod is a 3G 20GB model. I sync my music at home using iTunes for Windows. At work I sync my calendar using iSync, as well as charge the iPod in between uses and data storage.

Two weeks ago the iPod kept making my P4 notebook hang forcing my notebook to show the blue screen of death. In desperation I synced my iPod with the iTunes and my paltry music collection in the office. It worked but after that it won't sync or mount in the Mac too.

I wanted to do a hard reset and I searched online for how but it still wouldn't work. The hard reset I tried was pressing up and play button at the same time then pressing the next and previous button at the same time. The iPod restarted but it didn't hard reset.

Trying to use iPod updater does nothing. Both in Mac and PC. What do I do?? :sigh:

Thanks.

[ruger]

Have you tried using another cable to sync your iPod? Or, you might want to try running your iPod in diagnostic mode and check for errors.

hth

[kenshinx]

Calhoun,

In my experience "diagnostic mode" doesn't work and Apple naman is discouraging the use of utility software such as diskwarrior so nakaainis man, sometimes the only solution is to "restore" the ipod :sad:

Have you tried trashing the ipod prefs in your mac?

Luc

[phoenix16]

hi, have you tried YamiPod? it's a free app. my ipod wouldn't mount in itunes and of course, i couldn't sync it. all the music files seemed as if they were deleted because if i'd turn on my ipod, all the tracks were gone. disocovered that the problem was actually itunes 4.8 (kept on crashing whenever i would plug my ipod) so i deleted it and installed 4.7. when i used yamipod, it rebuilt the database and even if some info got messed up (like the genre), it fixed the problem without me having to restore it to factory settings. hope it works for you too even if we don't exactly have the same prob. good luck!

[nyep]

you should bring to the place where you purchased it. maximize your warranty.

[elbert]

A hard reset means to delete and reformat your iPod.

Try a soft reset first. For the 3G iPod, the sequence is hold/unhold, then Menu and Play button simultaneously.

If you want to totally erase your iPod, and iPod Updater's Restore won't work, try using Disk Utility (HD / Applications / Utilities). Highlight the iPod on the left pane and use the Erase funtion.

Then download the latest iPod Updater utility (2005-03-23) from http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/ to reformat your iPod.

If you use the utility in a PC, you'll be able to use it in a Mac. If you do it on a Mac, your PC won't read it.