This evening, I connected my iPod to my iBook. OS 10 gave me an error, that a disk connected could not be mounted, I had an option, to initialize, ignore, or eject. Never initialize. This will destroy the contents of your iPod. Eventually I had to do this anyway, but I whipped out Secrets of The iPod by Chris Breen and started reading through.
I found some things to try, but none helped me with my problem. I tried restarting, then plug-in my iPod directly into the computer. The iPod would not mount. When I unplugged it, it said, OK to disconnect on the iPods screen but would never show the OS. So, I tried a soft reset, by moving the hold button left then right, then hitting the Play and Menu buttons. It reset, but went to the same screen. It was now time to restore. I launched iPod Software Update in my Utilities folder. If you do not have this, you can download it from There was no option at all, it just said, Plug in an iPod to update it. This was bad, and meant the iPod was not even mounting. I launched Disk Utility and erased the iPod, formatting it as Mac OS Extended, and then launched iPod Software Update again. This time, I was welcomed to a restore command. This command complete erases the iPod and restores the factory software. I did so, but when I ejected the iPod to load the new software, it said, OK to disconnect. I repeated the last three steps a few times, and finally decided to go into diagnostic mode by hitting Menu, forward, back and select on the iPod. Sadly this did not work, because the OS was not installed. So I did another soft reset while the iPod was unplugged. A graphic told me to plug in the iPod. I did so, the software was restored, and iTunes launched asking me to name the iPod. All was well. iSync ran, and all of my 4500 songs have been returned to Jasmine. That is her name.
Some of you will automatically send in the iPod when it has its first hiccup, but play around with it. Remember, the iPod is a hard drive. It has a user interface, but if you have to, restore it and run DiskWarrior on it. Then restore the software a few times. Sometimes, the firmware is totally shot, but you would have to take a magnet to the iPod before that happens. If you are really paranoid, or just want to be prepared for this type of incident, get Secrets of The iPod by Chris Breen. It has saved my hide a few times. A new edition is coming out soon. I met Chris at Macworld. He is a good guy and a great writer.