[lexapro]

I have a 4th generation 40gb iPod. I was using it today and when I got home and plugged it into my MacBook I got a note saying it might be corrupt and I need to restore it. So I clicked restore. Now the iPod only shows a picture of it being plugged into the wall. I don't have a wall plug.

Help!

[Simon]

Sounds like the iPod's disk just died.

[ghporter]

That "plug me in" icon means that you MUST have the iPod separately powered in order to complete the restore operation. Requiring it to be plugged into power is a safeguard against a power loss during the restore, which would cause the restore to be corrupted. Borrow a wall plug from someone if you must, but that's what it's going to take to complete the restore. It could be that your entire problem was that the battery was very low, which caused the iPod's processor to get "confused." Charging it fully will fix that.

[lexapro]

I know for a fact that I do not have the wall plug. In fact I don't think I've seen it in years. Is there any way around this? Are iPod wall plugs universal? If a friend has a new iPod can I use their wall plug on my old 4th gen one from 2005?

[ghporter]

Any iPod USB power adapter should work for any relatively recent iPod. All they've done is improve the design to make newer adapters smaller. They still just provide 5VDC via the appropriate USB pins, along with telling the iPod it's OK to charge-some iPods don't charge via generic adapters because they seem to want to have a USB controller tell them it's OK.

I've bought two or three iPod power adapters on eBay just to have an extra or two around. That may be something to consider.