[Uisce]

Hey all,

I have a first gen 5GB iPod, and I am having an issue with it now. While using it as an external HD to load data on to, after 3 GB of data have been loaded, file transfers freeze, and sometimes I can hear the iPod making repetitive sounds like it is stuck (ie kernel panic). The only way I have been able to stop this was to either hard reboot the computer, or pull the firewire plug - neither of which i am fond of.

I had the thing empty except fo the iPod OS and 15 songs on one playlist, so I shouldn't be running into any memory issues, but with the 3Gb loaded, some songs in play mode will freeze when playing. Going to the next song seems to help this.

Any ideas as to why my iPod will not accept 4GB of data? Why a song (mp3) would freeze?

[Tim2 at Omni]

I don't know why this happens, but it does. Mine started freezing up in the same way. Shortly thereafter, I was unable to transfer anything to or from my iPod, as it refused to even mount.

I've tried everything to get this damn thing to work -- I did the "take it apart and unplug the battery for a while" trick, I booted into firewire mode, etc.

The only clue I got was when I booted into the super-secret diagnostic mode (Reset iPod, then hold Previous, Next, and Action [the center button] when the Apple appears). The HDD scan ran for about twenty minutes and then failed.

Sorry, man. I think our iPods are broken. Funny how such an expensive piece of hardware from such a respectable company would fail for so many people in such a short amount of time.

[Cipher13]

The 1.8" hard drives in the iPod were not designed for heavy duty use; their failure under such circumstances should come as no surprise.

Compare their MTBF data with standard drives, or even laptop drives.

If you've been booting off these, even worse...

Not to mention, bar the fact that the drive itself isn't the most hardy thing out there, but the enclosure doesn't help... it dissipates heat poorly, and absorbs and diffuses shock poorly; it is an mp3 player, first and foremost, after all.

That said, I'd be annoyed too, and I'm sorry to hear it...

[ryju]

That exact thing happened to me, but I knew exactly what it was the first time it happened, so I reformatted the iPod and now I'm only having music on it.

Now there have been no problems.