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schristensen · Nov 20, 2006, 10:51 PM

I was listening to my ipod in the car and I had a powerful neodymium magnet on the seat next to me. I tossed my ipod onto the seat, forgetting the magnet was there. They came into contact with each other and the magnet erased my ipod's hard drive. I can't even use the restore function on iTunes. Does anyone have any suggestions? I can get it repaired by Apple for 250$ but that seems like too much to pay. Oh...it is a 5th Gen iPod Vid.

slpdLoad · Nov 20, 2006, 11:00 PM

Does the drive show up in any way in Disk Utility?

schristensen · Nov 20, 2006, 11:04 PM

no...but it is recognized sometimes by iTunes, but it can't restore

ghporter · Nov 21, 2006, 09:55 AM

Try restoring again, and again, and again.... Think of it as "how many restore tries are worth $250?"

And put those magnets somewhere SAFE!!! You could kill analog watches, a slew of different types of consumer electronics, and any and all magnetic media with a magnet like that! YIKES!

Sherman Homan · Nov 21, 2006, 10:50 AM

Years ago when 21" monitors were $3000 a client bought one for his graphics business. One of his employees thought is was cool that a magnet could pull, stretch and distort the picture. The monitor wasn't a month old when he was messing around with the magnet and permanently burned a wild swirly spot on the screen.

My client still uses the monitor, it was attached to a server because we don't need to look at it that often. The employee was fired that day.

Dork. · Nov 21, 2006, 11:10 AM

iPods have firmware, right? Maybe a bit got flipped there. Is it possible to force a firmware update?

schristensen · Nov 23, 2006, 03:43 PM

no...every time i try to restore, it says it couldn't download the needed information
and the ipod is now not covered by the warranty, so maybe i should lie to them and just say that it happened...faulty hardware or software

imitchellg5 · 06:49 PM

Magnets totally destroy HDs. That's how the Air Force destroys theirs, but putting a magnet near them. Your iPod is probably unrecoverable. Sorry.

ghporter · Nov 23, 2006, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by imitchellg5

Magnets totally destroy HDs. That's how the Air Force destroys theirs, but putting a magnet near them. Your iPod is unrecoverable. Sorry.

The Air Force uses incredibly large, incredibly powerful magnets (actually "degaussers") to destroy hard drives. They are effectively the equivalent of using a junk yard magnet that can pick up a '57 Chevy on a hard drive, and they not only obliterate everything on the platters, they destroy the ICs in the drive as well (and probably the actuator and spindle motors for good measure).

Originally Posted by schristensen

no...every time i try to restore, it says it couldn't download the needed information
and the ipod is now not covered by the warranty, so maybe i should lie to them and just say that it happened...faulty hardware or software

If the iPod shows up on your computer at all, then all is not lost. But it almost certainly WILL cost you something to get it working. Take it to an Apple Store and tell them it stopped working-don't provide any information they don't ask for. It could simply be that it takes using some diagnostic tool they have at the Apple Store to restore the device. If they can't help you, then look for one of the online services that replaces iPod drives. In the long run it'll probably be easier and cheaper to go that route than to pay Apple to fix it.

schristensen · Nov 24, 2006, 12:37 AM

thanks, ghporter! Will try that!

Tomchu · Nov 24, 2006, 01:28 AM

Hard drives have servo information written on the platters at the factory. When you take a magnet to a hard drive, it erases all of that servo information, and that stuff can't be written anywhere but AT the factory.

Without the servo information, the read/write heads don't know where they are.

Your only hope of using that iPod again is to replace the hard drive in it.

schristensen · Nov 26, 2006, 04:28 AM

so...i took my ipod to an apple store and said it isn't working anymore. They turned it on and heard clicks from the hard drive and said it was probably a faulty drive. They then replaced it without charge or questions.
Oh...by the way...I did not lie to them, I just didn't tell them the *whole* truth

This thread doesn't need to go on anymore

ghporter · Nov 26, 2006, 10:19 AM

Glad you got things taken care of. Now KEEP THOSE MONSTER MAGNETS AWAY FROM ELECTRONICS!!!