My brother Justin loved his 20 gig 4th generation ipod until he dropped it at the gym one day. It stopped working all together and would make clicking noises when he would try to start it.
He had gotten it as a gift and didnt have the reciept for it, so he couldnt take it back unter warrenty I guess. Apple said that it would cost $250 to fix. Instead of fixing it, he spend the money on
a 30 gig 5th generation. I asked him for the broken ipod so I could tinker with it. After I got it from him, I decided that it would be cool to own an ipod, and that if i could fix it for less then the
retail price, I would be a head of the game. I documented my adventure of trying to fix my ipod, check it out.
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When I would start the ipod, I would get an icon of a folder and a warning sign. The ipod would then make a bunch of clicking noises. That make me think that the hard drive was crapped out.
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Since it was already broken, why not take it apart and try to make it work. There was no clear way to ebter the ipod, so I decided to pry off the metal back using the thinnest screw driver I could find.
It wasnt that hard to work the screw drive between the metal and the plastic. I worked the screw driver down the side of the case, until it popped off.
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I flipped the ipod over, and opened it up slowly, I noticed that there was a ribbon cable connecting the guts if the ipod to the jacks mounted to the metal back. I was careful not to mess this connection up.
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The ipod uses an ide harddrive, the connector pulled directly off without any problems. I now hard the bad harddrive free,
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The drive had blue rubber bumpers wrapped around it, and on the back, there was a foam mat that was glued to the drive.
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Removing the bumpers was no problem, they pulled directly off with out any fight.
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I tried to pull the foam off the drive by pulling on it, but that wasnt working, so I desided to get a razor blade scraper and screape it off. It worked well.
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Once I had the foam off, I could see that it was a toshiba drive. Model MK2004GAL. I looke dofr replacements online, but was only able to find the model MK2006GAL. I compared the MK2004GAL and the MK2006GAL, and didnt see any big differences, so I ordered one. 3 days letter I had my new drive. It didnt have the apple logo on it, but who cares, it was only $100!
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The blue bumpers went on with out a problem, and fit like a glove.
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To get the foam to stick to the new drive, I went super ghetto and reached in my desk, and came up with a glue stick! Hey, it goet the job done.
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The new drive went in, just like the old one came out. I connected the IDE connection, and I was ready to close it up.
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I put the back on, and pressed down on it evenly. The back snapped without any problems.
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Next, I downloaded the ipod updater (11-17-2005) from apple.com, and installed it. I hooked up my newly rebuilt ipod, and did a restore. It went really fast.
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After the restore, I had to hook up my ipod to the wall charger. I didnt have one on hand so i tried all kinds of methods of going around it. In the middle of me trying to hack around it, My buddy chris called, I told him to bring over his wall charger.
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5 minutes later Chris showed up with a charger. I plugged in the ipod, it reset itself, and then I was up and running with my newly rebuilt ipod.
I was really supprised at how easy it was to replace the hard drive in a 4th gen ipod. Im sure that someone is going to call me an idiot for opening the case that way. I dont care though. I got this thing working and that all that matters, and I did it for under $100. Screw apple for wanting to charge $250 for 20 munites worth of work and $100 worth of parts.
I hope that through my experience, someone else can bring back to life one of their dead ipods.
December 27th, 2005 at 1:34 pm
Impressive! I’ve been wondering how to do that in the quite likely event that my ipod dies (I drop it alot). Using elmers glue may not have been the best idea, since the hard drive does get fairly hot.
December 27th, 2005 at 1:34 pm
nicely done. this is awesome for people like me who didn’t purchase any added warranty for their iPod. thanks for the info, josh!
December 27th, 2005 at 1:36 pm
I’m bookmarking this for future reference…glad I saw it on the diggnation site…
never know when I might need it.
thanks for such clear cut directions, and pics.
December 27th, 2005 at 1:43 pm
Nice Job. I, too, am bookmarking this for future referance.
December 27th, 2005 at 1:45 pm
That is not a broken IPOD.. A Sad face will show you it is bad. i recently had that and the Hard Drive was clicking and what I did was put it on a computer that did not have ITUNES installed and used windows to format it like it was a regular hard drive. the when you plug it in just restore it and it should work.
December 27th, 2005 at 1:55 pm
What size drive did you replace with? Did you find upsized drives available? If so, what sizes did you find? Can you provide us with some links to sites that sell the replacement drives?
December 27th, 2005 at 1:56 pm
Cool, I’ll rember that, although it seems more likely that I’ll need a new battery sooner than a new harddrive anyone know where I can get one of those?
December 27th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
Wow, someone actually put something useful on the intarwebs!
December 27th, 2005 at 2:16 pm
Wonder what would have happened if you has popped in a 100GB laptop drive?
December 27th, 2005 at 2:20 pm
Where did you get the new 1.8 HDD? I’ve been looking online, but can’t find a good, cheap source. Any ideas?
December 27th, 2005 at 2:21 pm
You get an iPod Battery from http://ipodbattery.com.
December 27th, 2005 at 2:37 pm
Awesome blog!! Maybe I can buy a used ipod with HD problems from Ebay. Maybe it’s worth a shot.
December 27th, 2005 at 2:44 pm
Very nice tutorial. It will come in handy someday. Hopefully not soon
December 27th, 2005 at 3:17 pm
Congrats on the fix. However, why can’t people who post stories take the extra ten seconds to make sure they actually spelled words correctly? It would certainly add some credibility to the post.
Bah!
December 27th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
i havew fixed ipods that have lost a connection with the hardrive. Even the sad face, ive fixed two!
This involves having two ipods and switching their hard drives, this only works for 4th gens though i havent figured it out for the pile of 3rd gens i have. i swapped two 4th hard drives that each gave me the sad face and tried to mount with an apple and i got both mounted from the same computer, A folder icon on a fourth gen means it needs to be repaired and zeroed out with Norton disk doctor or disk utility on a macintosh.Both ipods were bought off ebay with HD problems. One i had to replace the mother board after constant unmounting and restoring. I think it was sat on for a long period of time warping the board and causing circuits to short. But I spent and fixed two Ipods with ”claimed HD problems” for less than a used or refurbished from apple.
December 27th, 2005 at 4:13 pm
Not to say your way doesnt work, but mine was doing the same exact problem, showing either the pic shown above or a sad face on it, and I was able to fix it by either:
A) Slide the hold button back and forth about 10 time quickly, and then Hold down: Menu/middle button/pause.play button, this puts the ipod into some special mode with which I was then able to restore it via the itunes restore program. Problem is, a few weeks later the problem came back with the error screen and clicking noise, so…
B) Simply hold it in one hand, and smack it with your other hand. I was told do try this by a friend online, and wa-la, it has not had a single problem since which was over 2 months ago. Saves a ton of time, not to mention the money for a new drive.
While some may say beating the crap out of your ipod is a bad idea, it does work
December 27th, 2005 at 4:18 pm
Now I haven’t gotten a sad Ipod icon yet, but I have gotten the battery and far more often the folder icon. One thing that seems to be the biggest problem is that the unit continuously resets itself making it impossible to mount.
Any ideas?
December 27th, 2005 at 4:21 pm
TO LoathRevolver -
google it.
http://www.interloper.com/products/product-details.php?productid=53030331&cat=530
December 27th, 2005 at 4:25 pm
Christ… it finally booted after the “hold and slap” move. CMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON…
December 27th, 2005 at 4:41 pm
Second grade teacher, you are not very helpful. You teach second grade. What happened to “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say it at all.” Or are you teaching them to be anal and annoying. This post obviously was meant to be helpful.
December 27th, 2005 at 7:38 pm
You are god. I fall to my knees and worship you.
Uh…Thanks
December 27th, 2005 at 7:58 pm
BRILLANT! FASTIDIOUS JOB DOCUMENTING YOUR ADVENTURE!! THX
December 27th, 2005 at 10:23 pm
20 On Tuesday, 12-27-2005 @ 04:41pm, Ginger said…
Second grade teacher, you are not very helpful. You teach second grade. What happened to “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say it at all.” Or are you teaching them to be anal and annoying. This post obviously was meant to be helpful.
******************
Take your own advice bitch
December 27th, 2005 at 11:25 pm
Just to let you know in the beginning, I have had that folder come up before and that doesn’t mean that the hard drive is corrupt. All you would have to do it read the manual and it tells you how to bring the hdd back to normal. So you might have just wasted $100.00 for nothing when you could have just read the manual to see how to bring it back to normal.
December 27th, 2005 at 11:38 pm
actually, the drive wouldnt spin up. if you shook the ipod you could hear something was rolling around in the hard drive. It made a horrible clicking / grinding noise. Trust me, I have been around computers enough to know when a HD goes bad. I wish i would have ripped the drive apart and document it. Thanks for all the responces!
December 28th, 2005 at 12:06 am
You were able to do it for 100 because you cut the capacity down to 20gig? A 40gig would have only cost 31 bucks more on eWiz.com, why didnt you go for the same size drive?
http://www.ewiz.com/query.php?categry=59&brand=Toshiba&dp=1&dt=&categry=59&brand=Toshiba&pa0=&pa1=&pa2=&pa3=&pa4=&pa5=&searchStr=Search+from+current+results&myanchor=%23displaytop&categry=59&brand=Toshiba&pa0=&pa1=&pa2=&pa3=&pa4=1.8+inch&pa5=&nl=10&searchStr=Search+from+current+results&ob=&myanchor=%23displaytop
December 28th, 2005 at 6:23 am
Great guide! But are you sure it’s that easy?
Probably it’s time to REVIVE my dead iPod too…
December 28th, 2005 at 8:21 am
If just to teach how to open an iPod, your blog is really worth it.
December 28th, 2005 at 8:45 am
Great job boy, great job!
December 28th, 2005 at 11:08 am
“if you shoot the ipod you could hear something was rolling aroun din the hard drive. ”
Uh yeah. Shooting your iPod is not recommended.
December 28th, 2005 at 11:10 am
“if you shoot the ipod you could hear something was rolling aroun din the hard drive. ”
Uh yeah. Shooting your iPod is not recommended.
December 28th, 2005 at 11:53 am
Great job!
I have a 20GG ipod is an older model w/no vidio.Can i change the hard drive on it so i can download vidio music??
December 28th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
Excellent! I got my iPod wet (not on purpose), and had to take it apart, dry off the circuit boards, etc. It worked for a few months, but slowly started acting up. First, it wouldn’t connect with the computer anymore. It would charge, but no detection on the PC. Next, it wouldn’t charge anymore, so I knew, a few more days and it was history. I gave it a decent burial, but kept the HD. So my Q is this: How can I hook up a 3rd gen 30GB HD to a standard PC IDE controller? Anybody have a linky?
December 28th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
BOO
December 28th, 2005 at 1:51 pm
here is the best method to fix your ipod…
1. get a hammer
2. bash it for a few hours to releive stress
3 get a better player.. http://www.creative.com/products/mp3/
December 28th, 2005 at 5:20 pm
Holy Christ! Hold and Slap! I was ready to go out tomorrow and shell out 400 bucks on a new video ipod. Now after smacking my old one and it coming back to life — forget it!
December 28th, 2005 at 5:46 pm
The price on iPod repairs by apple is so high, because they vary rarely repair them… they just replace them with the same model (a bunch of the replacements have been rebuilt, but not on site).
This at least reminded me that I could put a bigger drive into a unit that is actually dead.
Other than that…
December 28th, 2005 at 6:03 pm
Getting a new 1.8″ drive is the hard part. Only two manufacturers make them: Toshiba and Hitachi, and the largest available size is 80GB. I recently bought a Toshiba through newegg.com for my laptop, so they had them at one point.
December 28th, 2005 at 6:09 pm
I agree with Second grade teacher - great article, but please take time to proof read it which will add credibility to the article.
There are plenty of badly written documents on the Internet - Having one that is written well helps a great deal.
Ginger - Its constructive criticism - you, however are not being constructive when you just insult people. Wake up and listen to others once in a while and you might actually learn something.
December 28th, 2005 at 8:20 pm
COOL!
You’re my hero. Definately bookmarking this for when this happens to my ipod…
December 28th, 2005 at 9:44 pm
My ipod same vrison 20 gig crashes when saving position form an podcast” resume playback form a podcast” and some times when playign a song and if i hit it hard enough it starts playing again. Think i’ll change the HD thanks for the instruciton to open it , could’nt find it anywere
December 28th, 2005 at 9:52 pm
Yep, that one’s going straight to my del.icio.us account for safe keeping (as long as Yahoo! holds up their end of the bargain!).
December 28th, 2005 at 9:59 pm
im had the whole broken hard drive/clicking sound problem… sucked i bought a new ipod video but i still have my old ipod if anyone wants it
December 28th, 2005 at 10:10 pm
Hey Chris if you still got that broken ipod id like to mess with it send me an email at gotapinupgirl at yahoo.com.
December 29th, 2005 at 12:49 am
Cool! Just like that haa…thanks. Also thanks to Laythor.
December 29th, 2005 at 6:07 am
Quick solution for everyone….stop dropping your IPODS
December 29th, 2005 at 6:49 am
Great this step by step explanation, simple as replacing a battery on a wristwatch
December 29th, 2005 at 7:01 am
Tigerdirect has a cable to connect a laptop HD to a regular IDE cable in your PC. THis costs US$9.99 and is a real lifesaver.
Use the URL below or just google “laptop drive adapter” and pick one of the choices.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=244974&Sku=C184-17705&SRCCODE=WEBGOOAUT&CMP=KNC-GOOGL
December 29th, 2005 at 7:17 am
Nice work. Wonder if it’s possible to find a harddrive with more gig then 20 and the same size of 4th gen tobisha harddrive
That would be like 2k5 awsome.
December 29th, 2005 at 10:06 am
Huh…my iPod photo had the same problem. All I did was bring it to the nearest Apple Center, w/o my receipt cuz I lost it, and they were more than happy to replace it for me. Got it 2 weeks later. Yes, a brand new 60gb iPod photo, free of charge. They even called me to say that it was ready for pickup. Now that’s good service. I’m from the Philippines by the way, so, I’m not sure if the same goes from other countries.
December 29th, 2005 at 12:22 pm
I have a 64-year old Remington with a dodgy ampersand key, shredding ribbons ahoy. Now how to replace that little puppy?
December 29th, 2005 at 2:33 pm
Interesting article. I pulled out my old busted 15 gig 3rd (or 2nd?) gen ipod. It’s the one before all the buttons were moved onto the clickwheel. I opened itu p and found no foam but plastic surrounding a hard drive, and weird copper tape to replace the IDE cable I’m guessing. The rubber bumpers are still there. The harddrive in these are Toshiba MK1504GAL’s, which I found online for 40 bucks! When I went to get it repaired they quoted me 300 so I just bought a damned new ipod and used my college acceptance letter to get a discount greater than the recycling program. What a rip off! I’ll probably order it and see if it’ll work. I dropped the ipod and heard similar clicking noises - both the Apple Tech Support and I believed it to be a damaged hard drive so let’s see what I can do with this. There’s slight damage with the dock connector (a noticeable dent) so we’ll see what happens. But damn, nice article and tutorial. I’m also going to check out the battery and see if there’s a cheap way to extend it.
December 29th, 2005 at 2:55 pm
If you want to increase the disk drive size, you can do it without problem as long as you get a new back plate for your iPod to make room for the thicker Hard Disk Thickness. I think you can proably go up to 60 or 80 GB
December 29th, 2005 at 8:45 pm
Thanks so much for this. Some guy dropped my iPod and it was rendered useless until I followed these instructions and fixed the connection from the hard drive to the motherboard. Minus a few dings, it’s as good as new once again.
December 30th, 2005 at 10:00 am
has anyone told Laythor that the guy had a 20gb to begin with, not a 40gb?
December 30th, 2005 at 11:28 am
yeah i know, he had a 20gb not a 40gb lol, cant believe nobody cought it after all those posts.
December 30th, 2005 at 12:05 pm
o
m
g
thank you so much! i just posted a lenghty artical on ars’s forums about how i couldn’t get a replacement ipod because my computer had now way of getting usb 2.0 and now, through the many different solutions presented to me, its working, at least for now! i also have no fear changing out the hdd in the future, but lets hope it doesn’t come to that!
thank you so much, for getting this conversation started!
December 30th, 2005 at 12:18 pm
The connector on the toshiba hard drive is a 50 pin female connection that is specific to only the toshiba drives. I’m having a hard time finding one that fits it, so I can connect it to a standard 3.5 ide connection
December 30th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
I upgraded my Archos 20GB with a new 100GB drive a year or so ago - works great! But 100GB is already feeling a little tight. Want 120GB next, heh.
I am going to try to do the same to my little sisters ipod, make a 15GB become a 60GB or something!
December 30th, 2005 at 6:45 pm
I recently bought a 5th generation ipod and my brother got 1 too so he gave me his old 1 (4th Gen) and before he gave it to me he stepped on the screen and (some how) managed to put that heavy A$$ thing in the washing maciene and got soaked, so i tried getting the ipod open to dry up the circuts and motherboared and change the screen, i tried to get it open the way it was displayed in this artical and the ipods plastic split in two pieces inbetween the screen and the click wheel… thanks alot… 1 question though, is there a way to hook the ipod up a computer and use it as an external Hard Drive w/o having the ipod?
and another question does any one know a way to get an ipod mini open? (i have 5 ipod minis)
December 30th, 2005 at 7:29 pm
I had the same problem with my 40GB 4G ipod not starting. I tried everything else, and the found these posts. After reading, I tried “smacking” the ipod.
It actually did work.
I held it in my left hand with the click wheel up, and with as much force as I could, smacked the side of it with my right hand
December 30th, 2005 at 8:33 pm
Wow, Tried everything to get my 6 month old IPOD 60G working. Just smacked it on the back twice and it works like a champ. Thanks
December 31st, 2005 at 1:01 am
wow where did u get 20 gb ffor 1oo bucks
can u help me look for mine?
i have 3rd generation
December 31st, 2005 at 6:16 am
Cool dude (:
Nice work, well done!
December 31st, 2005 at 7:51 am
I did replace the battery in my iPod 2nd. gen. with success. My only advice is be prepared for a few new scratches. If you iPod is already scratched and well worn, it probably won’t matter that much. This article makes me want to disassemble and upgrfade my perfectly good 20GB iPod for the fun of it.
December 31st, 2005 at 11:51 am
If the Hard Drive Is extermaly hot does this mean that i need a new one?
January 1st, 2006 at 12:58 am
I just tried smacking my ipod like others had suggested and it worked. I was doubtful at first but ran out of options. one smack and presto.
January 1st, 2006 at 7:56 am
Do you mean while it runs, Shamus?
January 1st, 2006 at 8:54 am
First, it wouldn’t connect with the computer anymore. It would charge, but no detection on the PC. Next, it wouldn’t charge anymore, so I knew, a few more days and it was history.
January 1st, 2006 at 11:47 am
Does anyone know if a 30gb harddrive will fit inside the stock ipod 4th generation casing?
January 1st, 2006 at 12:58 pm
stan: you’re a genius! i had the same problem, a 4th gen with a sad face and clicking noise…was gonna replace the harddrive, luckily i saw your post…smacked it in my hand - it stopped clicking, then i ran the ipod updater, and it’s “good to go”!!!!
thanks man!!!!
January 1st, 2006 at 7:57 pm
yes my ipod is only hot when its running does this mean i need a new HDD or close to it?
(it gets so hot that i cant hold it)
(and the battery fully chared only lasts 5 minutes)
January 1st, 2006 at 7:58 pm
and another thing, is any one else here experinceing the problem?
January 2nd, 2006 at 6:27 am
Another satisfied IPOD spanker. My IPOD started randomly messing up, but all the built in diagnostics passed. I was having EXTREMELY long syncs that would ofter lock up my itunes and the CPU to some degree. It was definitely the IPOD b/c it happend the same on multiple CPUs. Anyway, I turned it off, and gave it a couple of firm slaps, and violla! Seems to be working. I can’t believe I have found any other threads on the “ball&peen” method of fixing ipods. But thanks!
January 2nd, 2006 at 8:22 am
I can’t get my ipod 10gig 3g to mount. the drive seems to be spinning, tryed the slap treatment, ran the updater program but that just shows a spinning ball for ever? any suggestions?
January 2nd, 2006 at 11:35 am
nice job man. im saving it now as a pdf.
January 2nd, 2006 at 8:53 pm
Stan, you are the man! I can’t believe it worked!
January 2nd, 2006 at 10:39 pm
FUCK I TRIED TO SMAKING AT IT AND STILL WONT OWRK!!!
January 2nd, 2006 at 10:54 pm
does anyone have broken ipod i could get it for free
or working ipod for good price?
January 3rd, 2006 at 1:58 am
iPod slappers UNITE!
I was soooooo sceptical when I first heard the “drop it” or “”Slap it” solution but as I was having severe dramaas the other day and no other fix seemed to work, I just held it firmly in my left hand and gave the back a slap. Connected to the pc straight away and uploaded the music without so much as a glitch.
Today it crashed when plugged into the pc again (gonna have top check out my system I think) and I ended up with the sad icon face. Couldn’t even get the iPod into dick mode this time and was beginning to think I’d finally stuffed it for good after hours of tinkering. Even the same slap didn’t work this time.
Then after hours of trying to charge it, reformat it etc, I toiggled the hold switch fast a few times (like someone above suggested) before giving it a slap to the back and a slap to the side (again like someone abovve suggested).
Perfect.
I guess it’s all in the way it is slapped.
Of course, it more than liekly means that there is a loose connection in there someowhere but thanks to this blog, should it ever really become unuseable, I now know how to open it up and check those connections.
January 3rd, 2006 at 4:48 pm
I won a 20gb photo i pod ,which I haven’t unwrapped yet …..my question is there anyway to format it to accept video or am i dreaming?
January 3rd, 2006 at 4:53 pm
Add another name to the list of happy slappers! My iPod clapped out recently, only a week after warranty. Horrible clicks and folder icons are no more, following a hearty slap on the back.
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:23 pm
this visual point of reference was quite helpful. i’ve had an out-of-commission 4th gen click-wheel 20G ipod just sitting on a shelf for several months. i was getting an array of “!” errors (both the front and the folder “!” as well as the battery exclamatory), and couldn’t reset the ipod or put it into disk mode. the most progress it would make would be to show the apple logo and then it would inevitable fail with an exclamatory error regardless of whether it was plugging into my powerbook or the charger.
after reviewing the walkthrough, i just disassembled my ipod, disconnected the HD from the IDE connection and prompt reconnected it and reassembled and now it it working perfectly. It was quite easy and I just used a butterknife to separate the body of the ipod. I recommend everyone try this quick fix before investing in a new HD. Good luck.
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:29 pm
I dropped my iPod, and the ribbon wire came out of place, and disconnected from the back cover.. is there anything i can do to reconnect it, and still make it work??
p.s. it’s a 20 gig
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:29 pm
GW:I won a 20gb photo i pod ,which I haven’t unwrapped yet …..my question is there anyway to format it to accept video or am i dreaming?
anwswer is yes look up video mod for ipod picure/nano it works for both.
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Hey…
If anyone has an ipod (working or not) they wanted to get rid of, i would be glad to take it off of your hands…
figure it’s worth a try..
if you have one, please email me at smittles2003@yahoo.com
thanks,
smitty
January 3rd, 2006 at 9:01 pm
hey, GW, if you have i ipod photo, try ipod linux. this works on a nano to watch video, and you should check this out to watch vids on the photo click the link and check it out.
http://ipodlinuxinstl.sourceforge.net/index.shtml
January 4th, 2006 at 4:21 am
The happy slappers have another convert! After trying apple’s ‘five R’s’ to remove the sad icon I came across this blog and the slapping technique. Figuring that $250 for a fix on a 4th gen was a bit steep I gave it a go and hey presto! one healthy ipod and a happy bank manager. Well done for this blog, it’s now bookmarked for the eventual failure….
January 4th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
my ipod nano broke and so i opened it up and tryed a few things, then i got out my trusty 9 volt baterie and randomly zoting places. i got it to work. (i was so happy i yelled it’s alive!)
January 4th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
So five minutes after sending in a warranty repair request, I come to this site (trying to find out if bad harddrives on 40 gig ipod photos are common), and then try the smack technique. It works! Of course, I expect the thing to crash again tomorrow, but at least I can listen to it tonight!
January 4th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
thanks guys for the video info …..next question - i-tunes has split up my limewire tracks allowing some music into my library and others staying into owner’s limewire tunes. the problem is that i can’t transfer all the songs from limewire to library to install into the i-pod . I’ve looked through all the settings but can’t quite figure it out - any hints?
January 6th, 2006 at 3:59 am
the 30gb 1.8″ toshiba drives are exactly the same dimensions…i got one for only $20 more than the 20gb online. once you go to 40gb, those are double-platter drives and will not fit. toshiba is just now releasing a 40gb single platter drive but it is not available in the states yet.
January 6th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
any ideas way i get ipod sevice error when i’m trying the ipod updater after replacing u/s hard drive??
January 6th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
great guide, thanks so much. replaced my 4th gen 20g broken hard drive with a mates 3rd gen 20g with a broken screen.
the hard drive turned out to be exactly the same model (MK2004GAL). i found opening the ipod case easier from the cable/docking port end first rather than the sides though. get the screwdriver in and twist.
And on a few posts, in my experience, a folder with an exclamation can mean a broken hard disk, it can also mean an unformatted harddisk. put your ear to the ipod when starting up, if it takes a long time and makes horrible clicking noises, then it’s gone, if the icon appears quickly and the hard disk is spinning quietly, then you simply need to plug it in and let the ipod software do a restore.
hate to state the obvious, but hold and slap does not work.
January 6th, 2006 at 7:21 pm
hold and slap does work maybe just not for you
January 7th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
bravo .. great blog .. whoever needs replacement parts or batteries you can get them @ ipod mechanic here’s the linky
http://ipodmechanic.com//index.php?cPath=24&osCsid=6671c215e1dbf247c239247b5d03f0db
January 7th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
I have a U2 20gig ipod that will not turn on. I’ve tried smaking it which didn’t work. Before it broke it had half charge so i don’t think it’s the battery. When i plug it in its not detected and the screen doesn’t turn on. Any suggestions.
January 8th, 2006 at 7:16 am
Great great instructional blog! I really appreciated it that I bookmarked it already.
I searched Google for the drive you specified and I found the same model from ewiz.com. Here’s the link (http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=T20MK2006L&c=fr&pid=0cdf685c6347e4d05fe991cd44239303eae2ab1fad3cc585cf3e31e39e6bf8d5).
Just want to make sure that’s the one I need!
Thanks man!
January 8th, 2006 at 9:29 am
we just tried the smack the ipod method to get an ipod to work that had been dead for months with sad face and whirring and what not, didnt work
BUT BUT BUT BUT
when smashed against a table it worked!!! so there u have it, if something doesnt work hitting it and throwing it actually fixes it
January 8th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Very good blog! I will maybe attempt an upgrade from 20 to 40 Gb .
Q: Does anyone know how to take apart Ipod to fix the wheel? Mine is skipping from 12 to 6 o’clock on the wheel. Any info is welcome!
John_herr@hotmail.com
Thanks again, great post.
January 8th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
i got my ipod 20 gb 4th gen on xmas and i dropped it not long after, ive tried everything even the slapping and it still making clicking noises and showing apple icon and then the folder and ! icon. i don’t want to risk opening it up. any suggestions? or can i get it rplaced on my warranty? any help would be great
January 8th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
I have attempted to reair my wifes ipod, without success. It shows the corrupted folder Icon. I tried using numerous disk utilities on bot Mac and PC platforms. The drive is not seen. I have used the slap method and hold method. I have opened the ipod to check for loose connections (this was way easier than I expected). My next step is to replace the drive. Does anyone know if a 4th gen HD will fit a 3rd gen Ipod?
January 8th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
I just brought my old lady her first ipod for christmas off ebay I think I paid to much for it but anyway I tryed to reformat it for my pc and erase the old and put on her kind of crap or whatever she whould like on it and now it will not do anything but come on show the book then shut down I didn’t want to give it to her until it was loaded so she still don’t know I have it
so like others above I would be interested in a cheap ipod of any kind that works when I say cheap it has to be cheap like I said above I paid to much for the first one when she see’s it on my bill she will probley shoot me if anyone cares or has one they dont want email me at prostockchopper@aol.com PLEASE! AND THANK YOU…
January 8th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
Let me tell you once and for all. If someone smacked their broken iPod into working, there is a loose connection and likely still loose. Hitting it will ONLY cause potential damage. If you think getting it to work by hitting is a better option, you are an idiot. You have a perfect guide right here to work from. Do it right the first time and it may work for a long time. Hitting it may make an intermittent connect work temporarily, BUT THE PROBLEM IS STILL THERE. Let me add that 95% of the posts ENCOURAGING you to bash it are from jokers trying to get morons to say “gee, maybe I should try that, I’m sooo desperate to make my iPod work again….God help me…make this smack work!” Ask yourself, “Am I really that pathetic?” C’mon people, think for yourselves! BTW, great tutorial, thanks!
January 8th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
to Your Brain: while you are correct about the potential for additional damage, the quick test of one or two slaps to confirm that there is a losse connection is far less damaging than the number of drops that most pod users inlict on their pods. Stating that, I am a Mac tech and would NEVER have slapped my own pod. I did slap a “dead”, out-of warranty pod and it worked. So… it is not the best solution, but it is better than the $ given to Apple for the lay person to get it “fixed”. I do plan to crack the case and check the connectors to confirm your thoughts, but not everyone would.
to Josh: Nice Blog. Thanks.
January 9th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Does anyone know if you can put in hard drives other than Toshiba into an iPod, as long as they match the specs of the Toshiba?
January 9th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
I’ve read that upgrading the drive from ***4GAL to ***6GAL will cause the firewire update to stop working. Can anyone confirm this?
January 9th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
awesome this site, will make me more money now that i can fix all these broken ipods now.
January 10th, 2006 at 10:12 am
just so you all know, slapping a hard drive, is actually a last resort technique i was taught in tech school for use with hard drives that have crashed and have no backup. the idea is that the head in the drive has become slightly out of place. it needs to be at a speciffic distance from the surface of the disk to properly read it. with something like an ipod, it’s basically just a hard drive and a screen that you put in your pocket, so it gets banged up a lot and the likelyhood of the head becoming out of place is much higher. giving the unit a firm slap sometimes vibrates the head so that it settles back to it’s original position.
anyway, point was, in the future if a drive in your pc stops working, keep in mind that you can possibly use this same trick to get it working again, at least for long enough to copy essential files to a new drive.
the way we were told to do it was to hold it levelly over a carpeted floor and drop it with the top facing down.
it really is a last resort though…it runs the risk of making your problem [way] worse, especially if the head wasn’t the problem to begin with, and it was just corrupted data causing the problem, or a bad cable. in fact, when my professor started talking about it, the first thing he said was, “i probably shouldn’t tell you all this, but…”
so don’t smack your ipod as soon as it stops working. make sure there’s no other solution, then give it a shot.
January 10th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Great instructions. I was ready to change out my hard drive when I read the first message on the slap. I figured what the heck… I have to spend the money for a new one anyway…. why not try it.
Low and behold…. it worked…!!! I am not sure how long it will hold it but it worked and I am very happy for now …. thanks a lot…
January 10th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Let me start off by saying that the slapping method some of you guys are using is just a temporary solution to a problem that will not go away by spanking your ipods a few times. But u can do whatever the hell u want, i couldnt care less. Anywayz moving on to my success story. I bought a Philips HDD120 with a 20gb hard drive almost a year ago; it was a decent alternative to the ipod and it looked much better, but four months ago i dropped it and something got messed up in the circuit board so i couldnt repair it. Therefore i decided to buy a 3G ipod with a 15 GB HD on ebay. I’ve been using it without any problems ever since, i’ve also dropped it at the gym a few times but still, it always worked perfectly. All that changed last week when i bought one of those FM transmitters for my car- a waste of money dont buy that crap. I plugged it in the car’s cigarrette lighter and decided to listen to my songs on the way to school. Fifteen mins later the iPOD crashed , the folder icon with the exclamation sign appeared on the screen and i could hear the clickin’ noise so it was obvious that there was something wrong with the HD. I tried restoring it and then i ran the diagnostic thing. As i had suspected the HD test failed. I wasnt gonna pay $100++ for a new HD so i opened up my old philips hdd 120 and to my surprise i found out that both units used the same HD. I swapped the HDs and now i have a 20 GB ipod working like a charm.
January 10th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Thanks for the insight Mac Tech. I may have been a bit harsh, but hate to see some misguided folks ruin something that may not have been otherwise an unsolvable problem. I guess Josh and a couple others have previously added their caveats. Your probably very correct about how many times people drop those in day to day usage. Not a reason to do it on purpose, but a good point.
January 11th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
my ipod gets the same folder icon with the exclaimation point! It continually resets itself everytime i turn it on. The only way i can keep it on is if i put it in disk mode. Even still, once i plug it into my computer to restore it, it’ll reset itself even in disk mode, so i can’t even restore it. I’ve tried the slap method, not sure if i’m doing it right because its not working. The hard drive looks fine, no scratches, no clicking sounds, but i still think its the problem. i switched the harddrive between one working 20gig 4gen ipod and this 20gig 4gen ipod that doesn’t work. when i switch the hd’s…the same problem transfers to the new housing. Anyone have this problem? Do I really have to replace the hd or is there something else i can do to reformat it ipod style?
January 11th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
can you do this with a mini also?
January 12th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
i had the same
face problem and i just opened my ipod and disconnected the battery and hard drive for like 1 hour. i plugged it in again and my ipod 4g was working again. Anyways i have a 2nd gen 6gig ipod mini for sale at $125 dollars. Hit me up if u intersted.
January 13th, 2006 at 5:41 am
to steven petrillo-
as far as i know you can put any ide harddrive that will fit in it. hell, even if it doesn’t fit you can still attach it and make it work.
case and point
http://www.command-tab.com/index.php/ipod-super
January 13th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
I followed the instructions to the letter and once again am the proud owner of a fully functional 4G 20GB iPod. Thanks to Josh and to Laythor for the info. I froogled the toshiba drive, the MK2006GAL, and found it on eWiz for only $88. Considering this drive costs upwards of $100 elsewhere, it was a great tip, thanks!!
By the way, I used a silicon rubber (RTV) adhesive sealant to glue the foam on the new drive, considering the heat output of the iPod when functioning. Thanks to Bill Eberly above for the observation.
Once again thanks to all!
January 13th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Well, I read all 100+ posts and had been experiencing many of the same symptoms (major one being the slow but constant clicking of the HD)with my 4Gen 20G iPod (Yes, I had dropped it by accident). Jumped thru all the regular hoops and was certain I’d have to send it back. Then I found this blog.
I turned iPod to its side, held it in my left hand and firmly smacked it on the side. Can you beleive for the first time in weeks I actually got the menu. Plugged it up via USB to my computer and iTunes recognized it and automatically updated it. It’s charging right now as I type.
I agree with an earlier poster that if my dropping the iPod caused something to become loose, than smacking it may only be a temporary fix. I may need to eventually carefully open the iPod and secure what may have become loose. However, I am puddle happy right now that all is not lost as I originally thought. At least I dont have to send it away (yet).
Great blog, and great input from all.
January 13th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Cool blog. I can’t believe I scrolled through and read the whole thing. I was nearly in tears with all the “whoo-hoo!” pod-spanking comments. My 4G 40GB just went on the fritz, exactly 2 weeks after the 1-year warranty expired. WTF? I’ve tried everything, twice. When the dude at the Apple store told me the drive needed to be replaced at a cool $250, I nearly threw the crappy pod against the wall. Now I can’t wait to get home and spank mine to see if it helps. I’m not dumb enough to think a spanking fixes everything - duh - but when all else fails…
January 14th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
i have an ipod mini. and whenever i press any buttons, put it on hold, or even try hold and slap, it appears with an apple logo and then a folder and ! icon. i don’t want to spend money trying to fix it and i really don’t have money to buy a new one. so does anyone know of a way it can be fixed for FREE?
thnx
January 14th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
my ipod went kaput cuz i letf it in my moms car glove cabinet and it was for like 3 day and it just wont work like this error sign appears on it when i format it and i crie daily
January 14th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Well, I just tried to open mine up and give it a whirl. I waited two days, plugged it in really quick, and the screen’s light kept going on and off. I quickly unplugged it, and got in there with a box cutter. So, I opened it, cleaned it out, and now absolutely nothing works. Does anyone have any reasons why not? The battery was at full charge before getting inflicted with the H20. It does sound like something might have loosened in the HD. I can open it up and fix it (I know how), but I would feel better knowing that it was the problem…
January 15th, 2006 at 6:34 am
thanks guys,
over the holidays my son and i restored his 4th generation ipod. (he got a video ipod) we read the blog and tried several of the suggestions. finally (as several posts suggested) i gave the ipod a spanking… and lo and behold it came back to life. thanks alot… we recovered the older ipod and loaded it up with songs for my wife and now she is happily using it. ah the power of beating the crap out of technology!!!
January 15th, 2006 at 7:29 am
Hey, I have the same problem and I want to do the same thing you did, does it matter if it is Hewlett Packard, or is it same hard drive? Thanks
January 15th, 2006 at 7:38 am
I’ve got the same problem, and I want to try it your way, so I need to know if it matters if you have an HP iPod or if it doesnt matter. Thank you.
January 15th, 2006 at 8:05 am
Does it matter if you have an HP iPod?
January 15th, 2006 at 8:11 am
Will the hard drive be the same for a 20gb HP?
January 15th, 2006 at 8:12 am
Did you bid for the replacement?
January 15th, 2006 at 11:32 am
here peter from belgium , sames problems and repared by slapping it
great , thanks…
January 15th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
another convert. mine had the sad face so i gave it a quick slap after tring everything else and then it showed the folder with the exclamation and then another slap and hey presto it works again. Does this mean it was a harddrive problem and if so is it only a temporary solution. Cn anyone suggest a longer term one or will i have to buy a new one or replace the hard drive in the long-run?
January 15th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
Great website - but before you change your harddrive try the blog tip #16 above.
I had managed to demagnetize parts of my HD so that for weeks I couldn’t do anything - it would only click and click and give me the FolderExlamation mark picture.
I was just about to take my 40GB iPod apart using this website and buy a new HD when I read that if my iPod did not show an unhappy face I could reset it by:
push center and play button while
lock and unlock the iPod 10 times
this put’s the ipod in a special mode
then run the updater, I had to leave mine for over 3 hours before it recognized the iPod, but when I woke up in the morning, my iPod was back to normal, and with the latest SW. Just had to resynch the whole thing.
I probably tried 15 times what I just explained and it wasn’t until I just let the updater and iPod sit for several hours that it finally worked. So don’t give up!
Great website, fantastic pictures! Thanks, PN
January 15th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
10 days after my 20 GB HP Ipod warranty ran out I dropped it. Even though I had a protective cover on it. I “lost” all my songs. The menus reverted back to the original setup but the songs were all gone. A look at SETTINGS ABOUT showed it stilled have 16.7 GB of data but I couldn’t access anything.
HP email tech support was helpful but all they could do was confirm that the hard drive was kaput. Hp does not service HP Ipods anymore but they will sell you a replacement… for $265 - no thanks!
So, I’m following your lead here. FYI the HP Ipod has the exact same hard drive - the Toshiba MK2004GAl. Thanks to a previous poster I went to ewiz.com and ordered a 30 GB hard drive for $102 (about $125 including CA tax and shipping). A whole lot less than a new IPOD.
I should have it later this week. Anything I need to do to format the HD to accept photos and video?
January 16th, 2006 at 8:05 am
>> fantastic blog!!!!
>> my 40 ipod would start up, then you could hear the hard drive clicking over and over again and then the dreaded *sad face* would appear.
>>I tried everything and was considering buying the toshiba drive when i read ” turn it on, hold it in your right hand, and then bash it’s side into the palm of your left”
>> AND IT NOW WORKS PERFECTLY : )
thanks
January 16th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
you rock. you saved me $150, and some humility.
January 16th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Hold and Slap…Works Like A Charm. I am so glad that this site has worthy information. unlike apple support. OMFG. DO the 5 fucking R’s!!! If apple wants to be a competitive company, they need better troubleshooting guides.
January 16th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
I too am a believer in smacking. I was putting my ear up to the ipod and could hear my hd spining and then dying every 10 seconds. I plugged it in and it was only transfering about 1 songs every 20 seconds. I held it in my hand, hit is as hard as I could about 3 times, and boom now it is loading songs like its new. Maybe the new hd is a long term fix but I thought mine was dead. Great blog.
January 16th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
Awesome blog. I tried everything to fix my 30g iPod Photo with warning sign and folder, i was ready take it to Apple when i found your smacking technique. Man, it saved my iPod for free.
January 17th, 2006 at 4:03 am
i’ve slapped the shit out of mine and it still wont work
January 17th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in with the slapping fiasco.
I opened up my ipod today and found that the ribon that connected the iPod HD to the main board was just a TAD bit out of place. The connector apparently is really easy to pull it out enough where it doesn’t create a good connection. All I did was push this little ribbon back in as snug as I could and BOOM the iPod worked like a charm. It is apparent that these iPods have hard drive connector ribbons that are easy lodged from their place. I never once dropped it, ever, and it still did that to me. Slapping it probably gives it enough force to make a slightly better connection to the HD and therefore start working again. This is why I think the slapping method works. In fact, i’d ask the original poster of this blog to remove the new HD he put in and put in the old one snugly and see if it works — I bet it will. Too bad I already bought a new iPod
-RadiusMan
January 18th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
my nano screen broke what should i do? please please please help me
January 18th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
I got my new 30 GB drive from ewiz.com in 2 days. My apologies, in my earlier post I said the 30 GB cost $102, it’s actually $109. Anyway, it took about 2 minutes to put it in, snap on the back and plug it in. It took a while for it to download the 4896 songs I have in itunes but it works great and I now have 10 more GBs of space!
Thanks for the great post and for saving me $$. My check to you is in the mail!
January 19th, 2006 at 4:52 am
hi, im having the same problem as shamus. my battery only lsts 5min when fully chargeed and it get burning hot when i charge it. its a third gen ipod. hELP!!!
January 19th, 2006 at 10:36 am
Was about to take it apart, but thought to try the “slap the damn thing” approach. It worked. Only thing I figure is that HDD’s are sometimes subject to “stiction” and slapping it like this get the head to move freely again.
Go figure….
January 19th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Spanked mine. It worked again. But could not help taking it apart and having a look. It was indeed easy to take it apart. 5 mins work.
January 19th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
I too have given mine a spank, it works a treat now. Many thanks, saved me £150
January 19th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
yo guys i just got my kuzins dead ipod n now i am goin to buy his for bout 20-30 bucks then buy the harddrive for another 100 or so
yep yep
dan el man
January 19th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
My mate’s ipod had the same prob with the whirring HD and the clicking then dying, I came across this site while looking for help. I just checked out the fix at the top and didn’t even scroll this far down so I didn’t know about the slapping fix, anyways I read through the “replacing hard drive” and then decided to give it a right good shake as I thought he had nothing to lose and Bob’s yer uncle, one mate delighted and one free lunch for me….and he swears it’s working better than before.
January 19th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
where can one buy these drives
January 20th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
Well … I tried all the erase/restore stuff on the Apple website, attempted to reformat the hard drive on a PC without iTunes, took the iPod apart and checked the connections, did everything short of “the smack” and the hard drive replacement. Nothing would make the sad face go away. I didn’t want to do it, but I gave it a whack. I’m now happily listening to Dave Brubeck again. What can I say?
January 20th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
I’d have to caution against using a screwdriver to open the ipod. The potential for damaging the ipod (deep scratches, bending or denting the case, or even damaging the internals if you’re not careful) are too great in my mind.
If you can find something else to use, that is thin, hard (but softer than metal), and stiff enough to pry with, use that instead.
The best thing that I’ve found for this are medium or hard plastic guitar picks. They’re perfect - the plastic won’t even scratch the ipod, they’re thin enough to slip in easily and not bend the back of the case, and they’re cheap.
January 21st, 2006 at 3:24 am
I held it with one hand… I smacked it with the palm of the other… and it worked!!! I searched everywhere on the internet (for around an hour) and found only one site that related to me, and no one knew how to fix the problem. Only here, where it wasn’t even the intent of the original posting, did I learn to show love to my ipod by giving it a good smack. That’s amazing!!!
January 21st, 2006 at 5:42 am
Excellent blog. FYI: for those who like me don’t have the correct plastic wedge for opening the iPOD…with a scalpel I shaved a plastic golf tee into a wedge shape and it did the trick for getting the back casing off. BTW: if the HDD isn’t spinning up then no amount of slapping will resuscitate the iPOD. As per a couple of other entries the real difficulty is sourcing an Apple branded HDD. I’ve got a 2nd Gen. 20Gb with 1.8″ Toshiba MK2003GAH - would love to know if there are any other HDD’s that will work; it would be great if I could increase the capacity too!
January 21st, 2006 at 3:12 pm
I see that you used the MK2006GAL to replace the MK2004GAL drive. My gen 3 iPod used a 15GB Toshiba MK1504GAL. I wanted to replace it with a 20GB MK2004GAL, which I’m told should work. However, like you I can’t find one so I bought a MK2006GAL. It doesn’t work. The MK2006GAL won’t format using Apple’s disk utility. I tried it on 3 computers. In researching what the difference was between a MK2004GAL and a MK2006GAL, I see that the older one uses ATA-5 interface while the 2006 uses ATA-6 interface. The INCITS standards committee claims that the change from ATA-5 to ATA-6 involves speed and a few other features but should not affect backward compatibiity. Anyway, I’m now back in the market for an MK2004GAL. Not sure this is the problem, though, but I suspect that the gen 3 iPod only works with the ATA-5 interface.
January 22nd, 2006 at 7:01 am
Ok I’ve tried everything I know how and nothing has worked yet, so I’m hoping someone has some more advice. 20GB 4th gen iPod was dropped, now has warning folder icon and clicking noises. I have taken it apart and disconnected then reconnected the hard drive, but that did nothing. I shook the hard drive and didn’t hear anything moving inside. And yes, I’ve slapped it, several times, to no avail. I can get it into disk mode, but the computer won’t recognise it so I can’t update or restore. It never appears in “my computer” nor in iTunes. It will say “do not disconnect” while it attempts to connect for about ten seconds, then it gives up. After a few seconds it tries again, repeating this cycle. For the ten or so seconds that it’s trying to connect, it will appear in the device manager under computer management as a disk drive, but still the iPod updater doesn’t recognise it. To PN who wrote comment 133, is this what yours was doing? The updater also gives up after a few seconds and says “can’t mount iPod,” so I can’t really imagine that leaving it hooked up overnight will do anything, but I’ll try it tonight anyway. If I can’t fix it, is there any chance of recovering the music? No, I don’t have it backed up on a computer. Thanks for any help.
January 22nd, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Sweet choice of tunes. I am going to try this and try to get my Piece of CRAP ipod working. Thanks for the info.
January 22nd, 2006 at 5:17 pm
I opened my iPod as the folder with exclamation mark kept appearing, and whenever I got it into Disk Mode it crashed.
So i opened it and the tape had gone dry which conencts the hard disk to the board and it came off!!
PLEASE OHH PLEASE HOW DO I FIX THIS?!
January 22nd, 2006 at 9:24 pm
Awesome site!
I’m beginning to believe that I’ll need to replace my HDD. However, the HDD Test feature in my iPod’s diagnostic mode says HDD Pass. Any suggestions? Explanations? I’ve tried almost everything, and I’m just too chicken to slap my iPod (it’s just so precious to me).
January 23rd, 2006 at 8:12 am
Brilliant advice, great pictures, well done, I’m going to have a go!!
January 23rd, 2006 at 11:24 am
HOLD AND SLAP…it worked for me
… I even had the sad ipod face of gloom and doom…
January 23rd, 2006 at 1:55 pm
Amazing! I was about to search eBay for some hard drives after getting the sad iPod face, but wanted to make sure that it was an operation I could handle. (This, mind you, LESS THAN A MONTH after the limited warranty ran out.)
Read the smacking advice and it seems to work like a (temporary) charm! One good hit on the side while it was face up and it stopped making the horrible “the hard drive isn’t working properly” cycling noises. Menu loaded fine, nothing’s lost, and I’m a very happy person.
January 23rd, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Just for the record - 4th Gen 20 GB. The day my warranty ran out, it broke, got the sad face, the folder and the spinning drive that stopped with a clunk. Read all about the slapping going on and decided to give it a try - worked great - but I hit the side of the ipod against my kitchen table. Dinning room tables will probably work too. Good stuff.
January 24th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Great blog lots of great tips, others just random linkage whoring.
So I was planning on upgrading my ipod’s harddrive to somethign with a bit more GB’s but I was wondering if this would my ipods battery usage?
January 24th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
To whoever posted the hold and slap move,
THANK YOU SO MUCH
You saved me $250!!!
January 25th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
January 25th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
HOW DO YOU GET THE CASE OFF? I TRIED FOR 2 HOURS THIS WONT WORK HOW DID YOU DO IT?! I CANT FIGURE OUT A WAY TO OPEN THE THING
January 26th, 2006 at 7:00 am
Great work….I love the fact that people like you selflessly put these money-saving tips on the web. As much as I love Apple, I was not happy by the collapse of the iPod after 1 year and 21 days of buying it.
Thanks !
January 26th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
I’m sort of embarassed to say that in my stress, I became an iPod spanker. While I’m not proud of this, it did get my malfunctioning iPod to start normally. However, it still won’t connect to iTunes properly. I’ve done almost everything: restored, rolled back the firmware, installed an older version of iTunes. What else can I do? I’m getting pretty desperate here.
MAYBE I’ll try to replace the HDD…
January 27th, 2006 at 3:09 am
Well what do you know.. the slap trick worked with my ipod!
Thanks muchly!!!!
January 27th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Oh my god the smack thing worked. I was dreading going out and getting a new pod later tonight.
January 27th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
Josh…you are mentioned in this blog–> http://askpang.typepad.com/relevant_history/2004/11/meeting_the_sad.html
This blog has a BAZILLION comments, including one from “Eddie”, who suggesting the “hold and slap” method. I was DESPERATE…as most of us are…and thinking I would have to change out my HD, spending lots of money in the process. So, I just slapped it a couple times…and the backlight pops on and I’m HAPPY AS HELL! Woo-hoo, it works! That’s what those Apple Store people probably do when they go into the back with your iPod… they’re all sitting back there slapping iPods…HA!
January 28th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
My family has 30G, 40G & 20G iPods; the 30 & 40 are [warranty] replacements; my 20G (Dad gets the small one) is just out of warranty and I’m sweating. I treat this thing as if it were filled with nitroglycerine. It acts goofy sometime but I use the keypad combinations from the Apple site with success…BUT…in a weird way, I’m almost looking forward to popping this thing open after reading all this-! I have never slapped my iPod but remember owning an ancient Macintosh IIx with a giant 40 M drive–I began to get the sad face icon and learned from a mac tech that I simply had to lift the HD out of the box, hold it firmly at the level and rapidly twist it axially–jerking it, really–and the drive would free itself–damned if it didn’t work and I started that IIx like that every day for several years. Apple has about lost my business in the desktop area; their designers’ credo seems to be “function follows form”–I have a giant DELL that makes my G4 look like an Etch-a-Sketch by comparison. Nowadays Apple seems bent on making juke boxes. (Sorry for the editorializing.) Thanks for your great blog, son-!
January 29th, 2006 at 9:54 am
I had the same problem, stuck and clicking ipod hard drive. I just spanked my ipod and it’s working fine.
January 29th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
i’m actually about to do this, i’m just waiting on the hard drive to come in, i’ll come back and tell you if it worked or not. i really hope it does.
January 29th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
I can’t believe it!!! My 60 gig iPod photo hard drive died during iTunes synch. After that it would only click and would not mount. I tried everything. And I mean everything. I read this post, turned the iPod over and smacked the crap out of it one time and it fired right up. Thank you!!!!!
January 29th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
yeah i just got an apple 20gb fourth generation from my friend. he found it in a parking lot and didn’t want it. it has a cracked screen and the hard drive just craped out, but i’m going to try the “HOLD AND SLAP” to see if that will work. I hope it does, because i dont really have $160 for a new 20 gig.
January 29th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
Can anyone tell me how i can fix my hard drive without slapping it. that didnt work on mine for some reason, so is there any whay to fix it?
January 30th, 2006 at 11:43 am
Following up on my earlier post above, I can confirm that the Apple branded TOSHIBA 1.8″ MK4004GAH 40Gb drive works (and fits) in a 2nd Generation iPOD - now I’ll upgrade the battery to the longer lasting 2200mAH and I’ll have a super-size-me 2nd Gen.
BTW - all this has been done at less than half the price (inc. battery & carriage!) Apple wanted to charge for a direct like-for-like 20Gb HDD replacement…
January 30th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
liek i said that i was gonna do this procedure, and i did and hell yes it did work
January 30th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
Thank you so much! That sounds exactly like what’s wrong with my ipod. I’m gonna try to fix it. I hope it really is the same problem.
January 30th, 2006 at 4:04 pm
I want and ipod for $200
January 30th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
A 3G 20gb ipod was making the terrible noise and showing the bad folder icon. I couldn’t resetting it or format it because it wasn’t recognized by the computer at all. I got a 30gb mk3006gal hdd from ewiz and put it in there. I reset it using the iPodupdater from apple.com and now it’s working just fine. 28.5gb available space.
January 30th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
Oh my gosh. Hold and slap really worked for me!!!! I was laughing at the earlier post suggesting this. My brother’s ipod wasn’t working right and had the same symptoms described above. (hard-drive making noise and the bad folder icon. I tried everything that the ipod site suggested(reset, restore, etc.). I tried to do a restore, but the my computer gave me the error of “can’t mount the ipod” I saw this site and was planning on replacing the hard-drive. I thought, “what the heck” held the ipod firmly in my right hand and smacked it on the side. About 5 seconds later the menu screen appeared. If I ever need to change the hardrive out at least I know how from this site.
Thanks,
Vinny from Salt Lake City, Utah
January 30th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
I had the exact same problem… iPod was not responding, hard drive was clicking and I kept getting that sad little iPod icon. I couldn’t reset the iPod and my computer wouldn’t recognize it. I figured the hard drive had failed. I was ready to give up. Well, I tried the old trusted method of slapping the iPod and it miraculously started working again. This is obviously temporary, but for now I can listen to music! If it continues to fail, I will replace the hard drive just like Josh explained above.
January 31st, 2006 at 12:39 am
My iPod completely stopped, the Hard Drive was clicking and a sad face appeared on the screen. Well, after reading some messages, I finally tried the simple “hold and slap” move…
…and the iPod was back to life!!
January 31st, 2006 at 1:41 pm
My pod quit. So I read above comments and slap the shit out of it, like it owned me money. didn’t work. but i got new HDD like josh and now is like new!
January 31st, 2006 at 2:02 pm
thanks i wanted to know how to do that.
can you tell me were to get an i pod hard drive from? plz
January 31st, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Hello
Pretty good article, nice job !
Regards from filmy porno
January 31st, 2006 at 8:49 pm
OMG, this is probably the 4th mistreated iPod i ahve seen. Recently, i bought an iPod 20GB 4th Generation from my friend PJ, which had the same problem; it would start up, show the file with the exclamation mark, then click a bunch and turn off. I brought it home, and ofter looking on the Apple Website, it states that that icon means it needs to be RE-FORMATTED! All you would have needed to do was plug it into your computer and re-format it with an old iPod update, or like me, use the installation disk that came with your iPod. This has always worked for, so try this before jumping to conclusions that the hard-drive is broken.
January 31st, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Glorious day! Thank you Joshua for starting this thread! Bet you’re pretty popular with the honeys now…
I have become a proud iPod spanker. It’s not all I spank, but I digress. >:-) My God! I can’t believe it worked! I will probably end up following the directions above to replace the drive (for
January 31st, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Cont’d from above. This system doesn’t seem to like
January 31st, 2006 at 10:43 pm
hey jimmy sprinkle if you read the article correctly he cant mount the ipod onto the computer, the hard drive was entirely messed up. so even if you could reformat it, which in his case and mine we couldnt, there would be no point. i had gotten the same exact thing. that dreaded folder with the exclamation point and all it did was click whir die. the computer wouldnt even catch that it was there, i even was so desperate as to slap the damn thing. nothing. so i bought the hard drive 3 day shipping, came out to about 106.61 open the ipod, plugged it in voila. new ipod for me.
February 1st, 2006 at 4:20 am
I was able to disconnect the ide ribbon and do the hold and slap method, and reconnect it. i was able to do it twice, now im unable to do it for some reason. any reason why? i think you can only do it once. so now im stuck at square one again, and now i cant shake the hdd to make it work again. :/
February 1st, 2006 at 5:38 am
GREAT SITE!! Same story, dropped ipod in the gym, clicking confirmed dead HD. Upgraded to 30GB (MK3006GAL) from 20GB. New HD had no operating system and couldn’t update with apple.com’s updater. Took it to BestBuy’s Geek Squad, they said call 1-800-MY-APPLE. Didn’t have time to talk to them so I popped in the CD that came w/ my ipod. It reconized the ipod needed formatting and now it’s working great. Bottom Line…Upgraded a dead ipod to 30GB for only $118(ewiz.com) in only 30 minutes.
February 1st, 2006 at 11:35 am
Excellent tutorial, I had a broken HD, do I took out the HD of my old iPod and threw it into my new one. Worked perfectly! Cheers.
February 1st, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Where you bought the new Hard MK 2004GAL
Do you have the internet addres for this eletronics Store?
February 2nd, 2006 at 3:05 am
I dont Beleive it, my sisters 4th gen 40 gig had been dead for some months, with a €275 fee from apple to fix it! So she just bought a new one.
she Slapped it yesterday and its back to life !!
Excellent. Thats a bit crazy that that seems to be fixing ipods for so many people.
is it the hard drive needle being freed again?
or what is the slap actually doing to fix it?
February 2nd, 2006 at 7:06 am
http://www.ewiz.com/query.php?categry=21&s=toshiba&Go+Search%21.x=41&Go+Search%21.y=15
thats the list of hard drives
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=T20MK2006L
and thats the one i got.
February 2nd, 2006 at 8:27 pm
SMACK IT IT WORKS!!! My 40gb 4th gen ipod also showed the sad ipod icon so i found this site. however, as good as the tutorial was, I kept reading about people “smacking their ipods.” I figured mine is already broken so why not give it a shot. lo and behold the freakin thing works and all my music is still there!!!
Hold it in your left hand with the click wheel up and smack it on the SIDE as hard as you can. Apple should give this out as technical advice, better yet you could send me $300 and I’ll “fix” your ipod for you.
February 3rd, 2006 at 3:42 pm
I smacked my 4th gen pod and it’s working better than it did when it was brand new ! NO JOKES. The smacking payed my bills.
February 5th, 2006 at 8:32 am
I was desperate and had already looked around for buying a new one, but thought what the heck I´ll give it a shot and smacked it hard twice. Now it works great again and who said that violence doens´t help
February 6th, 2006 at 6:43 am
My ipod, I think, is buggered. Fixable most likely with a lot of dosh. I have slapped it and all, but with no luck. It just keeps scrolling very fast past all my songs, not allowing me to play anything, and is very sluggish when slidding screens.
Any ideas? It’s in warrenty, but of course I lost the bloddy thing.
February 6th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
The smack technique worked on my “folder-icon, clicky” ipod! I cannot believe it!
February 6th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
great help thanks!
I held it in the left hand, smacked it twice, took hold off and low and behold - a working IPOD!!
For people who are in the UK and have to replace drive, dabs.com has them for £52 (model above) 20GB which is pretty cool.
February 6th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Thanks,
I had the clicking, whiring sound and sad faced icon. I tried the five steps posted at apple to no avail. Ten slaps later and the pod is back to normal.
February 7th, 2006 at 7:42 am
I was about to sue Apple as my warrant was out of date by 3 days….got the sad face of death we all hate. Told it would cost almost £200 to fix….one firm slp later and holding down the 3 keys as above and its WORKING!!!! No technique required. Happy days!
February 7th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
Clicky hard drive and exclamation folder problem was cured in one slap! Since then I’ve slapped everything. Broken toaster, alarm clock, whatever. Doesn’t work but sure feels good.
February 7th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
LOL Stan is tha man!!!! Every one hold your ipod and give it the smack down. I havent used my ipod for 4 months and i was giving up until today i gave it the slap. this is so freakin funny. slap slap slap
February 8th, 2006 at 11:04 am
Great site. Have 30G ipod photo out of warranty and recently dropped. No amount of software reinstalling would help the key hold was stuck and the device useless. Having seen you sight I decided to take the back off. To my pleasant surprise the cable attaching the key hold to the motherboard had simply come unplugged. Stuck that back in and hey presto it works again.
Thanks
February 8th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
I had all the same issues: Sad face, ala Sex and the City, and that file folder kept popping up. The drive sounded like it wanted to ran but it only geared up then clicked and crashed. I read all these posts, hit it twice and it works! Im convinced Apple only makes these things to work for a certain amount of time knowing that we will just run out and by new ones. Bastards! Thanks everyone.
February 8th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
Since November, my ipod loads the apple symbol, the hard drive clicks and clicks and clicks, and then I get the exclamation point and folder. I had recently given up on it until I saw ipodrepairguide.com. I was about to pay a few bucks to get a guide on how to fix my ipod myself….until I saw this site. I opened up my ipod using a nail filer. I looked to see where the harddrive was connected to the motherboard, pressed down firmly, then resealed the ipod. To my joy, the ipod works PERFECTLY. I am so happy I didn’t have to pay $300 bucks(Ipod broke three days after warranty).
February 8th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
My son’s 4G 40GB ipod went bonkers about a week out of warranty. Add to the mess that it was one that was co-branded with HP, and there seems no way to get straight answers from either company, which sent me looking for a way to fix what he has. I’ve dabble with the insides of all my computers over the years, and felt that it was the hard drive, and that I could probably replace it when I googled onto this site. Wow! I teach, but I would never complain about the typos since your presentaion was very complete, laid out with excellent pictures (a picture is worth a thousand words!), and for the most part, the posts have had important perspectives, and added more knowledge about the whole process. The son is a music major at KU, and uses the ipod for presentations, etc., besides living with it in his pocket. He was so distressed when it failed that I sent him the shuffle that I received for Christmas, feeling that some music was better than none. I forwarded this blog to him late last night, and he tried the slap with his ipod and it seems like new, leaving him with both ipods and me with none. My feeling is that the slapping will buy you time, but the hard drive is showing the signs of wear, so I will probably purchase a new hard drive for the ineveitable phone call that says the ipod has really given up the ghost for good. I think that the successful slapping is a kick in the seat for owners who have not backed up all of the music on the ipod, keeping a copy safe in the event of hard drive failure, or total ipod loss. What I wish I could figure out is a way to replace the hard drive with flash memory, even if it meant having 6 - 10 gigs, since I know that my son changes his programs frequently and that 10 gigs would be ample for the day to day use. Personally, I think any time you can eliminate a moving part you will increase durability. If anyone can figure out that conversion, it would be a godsend!
If I had known then what I know now, I would have purchased the ipod from Best Buy with the three year extended warranty, something that I believe is the best advice I could offer anyone. In my research, I found that ipods with hard drives have about a 20% failure rate at just over one year and that the larger hard drives seem more susceptible to failure than the smaller ones. I believe that Apple is happy with that, as it becomes a stimulus for the buyers to upgrade, but I think that $300 - $400 for one year of service is a bit steep. My hat is off to you for providing an excellent tutorial on a common problem. Even though you could have replaced the hard drive with a 40GB without a problem, it seems wise to me to try the $100 aproach first. If, at the end of a year or so you need to replace it again, you will already have saved $40 - $60 dollars towards hard drive #3. If the mystique of opening up the ipod is removed, then these need not be totally disposable, though expensive, gadgets. Josh, first rate job, and you have my gratitude and thanks!
February 9th, 2006 at 5:42 am
Me again. I just wanted to let everyone know that yes, I Shawn, was an avid IPOD slapper. Out of frustration of getting the exclamation and folder icon, I slapped my ipod. It was a hard day at work! My ipod didn’t have my music ready when I got home so I had to unleash my frustration! Anyways, that was only a temporary fix..it worked for a while, but then stopped working until I did the fix that I stated a couple posts up.
February 9th, 2006 at 6:53 am
My 20 Gig ipod died, sounded like the hard drive. I found this page and did exactly as you did and behold, for $90 I have my ipod back working beautifully!
Thanks
Now though, I am wondering if the old hard drive could be reformatted (didn’t try while it was in the ipod), anyone know if these drives can be stuck into a G4 powerbook?
February 9th, 2006 at 9:14 am
Dude! I can not believe it, the SLAP WORKED!!!
Tried lots of stuff to relieve the iPod of its click clicking sad faced moment.
Then, holding it in the left hand flat, slapped it hard with a flat right hand, first on the front, then on the back. Plugged it in. Bammm. It works. AMAZZZZZING.
February 9th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
My 40 gig ipod gave me the sad icon with exclamation mark symbol also . The clicking noise too . Couldnt restore it , windows wouldnt recognize it , nothing . I Opened it up , disconnected the hard drive , waited 10 minutes , re-connected it , put it back together and its working like NEW . Screw Apple and their 200$ fee to fix it .
February 9th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
I just bought a used/broken ipod off ebay. Had the usual symptoms ! + folder icon. Slapped the bad boy and its working just fine. Thank you all for all the great info that Apple seems to not want anyone to know.
February 9th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
Hey just so u guys know i had a problem very similar to josh’s on my ipod (30gb photo). my brother had the same problem and when the tech guys at best buy fixed it they said his hard drive was loose. so as long as you have ur ipod open just pop the hard drive out then back in and see if it works. It worked on my ipod and i didnt even have to s