Opened up IPOD 4th Generation with my fingernails and knife, unplugged and plug hard drive back in, closed it up, reset IPOD with hold on/off, Menu and Select buttons, then request for wall charger, plug into MacBook, and restored via ITunes and sync music. I am back in business in less than 20 minutes. Thank you very much.

Paul

It immediately came to life. Zowie!

I then wiped it and started loading on my music to it.. and it started hanging up again. So.. I figured nothing to lose, I opened it, and reseated the connector for the hard drive.

It came back to life again, and allowed me to load 4,000 tracks on it (my entire CD collection) and has been working perfectly since then.

I’m guessing that a lot of drives were replaced unnecessarily – that the act of replacing them achieved the same reseating of the hard-drive connector that I did.

Worth giving it a shot, if your iPod is spinning up and then starts clicking and spins back down, and the unhappy iPod symbol shows up, you have nothing to lose by trying to reseat the connector. It comes apart easily enough, and the connector can only go back on one way (it has a plastic locating pin and corresponding hole at one end of the connector and socket.)

If it still doesn’t work (I tested it without snapping the halves closed) – then put a rubber band around it and order up a replacement drive. You haven’t even wasted any effort since you’d have to open it anyway to put in a new drive.

Now I’ll keep a eye out for a really cheap 60GB drive for mine and expand the capacity when I find a bargain.

Very cool page – too bad the photos are gone, but disassembly pictorials can be found all over the web. The info on the drive connector can’t.. which is what made this page very valuable.

i have a 40 gb i pod classic, i did update it using iTune then afte updating it is not going to switch on completely first apple logo then connect to the external power supply icon on the screen i did connect may ipod with chager for more than 30 minutes, it is still in the same condition, please help we my ipod was very good and working before updating but now its never goes on . please anyone help me my e-mail address is kashii7862000@yahoo.com

kashif

The same thing happened to me with 2 of the same iPods (4th gen classic). At first, it was merely a software problem (folder icon) and then both iPods displayed a sad face on boot-up (hardware problem). I took them both to the Apple store; they told me they could fix one for around $200, but “I might as well just buy another iPod.”

Basically, they both sat in my desk until I had a dream one night– I dreamed I opened one up. There were 4 prongs and a wire that was supposed to wrap around the prongs to make a Z. Well, the iPod in my dream was broken because the wire wasn’t wrapped around one prong. So I wrapped it back around and turned it on and it worked (in the dream)!

I woke up and thought “If only it was that easy.” I decided to crack it open; I unplugged the hard drive and plugged it back in, turned it on and it worked! Did that same thing for the other iPod and it also worked. Later on, my friend gave me her 5th generation iPod classic to fix because hers was doing the same thing– and my “technique” worked on hers too.

I’m convinced Apple makes shoddy products they know will stop working, so that when a person takes it in to the Apple store, a “Genius” will tell them to buy a new iPod or pay an equal amount of money.

I’ve fixed a good amount of classic iPods using this technique. So before you spend $100 on a new hard drive, try taking out the existing one, let it rest for a bit and put it back in. It has worked for me every time and that’s why I’m so convinced Apple isn’t an honest manufacturer or repairer.

and, you, on top of me
http://www.command-tab.com/2007/03/11/upgrading-ipod-hard-drives/
you’re going to have to open your ipod to check.