About two weeks ago, I got to work and tried to fire up my iPod. It started making a loud whirring noise from deep inside as if it was working extremely hard to turn on. But nothing happened. Eventually, a little symbol showed up on the screen directing me to the Apple support website. Uh-oh. I set it aside and went on with my work for the day, figuring I could deal with it later when I got home.
That evening I tried to plug it into my PC and a message came up that said it was corrupted! Double uh-oh! I have no idea how this happened. It wasn’t like I had just loaded it up with illegally downloaded music that were full of viruses or anything. Absolutely nothing had changed from the day before when it had worked perfectly and the day it decided it was corrupted. I headed to the Apple support site and went through the steps they recommend for fixing iPods. I reset it. Same corrupted message.
At this point, I was getting a bit nervous because the next step was to restore it which would wipe all my music off of it. I took a few minutes to make backups of all my music. I can’t imagine how awful it would be to lose my music collection. After the backups were complete, I restored the iPod. I got the same message. The next step was to uninstall and then reinstall iTunes. That didn’t work either. So I googled “corrupted ipod” and learned that this was not an entirely uncommon thing. At least I wasn’t suffering alone, but as I searched I couldn’t find a solution.
So I came up with my own solution: Buy a new iPod! The corrupted iPod is a 2nd or 3rd generation, 20 gb one that I got on ebay several years ago for around $200. It has a clickwheel, but only a black and white screen – no colors, no pictures, no video. It’s pretty much a technological dinosaur. Though it’s old and outdated, I consider it one of the best things I’ve ever purchased. I’ve used it almost every single day. So I’m not too sad about its passing. I’m actually quite excited about the prospects of getting a new one, but that opens up the debate: What should I get?
The new iPod Touch is pretty awesome, but totally expensive and it doesn’t have much storage. The Nanos are also very popular, but again, they seem to have little storage. I’m leaning towards buying an iPod Classic (they storage has gone way up and the price has come way down!). I’ve been shopping around a bit and I’ve found the 120 gb Classic on ebay for about $215. Part of me thinks that I don’t really need that much storage, but the 80 gb isn’t that much cheaper.
So what do you think?
What kind of iPod do you have and what do you like or dislike about it? Did you buy directly from Apple or some other place? Does anyone know of a place to score a good deal on iPods?
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My iPod screen went black 2 days ago (it’s a not-even-1-year-old Nano) – but my roommate showed me how to reset it WITHOUT plugging it into the computer to “restore” it. You press and hold the middle and top buttons for a few seconds until you see the Apple logo. It worked for mine!
I love my Nano. My other, original iPod is now almost 5 years old. It was a 20gb and got me through college. It still works, it is now used for long car trips. I love how small the Nano is and how easy it is to take places! However, it doesn’t have my entire music collection so I spend a fair amount of time updating it. (But it’s COLOR which my other iPod isn’t!)
Thanks for the comment, MM. I definitely tried the “Restore” technique as well as the “Reset” and a few other things. None of them worked.
I’ve been busy lately, so I still haven’t gotten around to buying a new one. Maybe I’ll ask for one for Christmas!
I also have an old dinosaur iPod, the 2nd generation 40G one. (same screen, touch wheel, actual hard drive not flash) It still works but the battery is flaky now.
Last Christmas I got the smaller color screen one thats the size of a deck of cards (slightly smaller – nano?) I really like that one, it has a decent size screen and lots of storage, but isn’t as bulky as the older one. I’d suggest eBay for cheaper ones – or a holiday gift.
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