My iPod hates Bill Gates

December 27, 2005 9:39 AM

My 3rd Gen (click-wheel) iPod: doesn't work on PC, seems to work on a Mac.

I tried to update the firmware from my PC and at first the updater wasn't finding the iPod and then I got a "formating failure disk write error."

I took it into the office and hooked it up to a powerbook and everything was fine but since I use a PC I attempted to reformat it and update on a PC and got the format failure error again.

Any ideas?

posted by Mick to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

What if you try reformatting it using Windows?
posted by Good Brain at 9:44 AM on December 27, 2005

I should have asked. Did it work on a PC in the first place?
posted by Good Brain at 9:45 AM on December 27, 2005

Response by poster: It worked when I first got it, and then I never reconnected it to my PC (for 2 years). I get the Formatting Failure error when I try to reformat.

Also, it doesn't show up in my device manager.
posted by Mick at 9:49 AM on December 27, 2005

You never reconnected it for 2 years? Did you not add/remove music for 2 years?
posted by Thorzdad at 9:51 AM on December 27, 2005

Response by poster: Nope, I filled the little fcker up with 40gigs and listened to it in my car off and on
posted by Mick at 9:58 AM on December 27, 2005

When you say it works on a Mac, are you saying it shows up in the finder and iTunes recognizes it? If so, it sounds like it is a Mac-formatted iPod. You sure you originally loaded the pod on a PC? But, for now, let's agree that it's a PC-formatted pod...
This page is Apple's trouble-shooting page for Windows iPods. Go through this first and make sure nothing there applies. I've found resetting an iPod can clear up all sorts of wonky activity.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:30 AM on December 27, 2005

Best answer: How are you connecting your iPod to your PC? Is it with the USB 2.0 cable or is it a Firewire cable?
This can actually make a difference with certain power-hungry actions such as formatting. In cases like these it is recommended to use a Firewire connector.
posted by Gazpacho at 11:26 AM on December 27, 2005

Not particularly helpful, but I think you've probably got a 4th gen ipod. 3rd gens don't have the clickwheel, they have buttons right below the screen. (And that's probably a good thing - the 3rd gens are pretty problematic.)
posted by Orrorin at 12:01 PM on December 27, 2005

Response by poster: It seems it was a power issue. I have the firewire cable but my PC only has a 4 pin (no power) connection.

Fortunately a friend had the dual USB/Firewire cable and that solved the problem

Thanks all
posted by Mick at 1:02 PM on December 27, 2005