iPod Classic 160GB suddenly won't mount...

Hi everyone,

Now, before everyone blasts me for a topic probably already covered, please note I have been searching and reading articles for the last 3 hours about this, and I feel like I'm getting no where. So, in my frustration, and with all other avenues researched, I'm coming here for advice!

- I have an iPod Classic 160GB, mid-2008.
- Suddenly, it will not mount.
- I have done nothing in particular to make it stop mounting.
- Couple of weeks ago, I updated iTunes. I am fairly sure that I have plugged the iPod in since then with no issues (until now).
- iTunes is telling me that my iPod is corrupted, and needs to be restored. But the iPod will not mount as a disk drive.
- Unplugged from my iBook, the iPod works perfectly. All Music and Videos are intact. Even my data files are still on my iPod, somewhere. I just can't access them from my computer!
- I tried resetting the iPod, putting it into Disk Mode, and running a Disk Scan. Still won't mount as a disk drive. I want it to mount so that I can back up files I put on there last week!
- During Disk Scan, I got to testing the SDRAM part. At the 'Background (backlight?) test' part, it says 'Backlight Off: FAIL'...'Background Flick: PASS'. However, the backlight seemed to be 'stuck', and flicked for 10 minutes before I unplugged the FW to reset it. I don't know if it's normal for this part of the test to be stuck for so long?
- My iTunes version is 10.6.1
- Mac OS is 10.5.8, on a 2004 iBook G4 (if it ain't broke, don't fix it)


What I want to do ultimately is just to be able to mount my files to back them up before a complete restore. Any and all help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance )

I should probably also mention that the messages on my iPod screen behave as though there is nothing wrong with it. It shows 'Connected', 'Synching', 'Do not Disconnect', etc. I just can't see iPod mounted on the desktop.

It sounds like the problem is with your iBook not the iPod. Is there a possibility that you can try to mount your iPod on another Mac or even a PC? That would tell us for sure if the iPod is acting up or if it's the iBook.

You might also try using another USB cable and switch ports to make sure.....

Thanks for your reply

I used a program called Stellar Phoenix iPod Recovery. With just the free trial, I could run a scan of my iPod and see the folders that were on there. Then I went through the folders and realised that I had backed up everything already. Paying for the full version lets you recover the data, but I didn't need to go that far. I'm now re-formatting my iPod. Cheers!