Is my iPod dying? :(

I own a 20 gb click wheel iPod. First it started to take longer than normal to go to the next song. It would make a clicking noise. Now it won't play any song and it will make clicking noises and go from song to song. But nothing will play. What does this mean?

Try reinstalling the firmware. Hook it up to your mac, open the Firmware Installer and select "RESTORE". This will reset the firmware fresh, it will also zap all of your music on you iPod and it will be blank. Reload your tunes as desired, if the problem persists, or the Firmware won't load, odds are your hard drive in the iPod is bad.

I plugged in my iPod and a screen appeared stating "Disk Insertion: The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer". I had three options: initalize, ignore and eject.

i would initialize it...most likely it is going to format your disk
-chris

Run The iPod Firmware Update app and see if it recognizes the iPod as being there. If so, select "RESTORE" and let it do the reformatting for you.

The Updater will open ok, however when I connect the iPod all I get is the rainbow wheel. Then the app will freeze.

This may sound silly, but connect the iPod first, when you get the initialize box click IGNORE and then open the updater.

Well I was finally able to get it to the restore prompt. But I tried to restore it four times and each time there was an error.

Your HDD is bad. If it's still within warranty, take it back to where you got it. Otherwise.....

Crap...

I posted this and missed this one http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=240793#post240793

So it sounds like my HDD is toasted...I'm guessing its cheaper to buy a new ipod than have a new HDD put in...right?

My IPod has died twice in the year and a half I have had it.

Thank goodness for the AppleSupportCare plan.

I love how they replace it.