Problem Syncing iPod in Windows XP

A couple of weeks ago my iPod quit syncing with my PC. Got all kinds of errors, have spent HOURS troubleshooting on 3 machines and Apple gave me a brand new iPod as it was still in warranty, and said if it did it on more than one machine it had to be the iPod. Well..........the new one is doing the same thing. Went through EVERYTHING you can think of (from deleting audio files which might have been causing the problem to reformatting and restoring dozens of time to converting to different format, etc. etc. ETC!) even though now now a newly reformatted PC and did not import old files or playlists from backup HDD.

I have an appointment to take the new iPod back to the Apple store, but surely 2 bad 160G iPod Classics???????????????

Is anyone else having a problem? Can you tell me if it's normal for the iPod to show an NTFS format changing to a FAT32 after connecting? I have not found any info on that in researching online. Windows XP is supposed to run only NTFS, so that COULD be the main problem!

The other big question is.......I read something about buffer overload, but it was in some posts and couldn't find any credible postings or help on Apple or other sites. Does anyone know about this? It could be that this all started after I downloaded a large amount of data..............BUT ON newly reformatted XP and restored iPod, shouldn't be a problem.

XP will run in FAT32 or NTFS and can read & write to both of them.

The iPod will be formatted as FAT32 for use with Windows machines regardless which format XP is installed in.

What is the current error/message iTunes gives when you connect it?

Thanks! NOW (with newly reformatted and installed, updated Windows XP Pro) the iPod freezes and so far the only message I got was:

"Wrong volume in drive. Please insert Volume YOUR IPOD into drive I:"

I looked in device manager and the ipod WAS there, but the drive letter was missing though it showed a FAT32 and Healthy ipod.

ADDITIONALLY.........iPod shows with drive letter (for now) in My Computer but shows up with NO drive letter in device manager (only "Healthy").

Here's another thing I just noticed. The iPod will not eject easily, especially if in process of syncing. I ejected in iTunes and after about 20 minutes it did disappear from iTunes but iPod screen still says "connected - eject before disconnecting". So I have to eject in My Computer, and that too takes many minutes to do.

If the drive letter after iPod is mapped to a network drive or is a drive letter typically used by a hard drive, both Windows Explorer and iTunes may exhibit strange behavior in relation to the iPod.

Check this Apple kb article.

That's not the issue. No such drive yet on my new reformat and also before reformatting the Apple tech help had me change drive letter. The restore of the iPod then took about 45 minutes (!) and yet the same thing happened.

After my last eject all my songs and podcasts are no longer there!!!!!!! This is SO frustrating!!!!!!!!! Upon reconnect it tells me to restore.

I think by reformatting and reinstalling my system, going beyond Apple's Tech support's own information I can rule out my system. I did a little digging because I simply can't believe my replacement iPod Classic would also be faulty, and what's left is iTunes 8. I have found quite a few articles on iTunes 8 and their bugs on Windows. Here's a detailed one: An inside look at Apple's sneaky iTunes 8 upgrade | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com.

Has anyone else had issues with iTunes 8? I've uninstalled it now and installed iTunes 7.7.1.11.

Well.......I took my replacement iPod to the Apple store yesterday. They reformatted in Mac and that seems to have solved the issue. When I plugged it into my Windows XP PC I first got the message that it was formatted on a Mac and I needed to reformat for Windows use. I held my breath and click OK. Synced hundreds of music and podcast files just fine.

Can anyone tell me why this happened? Is there anything I can do to keep from having to go to an Apple store (or someone with a Mac) to reformat my iPod should this happen again?????????????????