iPod Video 5G — Replacement Hard Drive (30GB)

Not automatically. Inspect the ribbon first — creases, tears, a lifted latch, discoloured or dirty contacts — and compare a known-good one if you have it.

The reason to look is that the ribbon can produce the same evidence a failing drive does. The adapter maker is explicit about the diagnostics: if the parameters screen shows corruption, missing or corrupt characters, more likely there is a problem with the ribbon — inspect or replace that. A garbled readout beside clicking is a reason to check the cable, not a completed diagnosis of the drive.

Buy the cable when its condition, or a tested pairing, justifies it — or when you are already inside and it is twenty years old. Match the cable to the drive you are installing: this model has two cable variants and they are not interchangeable. If the fault survives both parts, keep diagnosing rather than buying a third. Reported by 1 owner.

Sometimes — and the order matters. Copy before you restore: a restore erases the iPod, and that is the one step you cannot undo. Try non-erasing access first, with the storage still in the iPod, through Disk Mode.

If that fails, read the drive outside the iPod. A cheap USB-to-ZIF adapter is the usual route and is worth trying before spending on parts, but it is no promise: one owner on this model could not read a drive through an adapter that still played inside the iPod. Match the adapter and ribbon to the drive, and read it on a computer that can read the format the iPod was set up with.

The files are stored renamed in hidden folders, so plan to re-tag; playlists rarely survive. Songs and playlists are not guaranteed recoverable, and a drive with a mechanical fault may not be readable at all.

A repair that ended badly lands here too: a battery connector pulled off the board leaves an iPod that will not power on, and the music on the drive can still be worth more than the unit. Reported by 1 owner, plus one from the battery lane.

Not here, and not at home. These are sealed 1.8-inch mechanical drives; we replace them rather than repair them, and opening one outside a clean room is a post-mortem rather than a fix. If the drive still mounts at all, treat every minute it runs as borrowed time and copy the files off first — a restore erases the iPod, and the music lives on the drive.

The percussive remedies that circulate — a smack, a drop, a spell in the freezer — are not a repair. Even on the occasions one frees a stuck drive, what you are left with is a drive you cannot trust.

Owners describe it as: the screen demands a restore and restoring changes nothing; every reconnection asks again; the Apple logo appears, the iPod restarts and the loop repeats; after a repair it calls for iTunes but no computer detects it; restores die with 1415/1416-class errors; it is stuck on the Apple logo; or everything works except pressing play on the device itself.

Rule the computer out first: the Apple cable, a port on the computer itself rather than a keyboard or hub, then a second computer. On Windows use iTunes for Windows, or the newer Apple Devices app — Apple's current guide still directs iPod syncing to iTunes — and reinstall it before blaming the iPod. Shows as a generic "USB drive" that never finishes opening? Swap the cable and port, then follow the ladder below; in the thread behind that report the cable was suggested but never confirmed.

The ladder: reset (toggle Hold, then Menu and Center until the Apple logo), then Disk Mode (reset, then immediately hold Center and Play/Pause until the Disk Mode screen), connect, and restore from there. A stuck Apple logo, and a unit that plays through the computer but not on its own, ride the same ladder — reset, then restore and reload, which a technician offered for the plays-nowhere case explicitly as a guess. Any restore erases everything, so copy off what exists only on the iPod first.

If errors keep coming, stop restoring: they have several possible causes — hardware, drivers and iTunes itself — so look at the storage, its ribbon cable and the battery. A drained cell fakes several of these symptoms; a red X with clicking underneath is hardware. Reported by 8 owners, with two more for the logo-and-play cases and one for the hanging USB drive.

Owners describe it as: tens of gigabytes of ripped music disappearing from the library after an update; an old iPod turning up full of songs the current computer has no record of; individual songs starting to skip after a couple of seconds instead of playing.

These are three different jobs, and only one is a restore: recovering the computer's library from its own backup, copying music off the iPod, and erasing the iPod.

In order: before connecting an iPod that holds the only copy, turn automatic sync off. Copy the files off first — in Disk Mode, or with a desktop transfer utility; they are stored renamed in hidden folders, so expect to re-tag and to lose playlists. Only then restore or re-sync. On Windows use iTunes for Windows, or the newer Apple Devices app.

We publish no version-specific recipe for repairing a library file. Songs that skip instead of playing have their own answer below. Reported by 4 owners.

Owners describe it as: browsing works, but selecting a song skips track after track without playing anything, and new music refuses to load.

Reset first — toggle Hold, then hold Menu and Center until the Apple logo. The playback side wedges, and this clears it more often than it deserves to. If it persists, copy off anything that exists only on the iPod, then restore and reload; a technician's advice for this presentation was exactly that, offered as a test rather than a diagnosis.

If mass skipping returns after a clean restore and reload, have the storage and its ribbon looked at rather than reloading a third time — the drive pages carry those checks. Reported by 1 owner.

Disk Mode and the diagnostics are two different things with two different key sequences. Disk Mode: toggle Hold, hold Menu and Center until the iPod resets, then immediately hold Center and Play/Pause until the Disk Mode screen. Connect there and run the restore — also the route back after an accidental reformat by something that is not a computer.

Diagnostics: reset with Menu and Select, then quickly hold Left and Select — the adapter maker documents this route for these iPods. The parameters screen shows what the iPod thinks is fitted and how big it is; corrupt or missing characters point at the drive ribbon. Once they read correctly, check the computer can read and write to the iPod, not merely list it.

Where does the software come from? The restore installs it for you — the supported route, and the one we describe. We do not point buyers at standalone firmware files, and we promise no particular firmware version. A restore erases everything, so copy off what exists only on the iPod first. Reported by 3 owners.

Owners describe it as: Windows seeing the iPod while iTunes does not, with delayed-write errors; and, after a forced eject in the middle of a glitch, both the file browser and iTunes reporting that the device cannot be found.

Start with the physical path: the Apple cable, a port on the computer itself with no hub, and time to settle after reconnecting. On Windows use iTunes for Windows, or the newer Apple Devices app, and reinstall it before blaming the iPod.

Then test properly rather than by appearance: reach Disk Mode — reset, then hold Center and Play/Pause — and check the computer can actually read and write to the iPod, not merely list it. That is the adapter maker's own check, and it separates a recognition glitch from a storage fault.

Copy off anything irreplaceable, then restore from Disk Mode. Write failures that survive a clean restore belong to the storage and its ribbon cable, which the drive pages cover. Reported by 2 owners.

One owner reports exactly this on an otherwise healthy iPod, and a restore to stock cleared it. Before undoing anything, copy off what you want to keep, and identify which bootloader is actually installed: removal instructions differ between them, and a general recipe is not a cure.

Holding Menu during start-up boots Apple's own firmware on a dual-boot build, which separates a firmware problem from a hardware one. If you want it back to standard, restore to stock from Disk Mode — a reset and restore does clear a range of software faults on this model.

If the white screen survives a restore to stock, stop treating it as firmware and check the display path: the ribbon, its lock and the connector. We are not claiming a universal cure here, or a general risk of bricking — this is one report, and the exact set-up matters. Reported by 1 owner.