How to Fix a Crashed Ipod

Here is how I fixed our 2gig Ipod Nano after there was no hope and even the Apple Technician said there was nothing he could do. The disk seemed corrupted and crashed. Itunes was not able to restore.

1. Used Linux to write 0s onto the ipod disk.
   dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
2. Downloaded Firmware1.1.5 for ipod nano and wrote it onto ipod disk. Here's how to update ipod firmware.
   dd if=Firmware1.1.5 of=/dev/sda
3. Switch to (by typing) "init 1" to observe drive connecting/reconnecting.
4. Tried "parted" (gparted) but couldn’t make disk label (zero length partition)
5. On ipod, went into diagnostic mode (on restart immediately hold Rew + Select) and did Check Flashware. It hung at 0%, but used parted to write disk label while in that state. No luck, but I believe putting the ipod into this state before restarting was the trick that made it writeable again.
6. Restarted ipod (hold Menu + Select), all the while trying to retry the mklabel command in parted. No luck.
7. Restarted and forced into disk mode (Noticed that the sync icon is not there anymore in the upper left corner of ipod screen...which is good cause it’s no longer locked and in use...it can be written to.)
8. When in disk mode with that sync icon off, was able to mklabel and a fat32 primary partition on the full size of the disk.
9. Go into Windows. In task manager (Ctrl+Shft+Esc) Stop any iPodService.exe and itunes/apple processes. Make sure there is no sync icon showing on the ipod. If there is, reboot the ipod and force into disk mode (on restart immediately hold Play + Select).
10. Use HP USB Format Tool to format the disk in fat32, giving a volume label of "ipod". It will not be able to format if iPodService.exe is running because the ipod is locked-the sync icon is on.
11. Now can view empty drive in windows without any errors.
12. Launched itunes to restore. It kept wanting to restore over and over again. So tried 2006-06-28 Ipod Updater instead. It worked! And after waiting (definitely do not disconnect now-be patient), I could watch the ipod reboot with an apple logo and install progress bar.
13. Uninstalled the ipod updater and iTunes.
14. Clear out the "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp" folder. Itunes uses stuff in there that could have become corrupt.
15. Ejected the ipod and/or stop the plugin device. Make sure the ipod says "Ok to Disconnect" before you do.
16. Restart computer.
17. Installed fresh itunes. Do not ever click upgrade software again or restore on the ipod. Keep the older, working firmware.