Freezing on selection of certain songs. Could not turn off or restart

Bruce <ills, first thing you want to try is to place your iPod in diagnostic mode. this will allow you to test the various components and functions. "Take your iPod and place your right thumb on the centre SELECT button and your left on the top MENU button. Press down both thumbs for about 6 seconds until your iPod reboots. Immediately move your left thumb around to the rewind button |<< on the left and hold this down together with SELECT for a further 6 seconds. Your iPod should now switch into Diagnostic Boot mode. Press MENU for Manual Test, then select IO > HardDrive > HDSMARTData to reveal your stats." Then I would try and place the iPod in Disk mode, and see if your OS can access the drive, if so, try to format. From the way you describe it, it does sound like your HDD has failed. I would most certainly replace the HDD and continue to use it, This model iPod has great audio and is actually very reliable. Here are the guides to work on your iPod. Hope this helps, good luck.