HDD Replacement. Still Red X, HDD working.

Tom Brayshaw, could be a tough one. First, why did you replace the drive? What was the problem with it. The drive that you replaced came hopefully from a good source, had a couple of bad ones previously. Did you take a look at the HDD cable? Make sure it is not frayed. Due to a bad cable in my past, I have now gone to the point of replacing them as well. Make sure that the ribbon cable is properly inserted. There is also a difference between the drives and the cable if you changed the manufacturer. I do know that the Hitachi and Toshiba use different cables.It is only a marginal expense. If you have access to a USB-to-Zif adapter. Take your drive out of the iPod and see if your computer finds it as a drive. This way at least you know that your drive is ok. Once you are sure that your drive is okay and your cable as well, check the connector, make sure there is no debris or anything on it. You can clean the whole board with isopropyl alcohol just make sure that the rubber bumpers on the switches under the click-wheel stay on. If all that checks okay, you can and should try again to place the iPod in disk mode and restore from there. Let us know how it is going. Good Luck.