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iPod Classic 6th Generation. Model A1238 / 80, 120, or 160 GB hard drive / black or silver metal front

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iPod Classic stuck in restore loop

I tried to dig on the web to find a solution to my problem, but all I found was unsolved questions and people giving up on the issue. I have a 6th gen iPod Classic from 2008. It worked fine up until a couple of days ago, when I connected it to my Windows laptop and went into permanent disk mode. I tried all the possible commands but it wouldn't exit disk mode. I thought the hard drive was corrupted and decided to change the old HHD with an SD card following what this guy did in this video at around 6:18.

I am using the exact same components apart from the SD card brand (I'm using a Samsung SD). However, when I try to restore it from iTunes, it goes through the process only to get back to the restoring page at the end as if I didn't restored it at all. I tried to restore it a couple of times but it looks stuck in this loop.

I've also tried to clean the ports, to read the SD outside of the iPod, to change usb port, but nothing seems to indicate a problem there.

When I try to access the SDRAM full test, it says “Plug in FW to start no power supply”. I suppose it wants me to plug it to a FireWire but I can't.

When I try to access HDSMARTData , it just shows the following:

Temp: Current 32C

Temp: Min 0C

Temp: Max 0C

Maybe it shows only these 3 things because it's a new empty SD drive, but I'm not sure

Don't know if this is relevant.

I was wondering, could this be due to the fact that I am using a 16GB SD card? The iPod OS should be less than a GB in size, but maybe these models need AT LEAST the storage it was built for (120GB).

I know this is an old device, but I would really like to be able to at least understand what the problem is.

Answer this question I have this problem too

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I’ve just found a work around for an iPod Classic stuck in recovery mode, but you’ll need access to a Mac to see if this works. This does not quiet address your question about switching HDD to a SD card, but focuses on a possible fix for an iPod stuck in a recovery loop.

So after downloading Bruce Springsteen’s latest album on my iPod Classic, the sync system froze and I started to get into an interminable iPod restore loop; I’d restore the iPod plug it into iTunes again and get the same restore message again and again and again. I’m using Windows 10 and as part of the effort to solve this I downloaded the latest iTunes update. As a last ditch effort, I had access to a Mac, so tried to see if the Classic would work there and lo and behold after restoring on the Mac, the Classic worked! I transferred all the music files using a USB stick and got everything onto the Classic. It’s not an ideal solution and requires access to a Mac, but it’s worth trying to see if this can revive your Classic.

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