iPod Troubles

Ok, here's the deal.... I have a 4gig iPod nano, that's worked relatively fine up until now. The problem is, iTunes doesn't recognize the iPod as being there, and even my computer itself doesn't recognize it, so it won't show up under My Computer so I can explore into the drive and try to fix the problem. It just gives me a message about the device in the USB port not being recognized. I'm pretty sure I know what's wrong, a file got put onto the iPod that shouldn't be there, and I need to get it off, but I can't do that without being able to go into the files to delete it off. Since iTunes doesn't recognize it, I can't simply use the restore function either.
The iPod itself works fine, it still plays music and everything, it's just nothing can detect it, so I can't update it to put new songs on it or anything. Does anyone know how I can either restore the iPod without needing iTunes to recognize it, or a way that I can get into the files on the iPod so I can delete what I need to?

A simple Google search yields this link. If that doesn't work and you need further help, let us know what generation iPod Nano you're using.

It's a second generation, and none of those things help, I already tried them all. See the problem is, it says to restore the iPod using iTunes, but you can't do that if iTunes can't detect the presence of the iPod....

Are auto-updates on in Windows? Check to see if your device manager has changed something recently. Did you search through the Apple forums? www.apple.com -> Support -> Discussions

I don't know if this will work, but iPodLinux says so. Download the iPod Nano 2G firmware here, download iPodWizard and install it, and then:

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Originally Posted by http://ipodlinux.org/Restore_without_iTunes

1. Open iPodwizard.
2. Select from the drop down menu "Firmware File"
3. Click "Load".
4. A box should appear. Navigate to where your firmware file is.
5. Load it. (You might have to press a load button I'm not too sure.)
6. Then click "Write to iPod" and that firmware will be written to your iPod in a matter of seconds.

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If iPodWizard won't recognize it, I don't know what to do. It appears to be impossible to restore an iPod to factory settings without a computer connection.

Nope, still doesn't recognize it.... Is there just any way that I can get my computer to display the USB drive through My Computer, or something? That's how it got screwed up in the first place, a file was placed onto it that shouldn't have been through My Computer, and now nothing recognizes it because of that.... If I could just get that far, just to delete the file, I'm sure it'd work fine....

Maybe putting the iPod into disk mode will get your computer to recognize it. If that doesn't work, you should see if another computer (preferably one running a different OS such as GNU/Linux or Mac OS X) will recognize it.

Disk mode didn't work, my computer still didn't show it. Unfortunately, no one I know has GNU/Linux but one of my friends does have a Mac OS X, so I'll give that a try tomorrow or something. Thanks for helping everyone, I really hope this works because this iPod was like two hundred dollars....

Maybe your USB drivers are corrupt. Does your computer recognise any other devices?

No, it's not my USB drivers because I tried it in a friends computer too, same thing there.

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Originally Posted by Bayside

No, it's not my USB drivers because I tried it in a friends computer too, same thing there.

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I had a similar problem, my cable was broken, there was no signs of damage and it seemed internal, just try another connector cable and see if it works. I had problems but changing the cables usually works pretty well.

I also tried another connector, that didn't work either. I already know the problem is a file on my iPod, I just need a way to get into the files on their to take it off.