This (like so many other problems) should be easy. But it's proving otherwise...
I recently bought a secondhand 80GB 5th gen iPod video that had been owned by a Mac user, and wouldn’t register on iTunes when I connected it with my PCs. I therefore decided to re-format it as FAT32. Two days later I am still trying. Here's what I've tried so far.
Right-clicking in My Computer in both Windows XP and 7: FAT32 not given as an option
Formatting from command line using "format h: /FS:FAT32": format attempts started in both XP and 7, only to fail with messages that the disk was too large to be formatted as FAT32.
SwissKnife Premium utility: it could only ‘see’ about 20GB of the iPod and attempts to format (either complete or quick) were abortive, incurring messages about read/write errors.
Freeware command line executable (fat32format.exe), which correctly read the size of the disk and appeared to format it in a couple of seconds. However, since then, it still doesn’t register on iPod updater, iTunes v6 (the version that this model of iPod should have been released with) or the latest version (iTunes v10).
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool: this tool has got very good reviews, and I went to it with my last vestiges of hope but when I tried to use it, but received an error message telling me “Device media is write-protected.”
I really don’t know what to do next. Please help me if you can. Many thanks, Mark
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