I have a 40gig, 4th generation iPod that, in addition to music, I use to hold various freelance and personal projects. Since I'm usually working on some sort of video or animation project, the iPod is a great way to move large files, graphics and data around between computers.
I've had this iPod for about 2 years I guess and it's always worked great. With the advent of podcasts, I've also really enjoyed have the iPod with me when I travel. Since I tend to be really bad about backing up data files and projects on a regular basis, it should come as no surprise that Murphy reared his ugly head recently and my iPod crashed hard.
I had a funny feeling something was happening when I started hearing a very faint clicking sound when the iPod was first booting up. Then about 3 weeks ago on a business trip, the iPod got really wiggy and wouldn't play any audio files properly. The next week it was all over. I would plug the iPod into a computer "click... whirr... click... whirr" was all I heard. Then, finally, a Sad iPod appeared on the LCD screen.
I was really freaked. Not for the music, which I knew all lived on my various computers in one form or another, but for my freelance files. After several days of trying to connect to the iPod with no luck, I was really prepared to write off several large freelance projects, in addition to several months of camera Raw files and Lightbox archive image originals, and start several projects over completely from scratch.
But, I thought, let me go to Google one more time in the hope of finding an answer. Maybe, just maybe, somebody out there has encountered a situation like this and has some advice. I was convinced that my only real hope was to take the iPod the Apple store and pay a ton of money to have them pull the drive out and pray they could retrieve the data. Little did I know that the simple solution would be right next to my ham and cheese sandwich.
While hunting through Google results, I stumbled on this article which spoke of a method to temporarily fix broken drives by freezing them. It's true!
I read the article through a few times and figured 'Well, what have I got to loose?' The author mentioned wrapping his drive in a Ziploc bag to protect it from condensation. I was at work and didn't have anything handy, so I just dropped the iPod into my lunch box and waited about an hour for it to cool.
After retrieving the iPod from the fridge, I quickly (and nervously) plugged in the USB cable. Instantly the hard drive spun up with no noises and the disk contents were visible on my computer. Since I knew I had a short window before the iPod warmed up and stopped working, I began copying all the data files locally as quickly as I could manage.
So, while I shop around for a new 5th generation iPod (with video!), let me just say how important it is to perform regular backups on your data; especially if you don't have a freezer handy.
1. | On April 5, 2006 3:36 PM, Kiltak added:Hey there! Glad I could help you with my article. ;)
Cheers!
Kiltak
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