iPod Issue

[decemberfall]

Okay if I plug my ipod into my computer without having itunes open it tells me that my ipod needs reformatted for windows... I did move the ipod from one computer to another but they are both running XP, anybody have any ideas?

[masherscf]

Okay if I plug my ipod into my computer without having itunes open it tells me that my ipod needs reformatted for windows... I did move the ipod from one computer to another but they are both running XP, anybody have any ideas?

Don't format your iPod for windows. That just sounds wrong...

[decemberfall]

Don't format your iPod for windows. That just sounds wrong...
yeah i didn't, and anyways its never been plugged into a computer with windows, so why after a year would it need reformatted now...

[_sorrow_]

yeah i didn't, and anyways its never been plugged into a computer with windows, so why after a year would it need reformatted now...

Well obviously the best solution is to buy a Creative mp3 player so your not an iPod cultist :p just kidding...

So has it always been plugged into an Apple prior to this? My sister had a similar problem over the holidays; apparently her iPod said it needed to be formatted for Apple use (she has an iBook). She asked around and found that it would wipe the drive, which she wasn't OK with, because a lot of the music had been given to her by friends (via PC) from around the world. So she petitioned me for help with it. Plugged it in, browsed to the "mass storage device" and grabbed the 3gig folder onto an external drive. Done, right?

Nope.

She browsed through the folder to make sure everything was there, and discovered that a lot was missing. What gives? No idea, some weird freakin Apple thing. So in the long run i remembered a torrent i'd downloaded of a program called "iPod Access." Thankfully i never deleted it, because this eventually allowed me to pull off all 6 gigs of music (and podcasts) she had stored on there.

I'm not really sure why i typed out the whole story instead of just telling you about the program... guess i'm in a rambling mood :rolleyes:

Good luck, hope that helps some. If you're on a PC, i could .rar the file and put it on megaupload.com or something.. PM me if you want it :)

[tokenuser]

In a really smart (?) move - when you plug the iPod into an Windows machine, it needs to be frmatted as FAT (fat32?) to be accessible. Apple uses a different format by default that Windows cant read ... so yes, it must be formatted to use it on a Windows box.

The stupid thing is that an iPod formatted on a Windows machine will work on a Mac (or so I have been told) ... so why didn't they just set up the format for iPods to be Fat32 and be done with it??

Stupid Apple decision.

[decemberfall]

It's been plugged into a windows machine the whole time... my desktop just wasn't working when I bought it last year so I had it loaded on my laptop. If Itunes is open when I plug it in there are no issues, no music is missing, nothing... but if itunes is not open when I plug it in, it says it needs to format it for windows... so go figure, I rarely use my desktop except for itunes and stuff, so i've just been leaving it open all the time on there now anyway, no issues...