This is a page for all those people who somehow ended up with bad partition tables or otherwise screwed up their iPods. This might mean that they did something silly like manually repartitioning their iPod under Linux, or I don't even know what.

DISCLAIMER: I make no claims that any of the instructions below will work for you, and I will take no responsibility for any loss or damage you may incur as a result of them. Following these instructions may potentially invalidate your warranty, so do so at your own risk.

Additionally, all firmware images on this page are Apple's.

This assumes you've already gotten anything valuable that you need off of your iPod, because it will remove any chance of getting it back.

Here's what you do. This requires Linux, if you're not running it, go grab Knoppix or another LiveCD and boot into it.
Ready? Good.

1. Download the appropriate image:
   iPod Mini (made on a 4GB, I have no idea if it'll cause problems for a 2G, but it can't get much worse, right?)
   iPod (don't have one, feel free to contribute)
   iPod Nano (from a 2GB, see above)
   iPod Video (don't have one, feel free to contribute)
   


2. Connect your iPod to your PC.


3. In dmesg, there should be a series of lines like this:
   Vendor: Apple Model: iPod Rev: 1.62
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 00
SCSI device sdc: 7999487 512-byte hdwr sectors (4096 MB)
The part in bold is what you're interested in.


4. Take the part in bold and substitute it in below where I have sdc, then run that command:
   
   cfdisk /dev/sdc
   


5. If you're using the iPod nano image, I could only get one from a Win32 formatted nano, so you'll have to make the first 82.26 MB blank and the rest FAT32. Sorry.
   
   Otherwise, delete all the partitions you see, until the only thing it shows is Free Space. Then select Write and then input yes.


6. Run this command, with sdc replaced by whatever your version of the part in bold had:
   
   if iPod mini, dd if=ipodmini_restore of=/dev/sdc
   if iPod, I don't have a restore image for you yet.
   if iPod video, I don't have a restore image for you yet.
   if iPod nano, dd if=ipodnano_restore of=/dev/sdc
   
   When that finishes, disconnect your iPod from your PC. It should reboot into a vanilla, unformatted iPod state, like it was fresh from the factory.
   
   This is suitable for reformatting with the iPod Updater under Windows or Mac OS X, or for using as a base state in case you screwed up under Linux. :)
   
   Enjoy your working iPod!
   
   If you've had a problem with this, please email me, Rincebrain+ipod@gmail.com, so I can note it and see if I can work around it.
   If you've already done so, that's even better, let me know how so I can list it! :)
   
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