I think my iPod is dead but I am not sure

1) I tried to force it into firewire mode... nothing
2) Tried to reboot it.. nothing
3) Tried to restore it.. nothing

The iPod has the image of the exclamation point when it boots up.
When it actually gets past the apple logo, it freezes on the language selection part.

Is there anything I can do?

I pretty much no the HD is probably dead so I am looking at a new iPod. Which one is better - 10GB or 15GB? I noticed that if you get a case, a remote, and the dock.. the 10GB is near the cost of the 15GB which includes all that stuff.

Thanks
Vort