Sometimes i get the famous error -48. Sometimes it syncs fine. Sometimes im playing a song and the next song wont play at all..i skip to the next (shuffle mode) and it doesn't play either. THEN the next one plays fine and i can go back one song and it plays, however the first song that stopped playing will not play no matter what.

Is this a hard drive issue or is it just lousy firmware?

I just tried playing the song that messed up in itunes off of the ipod itself. Still having the issue. Im starting to think my hard drive is corrupt.