I use my ipod as a hard drive as well as a music player. I constantly shuttle files too and from my work and home computer.

I also use the playlists loads... run itunes and the ipod from both computers etc.

Last Friday my ipod stopped working. It played music fine... but as soon as i plugged it into my mac everything crashed.
The same with my mac at home..... and the same with any other mac in the office..

So i tried it on other computers... an older ibook running os9. The computer didnt crash but the ipod did not mount. Interestingly though i could see the ipod on that computer over the network.

So i figure that something has become corrump with the software... but i cannot reset it as i cant plug it into a machine.

I take it to the new apple store on Regent Street (London) for a so called 'genius' to have a look at. The guy tells me nothing i dont already know other than he thinks the firewire port is bust and that the only thing i can do since it is one month out of warranty is "buy a nice shiny new one on my way out"... despite my telling him that i can plug it in to older machines so it must be a software issue.

Anyway... eventually i manage to find someone whith a PC and firewire and reset the ipod through their machine... And now it is as good as new.

My point?.. Dont buy a new ipod if your one breaks!!!

Firstly there are numerous ipod repair companies who can fix most issues for under ??50

Apple dont seem to be offering a very decent or even HONEST customer service here. While i was waiting to speak to Mr Genius at least 85 percent of the people there were there with ipod problems... and the first thing they ask any of those people was "is it still in warranty?"

Now this is fair enough if you drop your pod and break it... but if the internal software.. that they wrote... goes caput and lets you down... i think they should be prepared to take a little more responsibility.

My other point is to ask... can naming files incorrectly or playlists incorrectly create such a problem? Or did it corrup another way?

I had playlists with names like _***Love Angel Music Baby to make them appear at the top of the list.

Do you think this could cause a problem?