I just got a 4th generation 60GB photo iPod (I had it modded by Vinnie at Red Wine Audio).

It behaves very strangely when syncing. Here's the story:

I got it in the mail and it was formated for Windows. I decided to restore it. After I was done with that I tried to sync it with my iTunes library (which is encoded in Apple Lossless in case that matters). It put a few songs on there and then it poped up with some sort of read/write error. So I decided to verify and re reformat the disk on the iPod with the OSX (oh btw thats my os, I have the lates version of that and of iTunes) disk utility. The verification said there were no disk errors. I re-reformated anyway. Then I tried syncing again, same behavior but here's the kicker: it got stuck on a later song in the syncing process. This confused me, so i put it in manual syncing mode and tried to put the faulty song on there manually. After a few failed attempts, it worked! So i tried syncing it manually with all my stuff, and from time to time it would pop up with the error and ocasionaly freeze but eventually I got all my stuff on there and it seems to be on it perfectly (not corrupted or anything).

Does anyone have any idea whats going on? Should I exchange the hard drive? What should I do? Its usable as it is, but I would like it to be more usable and less of a hassle. Thanks a lot.

Try a new USB cable. If that doesn't work, send it back to Vinnie and ask for a replacement. He should honor the usual iPod 1-year warranty. Also ask on the Audio Circles forum.

I would give Apple support a try. They have a forum for user support and phone support available. Also, make sure your iPod is updated to the latest firmware version and that your iTunes is also fully upgraded.

Good luck,
JXL

I think a different cable actually worked! I only had two more albums to sync, but both of them synced correctly. Maybe its just luck, we'll see.