Can't mount iPod - disk label issues

[Artesia]

Hello

When I plug in my iPod, it doesn't mount and doesn't even show up under "Places" with my other hard disks. I can see it in Parted, where it shows up as /dev/sdb with the wrong disk size. I tried to format it with Parted, and I got:

Unable to open /dev/sdb - unrecognised disk label.

So I tried to set the disk label, but got this:

Unable to open /dev/sdb - unrecognised disk label.
Unable to open /dev/sdb - unrecognised disk label.
Device /dev/sdb has a logical sector size of 4096.  Not all parts of GNU Parted support this at the moment, and the working code is HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL.

Unable to open /dev/sdb - unrecognised disk label.
Assertion (!dev->external_mode) at ../../libparted/device.c:265 in function ped_device_close() failed.

(gparted:6627): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_hide: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

(gparted:6627): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_hide: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
Unable to open /dev/sdb - unrecognised disk label.

(gparted:6627): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_steal_qdata: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(gparted:6627): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_set_qdata: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(gparted:6627): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_object_destroy: assertion `GTK_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Segmentation fault

How I got here: I was using the iPod just fine with Amarok, until I tried to change its name. (I once plugged it into a friend's Mac to charge it, and it opened iTunes and changed the name from ARTESIA to ANDREA SMITH.) I tried to change the name under the iPod's properties, but apparently that was the wrong approach.

Here's what my fdisk -l looks like:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf9535e7e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       19130   153661693+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2           19131       19457     2626627+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5           19131       19457     2626596   82  Linux swap / Solaris
Note: sector size is 4096 (not 512)

Disk /dev/sdb: 159.8 GB, 159840301056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2429 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 4096 = 65802240 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

I tried rebooting, reconnecting it at various times, and resetting the iPod itself with the center-button-and-menu keys.

I also tried adding

/dev/sdb        /media/ARTESIA  vfat users,exec,noauto,managed    0       0

to my /etc/fstab. That's where it was mounted prior to this, and I got the options, Dump and fsck columns from Googling around.

Any ideas on how to get this baby mounted? I appreciate any suggestions.

[Artesia]

Update:

I tried sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /media/ARTESIA

and got:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

dmesg | tail output:

[42211.675851] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[42211.675862]  sdb: [mac] sdb1 sdb2
[42211.770331] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[42211.770397] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[42754.043190] FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
[42754.043198] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb.
[43236.118401] APIC error on CPU0: 40(40)
[43235.983988] APIC error on CPU1: 40(40)
[43528.021706] FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
[43528.021720] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb.

By the way, the iPod itself doesn't appear to be corrupted. I deleted all the music before this happened, but I'm able to navigate its menus and change settings.

I'm out of ideas

[Jonathan183]

Sound like iTunes has put something back on the iPod ... didn't you wipe the drive before to get it to work with Linux?

Ed: can you reformat the iPod in iTunes?

[Artesia]

I actually had it working fine after the iTunes connection, except for the name thing. I decided to wipe it again to upload music on which I had just cleaned up the ID3 tags. I thought it might be a good time to try to fix the iPod name, which is when I changed the Properties and caused this new dilemma. I'm sure I can get it working again with Amarok, if I can just mount it. I don't even care about the name anymore. If I have to go through life with my iPod being called Andrea Smith, I'll be perfectly happy.

[Artesia]

I don't have iTunes anywhere anymore, but that's a good idea. My sister has a Macbook although it'll be about a week before I can see her.

[Jonathan183]

I'd try the iTunes format and if that did not work I'd probably dd the thing ... actually I would probably have seen a red mist and dd'd the thing anyway not sure if this will help.

[Artesia]

The XP box couldn't format it, either. (I can't install iTunes on that thing cuz it's SP1... don't ask...)

What's dd? But I have this feeling that it involves a violent act.

[Jonathan183]

No the violence comes after the dd comand does not work !

man dd ... but not sure how healthy an iPod will be after you write all zeros to it !

example wipe hard drive sda MBR ...
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

[Artesia]

Oh. That is actually kinda scary. Although I wonder if I could write anything to it without it being mounted and without a recognizable disk label. Still, that's not something I want to resort to ...just yet.

I talked to my sis earlier--I'll be dropping by her place on Wednesday to play with her Macbook. I am catiously optimistic.

[Artesia]

Update:

So this morning, I had a date with my sister's Macbook. Upon connection, iTunes started up but the iPod did not mount. The Restore function didn't work.

Then I tried to format it (outside of iTunes), but that was a no-go, as well. Finally went for the Erase option, the one that writes 0's to the disk. What was that you said about dd again? haha

This was to take over 2 hours, and I had to get myself to work so I left it there. I talked to her later and she reported that after the erase, she started iTunes and iTunes updated it with the latest iPod software. The most important news was that the iPod was now mounted.

The moment of truth will come when I connect it to my linux machine, but the fact that it's now mountable anywhere gives me great hope.