My hard drive never messes up in the computer.

I have nearly half of the hard drive space to spare!

It tries to take over your machine with iTunes, and doesn't let you copy any files from the iPod to the computer - in short, you can't really use it as a portable hard drive.

I have to say that these iPods either have batteries or hard drives that die in what seems to be a short time frame.

Third Hard Drive failure 8/06

Mine worked fine for 7 months then the hard drive kept spinning up, over and over, but would never engage and the screen displayed a sad face icon

I had recently ripped my entire CD collection to an external hard drive and even 40GB wasn't enough to hold it all.

I was finally told a few days ago that my hard drive needs to be replaced...for $319

Fourth hard drive failure 11/10/06

then does the same damned thing with the hard drive spinning up over and over in and endless loop but never being able to read the contents

A very cost effective way to get an extra hard drive is to shop at your local computer store (e.g. CompUSA), look for the ATA drive that's on sale this week, and then, if you have a laptop, also get the "enclosure" that makes it into an external USB 2.0 drive.

I have a desktop and 2 laptops andseveral external hard-drives ofvarious sizes and capacities

Since the Rio Karma has hard drive issues it looks like im waiting for the iPod and other devices to create gapless playback

Second hard drive failure 2/22/06

All of a sudden the hard drive just died 2 days ago- wouldn't mount to the computer initially and then wouldn't turn on at all.

Fourth hard drive failure 11/10/06

If you import a lot of CDs, your desktop or laptop might not have enough space on the hard drive.

The hard drive failed and they were able to fix it

Trying to back up this much data onto CDs just isn't practical, and I don't want to have to rip over 400 CDs again if my drive goes bad

The advice Apple gives does NOT work: "drag your contacts to the 'Contacts' folder once you can see your iPod as a 'hard drive' in 'My Computer'

The hard drive spinning up but never starting

My hard drive died, and the Apple store couldn't get it going again unless I shelled out $200-$250 for a replacement hard drive.

This allows you to move your pictures off camera onto iPod's hard drive via USB cable.

iPod #7 hard drive failed AGAIN, just days before warranty was up

This can also serve as a backup (it's very depressing to import CD after CD and then have your hard drive crash...).4

Second hard drive failure 2/22/06

Brought it in to Apple store and the guy said the connector to the hard drive was loose and he fixed it (taped it in place)

In that respect, it can take a long time to covert all of the music on your hard drive into the right format for iTunes

So basically I have a shiny white box with a hard drive in it that can't be used the way it was supposed to

First Hard Drive Failure 10/01/05

I took it to Apple, they said it needed a new hard drive!!!

It tries to take over your machine with iTunes, and doesn't let you copy any files from the iPod to the computer - in short, you can't really use it as a portable hard drive.

My hard drive never messes up in the computer.

Also great for backup of your music + pictures + hard drive etc.

Following another week the ipod hard drive failed.

After six months-the hard drive malfunctioned

However, just as the 1 year warranty expired, my IPOD's hard drive crashed not only deleting the four thousand songs that I had worked so hard to build up (and spent plenty of money downloading).

I was told an insurance policy I purchased for it was no good as the problem was with the hard drive (and the hard drive isn't covered).

They told me it was just like a computer and the hard drive can stop at anytime

An independent repair service quoted me $200 for a replacement hard drive

First Hard Drive Failure 10/01/05

The hard drive crashing and losing all data resulting in having to reset the ipod to factory settings and reinstalling the software and after all that having the same problem happen again

They sent an ipod that had a corrupted hard drive and would not reformat when i tried to fix it

A good solution is to buy an additional hard drive.

To sum it up, yes this is a slick device, lots of hard-drive space (40GB can turn out to be a good source of back-up for your computer's hard drive!!!!!!!!), has some good features where you can store your contacts (the good thing about storing contacts is you can create a .vcf file using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express or any other software application that can create .vcf files and download it to the iPod) and also features a calendar which I believe comes in handy for those people who like to use it as a substitute for a digital assistant

Within 6 months it acted up, making me do the ridiculous R method of resetting it over and again.

I have no warrenty now, so i'm stuck trying to restore, restart, and all those other crappy "R" fixes that they have that don't work

I LOVE MY NEW I POD