Test Your iPod for Disk Defects!

We encourage iPod owners to test their entire disks for bad sectors while your iPod is still under warranty!

Here is one way to test your iPod for bad disk sectors:

1. Reboot your iPod by holding down "MENU" and "PLAY/PAUSE".

2. When you see the Apple logo, Hold down these keys until the logo disappears:
"<<" - Back Button "
">>" - Next Button
"Wheel Button" - Center button on the Wheel

3. Suddenly you will hear a "Defender Fire" like sound and the Apple logo will be backwards. You have entered the Apple Diagnostic Toolset!

4. Using the Arrow keys scroll down to Option "O . HDD SCAN"

5. Press the "Wheel Button" to start the HDD SCAN and wait 4-10 hours for it to complete. The test will finish, it just takes time considering the size of the disk.

At the end if everything passed you will get a "DISK PASSED" or you will get a "DISK READ FAIL - 0x00000003" (or some other sector location.)

This will exhaustively test your disk for read and write capability. It will not affect the data on the disk, but it will assure you there are no bad sectors lurking on your iPod.