alright, i got this ipod and it is kinda old. i think its a 3rd gen. but im not sure. well i cant get it to work and i always get that folder with an ! on it. every once in while though i can get it to boot up to the menu. i wanted to format it but when i plug it into my pc and click restore it says it cant complete the restoration. so i tried formating it through 'my computer' but when i right click it my pc freezes. any ideas? thanks. edit: i fixed it. i took it apart and pulled the ribbon from the hdd. then i blew around it and tried to clean it up a bit. when i plugged it back it, the screen was all black, so i clicked restore and it actually restored it. i dont know why it didnt restore it when i tried to earlier. maybe some dust or something. well thanks anyways.
There was probably some coroshion between the Ribon and the Hard Drive! This happens after a few years, and blowing ond trying to clean the connections usualy works! I am glad it worked for you! ~Domreis