Restore iPod without iTunes

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Ok, so you have an iPod Classic (80, 120 or 160 GB), or a Nano (3G or 4G should work, can't speak for the newer models). You have done something bad to it, like changing the firmware or deleting something you shouldn't have deleted, and you want to bring it to life? Great, that's the article you're looking for!

First, you should try restoring it with iTunes. But it probably won't recognise it, unless you put it in DFU mode. Here's a video on how to achieve this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_bIDtBohnE

Then use iTunes' Restore option. It should actually ask you to do it, just accept it and it would be back to life in a minute or two.

But, .... it doesn't work! What should I do? It's BROKEN!

Calm down, and keep reading...

The standard disclaimer

THE SOFTWARE AND INSTRUCTIONS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR INSTRUCTIONS, OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE OR INSTRUCTIONS.

Continue reading only if your agree.

Prerequisites

  • An iPod (Classic - also known as iPod 6G/7G) (It works for Nanos, but the files are different!)
  • Computer with Windows (Linux tutorial coming soon, it's mostly the same except that you don't need to care about drivers, but need to build ipodscsi from source)
  • Patience

Overview of the procedure

  1. You put the iPod into DFU mode
  2. You send the first stage of the restore firmware (called "WTF") to the iPod using mks5lboot
  3. The iPod reconnects with a different USB IDs
  4. You send the second stage of the restore firmware (called "FIRMWARE") to the iPod using mks5lboot
  5. The iPod shows a monochrome disk mode screen
  6. You repartition the hard disk, upload the new firmware and reboot the iPod - all these three at once using ipodscsi
  7. Your iPod is working again. Yay!

You're ready? Ok, let's do it!

Steps to restore

There's also a video of (almost) the whole procedure. The commands are longer, because I have the files in different directories. Also, it doesn't show USB driver installation, because I already have them installed.

Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-nEXXv8_PY

The video is outdated, showing the old procedure (using Python/pyusb and ipoddfu.py).

Putting the iPod into DFU mode

  1. Get an USB to iPod dock cable.
  2. Connect it to your computer.
  3. Get your iPod.
  4. Lock the HOLD switch, then unlock it after a second.
  5. Connect the USB cable to the iPod.
  6. During the next two steps, disregard what happens on the iPod's screen, just do what we ask you to.
  7. Hold down MENU + SELECT (the center button) for 12 seconds (count to 12, just to be sure that your timing is right).
  8. Release the buttons.
  9. You're in DFU mode.

Here's a video, to make it more clear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_bIDtBohnE

Uploading the first restore stage (WTF)

"What the f*ck"? No, probably means Writing The Firmware or Waiting for The Firmware - we never found out. Who cares, anyway.

1. Press the Start menu button.

2. Type cmd and press Enter.

3. In the black window that opens, type cd Desktop and press Enter.

4. Download one of these files to your Desktop, depending on the Windows version you have (x86 = 32 bit, x64 = 64-bit): mks5lboot32.exe OR mks5lboot64.exe (Right-click, then choose Save link as...).

5. And this one too, from Apple's servers: x12230000_Recovery.ipsw (I hope they won't delete it at some point, because we can't legally host it on our server).

6. Go to your desktop, and rename the ipsw file to zip.

7. Use your favourite tool to extract the zip, WinZip, WinRAR and 7-zip will do it well, even Windows' integrated ZIP extractor will do.

8. Open the extracted folder, and go to Firmware -> dfu. There should be a file named WTF.x1223.RELEASE.dfu there. Copy it to the desktop.

Please note that the commands here are for the 32-bit version, which should work on all Windows versions - if you choose to use the 64-bit version, please enter mks5lboot64.exe instead of mks5lboot32.exe in the following commands!

9. Back in the black window, type: (or copy/paste) 

mks5lboot32.exe --dfuscan

and press Enter.

You should see a message similar to the following, showing that your iPod is detected. If not, please ask for support and do not continue. 

mks5lboot Version -170303
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

[INFO] DFU scan:
[INFO] winapi: found \\?\USB#VID_05AC&PID_1223#87020000000001#{B8085869-FEB9-404B-8CB1-1E5C14FA8C54}\0001
[INFO] DFU device state: 2

10. Enter the following command: 

mks5lboot32.exe --dfusend WTF.x????.RELEASE.dfu

You should see the following output: 

mks5lboot Version -170303
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

[INFO] winapi: found \\?\USB#VID_05AC&PID_1223#87020000000001#{B8085869-FEB9-404B-8CB1-1E5C14FA8C54}\0001
[INFO] DFU image sent successfully (35955 bytes)

If you see something different, stop here. Otherwise, go ahead.

Uploading the second restore stage (FIRMWARE)

1. Enter the following command: 

mks5lboot32.exe --dfuscan

You should see the following output: 

mks5lboot Version -170303
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

[INFO] DFU scan:
[INFO] winapi: found \\?\USB#VID_05AC&PID_1245#87020000000001#{B8085869-FEB9-404B-8CB1-1E5C14FA8C54}\0001
[INFO] DFU device state: 2

2. On the line that has a "found" text, look for the USB Product ID. It is the four symbols after the text PID_. In this example, it's 1245 which means a Classic 2G (120GB)

3. Download one of the following files, depending on your iPod's model/product ID.

4. As before, rename it to zip and extract it.

5. Go inside the folder Firmware -> dfu, and copy the file to your desktop. It should be named FIRMWARE.x****.RELEASE.dfu where **** is the USB ID of your iPod at the moment.

6 Enter the following command: 

mks5lboot32.exe --dfusend FIRMWARE.x????.RELEASE.dfu

and press Enter. You should see the following output: 

mks5lboot Version -170303
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

[INFO] winapi: found \\?\USB#VID_05AC&PID_1245#87020000000001#{B8085869-FEB9-404B-8CB1-1E5C14FA8C54}\0001
[INFO] DFU image sent successfully (1157699 bytes)

After 10-20 seconds, you should see an Apple logo on the screen, and after a couple more second a white screen with a stop sign and text Do not disconnect at the bottom. Windows might want to reformat it, say No if it does. Continue to the next step.

Final step: Install Apple's firmware

  1. You're almost there. Go to http://www.felixbruns.de/iPod/firmware/ and download the latest firmware for your iPod model.
  2. As you might have guessed, you need to rename the ipsw to zip, and extract it.
  3. In that folder, you'll find a file named Firmware-XX-X.X.X (X's depending on the model and version). Copy it to the desktop.
  4. Download ipodscsi.exe to your desktop.
  5. Open Windows Explorer, and look for your iPod. It should be in the Removable drives section. Take a note of its drive letter (e.g. F:).
  6. Open the black window, and type:
ipodscsi.exe F: ipod6g writefirmware -p -r Firmware-*

You should see: 

ipodscsi v. 0.1.0 r959 - Copyright 2011 by Michael Sparmann (TheSeven)
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Repartitioning... done
Initiating firmware transfer... done
Writing firmware................................................................
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...... done
Rebooting device... done

Your iPod will reboot. You'll see a black screen with an Apple logo, and a progress bar at the bottom. Then it will again, show you another Apple logo for a while, and finally start Apple's firmware.

It should be safe to format it at this point. Use FAT32 as filesystem. Windows isn't going to allow you format large devices with FAT32, so you might need to use a third-party tool. FAT32 Format is a good choice.

Then use iTunes to manage your music/videos. Or install Rockbox.

Enjoy your unbricked iPod!

Related info

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