Rabbits, Rabbits, Rabbits; or, How to Fix an iPod by Abuse

[absintheur]

So a week or two ago K. dropped my iPod and did the little guy in. Once before it had consumed its own soul and I had to reinstall the software, but software won't take when the hard drive no longer understands that it's a hard drive. I tried about five times anyway, though, before I took notice of the clicking sound: the arm doggedly thwapping into the casing, I suppose, as it tried to read the surface of the drive a few centimeters further over than it should've been. I even had a go at pulling the cover off and peering inside before I heard that noise and realized what it meant. (And I don't recommend that.) Then I thought, well, it's a hardware issue. I can't fix that. I'll have to take it in to the shop and pay some Apple rep $250 or so to do that. And then I thought, well, I can't break it any more than it's already broken, save by crushing it or putting a spike through it or some such. And if it's out of alignment, and it got that way by being dropped, hey, maybe being dropped again will put it back in alignment. And I fixed a printer a few years ago by throwing it a good beating, so maybe I'll give that a go. So, holding the iPod by the edges, palm over the LED, I lifted it up and gave it a good slam down on the desk. Smack, it went. I turned it over on its side, lifted it up again and slammed it down on the desk on its side. Smack, again. I pushed the button and saw the little Apple come up on the screen. For the last week, the Apple would come up and then I'd get the folder with the exclamation point icon, the one that means, "'scuse me mate, but I can't find my system folder anywhere on me, and have consequently developed severe amnesia." But instead, it went straight into disk mode, and did it with no clicking. So I had a good laugh and tried the software re-install again, and lo and behold, it worked. It's back to being an iPod now, serving me up some evil Celtic metal with flutes, a good dose of deep Latin jazz, some Nordic roots, and at the moment, some crazy turntablism courtesy of four French DJs.

So let that be a lesson. If you drop an iPod, before you shell out $250, give it another drop, or throw it a little beating. Sometimes it works wonders.