How to Backup and Format the IPod

With the capacity of the iPod ever increasing and more and more facilities to the iPod we never much bother to delete anything and continue adding to the storage. But there comes a time when you feel the iPod was as organized as it was when the first time you bought it. Now if you look at the options there is not much you can do since there is no obvious option for formatting. Follow the steps below and you can have that iPod as good as new.

Backup the data:

1. Plug in the iPod to the PC and open it in the windows explorer

2. The iPod data is stored in a hidden folder called "ipod_control". Move on ahead to the folder called "music".

3. Copy all the data to a single folder on your local hard drive.

4. If you look at the data iTunes has changed the names of the files but still the ID3 tags are intact. Now it's time to organize the data.

5. Open up iTunes and go to Edit > Preferences. Under the Advanced > General Tab select the folder where you have copied the music. Check the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" and click OK. In iTunes, click "File" then "add folder to library". Select the folder where all your copied music is. iTunes will now re-import all your music back into the playlists. But more importantly, because you have previously clicked "Keep iTunes Music Folder organized", iTunes will now start renaming and organizing your songs into their correct names, albums and folders.

Or you could use a program like iDump which copies all the files from your iPod to the specified location in your PC under a directory structure as specified.

Format the iPod:

1. Attach your iPod to the computer and start iTunes.

2. Click the button in the sidebar that displays the name of your iPod.

3. Click the tab at the top that says "Summary" and click the button that says "Restore".

4. When you are prompted with the restore options choose "Use Newest Version". This will update the software to the newest version available if you are connected to the internet.

5. Wait for the computer to restore the iPod. Be sure that you have sufficient time since the restoration can take a while since new software is downloaded and the iPod formatted.