<p>So hard drive is less reliable than flash drive? I don’t own an iPod–I have Creative Zen products. I have no idea if they are flash or hard drive.</p>
<p>Am I the only person on the planet with a player that isn’t an iPod? Judging by the lack of accessories for anything else, I’d have to say yes.</p>
<p>It cost nothing to open it and reseat the cable. It’s already broken. If it needs a harddrive, get one from eBay for $40. Use a little initiative and don’t be a slave to Apple’s propoganda of planned obsolence. My daughter’s was fixed twice that way, first by Best Buy under warantee and second time by me. Both times it was “reseat the cable”. She got a Touch for Christmas so I’m using it now and it still works fine.</p>
<p>Ask around you might find someone who has a friend who will try to fix it. At this point you have nothing to lose. My youngest had her IPOD die. It was one of the original and already 4 yrs old. We figured it was a goner. She told her Volleyball coach and he said let me take it to a friend of mine who might be able to fix it. I am not sure what he did but it worked for about 6 more months. When it broke the 2nd time we also had another IPOD die. With 1 the harddrive was bad but the other was another problem he could not fix. The guy switched the good hard drive for the bad. So from two broke IPOD’s we now have 1 working one. This repaired IPOD is still working 1 yr later.</p>