reformat iPod Windows to Mac without using iTunes?

[erikv11]

My daughter's 30 GB iPod video ("G5"?) is Windows formatted but we run only Macs. So no updates since 1.1.1. ALSO she has music and videos (TV shows) on there given to her by friends - they used their own iTunes l/p to put it on her iPod. Of course she does not know their passwords.

The main thing we want to do is get it Mac format to apply updates, it has been two years, and keep all the files on it.

I searched a fair bit but it seems the only reformat method involves transferring files to iTunes (e.g. with Senuti), reformatting, then transferring back from iTunes to the iPod. That won't work, she'll lose her gifted iTunes store files etc.

Is there a more basic way to copy or clone ALL files from the iPod, reformat it, then clone them back? You may be able to tell I am used to using CCC that way with hard drives. But will it work with an iPod? And I don't know how FAT32 figures in here, I don't know much about disk formats.

For example if there were a way to clone a Windows iPod to a Mac iPod, with a disk image in between ...

this link http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=57505&highlight=clone
looked promising, but I don't understand if/how it would work in the other direction as we want here.

Any ideas?

[adamb529]

try Senuti and check that all files were properly transfered. if they properly transfered, you can reformat your iPod to HFS+. I can't help you with files given to your daughter by friends, because it violates copyright laws (in other words, she doesn't know that passwords for a reason...they are owned by someone else) So, if Senuti transfers the files successfully, then you can format the iPod. I hope this wasn't too confusing.

[erikv11]

The suggestion from that other thread worked perfectly:

(1) quit iTunes, use ditto to copy the iPod_Control directory to somewhere on your HD
(2) reformat the iPod in iTunes
(3) quit iTunes
(4) use ditto to copy the iTunes and Music directories, within the iPod_Control directory, back to their proper places on the iPod

Now everything that was on the Windows format before, is on the newly Mac-formatted iPod. Music, movies, shows etc. So far everything works fine.