He lives!

The good news... I resurrected the iPod. At first I got back to the menus, although it wasn't recognised by the computer. Then I clicked through the menus to find that although it knew there was stuff on there because it said there was only a small amount of space left on the disk, it couldn't find any of my music. A bit of frantic button pressing and resetting later it found the music, but kept skipping to the end of tracks. A bit of sitting it out and listening later, it seems to be playing OK, and it's even synching with the computer as I type.

But, realistically I know that this is the beginning of the end. The hard disk has problems, and although I revived it this time, it won't last indefinitely. So, the even better news is that I did my sums and I think I can just about afford a new one as long as I don't buy it until after the middle of next week. It would be even better if I could coax another month or two out of him before he dies, but if I don't get that long, unexpected expenses permitting, I should be able to get a replacement. Woo hoo!