I had the same issue with my 120 gb classic. It just died, i took to apple genius bar and they said that the HDD had died and I would need to pay £85 for a new one fitted. Not having the money on me i said I will think about it. I put it back in it's box and away in the draw 4 months past and i pulled it out and plugged it in to charge, i don't know why but I did. It sprang to life, so i left it alone to fully charge, once it had i unplugged it and plugged it into my pc for itunes . It showed up, I hit restore and i went through a whole bunch of stuff and reset itself. I then uploaded all 11,000+ songs onto it and it is working a treat! So don't give up...Apple suck with their advice.