This week, my iPod Mini decided it wouldn't mount on the Desktop. No amount of disk repairing (via Disk Utility) would get it to mount; it just failed on some mysterious file structure error. It still played fine, but wouldn't connect to the computer. Now I know I could have just ran the iPod Updater and Restored it back to health -- but that would lose all my songs in the process, forcing me to recopy them from the machine. I wanted to find a non-destructive solution.
To cut a long story short, I eventually figured out that Disk Utility would allow me to make a complete disk image of the drive, even though it wouldn't mount. Then, after trying different methods of getting this data back to the iPod, I hit upon one that worked:
The key is to then Restore the iPod, and subsequently use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the Disk Image back to the iPod. That seemingly repaired the file structure -- and voila, my iPod is back! Songs, playlists and most importantly, it now mounts.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20051006071158569