Unable to write files to iPod or external hard drive.

Ok, I've been trying to work through this problem now for over 2 weeks and

I've gotten nowhere so I thought I'd make a post here and see if anyone else

has some ideas I could try. Since upgrading to Vista I have been unable to

sync my 8000+ songs in itunes to my ipod. It will start to transfer and get

stuck usually after about 20-150 songs. iTunes locks up when this happens

and the only way to get everything going again is to disconnect the ipod.



At first I thought this was because of a software problem in itunes until

apple released an itunes update and the problem still persisted. Also, the

list of remaining glitches with windows vista did not include anything to do

with syncing my music. This was when I noticed that my USB 2.0 external

hard drive was exhibiting similar problems. My ipod (the 60gb version) is

essentially a usb hard drive as well so I believe my problem has to do with

windows vista and writing to usb hard drives.



Whenever I try to write large quantities of data to my external hard drive

it will begin the transfer then after 20 sec or so, the transfer freezes and

the activity LED on the front of the enclosure begins to just blink over and

over until I disconnect it and plug it back in.



To try to solve these problems I have attempted the following so far:



-tested an alternate, known working, usb drive enclosure

-updated my BIOS

-updated my Nvidia nForce chipset drivers

-purchased a powered USB 2.0 hub

-tried formatting the external hard drive under vista

-edited user permissions to grant modify privelages in case there were any

problems from Vista's UAC (user account control)



Please any help from anyone would be appreciated.



Kevin