For some reason, you may find yourself in a situation where you have to delete everything in your iPod and make its innards as squeaky clean as the day you bought it. We don't know why you'd want to do it, but here's something that might help you.

Apple has released the latest version of iPod Reset Utility. It's a tool that will revert your iPod back to its factory settings, deleting all data and music. The program is useful for those times when your iPod's gone haywire, and can fix the following problems:

• iPod will not play music, and cannot be restored using iTunes.
• iPod is not recognized by iTunes, but is visible in My Computer or in Device Manager on a Windows PC, or in Apple System Profiler on a Mac.
• iPod shuffle (1st generation) is identified as a device in "Recovery mode." iPod shuffle (2nd generation) is identified as a "USB DFU device."

Version 1.0.3 supports both first and second generation iPod shuffles. The Mac version of the program requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 to install while Windows version require 4.9 MB of space, and Windows 2000 with SP4 or XP with SP2 to operate.

Download: iPod Reset Utility v1.0.3 (Windows Version)
Download: iPod Reset Utility v1.0.3 (Mac Version)