Thanks again for replying!
As you were, I was going over to a friends house to test exactly that... and with the new cable, on my friends vista computer... it works fine!
So no idea exactly what caused the problem... I'll post back for the record when I get back home if now (having formatted it on my friends computer) it works on my computer, and with or without the supplied usb cable!
But thank you for your support! My faith in ChiPods is still strong!
(it was even 1.95GB as claimed!
)
Have a good one,
Crash