Tongues are wagging from Classic iPod owners who claim that the latest 1.0.2 firmware seems to have a bug in it that causes the hard drive of their iPod to never power down.

One of the best battery saving features of the iPod has always been its ability to load music into the large on-board memory buffer and spin the hard disk down to save power. Users report that the problem is more of an issue than the “freezing” issue that also seem to be plaguing some iPod Classic owners.

Of course, moving a hard drive while the hard drive is spun up creates the potential for a data loss condition that could lead to an early death for the hard drive within the iPod Classic. The hard drive spin down bug seems to be an issue most frequently when using the CoverFlow option that is supported in the latest iPods.

Many users have said that the problem seems to be random, but it has led to far shorter battery life due to excessive battery drain. Many users have reported that replacement iPods that they have received (that also happen to have the 1.0.2 firmware) do not seem to suffer from this bug, while others have complained that the problem seems to be totally random in nature.

So if you are an iPod Classic owner that has not yet updated to the 1.0.2 firmware, you might want to wait until Apple gets a handle on this problem and revises the firmware to correct it. We recommend checking iLounge.com for the latest information regarding this issue and for possible resolution of the issue.