How can I restore an iPod Classic 4th gen after replacing the hard drive?

Alright, here we go.

I recently found my mom's old iPod, and when I turned it on, i got the little folder with the exclamation point. Some digging around the internet told me to replace the hard drive, so thats what I did. I also replaced the battery too just in case. Now when I turn it on there's still the folder, but this time it has a message underneath telling me to go to apple's website.

Some more digging around told me that it may need to be restored. Okay, no problem. I have a mac updated to 15.5, so it'll be easy, right? Wrong. When I connect to my mac, there are two pop-ups on the finder side bar. and when I try loading into the iPod logo one, it just says "the selected device could not be found". Some more digging told me to erase the hard drive through disk utility. Also did that, same issue. Also tried restoring it through disk utility, but failed.

My next option is trying to get an older version of iTunes installed, then using that. Or just do a hail mary and replace the logic board.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated. I'll be open to answering any questions, and there's probably an obvious answer, but idk.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]