Continuously in recovery mode, after several restores, drive letter changes

Question

My ipod/itunes usage has been acting very odd for the last week. iTunes stopped being able to add songs to the ipod a couple days ago, then it stopped recognizing the ipod and itunes (newest version, 7.0.1.8) would crash. So I uninstalled itunes, all my previous ipod software, hoping to start from scratch. Downloaded itunes again, rebooted Windows (XP), installed itunes, hooked up the ipod, same problem.
So I restored my ipod, and afterwards I got this message: "iTunes has detected an iPod in recovery mode. You must restore this iPod before it can be used with iTunes." So I restored it again, and the same message appeared. This cycle happened a few times before I went online to find a solution.
In the support pages, I saw that if this happens, I should change the drive letter that Windows assigns the ipod (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93499#changedrive), so I did that to change the ipod from the E drive to the G drive. No difference, itunes still didn't like it. I restore it again, and I get the same message, about the ipod being in recovery mode and that i should restore it. So I tried to change the drive letter another time. Same thing. No change.
What do I do now?
5th gen ipod with video   Windows XP  

Answer 1

I connected my 30 gig, 5th gen. iPod to my computer,
and it recognized it. I clicked on 'check for
update', of which there was one, ironically described
as "bug fixes". After the update, my iPod restarted
itself and is now in recovery mode. However, when I
look under 'My Computer', it still recognizes my iPod
by the name I gave it, and all of my photos are still
intact and viewable in this mode. I have tried
changing the drive letter and reinstalling iTunes,
but both my iPod and iTunes are still giving me the
recovery mode message.
5th Generation iPod with Video, 30GB
  Windows XP Pro  
Funny you should say that, and i'm so glad that i looked in here, as i first thought that it was something that i had done wrong, but now i am starting to wonder.
I have a similar problem with the 30gb ipod, i loaded everything ok onto my computer, even got to put some music on my ipod!
the next day i decided to re-arrange some tracks and remove some music that i no longer listen to. at this point I also recieved the update called "bug fixes" and since then the actual ipod says to connect to my computer and use itunes to restore, I have done this, and itunes goes through the process of restoring, says it has finished, and as soon as the ipod icon re-appears, it says that my ipod is in recovery mode and i need to restore.
I have done this now about 20 times, and i have tried various procedures that have been suggested on the web page, which includes removing and re-installing itunes, assign a new drive letter to the ipod, reinstalling the drivers.
I have tried everything that i can find with any relevance, but as i am not an IT technician, i dont want to keep trying things that i don't really understand.
Please help, as I want to listen to my music on this expensive music player, like i should be able to!
thanks in advance
Del
  Windows XP