I am trying to store music for two different iPods on the same computer, against two different Apple IDs. When I try and download content from the Cloud I get an error message?

Question

I am trying to store music for two different iPods on the same Windows 8 computer, and when I try and download content from the Cloud I get an error message. Is it possible to have two different Apple IDs on the same computer?

Answer 1

Unfortunately you've discovered too late how important it is to maintain an up-to-date backup of your iTunes library (and all other data of value).  You could, before wiping the drive, have considered making use of a commercial data recovery service that could (albeit at considerable cost) have extracted your library from the hard disk, even if virus infected.
In the absence of that option, you will need to restore the content of your library from its original sources:
Depending on your location, you may be able to re-download any iTunes Store purchases that are still available on the Store
Likewise, most digital purchases from Amazon (including auto-rip copies of purchased CDs) should be available from the Amazon Cloud and via the Amazon Music application - the same may be true of other commercial sources for digital downloads
Content imported from your CDs will have to imported again
The specific situation that you describe regarding the music imported from your friend's external HDD suggests that either the source is badly organized and/or originates from a source other than iTunes (other media players may use alternative tags for information like artist, title, album, etc. that are not wholly consistent with how iTunes handle these).  Without details of the issues you're seeing it is difficult to suggest a remedy other than going through the media album-by-album, track-by-track, and correcting the inconsistencies.
In the absence of a backup or access to the original library data there is no option other than painstakingly recreating your library as described above.  As you do so, you'll now realize how important creating and maintaining backups are - in my case I have at all times three separate duplicates of my library, in two different locations, where none is ever more than a week old compared to the content of my master library.