I have an iProblem with my iPod

Question

Did that horrible, horrible joke get your attention? Great! I recently got a video iPod and a MacBook Pro, both my first mac products as I have lived in the dark ages for windows for quite some time. My problem is that my iPod was formatted for windows, not mac (i got hte mac like a month ad 3600 songs later). As a result, while the macbook recognizes the iPod,itunes does not. While I am proficient with windows products I know very little about Mac, so I thought I'd list a few details:
-At first the iPod just couldnt charge with the MacBook Pro. I could still transfer songs to it via iTunes which recognized it in every other fashion apart from the charging thing.
-Like an idiot, I downloaded some software updates for MacBook Pro and the iPod this week. You would think that as a windows user I would have realized that any free software update would only cause more problems, but I had been living in relative Mac bliss and thought all was finally right in the world.
-I realize that I can just restore the iPod and format it for Mac, but I would lose 3600 songs compiled from about 4 different sources, all PCs. Is there any way I could find the song files on my ipod, transfer them to the MacBook, and then put them in iTunes, without going through iTunes? Like the way you can just drag and drop a file from one folder to a different one.
-Failing that, can I somehow remove the software update I installed this week? I'd go back to having the charging problem but I can always find another charging source.
The iPod and the Macbook were bother incredibly expensive luxury items for me and I love them but am pretty disappointed by this. Thanks to all who can help me, I don't know how I'd repay you but I know in the past I've actively volunteered my input on windows discussion boards - maybe a year from now I can help somebody with the same problem, heh.
Thanks again,
Joe

Answer 1

See my reply to "Transferring Tunes" . Suggestion: From what you said, it sounds like you could easily connect this iPod to a Windows computer. Go back to the computer where you have the 3600 songs. Get the files out of the folder where they reside and put them on the iPod as data (your iPod has to be set up for disc use. So you will then have your music on there as the iTunes music AND the data files. Take that iPod to your Mac. Drag those files from the Finder, where you will see them on your iPod, which will mount like an external disc. (It was set up for disc use). Drag those files to your iTunes Library in the Source List (on the left) in iTunes. You might have to drag them into some interim folder on your harddrive first, like the Music folder within your User.
eMac iPod2G iPodPhoto3G Shuffle   Mac OS X (10.4.5)   MacPlus,SE30,PB520,PB5300,iMacSE 10.3.9,PBG4 10.3.9