A major issue - would really appreciate all the help i could get.

Question

I have had an issue twice over the past year in which my iTunes library was deleted randomly after my computer had been shut down and turned back on. The music files were still on my computer, however I lost all of my settings, playlists, ratings, etc. This was ridiculously frustrating considering the fact that I had over 4500 songs. Another big problem with this happening is that my music is stored in various places all over my computer. Therefore it takes more than just dragging and dropping the "My Music" folder into my iTunes library. I realize this is a dumb mistake and next time, if this can be fixed, i would definitely consolidate all of my music by allowing iTunes to organize it in the "My Music" folder.
After the second occurance I called the iTunes support line, and after a grueling 3 hour conversation, the helper suceeded in getting 1500 of my 4500 songs onto my itunes (many of which for whatever random reason were duplicates) and none of my playlists or ratings back. Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated. I have not done anything since that event, therefore my itunes still only has those songs and ratings.
My iPod however has all of the 4500 songs that were previously on my itunes before the crash. Ultimately, my goal is to remove all of the music that is currently scattered all over my computer, transfer all of my music from my ipod to my computer, store it in one single location and load it onto my iTunes library. The problem is, I am scared to death of plugging my iPod into my computer, for fear of my iTunes automatically updating it and replacing the 4500 currently on there with the 1500 that are in my library now.
What i hopefully plan to do is to at least back up all of the song files that are on my computer right now and then delete them, cleaning my computer of all music. I would then use whatever method is best of transfering files from my iPod to my computer to put my files on. This is where I need help. Is there a program or a method to transfer the songs without my iTunes automatically deleting them as soon as i plug my iPod in?
Any one who could help me here would be an absolute life saver. Thanks a bunch.

Answer 1

*Recover media from iPod*
Check out this post from Zevoneer for some iPod recovery options.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6273675&#6273675
At least some of these tools (although maybe not the free ones) claim to be able to recover playlists & ratings.
FWIW I use the Grouping field to build smart playlists as it is stored in the tag & can survive a library rebuild.
*Adding new items/removing orphans*
Try iTunes Folder Watch or iTunes Library Updater. Folder Watch is much faster on the adding files front, can be set to run in the background and includes a useful exclusion feature, however it’s really slow at removing orphans. iTLU is better for this although doing it manually after looking at a list of proposed removals generated by Folder Watch is probably faster still. iTLU can also be set to update iTunes when you've used 3rd party tools to change tag info.
tt2