Frustrated and ready to give up- Stuck on Recovery mode every attempted update

Question

Monday night, I fearfully plugged my phone into my PC after I updated to the new ITunes. (And freshly installed Icloud).
I had hopes of backing up my phone so in case of issues- i would not loose everything.
I say fearfully plugged in because in November- the last Iphone IOS  software update- I plugged my phone in to my computer and it got stuck in Recovery mode. It would not let me Restore. I continued to get error 1604.
So, I switched and plugged my phone into my husbands computer and finally - after about 7 hours - it Restored back to factory.
Now...Monday night, I was optimistic. "Maybe what happened before was a fluke."
NOPE!
Same thing. Same song. And apples genius tech support for the NWT, is via phone only (Really...really smart. Especially when your only phone is a brick stuck in recovery mode).
I tried everything. Holding home/off button. Uninstalling and reinstalling itunes. Using EVERY different USB port the computer had. Rebooted. Reglogged. Reset the computer to the daybefore .
Now. I am sitting again with no photos. no videos. nothing. And I am fearfull to plug my phone in again to attempt to throw music on to it. (Guess ill be working out to the tunes of music in my head).
Am I doing something wrong?
Has this happened before to someone: where every single time you plug your phone in to do an update/back it up on itunes...it gets stuck in recovery mode.

Answer 1

Per http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3694#error1604
Error 1604
This error is often related to USB timing. Try changing USB ports, using a different dock connector to USB cable, and other available USB troubleshooting steps (troubleshooting USB connections. If you are using a dock, bypass it and connect directly to the white Apple USB dock connector cable. If the issue persists on a known-good computer, the device may need service.
If the issue is not resolved by USB isolation troubleshooting, and another computer is not available, try these steps to resolve the issue:
Connect the device to iTunes, confirm that the device is in Recovery Mode. If it's not in Recovery Mode,put it into Recovery Mode.
Restore and wait for the error.
When prompted, click OK.
Close and reopen iTunes while the device remains connected.
The device should now be recognized in Recovery Mode again.
Try to restore again.
If the steps above do not resolve the issue, try restoring using a known-good USB cable, computer, and network connection.
If you tried all this and it did not work, but it did work on a different computer, then there is something wrong with your computer. Your computer isn't going to magically fix itself in between iOS version updates.