HARD DRIVE CRASHED AND IPHONE IS NOT BEING RECOGNISED

Question

my computer's hard drive has recently failed and i have lost all of my personal files as well as iTunes music files.
the computer repair centre replaced my hard drive and reformatted my computer.
now when i plug my iphone in to itunes all of my music is grey and i cannot update or change anything when i am using my same computer as it appears to think i am trying to plug my iphone in to a new computer.
the only way around this that i can see is for me to reformat my iphone to sync with my reformatted laptop - unfortunately this isnt an option for me because i have a number of important files, messages and contacts that i cannot lose.
can anyone help me out? is there a way around this? or a way to back my files, contacts and messages up?
surely if i provide my laptop serial numbers etc to apple they will be able to see that i am using the same computer and am not trying to mis-use or abuse the apple system.
PLEASE HELP!!!

Answer 1

Are you saying you don't have a backup of your data & itunes library? If that's the case, follow these directions:
By design, the iphone will sync itunes content with one computer at a time. Any attempt to sync such content with a second computer will result in ALL itunes content being first erased from your phone & then replaced with the content from the second computer. This is a design feature and cannot be overridden. Because you replaced your hard drive, your phone, will of course see your computer as a "new" computer. The itunes content sync is one way: computer to phone. If you have photos that were synced to your phone or music ripped on your own that were not backed up, you will first have to extract them from your phone using third party software, before you do anything else:
http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/index.php
Once you've done that, do the following in the order specified:
1. Disable auto sync when an ipod/iphone is connected under preferences in itunes, which in windows is under the edit menu.
2. Make sure you have one contact & one event in whatever programs you use for that purpose on your computer. The entries can be fake, doesn't matter, the important point is that these programs not be empty.
3. Connect your phone, itunes running, do not sync at this point.
4. Store>Authorize this computer.
5. File>Transfer Purchases(To make sure all purchased content on your phone will be in your itunes library).
6. Right click in the device pane & select reset warnings.
7. Right click again and select backup.
8. Right click again & select restore from backup, select the backup you just made. When prompted to create another backup, decline.
9. This MUST be followed by a sync to restore your itunes content, which you select from the various tabs, You'll get a popup regarding your contacts & calendars asking to merge or replace, select merge.
That's as good as it gets without a backup of your itunes library and other important data..