HardDrive died, now Shuffle cant be used with re-installed iTunes

Question

I had to re-install Windows...I lost all my music due to a hard drive failure.
I reinstalled iTunes, now when I plug in my iPod Shuffle 2Gen it askes if I want to transfer purchases, or erase and sync my iPod. I transfered purchases but there are some songs on there that were not purchased on iTunes that I dont want to lose. They only exist on my shuffle right now.
How can I establish a link between my shuffle and this computer again without erasing my iPod?

Answer 1

Connect your iPod to your computer. When you get the message that it is linked to a different library and asking if you want to link to this one and replace all your songs etc, press "Cancel". Pressing "Erase and Sync" will irretrievably remove all the songs from your iPod. When your iPod appears in iTunes enable it for disk use, this is required for most if not all the utilities listed below so they can access the files: Using your iPod as a storage drive
Once you are safely connected there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. There are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. Have a look at the web pages and documentation, this is just a small selection of what's available, they are generally quite straightforward. You can also read reviews of some of them here: Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
TuneJack Windows Only
iPod2PC Windows Only
iGadget Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
iRepo Windows Only
iPodRip Mac & Windows
YamiPod Mac and Windows Versions
Music Rescue Mac & Windows
iPodCopy Mac and Windows Versions
There is also a manual method of accessing the iPod's hard drive and copying songs back to iTunes on Windows or a Mac. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available at this link: Two-way Street: Moving Music Off the iPod
Once you have reloaded your iTunes you can erase and sync the iPod to associate it with your reconstructed library.