How do I unfreeze my 2nd generation iPod touch without restoring it?

Question

First, my iPod touch could not be backed up (the back-up froze) because "a session could not be started", so I cancelled the sync.  Then, I re-synced the iPod so that new content would be transferred over to the iPod, but it still did not backup, although the new content successfully made it over to my iPod.  I ejected the iPod and it immediately shut itself off, only showing a frozen loading circle.  The iPod has been like this for an hour.  I plugged it back into my Mac and iTunes (and even iPhoto) recognizes it, but those programs cannot do anything to the iPod because it's basically a brick.  Even when plugged in, the frozen loading circle remains.
It looks like this:
My iPod is not jailbroken.  I do not want to put my iPod into DFU mode and restore it because I've been through that before and have lost too much information on my iOS devices in doing so.  It also takes a VERY long time, considering I have used all 16GB.  I could also wait for the iPod to run out of power but that takes a while too.
What is an easy solution around this?

Answer 1

As for the "Session could not be started for iPod" problem, just (Mac OS X only):
1. Quit iTunes.
2. Open Terminal.
3. Copy and paste into terminal:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true
Hit Return.
4. Open iTunes.
5. Make sure iOS device is plugged in and let it sync. That command that you needed to copy and paste into Terminal will disable the backup process when your iPod is plugged in and syncing.
6. Quit iTunes after iPod is finished syncing.
7. Return to Terminal and copy and paste the same command, but change "true" to "false".  Hit Return.
8. Open iTunes.
9. Backup should go smoothly.