HT1329 How do I save my ENTIRE library from certain doom?!!?

Question

Ok, so if I, hypothetically crashed my computer and in a freak accident my external drive was wiped along with my laptop, how would I get all of my music off of my iPod touch 3rd gen without wiping it clean or paying money I don't have?
Is my library hopeless?  Is there nothing I can do to prevent literally HUNDREDS of dollars of music being lost?

Answer 1

Well, thanks for the help, but perhaps I should have phrased myself differenty.  I'll try again.
My Dell laptop is old.  I can't afford a Mac, like, not even nearly.  I have iTunes and I always update it.  My entire computer was backed up on a My Passport 1TB external drive. 
In a freak accident (because I'm almost certain that neither the laptop, nor the external drive are designed to work in this way), when my hard drive crashed in my laptop, it ALSO wiped my external drive down to original settings.  I didn't have the chance to unplug the drive safely before the blue screen of death popped up.
Luckily, my iPod was not plugged in when this disaster took place.  I was able to restore my entire laptop, but the external drive didn't recognize that it had ever had any information on it in the first place.  I lost YEARS of precious memories in photos, letters, etc.  All that aside, all of my iTunes was in tact on my iPod touch 3rd gen.  I have dozens of CDs that I can add back to iTunes manually, no big deal.  I've already re-downloaded everything I've bought recently.  The things that I need to recover are the songs without licensing info (my own recordings, open-mic night recordings, etc.) and the CDs that I have lost or broken that were on iTunes already.  I'd rather not have to re-purchase those albums.
I KNOW Apple doesn't have a way of recovering those files to my iTunes from my iPod yet.  At least, not for iPod touch.  I've fixed problems like this for others who have had iPod Nano's or even the classics; but there is no way to make a computer of any kind use the iPod touch as disk space so I can manually transfer files. 
Basically, I was just wondering if anyone out there had a program I could use to recopy my files back to my computer from my iPod touch without spend a lot of cash on it because these days, teachers don't really make enough to be spending it on luxury devices.  My iPod is a necessity because I travel for teaching back and forth around the world and I use the applications and music in my classes (I'm a music teacher).  Other than my iPod, I have absolutely NO 'new' electronics.  Even my cell phone is basic and very old and very broken.
If you can afford these awesome Apple devices, excellent!  It must be fun, but don't just assume that I'm an idiot and don't keep backups just because I own a PC.  In fact, I have backups BECAUSE I'm not stupid and I own a PC.  I KNOW they break down all the time!  Unfortunately, most of the time the fixes are cheaper still than owning a Mac.  But, oh, how I'd love to have one!!  They really ARE so much better!!!!
Again, thanks for trying to help!