I wiped my ipod when I bought a new pcoperarin windows xp

Question

Hi I am an aging techno but love my music. I bought a new high end laptop (sony vio duo)and when I installed itunes I hit the button to synch and wham all my songs gone.
BUT my ipod still show 2gigabytes used up (out 0f 20) so pretty sure songs are on the hard drive.
I am using windows xp -does anyone know how to recover them and could they give me a step by step guide. HELP!!!
sony viao   Windows XP   intel duo t2400

Answer 1

struan,
Before trying some recovery programs, try manually finding the files on the iPod. Some reports have indicated success using this technique even when the files cannot be seen on the iPod or via iTunes (but the iPod still registers the space as used). It's worth a shot.
Extremely Simple & Free Method: (just to recover the song files – may not work on a Mac)
1 - Open iTunes
2 - Edit=>Preferences=>’Advanced/General’ tab
2a --- Select ‘Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library’: checked
2b --- Select ‘Keep iTunes Music folder organized’: checked
2c --- Click OK to store changes
3 - Attach your iPod to the PC and hold down the ‘Shift+Ctrl’ keys until the iPod is fully recognized (this will defeat the auto-sync process)
4 - If you get a dialog box to link the Library, decline this option
5 - Within iTunes: Edit=>Preferences=>’iPod’ tab: switch iPod to ‘Manually manage songs & playlists’ – click ‘OK’
6 – Eject iPod
7 – Close iTunes, then reopen iTunes and attach the iPod (it’s in manual sync now)
8 – File=>Add Folder
9 - Browse to and open ‘My Computer’ (click on the ‘+’) and select the iPod (or the lower ‘\iPod_Control’ sub-folder)
10 - Click OK
-- The music files should start to transfer back into iTunes with its correct information
–-- This will take some time depending on your PC’s speed and the amount of songs on the iPod
No Playlists, or Ratings, Last Played, & Play Count attributes will be transferred from the iPod to iTunes using this method.
If you have problems with seeing the iPod within 'My Computer', try again switching your update method to 'manual', detach the iPod, then reconnect the iPod to the PC.