Ipod 120gb Classic won't connect to ITunes and says it has 'no music'

Question

hi!
I've had my Ipod Classic 120gb since the end of 2008 and never experienced any problems. But since this morning things have gone WRONG!
This morning I wanted to rip some cd's to my ipod as I do about every week . I rip the cd's ...then drag them to the ipod and remove them from ITunes after that to save space on my pc.
But when I wanted to rip my cd's, connected my Ipod it gave me a different menu than normal and mentioned something about synchronizing to the ITunes library. Because I think/thought that if I would synchronize, I'd lose all my music in the ipod I unchecked it and proceeded.
But then trouble began. The Ipod section on the left didn';t find any music and all the playlists etc were also missing.
Then I ejected the ipod to see if it would play normally and check if the music would still be on it. Well here comes the weird thing: according to my Ipod...there is no music on it (anymore). But the weird thing is...before all of this misery started...I had 2GB of free space left. And this is still the case.....so the music is probably on there somewhere (especially since when I go in the Ipod via this way: F:\iPod_Control\Music i can see the music still in there but then listed like this:  F:\iPod_Control\Music\F00) ...
Then I tried connecting to I Tunes once again to see if I could do some kind of recovery via I Tunes but now Itunes can't seem to find the Ipod anymore. As mentioned above , Windows actually sees the Ipod. I've tried all the steps as mentioned on the support (these ones:
2. Restart the iPod Service
3. Restart the Apple Mobile Device Service
4. Empty your Temp directory and restart
5. Verify that the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver is installed
6. Change your iPod's drive letter
7. Remove and reinstall iTunes
8. Disable conflicting System Services and Startup Items
9. Update, Reconfigure, Disable, or Remove Security Software
10. Deleting damaged or incorrect registry keys)
but none of them have fixed the problem . Anyone ever experienced something like this? Any solutions or is bye bye Ipod and the many hours of cd ripping?
Hope anyone can help me out on this one. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Your iPod filesystem is corrupted, although the music is still there as you mentioned there is only 2GB of free space.
However due to the corrupted iPod filesystem, iTunes or the iPod firmware cant report the correct file structure.
Suggestions
In Windows Explorer or my Computer, click on the iPod -> Properties->Tools->Error Checking->Check Now
Tick on Autofix Filesystem error.
If it doesn't work, google  3rd Party softwares for iPod to PC recovery,  like
iPodAccess http://www.findleydesigns.com Mac/Windows, $20, limited trial available
There maybe other freeware, that do iPod corrupted database recovery.
Have a nice day!