Mail went all weird; only date showed as "12/30/00" and and hour later it shut off.

Question

okay so today my cousin told me that at 11:00 today she downloaded 2 apps: twitter and a weemee one. she was playing on normal apps after the 2 downloaded adn her ipod just randomly shut off. she thought it needed to chargfe, so she plugged it in. for the rest of the day it did not turn on and gave the apple logo. shes tried to reset it, but it hasnt worked. ive come to the conclusion that this theapps werent the problem, because me and her sister both have the same apps.  my cousin who has the issue has a 3rd generation ipod touch. and she also stated the apps werernt the problem because approximately an hour before she downloaded the apps, her emails got wacked. when she clicked on the email app, it only showed a peculiar date: 12/31/00 and nothing else. she plugged it into a laptop when she got home, and it asked her if she wanted to update it, however it would lose her data. she clicked yes anyways, not sure what it had to do. she found ou that it lost all of her data, songs, apps and everything, and replaced it  with the ipod 4th generation starter apps (facetime, camera, game center, etc.) and she cant use them because she doesnt have the 4th generation ipod.? howand why did this happen and how can yopu resolve it ASAP? thanks. all answers appreciated:)

Answer 1

Previous Shutdown Cause: -74
A negative shutdown code, if it happens repeatedly, may indicate a hardware problem. If it happens only once, the cause is uncertain. The precise meaning of the codes is not publicly documented.
Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.
Back up all data on the internal drive(s) before you hand over your computer to anyone. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional—ask if you need guidance.
If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.
Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair
Apple also recommends that you deauthorize a device in the iTunes Store before having it serviced.
*An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.