VERY weird iPod problems...Please Help!

Question

Okay, folks, do I have a doozy of a problem here.
Okay, first off, when I connected my iPod to the computer a week or so ago, it told me that there was a firmware update, so I downloaded it and installed it. That is where my problems began. Soon after, the iPod began to freeze a lot while playing songs. I would reset it, but it would continue to freeze while playing songs.
Next, I turned the iPod on yesterday after having not used it for 2 or 3 days and when it came on, ALL of my songs were gone. It said that there were ZERO songs on the iPod. But the kicker is that it still said that I had the same available space as when I had 3500 or so songs on it. (Don't worry, I have back-ups of those songs, so I didn't lose them).
So, I figured that I would try to reformat the iPod and maybe then things would start to work. That doesn't happen. When I try to run the updater (with or without the iPod initially connected via Firewire), it just sits there on "Initializing...." and freezes.
So I then figured that maybe I should just try to run the software that came with the iPod and maybe that would help. Well, last night I ran the software and after running through the entire line that lights up on "Waiting for iPod" 4 or 5 times, it told me that the iPod needed to be formatted. So I clicked the "Format" button. This morning, I came to check on things and it was still "Formatting" with no end in sight. It did not take this long when I originally installed the thing.
That made me think there might be a problem with the harddrive, but when I went into "Diagnostic mode" and ran the HDD scan, it came back as "Pass". Now, that may mean that there are still problems, but it's nothing I can think of how to fix at the moment.
This is my last resort before I call Apple and probably have to pay to get it fixed! By the way, I've had it since January of this year. Thanks for any help you guys can be!
-Eric

Answer 1

First of all, replying with "I have had the same problem and Tech Support hasn't been able to help me at all!" is not going to help anyone.
In fact, it's kind of considered "thread-jacking" and is considered rude.
As for my problem, it has been solved (some-what). I succumbed to downloading Windows XP Service Pack 2 (which I had always heard was death for iPods so I avoided it) and things are now running. Not as smoothly as they did before updating to the latest iPod firmware, but still they're running.
My advice for the future, if you're having problems, start your own thread. Don't jump onto someone else's thread because no matter how similar your problems may be, there is no possible way that your problem could be EXACTLY the same as that other person. There are going to be differences between computer configurations, etc.