Can anyone help me with a mysterious iPod delima I'm having?

I know this is probably not the best place to come to for help with technology, but I figured that it’s at least worth a shot. So here it goes:

I recently plugged my iPod into my laptop PC running Vista, and instead of the iPod updating… it erased off all of the thousands of songs I had on it. I’ve spent the last few days trying to scour the net looking for solutions, but I’ve yet to come across any that have worked. When I plug the iPod in now, the computer recognizes that a device is connected, but iTunes completely freezes.

I have reinstalled iTunes, and have attempted to restore my iPod to it’s factory settings (but have been unsuccessful at that). Now, when I unplug/disconnect the iPod from the USB attachment, iTunes unfreezes, and a ‘warning’ box appears saying that it needs to be reformatted… but I can’t reformat it, since the iPod is no longer connected (and, as I said before, when I plug it back in, iTunes freezes, and the program is unresponsive).

I’m using a 4th generation (picture here), if that helps at all. Thank you very much! If you need more information, please ask, and I’ll respond back as quickly as I can!