You need this program-- it works great!!!  Have fun.

http://www.mp3buzz.net/index.php/2006/06/03/ask-the-buzz-how-to-get-my-music-off-my-ipod-2/

-Steve

Thanks for this link!  This will certainly help down the road, but for now, the problem is that I do not see my iPod - MY iPod is the problem! - I see the former PC-user's list of songs and his iPod's name.  He called his iPod: "iPod2."  I call mine Tina's IPOD.  His list has a few songs.  Mine is huge.

Using Microsoft Windows Explorer, I can see the file folders (the "F" folders") on the iPod that contain my music.  I click on those files and the songs play fine - from EXPLORER.

Can't see anything I have in iTunes, so this program can't help me.  You apparently have to have access to your iPOD through iTunes for this to work, and this is the root of my problem.

I can neither play my music on my iPOD nor see my iPOD in iTunes.

On both the iPOD and in iTunes, I only SEE his list.  Of course, since this is a list of his songs that are resident only on HIS iPod, I cannot play them at all.... neither on the iPod nor on iTunes.

I'm going down to the Apple Store to see what they can tell me, but you know that they are religious about license issues, so I am asking here: can you get the files out of the F folders from the iPod's hard drive into iTunes somehow?  I've been told that even if you copy them from the iPod's hard drive to the iTunes music folder, they won't play - I'm guessing they are encrypted and have to go through some sort of translator?

Open ITunes, Delete the playlist, deauthorize the computer, Try to authorize the computer with your info. connect your IPod

Okay here's what I've managed to figure out (though I still can't understand why it overwrote my db file):
1) Ever heard of iPodmeister?  He's this genius (really) who is probably making a killing by buying up people's CD libraries, loading them onto a new iPod, then giving the iPod to the former owner of the CDs in exchange for (sellable) CDs.  I did this.  Thus, all my music never originated in any library or on any hard disk.  It was all loaded by the iPodmeister and I no longer have those CDs.   Net result....
2) I have no "master" library.
3) Throughout the last three years I've purchased music using like four different PCs and laptops, partially because my original laptop (that contained the entire library at the time, which was 2005) died, and is irrecoverable.
3)  iTunes gave me a one-time download of all my purchased music at that time, so I've used that lifeline and cannot ask for it again.
4)  Last backup to my external 250gb drive was 2007.  Since then I've probably purchased about $300 worth of music from iTunes, which is scattered all over the place and only some of it exists on CD.  I know, Bad Move.  I've learned why.  I sat down at the Genius Bar, like a defector from a petty war (thank you, Joni Mitchell).  As soon as I said "PC," they said there's nothing to do but reformat the entire iPod and load it again.  Too bad that I will probably lose a good portion of my stuff and all my playlists.
5)  Remember:  The iPOD still has ALL the data on it!  I can see it, but it's encrypted and all I can do is see it in Windows Explorer.  iTunes libraries on any of the four machines have a very small portion of the files at best.
6)  Today I copied all the contents of the iPod to my external backup drive.  One by one I deleted all the files dated as of the date when the trouble happened and isolated one file:  the iTunesDB.  This is the file that causes the trouble.  I know this because without it, iTunes recognizes my iPod's name (still doesn't show me my music, though, which is still resident on the iPod's hard drive).  As soon as I restore the iTunesDB file (which is date stamped with the exact date and time that this whole snafu began), and re-connect it to my PC and iTunes opens, it shows me that other guy's iPod's name and his playlists.

So I am abandoning these questions and will pose the new question, which is ... is there any way to rebuild the iTunesDB file based on the music on the iPod's hard drive?  Remote possibility, but I'm giving it a shot.  Not looking forward to d/ling 41GB of music from a smattering of DVDs, CDs, etc.

Thanks for trying though!

I found the best solution was to unflag all the music files, copy them to the iTunes library, then sync the iPod with that.  Unfortunately I lost all my playlists (which I was trying to avoid), but from what I've read, there was no way to restore the old iTunesDB file (the DB file that "knew" my iPod), so I just start from a PC's hard drive with a proper iTunes library instead of trying to "fix" the iPod.

The information was contained in the article that someone here sent me, but now I don't see that expert's response.  This response contains similar information, and when these instructions plus the first expert's instructions were employed, it resolved the problem, although I did lose all my playlists and have had to re-sync repeatedly to get everything to work properly.  iTunes is a flawed program for sure.  Thanks, everyone!