iPod Sync problems with Windows and Powerbook

[Hobbes47]

Hi, I have a 30gb iPod that I sync with my PC using iTunes. This works very well for me. When I go on trips, though, I bring my 12" Powerbook and plug the iPod into it basically to charge it. Recently I've been using iPodRip to move some of my music onto the Powerbook. I noticed that when I open iTUnes on my Mac, it says that the iPod is already synched with another computer and and asks if I want to sync it with this computer instead. I always say no. The problem I am having is that when I plug my iPod back into my PC and open iTunes, it automatically starts synching the entire library again. Is there a way to have this not happen on my PC? It's a ton of music and takes a couple of hours to do. If I stop it halfway, the music has been erased from the iPod, and only half the music has been synched back up with it. Sorry for the long post, but I could really use some help with this. Thanks.

[BellnoPred]

On the PC start up Itunes and make sure you have your ipod connected to you computer then on the itunes windows go to the bottom of it and you should see four buttons to choice. Choice the first button and uncheck both the auto sync songs and select playlist(s) options and check the manual upload music. That should stop it from autpo syncing you ipod.

[hayesy]

I have faced the same problem as well when switching from Mac to PC. It's particularly annoying to me as I have 9gigs of music - and only USB 1.1 on my laptop!

Does anyone know what it is that triggers iTunes into doing a complete auto sync?

One thing I did notice when looking at the iPod disk in Windows Explorer is that the Mac had put a load of '.' files in each of the directories. Could this have something to with it perhaps?

Or perhaps is it the fact that opening the iPod up in Mac iTunes (even without choosing to sync with it) makes Win iTunes think that it needs to do a full sync when switching back?

I don't really fancy having to switch back to manual sync mode, so any help / suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers