Ipod music transfer question

[pablin77]

Background on the issue:
I had roughly 90% of my music stored on an external hard drive and 10% of my music stored on my computer. Recently I lost my hard drive and am trying to clarify the easiest way for me to restore all my music to a new hard drive (from my Ipod). I have read some of the forums on potential solutions, but have found it confusing and incomplete in terms of how to fix things.

What is confusing me is the following:

- Of all the freeware and pay software out there, what is going to be the best solution to move the files to the new hard drive? Solution I am looking for will allow me to keep all my ratings, genre's, playlists, etc

Is there someplace that will walk me thru how to do this step by step? I am looking for not only the software I need to use, but also some sort of a manual/guide for the process, troubleshooting, etc.

Any help would be appreciated


Thanks,
Paul