Help! ipod seems to be ignoring all mp3's

[iAlan]

Was on train this morning when ipod ran out of power, got to work and plugged it into my G4 to charge. Then proceeded to browse playlist and found that it was completly empty (appart from the defult 'on the go' playlist). I didn't panic as this has happened once before, so as before I re-started the ipod holding menu and play down together untill re-start. But this time everything was still missing, re-started a couple more times and still nothing.

Then opened iTunes, no change, all files missing, however the hard drive capacity is still reading 13GB used up and less then a gig free. Tried it on 2 different macs at work and now at home (os9 & 10), still the same. In the settings section in the ipod it tells me all the right info as if nothing has happened appart from it reads 0 songs but 13GB used!?!

So, I can't see any playlists/id3 tags or mp3 files but the iPod still recognises that there is over 13GB of data on the hard drive. But if I open the ipod icon on the desktop (using it as a hard drive) all my folders are there with the data accessable. very strange. It's like it's lost it's table of contents page but it knows that all the pages are still there but can't read them.

Has anyone had this happen? I can't think what more to do, I don't want to format, but if need be will have to, lucky most is backed up. Will be going to apple store on sat if not resummed.

I have a 15GB 2nd generation ipod with dock connector and running software version 2.2.

Will be grateful for any comments, tips or suggestions.
Many thanks
Alan.