My hard drive fried and I lost all my data. I have had a new one fitted.
I have managed to copy all my music from the iPod back into the hard drive and now also iTunes sees it and can play it.
The problems:

- In "cover flow" mode I can no longer see the tracks artwork (although they show up fine in "grid" mode) and I get a "iTunes is unable to browse album covers on this computer" message instead. Why?

- When I download new tracks I am unable to transfer them into my iPod from ITunes. When I drag them from the iTunes library to the iPod library I am prevented from dropping them, why? Also all my ipod tracks, although I can see them, they are written in a light grey colour and they won't play out of the computer. Why?

I hope you can help,
Thank you.

coverflow problem may be down to some part of your graphics card not being installed fully.

under preferences, advanced tab. Is the music folder location correct to where your music is stored

Thank you. I did change the folder as you suggested, however when I click on the iPod all the tracks are still of a light grey colour and impossible to select and play.
I also cannot copy new tracks from iTunes to iPod.

as you did a full reinstall have you tried deleting all that is in itunes and transfering the entire folder from your music folder back into itunes. I know when you buy a new a replacement ipod you need to do this. may be the same with a changed system

only try if you have all your music backed up

scrap that if you reformated you would of had to reinstall itunes folder, instead you may need to format ipod it self and retransfer all music back in. certanly need music backed up for this and i would wait for second opinion but may work

ok, I haven't tried that. Before I do this though, do you think it's worth trying and reset my iPod?
The reason I haven't tried that yet is that although iTunes doesn't transfer new tracks on iPod, at least my iPod has all the tracks stored up to when it crashed.
I am afraid that if I reset it and wipe everything out I won't be able to transfer anything at all back to it.
Is it worth the risk you reckon?

like i said i would certainly wait for a second opinion, Are you able to sync the ipod to your computer. If you can you can restore the ipod to factory settings. So you can basicly start from scratch. no reason why ths songs would't transfer from here. If not it would be more dangerous. I assume you have theses tracks stored on your computer somwhere. if you dont bought cd's from itunes would need transfering to cd first

ok I will give it a go. Thank you for your good advices!