Is it possible that a trojan/mal-ware/etc got into important Ipod files, which were then deleted by an anti-virus/etc program, which resulted in the other files becoming obsolete/useless?
That seems highly unlikely. While the possibility exists that there could be viruses that infect other drives on your computer rather than the drive you have Windows boot from, most viruses just stick to the C: drive and cause their terror. On top of that, an iPod is structured differently than a Windows or a Mac computer, so the virus would have to be already programmed to find a /iPod_Control/ folder on one of the drives, and if it doesn't find it, is it just going to sit there until it does? What if you don't own an iPod? The virus becomes obsolete then.
The only thing that I can think of that may have caused this is perhaps you might have unplugged the iPod without ejecting it from the computer first, that could potentially mess with the way the computer recognizes the iPod. Other than that, though, I'm at a loss.
Mkid I can't charge my iPhone
You forgot to plug in the wall adapter again.
