wont mount after restoring

i have searched the forum and cannot find this problem. i have an ipod classic and a macbook pro 2008. ipod is 2 months old. i changed my itunes from sync manually to automatically. itunes froze during syncing as did the ipod. i installed the ipod update i and restored the ipod. i reset it manually as well. now the computer will not recognize the ipod. in system profiler i can see it on the usb port, but itunes and disk utility do not see it. it is not on the desktop and and i can not eject it without turning off the computer. when connected the screen on the ipod says "connected" and sometimes "syncing" but i still cannot see it in itunes. after a minute or two itunes freezes up. i have to force quit itunes to get it to close. i tried unplugging the ipod and the computer shut down.

the computer is definatly seeing the ipod somewhere, but it will not mount and i can not access it. it seems like itunes is trying to talk to it but cannot and that is why itunes freezes.

i am stumped here.