help!!!

Desperate plea - PLEASE HELP ME!

My computer was killed and resurrected this past week. However, all of my iTunes files appear to have disappeared somehow. This isn't absolutely tragic (yet) because half of them were mp3 files on my hard drive (that I was able to back up) prior to being converted into iTunes. However, there were many more that were downloaded or imported and otherwise without a source that I currently have. I have no idea why this folder is empty, but...it is.

That being said - there is possible hope. I have all of the songs I had, currently on my iPod. Does anyone know if that is of any use to me and whether I can put these songs back on my hard drive? Shouldn't an iPod just be recognized as an external drive? I'm afraid to hook it up because it automatically updates the iPod to what iTunes has...which currently is NOTHING.

OK. That is my shameless online please. I would welcome any advice there would be...