I’m lovin’ my iPod, but I did run in to a small snag when my Windows XP PC stopped recognizing iPod was connected.

I hunted around a bit and found an Apple Support document called “iPod does not appear in iTunes or on the desktop, an exclamation point or sad iPod icon appears onscreen”.

The answer to the question “how do I get Windows to recognize my iPod” is essentially:

1. Put iPod into “Disk Mode”.

2. Reset iPod.

That did the trick.

Tip 1: I would note is that iTunes started syncing my songs even though iPod was in “Disk Mode” when it finally connected. The support docs might lead you to believe that you can disconnect right away, but I can’t imagine it’s a good idea to disconnect while the sync is taking place.

Tip 2: Apple has a recommended way to undock iPod that may not be entirely intuitive to Windows users.