iPod classic 160gb showing NO music or any files at all

I just finished making a Christmas playlist in iTunes when I moved my laptop and iTunes thinks I removed my iPod without ejecting it properly first. I think I'm using a crappy USB cord but that's besides the point. So at this point I ejected it from "MY COMPUTER" on Windows and disconnect it from the USB cord and the iPod says "NO MUSIC" and shows none of my playlists etc; it looks like everything is gone on xmas EVE! :(

So now I plug it back into iTunes on my laptop and it says "iTunes cannot read the contents of your iPod. Go to summary tab in iPod preferences and click restore to restore this iPod back to factory settings."

But I know that will erase everything for sure and I definitely don't want to do that.

When I go into "MY COMPUTER" on windows it still shows that's there's 15GB of SOMETHING on my iPod (I had about that much music on my iPod) but iTunes cannot recognize it.

What can I do? I've spent hours in the past reorganizing, renaming files and making various playlists and I don't want to have to do all that again, especially not on Christmas eve.

When I go into "settings>about on my iPod, it says 133GB free" on a 160gb iPod so SOMETHING is there.

I'm on Windows 7 Home Premium.