Can't load songs onto Ipod

I have an Ipod mini with Itunes. I have the most up to date versions of each (downloaded this morning). Until recently I had no problems with loading songs from Itunes onto Ipod and didn't change any settings to my knowledge. Recently, my Itunes no longer recognized my Ipod (name of device changed to "Version2vol1" or something like that) and I was no longer able to load songs onto the Ipod. I have tried the "restore' option which whiped my Ipod clean but still can't load songs. I connected my Ipod to someone elses computer and was able to load songs to it. not sure what the problem is with my Itunes not recognizing it?? Any suggestions? Also, if I uninstall and re-install Itunes, will I loose all of the songs from my Itunes? Any advice would be much appreciated as the Apple people have not been helpful at all.