iPod restore without iTunes?

I'm at wit's end here, my new 160 GB iPod is not being recognized by iTunes, on both my laptop and destop. This is after I had accidentally disconnected during it's first syncing, then iTunes froze during the second try. Now it is only recognized by Windows, not iTunes. Every time I reconnect it by USB cable, Windows suggests that I do a Disk Check on it because it was disconnected during an operation, but when I do this, it says it can't do a Disk Check because it is in use by another program (??).

Is there any way to restore the iPod to its factory settings without using iTunes, as it seems that that is not an option for me? I don't really care about having to erase what few songs made it during the sync, I just want to be able to use it properly.