Missing songs iphone downloaded and sync to back up.

I purchase my music from iTunes directly on the iPhone. Periodically I will sync to my HP laptop (running Vista). Recently I purchased several albums and some individual songs, as well as a few apps.

A couple of days ago I tried to sync to my laptop (as I have done many times before). I plugged in the iPhone and it began the sync. Suddenly it stopped telling me the sync was complete.

I looked and found that at least 2 albums were missing (two that I had just purchased) and several individual songs.

The purpose of this most recent sync was to ensure I had a back up of the songs. Performing the sync is what wiped out the songs.

Please understand that I am not purchasing music with the computer and syncing to the phone. I am purchasing on the phone and syncing with the computer for backup.

After reading Apple's policy on their support pages they indicate I will have to purchase these again. This is ridiculous. It is the apple software and/or the iPhone that screwed up, not me and I don't appreciate having to purchase them again.

Is there another way to get this music back. As I said, this music was purchased within the past two weeks, if not the past week. If I can't get my music back I will cease my iPhone subscription, I will stop purchasing music from the iPhone, and I will cease my plans to purchase an iPad. No more Apple products if they insist I can't get my music back for free.

I'm not being extreme. Just reading the Apple web pages caused my blood pressure to raise. I hesitate going forward even if I do get my music back due to how arrogant their policy is.

I know I'm not the only one that has had this problem, so I hope someone else can clarify what I need to do to resolve this.