OK, Long time Apple user, first time commenter.
I have several 3GS iPhones, an iPad, and two iPods touch. Have been using these devices since 2008. In August, iTunes began having difficulty backing up. Then it began to freeze and crash. I was having some real problems now with the functionality of my devices.
I decided to upgrade to iOS 5 and iTunes ten last week. That's when the nighmares really began. I loaded, unloaded, wipe my devices clean, went through a dozen different things. Finally, this past weekend, I deleted every Apple and iTunes file (exception of music and apps) from my XP laptop. Almost 30 Gb's of stuff that had been loaded onto my computer through the years.
Having done that, I reloaded iTunes 10. Synced my iPhone. Now, for the first time in a week, I had my apps, and my music. I did not have my photos. I had "ghost" folders, but no pictures in them. So, I erased the iPod cache and tried to reload, this worked if I only loaded a few folders at a time.
Once I got up to about 1300 pictures, it began to hang at "Analyzing Photo Files" (step 6 of 7) and crashing again. It's done this four times in a row.
So here I am. A week later, and in the same boat. I've lost all of my contacts, I've lost all of my apps data. AND THE DARN THING STILL DOESN'T WORK.
How could something that worked flawlessly for so many years turn into a total nightmare overnight? I can't guestimate the global man hours lost to these problems, but I've spent at least 40 hours of my time on it, and am just about ready to go buy an Android.
