Itunes or ipod Classic Malfunction?

My problem started yesterday, and I'll try to sum it up in a list for anyone who may have advice:

1. I connected my iPod to my MacBook Pro yesterday, and when iTunes opened it said there was any issue with the iPod and it needed to be restored.

2. In restoring my iPod, all the music was erased from it.

3. After re-naming my iPod in iTunes, I began to sync the music from my music library.

4. About 20 minutes and ~950 songs later, iTunes and my iPod said that the sync was complete.

5. The main screen on my iPod still said that there was no music on it.

6. I safely disconnected my iPod, and after a few minutes I tried reconnecting it but, while the iPod said Connected --> Synchronizing --> Connected, the iPod had not appeared in iTunes at all. (My iTunes is not set up to automatically synchronize with iPod anyway).

So I went through all the steps for troubleshooting listed here, and I spent about two hours on the phone with the nice folks who do customer support for Apple. We worked through everything together from resetting my iPod to upgrading iTunes to restarting my Mac to switching USB cables, but to no avail.

Is there anything left to do or is all hope lost? And is my problem with my iPod or with iTunes?

Thanks for any support!