Music is not showing up, iTunes suggests I restore

I was wondering if anyone has had this problem:

I was trying to move some of my music from my iTunes into my iPod (iPod Video 5th Generation). iTunes told me there was an error and that the music had not been moved. I double checked my iPod and the screen said that the original files were still there (even the bar showing how much space I have used in music and videos was there).

Later, I tried to use my iPod to find that none of my music was there or video files. I went to settings> about and the section says that I have about 7GB left (which is about right when I include all the songs I have/ had in the iPod). I connected it to my laptop to iTunes and now it won't go into the iPod section, instead it tells me to Restore my iPod.
I wouldn't mind restoring my iPod except that almost all the songs in my iPod are not in my laptop (I've had the iPod since 2006). I don't mind losing some of the songs but I want to keep some of them since these were songs I would listen to while in middle school/high school. I have tried opening my iPod on my computer to see if I can get any files out but can't.

Any suggestions as to what I can do?

Thank you!