Cannot read contents of ipod restore message

A long time I have ignored the "Cannot read contents of "ipod touch" restore in summary tab" message because I know If i restore I'll lose everything. I recently got a new laptop because my old one crashed, leaving behind every single music file i have ever had. i only have a couple songs that are from itunes itself. I tried to find a way to take all my music of my ipod and transfer it to my computer, but the "show hidden files" option is not working. I havent backed up my ipod in well over a year do to this issue, I dont know what to do. my ipod works fine on its own but if i ever wanna back it up in case, I cant because for some odd reason the contents are not able to be read. I would download a program to transfer my files, but I dont know what to chose because I dont want to get a virus on my new computer, I dont often download things because I dont trust alot of programs out there. PLEASE HELP.

Using windows 8, with Ipod touch 4th gen