Ipod not recognised by Itunes or Computer

This issue began last week. My Ipod Classic 160GB is between 7 and 8 years old. Occasionally the screen freezes but in most cases it just goes back to normal after a day. This time it didn't so i restarted it (held down centre and menu button) but when i did it wiped it clean of music, photos etc and since then every time i try to sync my ipod, neither my laptop or itunes recognises it but the ipod says its connected.

I have tried restarting it, connecting it and updating the drivers in disk mode, updating the usb software, restarting my laptop, updating my laptop. Itunes wont update however, even after I uninstalled and reinstalled it.

I suspect that there is a problem with itunes and my ipod but I am wondering if anyone has experienced this or has any idea of how I can resolve this problem.

Thanks