recovery mode? how to restore?

"iTunes has detected an ipod in recovery mode. you
must restore your ipod before it can be used with
iTunes."
What??
I just got my 2nd gen shuffle today, I put it in the
computer and it was fine. It synced some songs, so I
know it worked. Just as I was about to disconnect I
noticed an update was available for my ipod, I tried
to download it and there was an unknown error. It
disappeared from the iTunes list. I decided to try it
on a different computer because I planned to use a
different library anyway. The above message came up,
it kept appearing and disappearing from the source
list.
I tried it back on the original computer, same thing
happened.
The problem is, how do I restore it without using it
with iTunes?
And can anyone tell me what recovery mode actually
is?

i know what i need to do (restore)
i know how to do it (itunes)
i know why i cant do it (recovery mode)
but i still can't fix it.
why did the update have an error? has it happened to
anyone else?
should i just return it and get a replacement?

sori 4 all the extra questions, i just cant
understand why there doesn't seem to be an answer.
the root of the problem is HOW DO I RESTORE A SHUFFLE
WITHOUT USING ITUNES??
i don't think i can 😟

FAT-32...
its FAT32 now and i can't reformat it to anything but
FAT

i tried again
SUCCESS!!! (i dunno how)
while i'm at it, i just noticed before the successful
try that i no longer needed an update?
oh well 🙂
thanks for the help, the reformatting seemed to do
the trick

lol but i still dont have a way to restore without
itunes, hope i never need one.