Hi alta ski girl!
What does the error message you are getting when you try restoring your iPod? (that would be the best and first thing to do in this situation).
As a general troubleshooing step, try disconnecting your iPod from your computer, and put it into disk mode. To do that, follow the instructions here:
Restoring iPod to factory settings
Then, after the iPod is in disk mode, connect it to your computer to restore it.
Also, these five iPod troubleshooting steps would be worth a try with these kinds of iPod problems:
The Five Rs
Again, I'd like to know that that error message exactly said (if you are getting any error numbers with that message, those are important, too).
-Kylene