[iTunes] iTunes not recognizing an iPod

[Becca]

A friend of mine has an 80-gig Classic that he got 2 years ago - and never used. He's finally gotten around to loading his very extensive music collection into iTunes, but when he plugs his iPod into his computer, iTunes doesn't recognize it. (using Windows XP, I think) - his computer sees it as an external hard drive, but iTunes doesn't see it.

He brought it over to my house, and we plugged it in: the screen went through all the connecting and syncing sequences, but my copy of iTunes didn't recognize his iPod as being connected either. (I'm using iTune 9.02, and it sees my iPod and my daughter's iPod just fine)

the only thing I could think of for him to do is contact the Apple store and have one of their geniuses look at his iPod - but, being 2 years old, it's way out of warranty, and I don't know whether there's anything they can or will do for it.

Any suggestions of things he can try?

-becca