I have my ipod set up on my laptop and all my songs properly organized in itunes, all the information for each song is in there, I even have the album covers for everything in there.

Suppose I want to format my computer, what happens when I try to sync my ipod up with the computer again? Will it restore my music library by transferring everything from the ipod to the computer? Is there a way to accomplish this?

iTune's designed to push from the computer to the iPod, not the other way around.  However, it's possible with 3rd party software (Apple doesn't support that) - see this article in Wired for reviews of a few of them.

Just back it up on DVD or external HD or something.

When browsing your Ipod with explorer you CAN back-up the songs but they do come with strange names like ml_ipod00056.mp3.  Anyway, I use WinAmp to transfer TO the ipod and iPod Access for Windows to transfer FROM the ipod to the HD.  This programs allows you to keep the original file name...

Seems like it'd be easier and safer to just back the files up a traditional way...  (if you have access to a DVD burner or external HD)

creative Zen.    thats the ticket.

It's perfectly possible.

I use a 3rd party shareware/freeware app called PodPlus to do it.
I've had to do it several times now and it's worked perfectly each time. Infact, it probably helped me organize my music library further, since after I restored my music after a format the app pulled all my music off into folders by artist and then album folders and song names as filenames.
And from then on I let iTunes manage my library so I didn't have to maintain that structure myself.

There's something to be said for having an organized music library.

Quote (Agent007 @ Dec. 02 2006, 8:22 pm)

Seems like it'd be easier and safer to just back the files up a traditional way...  (if you have access to a DVD burner or external HD)

If I backup the root song files, will all the file information that I entered in itunes (including album covers) be backed up with it?

Quote (Agent007 @ Dec. 03 2006, 12:22 pm)

Seems like it'd be easier and safer to just back the files up a traditional way...  (if you have access to a DVD burner or external HD)

Thats what I have done, burnt my hole Itunes music folder to a dvd, workds a treat.

I don't need "ipod access for windows" after all.  Found a better and faster way.  I use the same Winamp plug-in that I use to transfer to the ipod.  The plug-in is ml_ipod.  All I have do is select the songs I want from the ipod, right-click and "copy to local media".  By default it'll send the files to c:\My Music.  It keeps ALL the information, ie, the folder name, the name of the songs and the tags....  Works great...