This is for the several comments I came across in my quest.
In short, my iPod would not mount, show up in anything besides Disk Utility, and then as a disk to be wiped and restored. Using Data Rescue 3, I copied the nearly 60GB of data I wanted (wonderful app, that is, had to do a 3 hour 'Deep Scan' before copying) and... continued to look for why it didn't mount at all. A certain link, written in best of intentions I'm sure, mentions in step 10 of deleting preferences relating to your iPod, naming only one: iPodControl.kext, found in ~/System/Library/Extensions/ (Of note, there's ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPod.plist, which can fix other problems). Finding nothing else, I deleted it, restarted iTunes, and lo and behold, my iPod was there. It still required a Restore, but I didn't care at this point, I had it back. In went the music it had and the music I'd gathered since the iPod quit mounting (eight months previous).
Fast forward to the following morning, and the iPod doesn't appear in the Devices list for iTunes. Mounts, is readable, copyable, and accessible, so long as it's not iTunes. Great. An hour of googling later, and apparently the .kext I need is the one that let the iPod appear in the first place: iPodControl. Searching, it is supposed to be in the iTunes install. So, reinstalling (which I'd done twice by then, using AppCleaner beforehand for each) should restore said file. Getting impatient, and guided by a post here, I used Pacifist to look for it. No go - neither it or the iPodDriverJag.pkg mentioned here were present. Makes sense, or the reinstall would've worked. Again, angry googling. Then, gold. Why it never showed in searches through Google or Apple's site I'll never know, but regardless, I dug out the Snow Leopard install and installed 'iPod Support' under Option Installs.
tl;dr: Use OS X install disc to get iPodControl.kext back after deletion, to return iPod to Devices list in iTunes.
Mac OS X Install DVD>Optional Installs>Optional Installs.mpkg>iPod Support
Just wanted this to be on the mighty interwebs somewhere, hopefully to help some other angry soul in a similar situation.
~~
In short, my iPod would not mount, show up in anything besides Disk Utility, and then as a disk to be wiped and restored. Using Data Rescue 3, I copied the nearly 60GB of data I wanted (wonderful app, that is, had to do a 3 hour 'Deep Scan' before copying) and... continued to look for why it didn't mount at all. A certain link, written in best of intentions I'm sure, mentions in step 10 of deleting preferences relating to your iPod, naming only one: iPodControl.kext, found in ~/System/Library/Extensions/ (Of note, there's ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPod.plist, which can fix other problems). Finding nothing else, I deleted it, restarted iTunes, and lo and behold, my iPod was there. It still required a Restore, but I didn't care at this point, I had it back. In went the music it had and the music I'd gathered since the iPod quit mounting (eight months previous).
Fast forward to the following morning, and the iPod doesn't appear in the Devices list for iTunes. Mounts, is readable, copyable, and accessible, so long as it's not iTunes. Great. An hour of googling later, and apparently the .kext I need is the one that let the iPod appear in the first place: iPodControl. Searching, it is supposed to be in the iTunes install. So, reinstalling (which I'd done twice by then, using AppCleaner beforehand for each) should restore said file. Getting impatient, and guided by a post here, I used Pacifist to look for it. No go - neither it or the iPodDriverJag.pkg mentioned here were present. Makes sense, or the reinstall would've worked. Again, angry googling. Then, gold. Why it never showed in searches through Google or Apple's site I'll never know, but regardless, I dug out the Snow Leopard install and installed 'iPod Support' under Option Installs.
tl;dr: Use OS X install disc to get iPodControl.kext back after deletion, to return iPod to Devices list in iTunes.
Mac OS X Install DVD>Optional Installs>Optional Installs.mpkg>iPod Support
Just wanted this to be on the mighty interwebs somewhere, hopefully to help some other angry soul in a similar situation.
~~