My ipod cant transfer files?

I have about 8 gigs worth of family photos and programs on a 80gb ipod classic. It has the latest firmware and iTunes is at its most current install. I also am running vista 32x , I cant restore it because all of my files would be deleted. However whenever i connect my ipod and even go as far as to select one of my files to move explorer.exe crashes and my ipod gets disconnected. what do I do?