I turned on my ipod, and its screen said that i needed to restore it on itunes.

Everytime i try to sync my ipod to my computer, it says that it's in recovery mode, and it won't fully restore it or upload any of the songs.

1) Is it completely broken? / what can i do to fix it?
2) If it's broken, and i sync a new ipod to it, will it upload the songs off itunes fine?