Ipod Back Up Programs?

[xiaou-xijiang]

hey all. I want to get some music off my old ipod. (most of what I want was pretty rare to begin with and hard to find) iTunes being the butt that it is, is pretty much useless in this aspect.

I've googled and tried a bunch of programs and not many have worked for me.

Does anybody have a program (freeware plz!) that they can point me to? Any help would be really appreciated.