stephen, without knowing all the details about what happened to your iPod that it is doing this you can try to make sure you're USB is unplugged. When you get to the screen with the itunes symbol and the USB arrow, hold down the home and sleep button '''until''' the screen goes black, at this point, keep holding for another 10 or 15 seconds. Your screen should now appear black, just like if your iPod was off. Now connect your iPod to the computer and itunes should show the message "itunes has just discovered an ipod in recovery mode" follow the restore process with itunes. Just remember that if this works you might lose your information unless you backed it up on the same computer. Good Luck and let us know what is happening so that we can try to assist you if needed.