Why does itunes not recognize ipod touch after updates?

After 15 hours of trying, this may be the only place I may get an aswer! After updating itunes, I noticed my ipod was not coming up as a device....I uninstalled itunes, reinstalled and got a message "itunes didn't install properly, you cannot download or burn music to cds" after 7 tries, I started searching on the internet, yes I followed every step by step from the apple site. Is it because I'm running xp? Is there a way to update the music files without using itunes?