Okay, so I keep having this problem and I've finally narrowed down what is happening. And so far I've never been able to recover from it.
As background, I did restore my iPod (60gb iPod Photo), hook to iTunes no problem, hook to MC, initialize, no problem (after deleting iTunesdb). Synced a couple of playlists, no problem. Ejected the iPod (by using the disconnect device icon in the lower right corner of the taskbar).
Then I reattached the iPod, and did a "full" synchronization (about 9500 songs -- mp3, mp4, aa), 10 or so playlists/smartlists. This seemed to go perfectly fine. But when I go to eject the iPod, there is no disconnect device icon in the lower right corner of the taskbar. (I am drawing a total blank on the name of this icon, but hopefully you catch my meaning).
So, I press Eject from within MC. This does two things. It crashes MC and it puts the iPod into a loop of constantly re-setting itself without ever making it to the normal screen. (That is, I get the black background with the white apple, then it restarts and I get the black background with the white apple, ad infinitum).
From here, I can remove the iPod, plug it into the power adapter and keep pushing buttons until it eventually gets into Disk Mode. So far, all I've been able to do at this point is a full restore and start all over again, but I always end up in the same place.
Help?!