Replying to IPOD help!

So i've had my Ipod for almost 2 years now and i was perfect untill this last week. And now it skips, if it plays at all....which is pretty rare. But if it does play, and i conect it to my Ihome it freezes and stops playing right when its connected. My Itunes is on an external hard drive (I told them not to but they did it while i was on vacation), can i still plug it into the computer without all the songs being automaticaly erased? help?