help with old second hand ipod mini

[Pirate Pete]

hello chaps in the apple forums

first time i have posted here

but

i recently bought second hand off a friend an ipod mini

i took it home, plugged it in to a usb port on my comp - it had run out of battery, but was definitly working and playing songs before it ran out
(im running microsoft xp pro)
it didnt appear in my computer as an external hardrive, or indeed at all, just showed the apple logo on the screen and did nothing else

do i need to let it charge before using it?

i do not know the first thing about ipods and how to use them so could anyone help me out, do i need itunes?!

sorry if this post is hard to read or something, im really impatient at the moment for some reason...

oh well, thanks for anyone that can help me out, i just need a step by step guide of what to do (as my friend forgot to give me the manual, ill get it off him tomorrow)

the pirate

[unreal]

Yea you should really install iTunes before you plug a mini in, although I don't actually believe it's mandatory

At the beginning I hated it, but now I absolutely love the thing

[tommylittleboy@]

Install iTunes, then all the iPod software comes with that, also with the ipod updater software