I too am experiencing the same problem. My system specks are as follows:
Dell Precision workstation 390
Windows Vista Ultimate, 32 Bit version
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.4Ghz
Intel Matrix Raid 0
2 250 GB Hard drives
Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 512Mb Video Card
I have tried to shut off all 3rd party apps, (Roxio, removed AntiVirus, etc, etc...) I also turned off windows defender and windows search.
After 2 hours It finished importing music (which normally would have taken about 5 minutes.)
Now that the music is imported, iTunes will play music fine, but as soon as I hook the iPod to the system The writing to the ipod takes forever. and after about 5 minutes, the Error Occurred appears on the Intel Matrix.
After shutting down iTunes, I go to the start menu, right click on the Intel Matrix, 'Open as administrator', open 'Advanced options', right-click on the drive in err, and select 'Set as normal'
Then the system will run fine, all microsoft apps run well, explorer, office 2007. As long as I don't run iTunes the computer is great.
I have called Dell and iTunes and both seem to want to help but are too back logged with problems that affect a wider range of people.
Any help on this would be great.
_Mike
My Rant: Come on Guys! Vista was out for a year in beta and these companies had plenty of time to work on it. Microsoft made the product readily available. Dell is complaining because there are no sound cards ready for Vista, HP really dropped the damn ball. No printer drivers and no printers ready for the Vista launch. (HP is the best of all the printer makers. Xerox says that if you bought a printer that is incompatible, that is your problem.) Saying that they can't develop something till the release because they don't know what the final version is going to look like, is simpley a bunch of HOOEY! That's right, HOOEY!
Bottom line.. The rest of the tech industry new it was coming and did not put any resources towards it. Sad.