What's wrong with this iPod ?

My wife has the white iPod touch 4th generation. She's had it since last summer. She just now turned it on for the first time today and on the screen it shows the iTunes symbol and a USB cord . She's got it connected to iTunes here on the laptop and it says " iTunes has detected an iPod in recovery mode. You must restore this iPod before you can use iTunes ". She doesn't understand why its always her phone and iPod having problems. Her friend has the exact same phone and the exact same iPod and hers never has problems. My wife has a bunch of pictures and songs and 5 or 6 apps on her iPod and its restoring right now its taking forever. What's wrong with it ? Is it suppose to be doing this ?