update 10/21/2011 - it appears that this bug has come up again with a number of people who have updated to iOS 5. luckily, the solution is the same as before. i have updated the instructions to help with any changes that iOS 5 added. before you start - this will only work if your photos actually exist on your device but do not show up in in the camera roll....
i’ve seen tons of posts around the internet regarding backing up itunes. most of them seem to focus on backing up your itunes library. while this is great, it doesn’t cover everything you probably want to back up when doing something like a complete reinstall of windows. if you only back up your library, you will lose your settings as well as your playlists. if you are like me, you have your music stored on a central server somewhere so backing up your music on your local computer is pointless anyway....