cloud and sync issues

Hi there - sorry bit of a luddite and looking for some advice - i have a 80gb ipod classic which has not been synced for a while - my laptop blew up and while i have a new one (windows) and i have icloud back up when i tried to sync my old ipod (with about 5000 songs) with the library on the new laptop it only wanted to replace the current ipod library with the songs actually downloaded onto the new laptop - ie the songs in the icloud would not have been transferred and i would have 'lost' 4500 songs ! i have an iphone so can use that i know but like the idea of the ipod having all the songs in one place - is there something obvious i am not doing? any help or tips appreciated thanks

via iLounge Forums http://ift.tt/1sxgOPX