Restore function

As long as all of your files are still in your iTunes library, you can sync back after the restore. And yes you would lose save game data I believe. As long as your apps are still in iTunes, you can sync them back. And if for some reason you can't, you won't have to pay again to download apps you have already purchased. Your account keeps track of purchases in case you ever accidently delete purchased content. As for full system restores every 2 months, I have no idea. Maybe if you have tons of apps that might help.

 

Restoring the iPod causes your heap, stack memories to be reset to give you optimized performance. By doing it, you also wipe the NOR Flash memory too. This can cause issues further down the road, but this would be YEARS (try like over 50 years)!

The way flash memory works it that you have nothing but transistors storing the data, so you don't have capacitors to do it. (This is because transistors have a few capacitances in them). The downside to flash memory is that you can only write to it so many times before the barrier in the transistor breaks down (due to high voltage and current to set the bit) and it won't hold the bit.

As far as I can tell about doing a full restore every two months, it might be a good idea, but it really isn't necessary. Since the iPod is running a version of OS X, it uses the HFS and HFS+ file system, and it will automatically sort data accordingly to get optimized performance from commonly used files and applications.

The only thing you really should do is cycle your battery every week or two. This means you bring the battery charge level down to the point where the device has to turn off to save power and data (this is mainly in RAM). From there you charge it back up to full capacitance and run it from there.

Sorry if I started going on a tangent, I've sold enough iPod Touches to my friends and families I start doing this.

 

When you restore, you get a choice of "restore from backup," or "set up as new."

If you pick "restore from backup," it should copy all settings and app data back into your Touch. Since the Touch now remembers what you synced to it previously, if you perform a sync at that point, it will copy back all media and apps that you had on it before you restored, and any app that had previously saved data should retain that data. However, any problems you may have had with the device may also get restored along with the data.

If you "set up as new" you will get the device in the same state it would be if it was factory fresh, but you would lose all settings and data.

As for restoring every few months -- the Touch is a small computer, and like all computers, it tends to accumulate small glitches that might slow it down over time. Restoring the Touch is like reinstalling an OS on a desktop. And some people do advocate reinstalling the OS every half a year. I, for one, think that the hassle of restoring Touch / reinstalling desktop OS is not worth the marginal performance gain, and will only do it if you are having a specific problem, or the performance has degraded to the point the thing is unusable.