Ipod potential disaster

I hope someone out here can help me avert a potential IPOD disaster. Last week my hard drive crashed and died, taking with it some 783 "songs."

I got a new hard drive, and am slowly trying to ressurect my files and programs. The "dead" hard drive is in the shop where I'm hoping they will be successful in recovering my email and Itunes. But on the likely chance that it can not be done I ask if anyone had success moving the contents of their Ipod back to a new hard drive or new computer? How can I do this?

Probably 90% of this was from CDs where I personally own the actual CD, so I could reload them all but that would be sort of tedious. The newer stuff I bought and downloaded from Itunes. Does anyone know how to do this? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Martha

Do you use i-tunes?

I think there is a good chance that you can get the music off the ipod, but i-tunes can be a b-tch. I stopped using it a year ago cause it was...being mean ;)

I use Winamp (it's free), which took some getting used to, but it doesn't mess with the digital protection BS that i-tunes does. If you can't get the music off with i-tunes (and i don't think you can...), you may want to try Winamp (or similar media player).

If i remember correctly, I had to completely uninstall i-tunes from my laptop because it wanted to be in control ALWAYS thus wouldn't let Winamp do it's thing. But after that, I was able to get all my music off my ipod. HOWEVER, all the music that I BOUGHT from i-tunes will no longer play on my computer, nor can i burn them to CDs. They will still play on my ipod though :)

So this might be worth a try if your HD can't be recovered.

If you're using a PC, Lifehacker has this to say:
http://lifehacker.com/software/ipod/...-pc-105256.php

I would go further to say that if you're working from a fresh hard drive anyway, don't even install iTunes until you've already transferred your files onto the computer. That way, you avoid the whole first step.

I-Tunes s^cks. They need to get over that proprietary bs.

I think I just used the Lifehacker technique successfully!?! I am listening to the tunes through the computer...will have to see if I can burn CDs.

They're right, though, the organization of files is pretty wild. But, I think maybe it worked...

ETA: Oops...everything plays except the ones purchased from iTunes. I didn't purchase these, though. If I had, I think I could use the email account and password to add this computer to the list of 5 that they will let you play iTunes purchased stuff on. It appears, though, that I can listen to and burn all the stuff that came off disks, and maybe purchased through other sites.

I think we are in a similar situation. DH computer just crashed this weekend. We had an idea that it was coming and had purchased an external harddrive for him to back up his computer to, but we are unsure of our purchased i-tunes. Unfortunately, we have a lot because we have "i-tunes dates". We go get a $15 gift card and split it. We choose the music together. Basically, we spend an hour or so together looking at different music, but it is time together.

These ideas sound good. I should find out tomorrow if they will be able to recover anything from the hard disk. Fortunately I had backed up most of the important files, and figured there must be a way around the Ipod situation and once again TE comes to the rescue. I'll report back on what I end up doing and how well it works. Computers can be necessary evils sometimes.... Thanks for all the suggestions.

Martha

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Originally Posted by LainiePants

D

I use Winamp (it's free), which took some getting used to, but it doesn't mess with the digital protection BS that i-tunes does. If you can't get the music off with i-tunes (and i don't think you can...), you may want to try Winamp (or similar media player).

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iTunes is the suck. Winamp is GREAT. Plus it's free, drag and drop, no adds...

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Originally Posted by LainiePants

Do you use i-tunes?

I think there is a good chance that you can get the music off the ipod, but i-tunes can be a b-tch. I stopped using it a year ago cause it was...being mean ;)

I use Winamp (it's free), which took some getting used to, but it doesn't mess with the digital protection BS that i-tunes does.

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As a recording engineer who tried to make a living in the music business, with many friends trying to make a living in the music business, I take offense with calling protection of intellectual property "BS." Sorry.

If you go through the support on iTunes, they'll tell you how to transfer, or use a program called Senuti that will let you transfer your files.

Thanks for listening.

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Originally Posted by Pedal Wench

As a recording engineer who tried to make a living in the music business, with many friends trying to make a living in the music business, I take offense with calling protection of intellectual property "BS." Sorry.

If you go through the support on iTunes, they'll tell you how to transfer, or use a program called Senuti that will let you transfer your files.

Thanks for listening.

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I know many musicians, artists, writers, graphic designers, and so on. Some near and dear to my heart. One graphic designer had a piece of work "borrowed" and sees it on the side of delivery trucks, but never saw a penny for her work.

When someone you know gets their work ripped off, it really changes the way you see things.

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Originally Posted by KnottedYet

When someone you know gets their work ripped off, it really changes the way you see things.

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This happens a lot when people make copies of articles and use them for professional use, as opposed to ordering, and paying for, official reprints from the author(s), too.

there are a bunch of different programs out there (most freeware) that will allow you to copy the contents of your ipod back to your itunes library. I have about 10,000 songs in my library and was able to restore it after my HDD meltdown. you will lose your playlists, but retain the music.

google PC (or MAC) itunes transfer from ipod and you'll find some solutions.

fyi -- one of my best friends is the itunes pc software developer and he couldn't help me, but the web population knows what's going on.

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Originally Posted by Pedal Wench

I take offense with calling protection of intellectual property "BS." Sorry.

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We're not talking about PtP file sharing, we're talking about paying for downloads. If I pay the music company for a song I should be able to play it on any device.

That type of protectionism killed Betamax (which was technically a better format) and whatever DVD format that was that recently lost out.

I agree with zen.

I bought some downloaded music and found it wouldn't play on one of my devices.

I've gone back to wax cylinders.

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Originally Posted by zencentury

We're not talking about PtP file sharing, we're talking about paying for downloads. If I pay the music company for a song I should be able to play it on any device.

That type of protectionism killed Betamax (which was technically a better format) and whatever DVD format that was that recently lost out.

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You can play it on any device that supports AAC files, which, since you brought it up, is a better format than MP3, with a much better sound quality at the same bitrate than MP3.

You can also purchase even higher bitrate songs on iTunes that don't have any copy protection.

I'm in that dwindling demographic that still buys CDs. For anything that I plan to listen to on the home stereo, I can't see having a lo-res rip as my only copy. Even the new "iTunes Plus" files don't approach the bitrate of real audio CDs... which don't approach the "bandwidth" of vinyl, but obviously have a lot of advantages over analog reproduction.

The proprietary formats go both ways, too. iPods and many other players don't support .wma files. And, after years of jamming SD cards with a little bit of music on them, into my handheld computer, I found that if I wanted a dedicated music player with some real capacity, I had to get an iPod. None of the other players supports MacOS.

I keep typing more and editing it out, because I start to sound like one of those zealots, which I'm really, really not :cool: Yes, I've been a Mac user since 1989, but the initial choice was because I shared my first office - and printer - with a desktop publisher who used a Mac, and since then it's because I haven't seen any real good reason to put myself through the learning curve of an entirely new OS. (Although running Parallels gives me the opportunity to learn it a little bit at a time now, and turn the freakin' thing OFF when I get fed up :D)

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Originally Posted by Pedal Wench

You can play it on any device that supports AAC files

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so if i want to have access to all music I have to have multiple playback devices. Utter nonsense. The music industry is hindered in their marketing skills. Agree on a universal file type.

I guess I'm a just an egalitarian.

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

I'm in that dwindling demographic that still buys CDs.

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I buy CD's and I still listen to vinyl.

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

I'm in that dwindling demographic that still buys CDs. For anything that I plan to listen to on the home stereo, I can't see having a lo-res rip as my only copy. Even the new "iTunes Plus" files don't approach the bitrate of real audio CDs... which don't approach the "bandwidth" of vinyl, but obviously have a lot of advantages over analog reproduction.

The proprietary formats go both ways, too. iPods and many other players don't support .wma files. And, after years of jamming SD cards with a little bit of music on them, into my handheld computer, I found that if I wanted a dedicated music player with some real capacity, I had to get an iPod. None of the other players supports MacOS.

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Amen! I still buy them, and I'm still quite heavily involved in the consumer side of the audio biz. I wrote a column on Blu-ray/HD DVD and mentioned the dwindling CD biz and got completely attacked. So, we're not alone -- there are still millions and millions of players.

I also agree that complaining that another player won't play AAC files is like complaining that your Look cleats won't work with your Speedplay pedals. (Like how I turned us back to cycling?) It's not what it's supposed to do. iTunes has no problem with MP3, so it's actually all the other manufacturers who aren't allowing you more flexibility.

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Originally Posted by Pedal Wench

Amen! I still buy them

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But only to dress up your guinea pigs :D

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Originally Posted by Pedal Wench

iTunes has no problem with MP3, so it's actually all the other manufacturers who aren't allowing you more flexibility.

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ipods cost an arm and a leg compared with other playback devices. If we all had to buy ipods that would really cut down the market share.

My iPod was $49. http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/ Love that Shuffle! Low tech enough that even Knot can handle it! And I still haven't filled it up. Holds and plays goodies from CDs and from downloads. Looooove it. (and I put a cute little lady-bug sticker on it, so it's all cuddly and stuff)

But that's only one GB of storage.
What other accoutrement's do you need?
Battery?
Battery charger?

I got 5 GB's and one AA battery.
Fiddy dollars.
(and it says ZEN on the front :p)

This is how you copy your iTunes music back to your harddrive:

For Windows users to transfer music from an iPod to your hard drive, without extra software:

1. Connect the iPod to your PC. If iTunes starts syncing (ie erasing) your music automatically, hit the X in the upper right hand corner of iTunes display, to the left of the search box, to stop it.
2. In Control Panel, Portable Media Devices, double-click your iPod.
3. In the Tools menu -> Options, in the View Tab, check "Show hidden files and folders."
4. Navigate to the Music folder. On my 2nd gen 'pod, the full path is
Portable Media Devices\GINA'S IPOD (F:)\iPod_Control\Music
5. Select all the music folders, and drag and drop them into a folder on your hard drive, or directly into iTunes.

And you're done! The iPod music folder structure is strange and inexplicable, but once you move your files into iTunes you can set it to automatically organize your folder by artist and album to clean that up. (To do this, in iTunes Edit menu, choose Preferences and in the Advanced tab, check "Keep iTunes Music Folder organized.")

Wow - all these solutions - I did not realize how easy it could be.

The good news is that my friendly neighborhood computer store was able to salvage everything (I think....) from my hard drive though the drive itself is toast. I got back all my thousands of emails, address book, favorites, photos, music, not to mention the files. I really was becoming resigned to losing most of it (I had the most important stuff backed up) but I am really happy that I got it all back.

Now I have to figure out why my external HDD is not automatically backing up like it's supposed to. Grrrrr.

Hey. Good news for us to. They got his computer working again. Still have all of our I-tunes