iTunes disaster - Help needed

Henry Irving

A modern disaster. Turned on my iTunes yesterday and all the music was gone. All 5500 odd songs just not there. Managed to find 800 odd files I'd download from the net from the music file but will have to dig out the CDs to copy them over again unless you can help.

So. What happened? Can I recover them? If not, how can I stop it happening again or at least create a back up. and most important will I wipe my iPod if I put it on the docking station linked to my PC?

Thanks techie people

Stu_of_Kunming

Sure you didn't accidentally open a new musical archive, or whatever iTunes calls it.

I did it the other day, the though of losing 40odd hours of metal heaven scared me quite a lot, I opened up the old archive and it was all there, try that.

mascot88

Sorry can t be of help... but I have done this before.... horrible... formatted it or something and lost about 2,000 odd songs...

So if it is irreversible your not the first.......

LargeAddick

I've always been worried that might happen to me. Havn't a clue what to suggest. If you connect your ipod to the PC it will launch itunes and then proceed to copy what is in your current library so I reckon you will lose those songs on your ipod. I do believe that if you open itunes first there is somewhere that you can check a box so that if you connect your ipod to the PC it doesn't automatically launch itunes.

KBslittlesis

get on the apple website & go to the troubleshooting bit
there's a messageboard on there & they'll be able to help

good luck!

Ledge

you should be able to take your computer back to before the itunes was lost..you literally take the puter back in time. can't remember how to do it though i will find out...

LargeAddick

[quote][cite]Posted By: Stu of SE7[/cite]Sure you didn't accidentally open a new musical archive, or whatever iTunes calls it.

I did it the other day, the though of losing 40odd hours of metal heaven scared me quite a lot, I opened up the old archive and it was all there, try that.[/quote]

the thought of having any heavy metal seems like an itunes disaster to me !

kigelia

I would suggest doing a search for any files modified on or around the last day you knew the itunes library was running to try and track them down if they have moved.

If you still have everything on the ipod then you should be able to get everything back from there (I have done it when moving to a new pc - I'll try and dig out the details for you if you wish, but i think i got my details from a site called ipodlounge)

Then once fixed go out and buy an external hard drive to back it all up to so it doesn't happen again.

SantaClaus

Ipods/itunes are rubbish. Creative Zen vision m knocks the socks off your video ipods. Why do people buy this proprietary crap. Rant over....i think 'system restore' is what Ledge means. Gl.

S.

Henry Irving

Thanks for all the help. Think I've found all the files for the music i copied over from CD and they are being copied over as I type.

Kigelia - what sort of external hard drive? - guess it would be good for my work files (word and excell and a little PP stuff) as well.

kigelia

Maplins had a load in for about £80 last week.

Like This one

SantaClaus

just bought a 320gig version of that drive last week. It's fine and well priced but you have to power it from the mains which is a pain in the ass, also it's is quite bulky . If you are looking for portability i'd go for the 80/100gig drives, even if you've filled your ipod you'll still have space for word docs etc. Anyway just a friendly bit of advice.

s.

Henry Irving

[cite]Posted By: SantaClaus[/cite]just bought a 320gig version of that drive last week. It's fine and well priced but you have to power it from the mains which is a pain in the ass, also it's is quite bulky . If you are looking for portability i'd go for the 80/100gig drives, even if you've filled your ipod you'll still have space for word docs etc. Anyway just a friendly bit of advice.

s.

Much appreciated. Small and portable would be ideal. Roughly how much Santa?

Henry Irving

Recovered all the files OK but have lost all the playlists/ratings. A pain but no big deal.

SantaClaus

http://www.dabs.com/productlist.aspx?&NavigationKey=11157&NavigationKey=48940000&CategorySelectedId=11157&PageMode=1&PageOffset=0&RecordOffset=0#Paging
Dabs.com is great for things like this. I got a freecom 60gig drive about a year ago, use it loads never a moments problem and i know that all my music and imortant docs are safely protected form fire/theft (in fact i bought it after a burglary). Anyway something in the £45-60 range depending on how many gig you need should be fine, if you want extra reassurance check the starred customer reviews.

S.

ns_eb_rj_s?

this happend to me, you have to use your ipod as a hard drive and copy them back on to ur pc. then inport them in to itunes.

olster

search mediamonkey in google. knocks itunes for 6 and (apparently i don't do ipods, still oldschool minidiscs) works with ipods.

northstandsteve

go back in time to your walkman,and put in your cassette it was a lot easier.