What's the best way to transfer your collection to a new computer?

[semipenguin]

I just bought a Compaq laptop because the one I'm on right now is sure to crap out soon. Does anyone know the best way to transfer your entire music collection to iTunes short of taking out every CD in your collection, one by one, and reloading them onto your new computer?

I've heard you can just plug your iPod into your new computer and it'll do it on it's own. I don't want to erase everything off my iPod only to have to reload it back on from the old computer.

Thanks for the help

 

[HecticArt]

I'd go get an external hard drive to back everything up to.
You never know when a hard drive is going to take a dump or god forbid, someone boosts your laptop.

Our IT guy always tells us that if you don't have your data in at least 2 places, it doesn't really exist.

You can get crazy large drives for very little coin these days.

 

[xan_user]

Is itunes still limiting how many times you can copy a song from on machine to another? or is that ancient history?

 

[semipenguin]

Is itunes still limiting how many times you can copy a song from on machine to another? or is that ancient history?

I think you have a limited number of computers you can authorize for use on your account. Don't know exactly how many that is. I think you have have up to 5 iPods per account. Don't know the amount of computer :worried:

 

[xan_user]

The problem with DRM is its too confusing, it kept me away from using Itunes completely.
My daughter uses itunes at her moms house , so im curious if i can get her itunes stuff from there copied over to her pc here too.

 

[Jon]

iTunes store is DRM free now. You may not have converted all your files to DRM-Free yet (I haven't, gonna cost $300 to do so) but it's possible. I'm not sure if there is anything else that would be a problem.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatsnew/

 

[xan_user]

iTunes store is DRM free now. You may not have converted all your files to DRM-Free yet (I haven't, gonna cost $300 to do so) but it's possible. I'm not sure if there is anything else that would be a problem.

Oh man, leave it to Jobbs to stiff you for stuff you already bought!:rofl2:

They should be paying old users back for all the hassle their BS DRM caused.

 

[DAB]

The best way Semi is if you could copy your whole iTunes directory to a backup drive. No you can't just plug in your iPod and have it copy all your files over, unless everything on your iPod was purchased from iTunes, then YES it would copy all your purchases over. If you have anything else on there that wasn't purchased from iTunes then those will not be copied.

I've moved my whole iTunes library many, many times and all I do is copy the whole directory to a backup drive. Then when I get the new computer, install iTunes. Start it once, so it creates your iTunes directory. Now using your backup, drag and drop that iTunes directory into your music directory where iTunes has already created a directory. It will ask if you want to overwrite and you click YES. Once it is finished. Start iTunes and all your stuff is just like it was on the old computer.

There are also program you can use to backup and restore your library Copy Trans, Media Widget to name a few. But if you don't want to buy those program, which will still require copying to backup hard drive anyway.

Good Luck and let us know how it turns out!

 

[DAB]

Oh man, leave it to Jobbs to stiff you for stuff you already bought!:rofl2:

They should be paying old users back for all the hassle their BS DRM caused.

Well Steve Jobs is no dummy that is for sure. I would imagine there have been a lot of folks that have spent hundreds of dollars upgrading to the none DRM version of their music files. Of course you do go from a 128kb to a 256kb, which means the files are bigger and you can get less of them on your device. I have to say they do sound good though. I personally had about $30 worth music I could convert. I have always bought most of my music from Amazon's non DRM music store. Plus I have also used Rhapsody and Yahoo Music services before then and learned how to create backup copies of them that are DRM free, which is not illegal (before some of you purist start accusing me of being a thief or fraud!) LOL.

 

[semipenguin]

The best way Semi is if you could copy your whole iTunes directory to a backup drive. Good Luck and let us know how it turns out!

I'd go get an external hard drive to back everything up to.
You never know when a hard drive is going to take a dump or god forbid, someone boosts your laptop. You can get crazy large drives for very little coin these days.

So now that I have two people stating the same thing, it must be true

Thanks guy. I will check into the back up/external hard drive

 

[HecticArt]

So now that I have two people stating the same thing, it must be true

Thanks guy. I will check into the back up/external hard drive

Cool. Keep us posted. I have a WD My Book I back up to at work,

and am thinking about getting a mirrored drive version for home.

I'm curious what your research points you to.

 

[semipenguin]

Cool. Keep us posted. I have a WD My Book I back up to at work, and am thinking about getting a mirrored drive version for home.

I'm curious what your research points you to.

Oooh. Cool

They look good on Amazon. Will have to get one when I get the chance

 

[Wayne Edwards]

I've been using this for a couple of years to transfer my songs/ library to various computers (office PC, laptop, etc.) For $25 it was a great investment and very easy to use.

Transfer iPod to iTunes, Copy iPod and iPhone music to PC or Mac, iPod rip

 

[DAB]

The hard drive is the best way to go so that way you can back up all your important stuff not just iTunes. I use mine for almost everything, plus I have a server that I back up too for redundancy. You can never have too many backup for your data. I learned that the hard way many, many years ago.

 

[HecticArt]

Like my IT guy says, "if you only have your data in one place, it doesn't really exist."

 

[mrpacs]

The hard drive is the best way to go so that way you can back up all your important stuff not just iTunes. I use mine for almost everything, plus I have a server that I back up too for redundancy. You can never have too many backup for your data. I learned that the hard way many, many years ago.

DAB, would your method also backup/restore custom playlists?

 

[semipenguin]

Well, I set up iTunes on my new computer. Authorized it. Plugged in my iPod Classic.

It asked me if I wanted to add all my purchased items onto my new computer, and voila, it put all my purchased songs onto my new computer

All 900+ songs, plus music videos, plus both seasons of Mad Men, the first season of Entourage, Mamma Mia, and Wall-E

 

[DAB]

DAB, would your method also backup/restore custom playlists?

Yes it would! I've never lost any of my playlist doing it this way.

It asked me if I wanted to add all my purchased items onto my new computer, and voila, it put all my purchased songs onto my new computer

All 900+ songs, plus music videos, plus both seasons of Mad Men, the first season of Entourage, Mamma Mia, and Wall-E

Yes, this is why I told you if you had purchased everything on your device through iTunes, it would do this with no problem. The issue for most people is that they don't just use iTunes, so given that it would only copy over those things youve purchased from Apple and nothing else.

Glad it all worked out for you!

 

[semipenguin]

Yes, this is why I told you if you had purchased everything on your device through iTunes, it would do this with no problem. The issue for most people is that they don't just use iTunes, so given that it would only copy over those things youve purchased from Apple and nothing else.

Glad it all worked out for you!

It worked great. Thanks DAB

 

[HecticArt]

Cool deal! Glad it worked out.

I was wandering through Best Buy last night checking in on the internet radios, and thought I'd take a look at the external drives too.

They have 2 terabyte drives for less than $250. Wild. I'm still going to look for a mirrored drive around that size.