"Backup" of iTunes library didn't load everything.

I’m new to iTunes, so please bear with me.
I’m now running iTunes 11.3 under Windows 7 Home Premium SP1.
My son-in-law bought a used PC from a friend some years ago and “inherited” an iTunes installation with hundreds of songs along with it. He occasionally synched his ipod with the PC, and I created what I thought were backups a few times by simply copying the primary folder to an external drive.
I recently decided to do some much-needed housecleaning, and among other things, I completely removed all parts of the current iTunes environment. I installed iTunes 11.3 and added the latest backup files from the external drive with the copy option. I was surprised to find that iTunes skipped a lot of files on the way in without any explanation. I need help in determining why this happened and what I can do about it, if anything.
I’m sure that you need more information in order to analyze this problem, but I don’t know what you need; therefore, I ask that you tell me what you need, and how and where to retrieve it, and then we can get down to business.
Thanks.

Technically your son-in-law should have wiped media that came with the computer and put on his own content, unless the original owner of the computer was giving up their ownership of the content at the same time and not keeping copies.
With that out of the way iTunes normally stores all media content inside the iTunes Media folder unless you change some options. By default the preference "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to the library" is enabled. If this is turned off and you drag in files stored somewhere else, like an external hard drive, memory stick, desktop, downloads folder etc, iTunes will refer to those files at their original locations.
This might explain why there were fewer files imported than expected. That said if you restored the library correctly there should have been no need to import anything.
Alternatively there could be a permissions issue. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows for details.
Or if the files were in .wav format they don't carry a tag, in which case you might find the missing content is all in the unknown artist, unknown album area of the library. Should this be the problem then if the files are in the correct artist & album folders in the backup, or you have access to older .itl files stored in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder, I have techniques for reconstructing the lost data.
To backup an iTunes library effectively see Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy.
tt2

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turingtest2 wrote:
I'd agree with EE, backup to disc is unlikely to return...
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Message was edited by: The Zach

Ok sounds like one of two things happend here
1. iTunes lost its activation during the update. Try clicking on one of the songs in iTunes. Will it play them? If so they this is not the issue. If not it should ask you to provide the user name and ID for your account to activate that copy of iTunes.
2. The other thing that may have happened here is that the iPod was connected to another computer and synced with another instance of iTunes. If this is the case then the iPod will only sync with that computer. You will need to delete the songs off the iPod and reload them from iTunes.
NOTE : DO NOT DELETE YOUR SONGS OFF THE IPOD UNTIL YOU ARE SURE YOU HAVE THEM ON A PC SO YOU CAN RELOAD THEM ON THE IPOD. Once the music files are lost they can not be replaced.

Backup of iTunes library

I have my iTunes library on it's own internal hard drive and want to back it up to another internal hard drive using carbon copy cloner. Is this a good way to go or is there a better program to use? The initial backup I will do as back up everything and then schedule the backup once a week as an incremental backup. I am also doing this for the operating system. Any advice or better ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

wlfranks wrote:
I have my iTunes library on it's own internal hard drive and want to back it up to another internal hard drive using carbon copy cloner. Is this a good way to go or is there a better program to use?
that is an excellent way doing it. SuperDuper would be another great app for the purpose.
personally, i'm using ChronoSync
JGG

"Backup" of iTunes library didn't load everything.

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