External Hard Drive Crashed - Lost my songs
I was storing all my songs on any external hard drive which recently crashed - I lost everything. I can't figure out how to get my songs off my iPod and back on to my computer or new hard drive. Anyone know how to do this?
Welcome to Apple Discussions!
You can't directly sync or drag music from your iPod to iTunes library.
If your iTunes is set for "Automatic" in "Preferences -> iPod" (the default setting), connecting your iPod to iTunes now would automatically delete all the content off your iPod. This action cannot be reversed.
Instead, hold the "Shift" and "Ctrl" keys together for about 20-30 seconds as soon as your iPod displays “do not disconnect” to prevent this automatic syncing from happening.
Now, onto the transferring. There are a couple of ways to copy the songs over to your computer.
You can try the method of manually copying songs from your iPod to your computer by accessing your iPod's hard drive.
See this link for the details:
MacMuse - Transferring iPod songs to iTunes
If you would like a program to do this for you in a more automatic way, then select one you'd like to use from this list.
iPod Access Mac and Windows Versions
YamiPod Mac and Windows Versions
PodUtil Mac and Windows Versions
iPodCopy Mac and Windows Versions
PodPlayer Windows Only
iGadget Windows Only
I hope this helps you,
-Kylene
If any post helps or solves your issue, please mark it that way accordingly. Thank you for helping the boards!
Similar Messages
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External Hard Drive crashed with all songs on it. HELP!!!
Hello. My kids have used my work PC as their itunes playground for over the past year. I added a Lacie external hard drive to help them save thier music and had itunes on it, as well as my pc. The external hard drive crashed and won't communicate with the pc at all so when we bring up itunes on the pc it shows exclamation marks next to almost all of the songs and won't play them. I still have almost all of our music on my ipod, except about 170 songs that they purchased since I last plugged in my ipod, they have their own mini's. I want to know how to get the songs back to my computer. I am afraid if I connect the 60GB ipod to the pc all of our songs will be wiped out since my ipod is on autosync. Can anyone give me a reliable way to get everything back to normal? PLEASE!!!!
Connect your iPod to your computer. If it is set to update automatically you'll get a message that it is linked to a different library and asking if you want to link to this one and replace all your songs etc, press "Cancel". Pressing "Erase and Sync" will irretrievably remove all songs from your iPod. Your iPod should appear in the iTunes source list from where you can change the update setting to manual and use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Also when using a lot of the utilities your iPod needs to be enabled for disc use, changing to manual update will do this by default. Check the "manually manage music and videos" box in Summary then press the Apply button: Managing content manually on iPod
Once you are safely connected there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. If you have any iTMS purchases the transfer of purchased content from the iPod to authorised computers has been introduced with iTunes 7. A paragraph on it has been added to this article:: Transfer iTunes Store purchases using iPod
The transfer of non iTMS content such as songs imported from CD is designed by default to be one way from iTunes to iPod. However there's a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to your Mac. The procedure is a bit involved but if you're interested it's available at this link: Two-way Street: Moving Music Off the iPod
If you prefer something more automated there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve music files and playlists from your iPod, this is just a selection. I use Senuti but have a look at the web pages and documentation for the others too, you'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos and games as well. You can also read reviews of some of them here: Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Senuti Mac Only
iPodRip Mac Only
PodWorks Mac Only
PodView Mac Only
iPodAccess Mac & Windows
YamiPod Mac & Windows
PodUtil Mac & Windows
iPodCopy Mac & Windows
Keep your iPod in manual mode until you have reloaded your iTunes and you are happy with your playlists etc then it will be safe to return it auto-sync. -
External Hard drive crash - lost all music
The external hard drive where I store all of my iTunes music crashed today and the only other copy of it is on my iPod. Is there any way I can set up my iPod to transfer the music back to my hard drive without losing it? My iPod is set to sync automatically and I'm afraid it will erase everything if I hook it up to my computer. I've poured over the help topics on the Apple site, but nothing addresses my particular problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
*Is there any way I can set up my iPod to transfer the music back to my hard drive without losing it? My iPod is set to sync automatically and I'm afraid it will erase everything if I hook it up to my computer.*
If your iPod is set to update automatically you need to take care connecting to an empty iTunes. You can use a keyboard command to prevent your iPod auto-syncing with iTunes. While connecting the iPod to the computer on Windows with iTunes 7.3 or later installed hold down the Shift + Ctrl keys together. This will stop the iPod from auto-syncing with iTunes and the iPod will appear in the source list. Wait until you are sure the iPod has mounted, and that it will not auto sync and then you can let the keys go. This may take between 20 to 30 seconds depending on your computer: iTunes - Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows
When your iPod appears in the iTunes source list change the update setting to manual, that way you can continue to use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Also when using most of the utilities listed below your iPod needs to be enabled for disc use, changing to manual update will do this by default: Managing content manually on iPod and iPhone
Once you are safely connected there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. If you have any iTunes Music Store purchases the transfer of purchased content from the iPod to authorised computers was introduced with iTunes 7. You'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
The transfer of content from sources such as songs imported from CD is designed by default to be one way from iTunes to iPod. However there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. Have a look at the web pages and documentation, this is just a small selection of what's available, they are generally quite straightforward. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
TuneJack Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod2PC Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
SharePod Windows Only
iPodRip Mac & Windows
YamiPod Mac and Windows
Music Rescue Mac & Windows
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
TouchCopy Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide
Whichever of these retrieval methods you choose, keep your iPod in manual mode until you have reloaded your iTunes and you are happy with your playlists etc then it will be safe to return it auto-sync. -
Folders with photo files are lost due to external hard drive crashing. Processed photo's are still in LR. How can I export from LR to a file (any file) that no longer exists? Help!!!
Well, no backups, the technical term for that is "a problem". I think from this point forward, you need to commit yourself to making regular automated backups of all of your photos and catalog file to different physical disks, no excuses.
Your photos are not stored in Lightroom. However, Lightroom does create "previews", this is what you are seeing, but these are usually smaller and low-quality compared to the originals. There are plug-ins that can extract the previews from Lightroom. One such plug-in is here robcole.com - PreviewExporter -
Post external hard drive crash, imovie6 files no longer open despite all data being present
my external hard drive crashed.
Thanks to ontrack, I recovered most if not all of the data, and this included the iMovies, I was told, but not one iMovie will open.
The data size is the same as when they were functional. Yet, when clicking on the icon for the movie, it opens and then I see a prompt that says, "A project file is missing..." If I ignore all, the movie never opens. I dont ignore all, the movie does not open.
My questions:
(1) can I fix these files myself? If so, how?
(2) If this is too hard for a novice, is there a company who can look at priceless imovie files and fix themquestion
(3) is this a lost cause?
I've lost upwards of 15 imovies (and the countless hours and love put into each). I'm willing to go to some lengths to fix them, including paying someone.
Thoughts/advice/suggestions?
Thanks.
DamonI'd like to amend my original post... This should be helpful to anyone out there...
my external hard drive crashed.
I DID NOT have documents backed up properly.
....I KNOW....
sigh...
Thanks to Ontrack, I recovered most if not all of the data, and this included the iMovies, I was told. Yet, when trying to open each file, none will open.
I've tried almost everything, including:
(1) show package contents (and trying to drag and drop "TimelineMovie.mov from cache to new iMovie)(nothing happens when dropping it into the new iMovie--quicktime opens but then nothing)
(2) show package contents (and clicking on the backup copy with ~ in the file name)(again, nothing happens)
What I know is the following:
(1) The data size is the same as when they were functional.
(2) Yet, when clicking on the icon for the movie, it opens and then I see a prompt that says, "A project file is missing..." If I click "ignore all", the movie never opens... i see it loading, loading, loading, and then it stops about 3/4 in.
(3) If I dont "ignore all", the process is the same.
(4) when I go into the media file, i see that all of the data is there
(5) while my new external hard drive(S)...lol... have plenty of space, my current macbook pro is maxed out and I operate with just under 1gb of available memory
My questions:
(1) do I have any hope here?
(2) If so, how do I fix these priceless files myself? I know, if priceless, why not backed up? again, sigh...
(3) If too hard for a novice, is there a company who can look at priceless imovie files and fixes them?
Again, I've lost MANY imovies (and the countless hours and love put into each). I'm willing to go to some lengths to fix them, including paying someone.
Thoughts/advice/suggestions?
Thanks.
Damon -
External hard drive failed, lost music library. Any way to get music library from iPod classic to itunes on PowerBook G4?
Recover media from iPod
See this post from forum regular Zevoneer for options on moving your iPod data back to your computer.
tt2 -
I have all of my imovie events stored on an external hard drive in order to save space on my MacBook Pro's internal drive. I currently back up both my MacBook Pro and the external hard drive using a second external hard drive via Time Machine. I have a few questions:
1. How can I be sure that the external drive is actually being backed up.
2. How do I retrieve the imovie events if the 1st external hard drive crashes?
Thank for your help!Let me give you some thoughts. I can tell you my plan, but ultimately you will need your own plan that makes sense for you.
I do not think that your idea of having two separate Time Machine destinations will work. You can have two external drives as Time Machine volumes, but they will both back up the same data set. You cannot dedicate one to iMovie and one to everything else. They will both have everything, so you may still have a space problem.
One way to overcome this is to back up the iMovie volume by using a tool like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. The good news is that your Event files should be pretty stable and there is no need to back them up every 15 minutes. So something like SuperDuper, which you can set to automatically backup once a day, for example, is probably fine. I am pretty sure that this would work if you kept the Projects on the same external drive. As long as Projects and Events are on the same drive, then the cloning stragy should work (but you should always test.)
Because projects change more often than events, and projects can become corrupted, I would definitely back up the Project Library to Time Machine. You can do this even though it is on an external drive. (And even though you may be periodically backing up the entire drive that contains the projects.)
Here are some thoughts on how I approach backup, copied from an earlier answer...
============================================================
Great question. I think the issue of backup is a important one, and one I always worry about since I have a lot of video footage that is irreplaceable.
For back-up, it is helpful to define the risk you are trying to protect from.
For example,
1) risk of corruption in iMovie --> I use Time Machine
2) risk of hard drive failure --> I use SuperDuper! nightly for bootable backup) and Time Machine all the time
3) Risk of theft or fire --> offsite backup
Here is what I do...
1) I back up my boot disk with SuperDuper automatically each night so I always have a bootable system.
2) I back up my original video files. For my Motion JPEG, VHS-->AIC, DV, and 8MM to DV, the EVENT is the copy I back up. (I keep the tapes, but I never want to have to import the tapes again.)
For my AVCHD high def video, I back up the camera archive of the AVCHD, but I am not currently backing up the Event files, because I would need from 4 to 8 TB to back up these events depending on whether I made one copy or two. I can always re-create the Event from the camera archive.
3) I use CrashPlan for my offsite backup. It costs less than $4 per month, and I seeded the initial backup to an external drive to minimize having to transfer video files over the Internet. I currently have over 2TB of data backed up to CrashPlan, which includes my entire boot drive, and the files described in #2.
4) All of the above is automated, so I don't have to think about it too much. If I have to manually do stuff, I tend to get behind.
You have to consider the value of total multiple redundancy vs. the likelihood that 2 or three unlikely events would all happen at once. For example, CrashPlan could lose my data. My hard disk could fail. I could lose everything in a fire. But it is unlikely that they would all happen at once, except in nuclear war, in which case, who cares? -
MAYDAY. Hard drive crashed, lost everything, how do I get my music back on.
So hard drive completely shut down on my and when I took it in, the guy confirmed I had lost all info on the drive, obviously including Itunes. I don't have the original disk that my Ipod came with. How do I get Itunes re-installed so that when I plug my ipod in, it won't think this is a new computer and delete my files?
1). Download and install iTunes from the Apple web site. Connect your iPod to your computer. If it is set to update automatically you'll get a message that it is linked to a different library and asking if you want to link to this one and replace all your songs etc, press "Cancel". Pressing "Erase and Sync" will irretrievably remove all the songs from your iPod.
2). When your iPod appears in the iTunes source list change the update setting to manual, that will let you use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Check the "manually manage music and videos" box in Summary then press the Apply button. Also when using most of the utilities listed below your iPod needs to be enabled for disc use, changing to manual update will do this by default: Managing content manually on iPod and iPhone
3). Once you are safely connected there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. There are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. Have a look at the web pages and documentation, this is just a small selection of what's available, they are generally quite straightforward. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
TuneJack Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
SharePod Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod2PC Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
iPodRip Mac & Windows
YamiPod Mac and Windows
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
Music Rescue Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
TouchCopy Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
If you have any iTunes Music Store purchases the transfer of purchased content only from the iPod to authorised computers was introduced with iTunes 7. You'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide
4). Whichever of these retrieval methods you choose, keep your iPod in manual mode until you have reloaded your iTunes and you are happy with your playlists etc then it will be safe to return it auto-sync.
5). I would also advise that you get yourself an external hard drive and back your stuff up, relying on an iPod as your sole backup is not a good idea and external drives are comparatively inexpensive these days, you can get loads of storage for a reasonable outlay: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive -
External hard drive crashed...need to move iTunes music files
I had all my music on an external hard drive which recently crashed. Fortunately I did have the library xml file on my laptop hard drive so I still have the library info, playlists, play count, etc. So I used 3rd party software to dump the music files from my iPod back on to another external hard drive. However, when I go to preferences and change the iTunes directory to that folder it still does not recognize the songs. I have gray exclamation marks beside each song and when I try to play songs it says that it can not locate the file. I have a huge library with close to 13,000 songs in it so I am really trying to figure out the easiest way to restore the music back to library so everything will play. Can someone please help me figure out what I need to do. So to summarize I still have the library xml files...I just need to know how to associate the actual songs with the library so that when I try to play a song I do not get an error message saying the file can not be found.
If I do that won't I have duplicates of songs and will the songs that are added have the play count and etc?
-
When I tried to remove the existing library so I could start ripping again, I got a message that said that all of the library entries I delete will be removed from my iPod next time I sync. I do NOT want to do that. It will take me some time to rip all of my CDs again, and I don't want to have an empty iPod in the meantime.
Is there a way to clear my iTunes library of all of the invalid songs (which is most of them) and not have them deleted from my player?
Thanks - any help is appreciated. Hard drive crashes are awful.Unfortunately I do not. I had all of my music on this external drive that crashed. I have a replacement drive now but the re-ripping process will be slow to come. I just basically wanted to start with a `clean slate' in iTunes without emptying the contents of my iPod.
Thanks for the reply. -
Missing Library - External Hard Drive Crash
had itunes library stored on external hard drive (in case of computer meltdown) and instead, the external drive crashed - can't seem to revive it. have 60 GB ipod with lots of music - i uninstalled itunes; re-installed and now would like to get library on ipod onto computer; how to do this? itunes only moved the items purchased directly from itunes - is my other music "stuck" on my ipod?
thanks is advance for any helpFor all other non purchased content (your own CDs etc) try this method which works on some Windows PCs.
Enable your iPod for disk use.
See: iPod Disk Use.
Open iTunes and select edit/preferences/advanced/general. Put a check mark in the box marked "copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" and also "keep iTunes music folder organized", then click 'ok'.
Connect the iPod whilst holding down the shift/ctrl keys to prevent any auto sync, and if you see the dialogue window asking if you want to sync to this itunes library, click 'no'.
Then go to file/add folder, open 'my computer', select your iPod and click 'ok'.
The music files should transfer to your iTunes.
If this doesn't work (and it may not because officially it's not supposed to), check out the instructions/suggestions here.
Music from iPod to computer (using option 2). This a manual method using "hidden folders" and although it works, it is a little more involved than other methods.
Much easier ways are to use one of the many 3rd party programs that copy music from the iPod to the computer.
One of the most recommended is Yamipod. This is a free program that transfers music from iPod back to the computer. However, it does not transfer playcounts/ratings etc.
Other free programs are Pod Player, SharePod and Floola.
If you want to recover just the structure of playlists from the iPod (and not the actual song files themselves), there's iRepo for Windows. which I understand has this feature along with all the standard features for these programs.
iPodRip also has the feature enabling you to reconstruct playlists.
There is also CopyTrans. This does preserve ratings/playcounts etc if those are important to you but this program is not free. It also supports video transfer. -
Hard drive crash, lost photoshop elements. How do I get it back?
My hard drive crashed and was replaced and I lost elements. How do I get it back?
Was it preinstalled or did you install from a disc or download? What version?
I downloaded from Adobe, just access your account and download again. -
HELP.....I just transferred my itunes from an external hard drive and all the songs appear twice
After transferring my songs from an external hard drive, every song appears twice in my library. Both songs will play until I delete one of them and then I get a message saying the file can't be located. I can restore the song from my recycle bin and the remaining file will then work but it doesn't shopw up but once in my library. I have over 1600 songs and don't want to go thru this process for every song.......PLEASE HELP
No.
tt2 -
My hard drive crashed and my songs were not stored on my iPod.
My eleven year old son Mike has an iPod Nano. Mike had bought about 40 songs on iTunes. Our hard drive crashed and my older son had erased Mike's songs from his Nano.
Is there any way to download the songs again? How can I contact iTunes to find out?im sorry but unless you backed them up on a cd or flash drive they are probably pretty much gone
-
HP Simplesave external hard drive crashes/freezes HP Windows 7 machine
Okay,
I have a Simplesave 500GB and an HP Windows 7 64 bit laptop.
1) On AC. When the laptop is on AC power, attaching the external hard drive will sometimes freeze the computer, and sometimes not. Windows must be rebooted. The mouse can move, but the "busy" icon shows up.
2) No AC. When the laptop is running on battery, attaching the external hard drive will always freeze/crash the computer. Mouse will move, click is not available, and computer must be rebooted.
3) Attach external before boot. When the external hard drive is attahed before booting the laptop, everything is fine.
Any ideas, anyone?
--Mark
{Personal Information Removed}Guys I had the same problem on my SimpleSave and traced the issue to swapping it to three computers--a PC Laptop running XP, my laptop running Windows 7 and a Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard OS. The problem is the data is available only on the Mac but not on the Windows--but still it cannot download to the hard drive. I called the Philippine HP guys and they told me to reformat the hard disk. I told them "are you crazy? They have no other solution for me. It seems that the length of time on this thread, even HP has no solution. By the way in the Philippine PC Online Forum a lot of HP SimpleSave users have had the same problem. Could it be a product defect?
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