Finding purchased music after installing a new hardrive with old one acting

Question

My old hard drive lost its windows OP but it still has all the info on it. I use it as a slave for my new drive but I can't find the purchased music I bought from iTunes in the hidden folders on it.itunes still has a record of my purchased music but will not let me re-download it. How do I get this music BACK that I paid money for?
Message was edited by: Madcustomer

Answer 1

If you are using (or were using) Windows XP or Vista then the music files should be located in X:\Documents and Settings\USER NAME\My Documents\My Music\iTunes where "X" is the drive letter assigned to your old drive and "USER NAME" is the user account name that was used with iTunes. For your future use, this is why it is important to make backups of your data. iTunes provides an easy way to backup your media library to disc. once you have copied over the music to your new HDD, you will need to import it to iTunes and then re-authorize that computer. Open iTunes and select "File" from the menu then click "Add Folder to Library". this will open a window to select the folder to import. browse to your "My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music" folder (if that is where you copied the music back to) and click OK. After the music is added back into you iTunes you need to authorize the PC again. Select "Store" from the menu and then click "Sign In..." and enter the Apple ID used to purchase the music. Once signed in to your account, Select "Store" from the menu and then click "Authorize Computer". Now try to play some music that was purchased through iTunes to make sure everything is working. If so now would be a good time to backup your music. To do this Select "File" from the menu and then click "Back Up to Disc..." and select if you want to backup your whole libary or just purchased music. Then use either CD-Rs or DVD+-R media to backup your music. Hope it works out for you.