Had to reformat my hard drive, now ipod doesn't recognize my computer

I was infected with numerous viruses and had to refomat the hard drive. When I connect the iPod, it doesn't recognize the computer as the same one, so I can't get the files that I already paid for off the iPod. Any ideas?

Yes, all you iTunes data are on the old drive. Get an external enclosure in which you may install the old drive in order to connect it to your computer and copy your iTunes data to your new drive.
Everything is on your old drive unless you copied it to the new drive.

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I had to change my hard drive, now i'v tried to reinstall itunes, it is saying i have to restore my ipod touch to factory settings, will i loose all my films by doing this, as now my ipod wont work anyway unless i restore ?

I had to change my hard drive, now i'v tried to reinstall itunes it says i have to restore my iopd touch to factory settings and will loose my files. I have a few films on there and they show up on my purchases.If i restore, will i be able to get my films back ? as at the moment my ipod wont work now untill i restore anyway.

Syncing to a new iTunes library or computer will erase your ipod. Only if you back up your device manually before syncing, you can restore from that backup again. A manual backup does not include the sync process.
Here's how to:
Disable autosync in iTunes, connect your ipod to your computer and right click on it in the device list and choose backup. iTunes will backup your ipod without syncing.
Transfer your purchases the same way, choosing "transfer purchases" this time.
When you connect your device for the first time, all media content will be erased. But you can restore your settings and app data from your manual backup afterwards.
Don't forget to set up at least one contact and event on your new computer to be able to merge calendars and contacts when you sync the ipod for the first time.
About backups and what's saved:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766
How to back up and restore:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
Saving other data is also described here. How to back up your data and set up as a new device
Message was edited by: Ingo2711

I had to reformat my hard drive on an older Desktop running Windowx XP. The IE browser is not working now. Is there a way I can download Firefox onto a flash drive from my new desktop and install it on my old desktop?

I had to reformat the hard drive on my old desktop. It is runninf Windows XP. I can't get Internet Explorer to work so I can connect to the internet via wireless. Is there a way I can download firefox from my new desktop onto a flas drive and then install Firefox from the flash drive onto my old desktop? If so, please explain the procedure.

Go to a suitable download page eg: [http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html]
Download firefox, use the save option rather than install.
Save it directly to the flash drive, or to somewhere on your computer and copy/move it the flash drive.
However if IE is not working possibly you have some sort of setup problem so firefox may not work either.

Had to reformat my hard drive- PLEASE HELP!

Hi everyone,
I hope someone can somehow help me. I tried tech support but they didn't have much to offer in the way of iTunes support. I own a video ipod. I manually loaded each of the albums I had stored in my "my music" folder on my laptop into iTunes and then onto my Ipod.
All transfering and syncing has been done on my laptop. I recently had to reformat the hard drive on my laptop. Prior to doing so, I was able to move my music files to my desktop however I do not have Itunes loaded and running on my desktop. I now have "RE" downloaded the iTunes software to my laptop but I'm scared to sync it because I know it's going to "wipe" out my IPOD.
Can someone accurately advise me on how I might go about getting my music files back into my iTunes library without having to make backup cd's of some 200 albums or manually reloading each album. Is there anyway of doing this without wiping my Ipod clean? There's got to be a fairly easy way to do this.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Shooey

You should be able to move your iTunes music folder from your desktop (where iTunes is not installed) to your laptop where it is. Set up your iTunes on the laptop to specify where you want your iTunes music folder to be (in advanced preferences), quit itunes, then move your files from the desktop. Start up iTunes and it should all work.
This is how I moved my itunes when I replaced my old G4/733 with my newer G5 2.5DP.
Note: don't discard that backup on your desktop until you make sure everything works OK, including syncing your iPod.
Ed

HT1386 I have had to reformat my hard drive. I have installed windows 7 and want to know how to transfer the songs on my iPad back to the newly installed iTunes on my compute?

have had to reformat my hard drive. I have installed windows 7 and want to know how to transfer the songs on my iPad back to the newly installed iTunes on my compute?

Copy all the content on your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes. Then go ahead and sync the iPod with your new library.
See this older post from another forum member Zevoneer covering the different methods and software available to assist you with the task of copying content from your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2452022?start=0&tstart=0
B-rock

I had to change my Hard Drive, now I want to work on files in iWeb, but can't access Time Machine before yesterday. The dates are there on the right hand side but are greyed out before yesterday when I changed my HD. How do I access anything from before.

I had to change my Hard Drive, now I want to work on files in iWeb, but can't access Time Machine before yesterday. The dates are there on the right hand side but are greyed out before yesterday when I changed my HD. How do I access anything from before?

Start with B5/6 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

I had to Wipe my hard drive! Ipod wont recognize comp now plz help!!!

I recently had to wipe my hard drive to repair windows, now when I try to sync my I-pod nano it tries to "delete and sync" all my songs I have purchased and downloaded from this very same computer. I need to know how to either get my ipod to resync back to this computer or how to re-aquire the songs I have already purchased. please help, I am new to I-pods! thanks!

Hello hoparella,
And welcome to Apple Discussions!
With your iPod connected, have you tried using the *File-> Transfer Purchases* options?
Otherwise, another work around would be to copy all the music currently on your iPod to your new iTunes library. From there, you can "Erase and Sync" the iPod with your new iTunes library or opt to restore it.
[Restorin|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1339]
For ways on how to copy music directly from your iPod to iTunes, see this older post of mine.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10941982#10941982
B-rock

I had to change my hard drive now all my itunes are missing

I can't find any of my playlists or music.. I had to replace my hard drive.. Everything has been backed up.. I sign into itunes now and 4000+ songs are missing..
How do I find it??

Restore your backup. See also Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

Moved Itunes to external hard drive & now Ipod not showing up in itunes?

I recently installed an external hard drive and moved Itunes and all my music to it. Now when I plug in my Ipod, Itunes doesn't recognize it. And it doesn't show up in my computer, but the pod says its "connected". It does show up in the USB devices and so does the hard drive, but they are listed seperately. But both devices are plugged into the same USB spliter.
what is happening?
help!!!

Hi, BreezerSB2.
It sounds like you may not have followed the instructions described in this article in the Apple Knowledge Base.
If that's not possible - or you don't want to do so - and the music files are in fact on your external drive, you can add them to your iTunes Library by referring to this article 's Add to Library section.

Had to restore my hard drive, now some applications aren't opening

I did an update the other day and my imac desided to go crazy.
I ended up having to do a full restore from time machine.
Now I'm having problems keeping applications like, iphoto, yahoo messenger, skype, etc. to stay open.
They will open, but after a few seconds they close down and keep doing this no matter how many times I retry opening them.
Not sure what's going on now.
Any help would be much appreciated.
I've even tried fully uninstalling yahoo messenger and then reinstalling and the same thing is happening.
Also, randomly my imac is restarting for no reason.

How to maintain a Mac
1. Make redundant backups, keeping at least one off site at all times. One backup is not enough. Don’t back up your backups; make them independent of each other. Don’t rely completely on any single backup method, such as Time Machine. If you get an indication that a backup has failed, don't ignore it.
2. Keep your software up to date. In the Software Update preference pane, you can configure automatic notifications of updates to OS X and other Mac App Store products. Some third-party applications from other sources have a similar feature, if you don’t mind letting them phone home. Otherwise you have to check yourself on a regular basis. This is especially important for complex software that modifies the operating system, such as device drivers. Before installing any Apple update, you must check that all such modifications that you use are compatible.
3. Don't install crapware, such as “themes,” "haxies," “add-ons,” “toolbars,” “enhancers," “optimizers,” “accelerators,” "boosters," “extenders,” “cleaners,” "doctors," "tune-ups," “defragmenters,” “firewalls,” "barriers," “guardians,” “defenders,” “protectors,” most “plugins,” commercial "virus scanners,” "disk tools," or "utilities." With very few exceptions, this stuff is useless, or worse than useless.
The more actively promoted the product, the more likely it is to be garbage. The most extreme example is the “MacKeeper” scam.
As a rule, the only software you should install is that which directly enables you to do the things you use a computer for — such as creating, communicating, and playing — and does not modify the way other software works. Use your computer; don't fuss with it.
Never install any third-party software unless you know how to uninstall it. Otherwise you may create problems that are very hard to solve.
The free anti-malware application ClamXav is not crap, and although it’s not routinely needed, it may be useful in some environments, such as a mixed Mac-Windows enterprise network.
4. Beware of trojans. A trojan is malicious software (“malware”) that the user is duped into installing voluntarily. Such attacks were rare on the Mac platform until sometime in 2011, but are now increasingly common, and increasingly dangerous.
There is some built-in protection against downloading malware, but you can’t rely on it — the attackers are always at least one day ahead of the defense. You can’t rely on third-party protection either. What you can rely on is common-sense awareness — not paranoia, which only makes you more vulnerable.
Never install software from an untrustworthy or unknown source. If in doubt, do some research. Any website that prompts you to install a “codec” or “plugin” that comes from the same site, or an unknown site, is untrustworthy. Software with a corporate brand, such as Adobe Flash Player, must be acquired directly from the developer. No intermediary is acceptable, and don’t trust links unless you know how to parse them. Any file that is automatically downloaded from a web page without your having requested it should go straight into the Trash. A website that claims you have a “virus,” or that anything else is wrong with your computer, is rogue.
In OS X 10.7.5 or later, downloaded applications and Installer packages that have not been digitally signed by a developer registered with Apple are blocked from loading by default. The block can be overridden, but think carefully before you do so.
Because of recurring security issues in Java, it’s best to disable it in your web browsers, if it’s installed. Few websites have Java content nowadays, so you won’t be missing much. This action is mandatory if you’re running any version of OS X older than 10.6.8 with the latest Java update. Note: Java has nothing to do with JavaScript, despite the similar names. Don't install Java unless you're sure you need it. Most people don't.
5. Don't fill up your boot volume. A common mistake is adding more and more large files to your home folder until you start to get warnings that you're out of space, which may be followed in short order by a boot failure. This is more prone to happen on the newer Macs that come with an internal SSD instead of the traditional hard drive. The drive can be very nearly full before you become aware of the problem. While it's not true that you should or must keep any particular percentage of space free, you should monitor your storage consumption and make sure you're not in immediate danger of using it up. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of free space on the startup volume for normal operation.
If storage space is running low, use a tool such as the free application OmniDiskSweeper to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the most space. Move rarely-used large files to secondary storage.
6. Relax, don’t do it. Besides the above, no routine maintenance is necessary or beneficial for the vast majority of users; specifically not “cleaning caches,” “zapping the PRAM,” "resetting the SMC," “rebuilding the directory,” "defragmenting the drive," “running periodic scripts,” “dumping logs,” "deleting temp files," “scanning for viruses,” "purging memory," "checking for bad blocks," "testing the hardware," or “repairing permissions.” Such measures are either completely pointless or are useful only for solving problems, not for prevention.
The very height of futility is running an expensive third-party application called “Disk Warrior” when nothing is wrong, or even when something is wrong and you have backups, which you must have. Disk Warrior is a data-salvage tool, not a maintenance tool, and you will never need it if your backups are adequate. Don’t waste money on it or anything like it.

I purchased PS Elements 11 by downloading it to my computer and I never got a CD. I had to reformat the hard drive on my macbook pro 17", so I backed everything up or so I thought. After formatting I tried to reinstall my PS Elements 11 but was not able

Photoshop Elements

Well as I suspected I love OWC company I pulled out the mac hard drive , they offered me a Macdrive free trial program to check your drive on PC Windows and yesSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS it all there nothing lost
woohooooo , thank you but nothing is dead, when you have faith , this was a prayer answered big time I wanted a pro so much and I get to use my 500 plust 250 plus 120 GB drives all of them
ladies and gentlemen and I get to keep the 2 GB in from my macbook 13 inch and sell all the parts
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Hard drive broke. ipod not working with new computer

Hello,
My computer hard drive recently died on me.
I got a new hard drive installed and I downloaded a new version of itunes (I think the latest) but when I connect my ipod to my computer, although it turns on the ipod, my computer isn't reading the ipod. I tunes isn't being started up and when I start it up manually it doesn't read my ipod either.
Someone at work here suggested it may be that the version of itunes I have installed is not compatible with the ipod I have. My ipod is a couple of years old at least. Can that be possible?
Any help greatly appreciated.

I have the exact same problem. Any help would be appreciated.

Hard Drive is designated as "F" drive and IPod doesn't recognize it

My hard drive is designated as the "F" drive, and I think the IPod is looking for it as the "C" drive. Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

hi Johnny!
hmmmm. if you've got a hard drive with an F letter, we'd first better check up on this issue:
Strange iPod behavior when Windows confuses iPod with network drive
keep us posted.
love, b

I copied library to a new hard drive, now iphoto won't recognize files.

I am new to iPhoto, so be gentle. My daughter uses it a lot, and now I seem to have messed up her library. We are using iPhoto 4.0.3. OS 10.4.11
I installed a new hard drive. I copied the iTunes and iPhoto libraries to the new larger hard drive. I copied the iphoto library to a designated folder (not the default folder). My daughter has now moved the photos into their default location, and advised iPhoto of where to look - User/Daughter/Pictures/iPhoto library. When she opens iPhoto her photos don't appear. When she picks a photo and drops it into iPhoto, the message appears,
"could not be imported because an unrecognizable type or file may not contain valid data."
The files are jpegs that open fine in Photoshop, Preview etc.
I did some reading and saw reference to deleting the file com.apple.iphoto.plist. Tried that, no success.
I would appreciate your assistance. Like I say, I don't know iPhoto at all. As a second question, I have a G4 with a dual 1.8 processor, what version of iPhoto/iLife should I be looking to upgrade to?
Thanks for your help.

"could not be imported because an unrecognizable type or file may not contain valid data."
That is the standard error you get when you try to import a photo that already resides inside the iPhoto Library folder. It prevents duplication in your library.
It sounds like you followed the correct procedure, but let's double-check. iPhoto can be run from a location other than the default. When you moved the library, did you copy the whole iPhoto Library folder as one intact unit? How did your dtr point iPhoto to the library? The correct way is to hold down Option while launching, select "Choose (or Find) Library" then navigate to the iPhoto Library folder and Open. Is this what you/she did? If so, perhaps try again?
As a second question, I have a G4 with a dual 1.8 processor, what version of iPhoto/iLife should I be looking to upgrade to?
I am very happy with iLife '06 on my 1.4 GHz G4 mini with 1 GB RAM. You could get iLife '08 for iPhoto 7, but be aware that iMovie 7 won't load on your machine because it requires a G5 or Intel machine. I made the decision not to upgrade because I'm happy with my current performance, and I think that the video-intensive and RAM-hog iPhoto 7 would bog down my mini. You can still buy iLife '06 from Amazon.com. See the system requirements:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/systemrequirements.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306336
Regards.

Replaced internal hard drive, time machine doesn't recognize as same volume

Howdy,
The hard drive (call it drive "X") on my iMac (one of the 2005 models) was dying so I had it replaced. I rebuilt the new drive (drive "Y") from my most recent time machine backup (from external drive "A"). I am now having problems with one of my backup devices, in that time machine doesn't recognize that the new disk is conceptually the same thing that had been backed up before (same volume name).
More details... I rotate my backups monthly through three external drives (I store the most recent offsite). After the disk replacement and restore process, I continued to use that backup drive (drive "A") without noticing any problem. Then it came time to rotate my external drives, and time machine doesn't find enough space on the next backup drive (drive "B"). Presumably this is because it doesn't realize that the drive I am backing up ("Y") is a copy of the drive that had previously been backed up on "B" ("X").
Is there any way to convince it they are the same? Or am I in the same boat as this poster:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2770362&tstart=0
Basically I just want to verify that I am in that same boat before I remove old backup files on "B". If I do decide I need to remove those, are the instructions linked in thread 2770362 correct, or are there better ones?
Thanks for any help,
Bob H

Actually, the backup I deleted above was the backup for the new internal drive. Apparently TM had created the (incomplete) backup during the failed attempt that ran out of space on the backup device. Since the new internal drive had the same name as the old internal drive, I didn't initially realize that's what I was deleting. Not that deleting it causes any harm, but it didn't address the original problem of freeing up space on the backup device.
Not to worry though. I've figured out how to get at the backups for the old internal drive, and am in the process of deleting those. I was about to follow the instructions in your troubleshooting items E3 and E2, but upon attempting to enter time machine I stumbled into the right place. Since I had previously told TM to do no backups (because there was still not enough disk space), and since I'd left the backup device connected, when I pulled up the TM menu from the menu bar, the usual "Enter Time Machine" menu was replaced by "Browse Other Time Machine Disks" (or perhaps "Disks" was "Backups"). This then gave me a list of the machines that I'd backed up on this backup device (in my case machine names and internal drive names are the same). Of course one of those was for the old internal drive, and after choosing it I roughly followed the same course of action as I did a few days ago, to initiate deletion.
I also saw how I could delete each of those old backups individually, but decided against that as I did not expect it would free up enough space. My expectation is that nearly all the space is shared among all the backups for the same source drive, since relatively very little changes between backups.
Bob H

Had to reformat my hard drive, now ipod doesn't recognize my computer

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