Hard drive crash...or not?
might as well tell the whole story.
Last night i was on my macbook, doing random stuff on the internet (wireless) when it seemed that my internet had suddenly cut out. well i thought this weird, but i switched networks and it seemed to work after that. I was using iChat, when that all of the sudden stopped responding. i switched to finder, and forced iChat to quit. I opened iChat again, only to see the rainbow pinwheel of death again. I force quit again, but this time i relaunched finder. This is when things got weird. i started opening the apps i was using again, but it seemed they had restored to their defaults, as if i had never used them. iTunes mostly is what worried me, because my entire library of 2000+ songs was nowhere to be found. when i tried to add the songs back into the library, it seemed the finder that came up in iTunes was different from that if i were to go into the one from the dock. It had none of my music in it, or anything else for that matter. so when i made changes in the finder outside of iTunes, the finder inside of iTunes stayed the same.
well it was late so i decided i would figure it out the next day (today) so i shut it down and went to bed. Well this morning i woke up, started up my computer, and everything (apart from my movies and applications) was gone. Documents, pictures, music files, settings, everything. I have a lot of important files that i know are somewhere on that hard-drive, but i can't access them.
So i was wondering if this has happened to other people before, and if it's possible to restore settings i had say, two days ago. If it helps, i'm the only user on my computer, and the only thing i had done differently from normal use was relaunch finder.
your help is GREATLY appreciated, seeing as there is no apple store in my area.
i'm freakin' out here.
macbook Mac OS X (10.4.9)
HA yeah that's what happened. that tutorial helps, but its vague.
1. In the Finder, go to the /Users folder. (got that)
2. Locate the new home directory, which bears the users' short name.
3. Add "_new" to the new home directory's name.
4. Rename the old home directory to the user's correct short name.
5. Log out and back in with the affected user account.
so what do i add _new to and what do i rename to the new name?
it's a bit confusing.
i tried to change the home folder named jared_lastname to Jared Devour. so what do i change to make the old one my home again?
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Hard drive crashed, will not reinstall
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Hard drive crash, music on external drive but no library or playlist backup
I'm guessing this question has been asked many times but I've searched all over the internet and these forums and am exhausted. So I beg for your help.
My computer hard drive crashed. Not sure if I can get the files off it yet or not but will find out this weekend trying to connect it as an external drive with a special cable. All the Itunes music is on an existing external hard drive that works fine. No backups were ever created of the playlists or of the library file on the crashed drive, the external drive, or anywhere else.
I'm using what I guess they call on original Ipod, 25 GB.
The main thing I care about is getting 5 years' worth of playlists back. Most of them do exist on my Ipod, so at worst I could reference them visually there and recreate them in Itunes. But, um, I'd rather not!:)
So if with that information you can tell me what series of steps I should take to try to restore my playlists into Itunes on my new PC, or point me to a link, please do. I'll put my thoughts and questions below if this helps in figuring it out. I would say the chances are that I can't access any files from my old hard drive, but it is possible.
My Ipod also contains most of my songs and playlists, but not all, such as different versions of the same song etc. That is in addition to the external hard drive that all my songs are safely on.
1) If I can access the files on the old hard drive, is there anything there that contains information on the playlists if I haven't backed them up individally? From my reading it seems like playlists are not contained in the library file itself, is that right or wrong?
2) What information is contained in that library file, what does it do? If I can't get it from my old hard drive what will happen if I have Itunes create a new one?
3) I've read that I may be able to get playlist information from my Ipod, but it seemed really confusing and I was uncertain if that was correct. Is that a possiblity? Can I do it by accesing the Ipod as an external drive?
4) Would I also be able to get the libary file from the Ipod if I can't get it from my old hard drive? If the Ipod contains most but not all of my songs, would it be bad to use this file with the complete list of songs on my external drive?
That's about all the questions I can think of, so if anyone can help I'd appreciate it. I just can't seem to find an answer specifically to what happens if your music is backed up but playlists and library are not.
Message was edited by: overthetide+"1) If I can access the files on the old hard drive, is there anything there that contains information on the playlists if I haven't backed them up individally? From my reading it seems like playlists are not contained in the library file itself, is that right or wrong?"+
See: What are the iTunes Library files? Both the ITL and XML files keep your Library data. The ITL file is used by iTunes. The XML file is created by iTunes and can bu used in other programs or Imported back into iTunes to re-create your Library. hey are only as good as your last archived backup file (should you corrupt the current Library database file).
+"2) What information is contained in that library file, what does it do? If I can't get it from my old hard drive what will happen if I have Itunes create a new one?"+
These are only in the iTunes Library files (ITL & XML):
Playlists
Ratings
Play Count
Last Played
Date Added
Date Modified
Equalizer
Volume Adjustment
These are stored in the music file itself:
Artist
Album
Song Title
Year
Comments
Compilation tag
Lyrics
Genre
Grouping
Volume Adjustment (a special iTunes-only tag in the file - non-standard)
Composer
Bit Rate (not a tag - inherent to the file itself)
BPM
Kind (not a tag - inherent to the file itself)
Album Art (only stored in the file - not copied to the iTunes Library ITL or XML files)
+"3) I've read that I may be able to get playlist information from my Ipod, but it seemed really confusing and I was uncertain if that was correct. Is that a possiblity? Can I do it by accesing the Ipod as an external drive?"+
These links will give you several methods of recovering whatever songs remain on your iPod; some free, some third-party software, some more comprehensive for restoring Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts, etc. Read them and their associated links before deciding on a strategy that works for you. There are many various third-party software programs that will offer a more robust process, or an easier GUI. Do a Google search for them if the links below leave you wanting…
Don King Resurrected: Deleted files from hard drive (free user steps – music recovery only)
MacMuse: Computer Crashed (free user steps – music recovery only)
Copying music from iPod to computer (a primer on various methods and software)
Copying Songs from Your iPod to a Mac or PC (resource for 3rd party software)
iPodRip Software (Free trial: Mac & Windows)
PodUtil Software (Mac & Windows)
YamiPod Software (Free: Mac & Windows)
PodPlus Software (Windows)
TuneJack Software (Windows)
XPlay (Windows software For Music Recovery &/or Cross-Platform Functionality)
XPlay Photo Browser (For recovering Photos)
+"4) Would I also be able to get the libary file from the Ipod if I can't get it from my old hard drive? If the Ipod contains most but not all of my songs, would it be bad to use this file with the complete list of songs on my external drive?"+
Not directly. You'll need to use the recovery software mentioned in #3 above.
Best of Luck -
Hi everyone,
I am looking for help and maybe someone can help me please. My hard drive crashed and dell installed a new one. I have two iphones and an ipad with all my apps, music, amd photos. Can anyone indicate me what to do so I do not lose everything when I plug in my phone. ThanksNaturally you should have a recent backup of your "crashed" hard drive. If you don't, well, hopefully you've learned a lesson but that doesn't solve your current problem.
If all your apps and media were purchased from the iTunes App Store, don't worry about them. Redownload all your apps and media, then allow iTunes to sync with and wipe your iOS devices - which will also put all the apps and media on them. You'll lose your settings, and any data which resided only on the iOS devices, and of course you'll need to organize your iOS folders and home screens and whatnot. But you won't really lose much, and without a backup this is your best choice.
If you have media from sources other than the iTunes App Store, look at Senuti or similar applications designed to copy media from iOS devices to computers. Use that first, then sync as I described in my second paragraph above. (I mention Senuti because it's popular. There are other options which work just as well, and some are even free.) -
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http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/37/23/041-5058/lr5tynbldi18zcrqo8a8uq88 rnjushqliu/Safari6Lion.pkg
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