Hard drive crashed, best course of action?

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro. I have not had problems with it before this, but last night I opened it to work on something and it was frozen with safari open as is left it. I had a cursor and it's wasn't showing the spinning wheel but nothing was responding (ie the dock wouldn't pop up and quitting/minimizing or clicking anything on the top bar didn't work). I decided to restart manually with the power button. When it powered back on it showed a blinking question mark folder. I've looked this up and tried suggested fixes. Disk utility doesn't show my hard drive so I can't repair it, which I have gathered from other posts means my hard drive is probably dead. I did not regularly do any sort of manual backups, is there a chance I'll be able to salvage my stuff? What is my best course of action here?
Also, not as important but I'm just curious as to what could have even caused this as it happened out of nowhere.
Thanks!

seen countless HD "die out of nowhere" nature of the beast.
Grab yourself a new 1TB HD (not Western digital) and install same.
If youre not up to doing this, make an appt. with your Apple store for HD replacement.

Similar Messages

My hard drive crashed on my PC and I replaced it but of course my iTunes info is gone. Do I need to start from scratch?

My hard drive crashed on my PC so I had to replace it. Is there a way to retrieve all the music I had downloaded & purchased. Unfortunately I did not back it up but it is on my iPod.

Use a third-party utility such as Phone to PC - macroplant.com.

Accessing site files on .mac for iweb when hard drive crashed w/out backup

Hello,
My hard drive crashed. I built my website on iweb, had it stored on my desktop before being able to actually back it up.
I have been able to grab my site files from idisk, but cannot drag & drop the website into my desktop, so I can update it.
Can you please add this feature to the iweb software. I do not understand why I could save the website on the .mac
server, and not access it when I need it.
This should definitely be a feature for working with .mac.
Please let me know. I am a fine artist, and the site is great.
Help please.
Kellyann

There is no way for your to do this unless you remembered or knew to backup a file called "Domain" from your hard drive before you formatted it. The pages that you already published and that are still online do not constitute any sort of backup....they are simply the finished product of iWeb's processing. There is no way to import these files back into iWeb for editing from your iDisk or from .Mac.
In the future, you should know that iWeb stores all vital information about your webpages in a single file called "Domain". This file is the one and only file where iWeb stores everything it needs to be able to edit your webpages and publish them. This is the file that you would need to backup in case anything happens to your computer....or you just want to use iWeb on another computer. This file is changed everytime you make a change in iWeb, so in terms of backup, it is wise to make a backup after every major change that you make to your websites so that you always have the most recent work backed up. This file by default is located on your hard drive in the following folder pathway..... HardDrive/Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/iWeb/.... It is best to leave the file here in this location unless you are familiar with iWeb and its treatment of multiple Domain files.
I am sorry to be the one to tell you this bad news. You have lost the ability to edit the sites you have already published. Unless you have a backup copy of this Domain file laying around somewhere, you only course of action will be to recreate your site from scratch.

Hard Drive Crash/Multiple Questions re: iPod

iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)
My iBook crashed last week and I've been trying to put the pieces back together after re-installing all the software.
I have a Maxtor External Hard Drive, however something is messed up and so most photos in iPhoto are now only in thumbnail format and my video clips are gone. (See posts in iPhoto discussion group.) I have the photos on my 30G video iPod. I also have some video clips on the iPod that I had copied to iTunes and "converted to iPod."
My music fortunately was saved in the Maxtor External Hard Drive, so my iTunes library appears to be back to normal except for the loss of playlists. Same with the video clips in the iTunes Movie file.
I have a couple questions that I have not found answers to in this discussion group:
1. I'm not sure if my photos in the iPod were thumbnails or full resolution. Which is the default option? Would I have had to choose this option? I only vaguely recall this. How would I find out?
2. It sounds like my iPod is not going to recognize my computer as my own. Is this true? Does this automatically happen when re-installing the software? Or does it have to do with the user name on the account? I inadvertently gave the computer user account a different name when I re-installed. (Before it was my husband's name and now it is a combination of mine and his.)
Before my troubles began, I had the iPod enabled for disk use and it would automatically open iTunes when plugged in and automatically sync music, photos, contacts, and notes.
I, too, am afraid of what will happen when I hook up my iPod to my computer. I need to know the best course of action so that I don't lose the photos I have. I'd like to be able to transfer them to the computer if possible but also keep them on the iPod, and to be able to sync my music to the iPod as I make changes to my music library.
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

"1. I'm not sure if my photos in the iPod were thumbnails or full resolution. Which is the default option? Would I have had to choose this option? I only vaguely recall this"
You have to choose the option to copy full resolution copies. If your iPod is enabled for disk use as you've said below then when you click on the iPod icon on your desktop you see a sub folder for your full resolution copies in the Photo folder
"2. It sounds like my iPod is not going to recognize my computer as my own. Is this true? Does this automatically happen when re-installing the software?"
Because you erased your iTunes library when you reinstalled OS X the iPod now sees a different one when it connects. 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 and photos etc. from your iPod.
"I had the iPod enabled for disk use and it would automatically open iTunes when plugged in and automatically sync music, photos, contacts, and notes"
You can also use a keyboard command to prevent your iPod auto-syncing with iTunes. While connecting the iPod to the computer on a Mac hold down the Option and Command (⌥ and ⌘ Apple) keys. This will stop the iPod from auto-syncing with iTunes and it 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. You should then be able to change your settings: iTunes Keyboard Shortcuts for OSX
"I need to know the best course of action so that I don't lose the photos I have. I'd like to be able to transfer them to the computer if possible but also keep them on the iPod"
There are various programs out there for recovering photos from an iPod, have a look at the ones below. iPodCopy will also transfer songs and playlists, if you search the internet you can find more:
iPod Photo Liberator Mac & Windows
iPodCopy Mac and Windows Versions
If you have full resolution copies of the photos on the iPod have a look here: Apple Knowledge Base article - Use Disk Mode to copy photos from iPod

Can anyone help me to transfer everything I have on my Ipad on to a new computer. my hard drive crashed and a new one was installed and I do not want to loose all my apps or music. Please help

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. Thanks

Naturally 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.)

Syncing iPhone with Outlook 2007 after hard drive crash.

I recently had a hard drive crash. We were able to retrieve the .pst files for Outlook 2007 and I sync my iPhone with Outlook for contacts, calendar and such for business. The iPhone of course, was not affected. I downloaded iTunes on the new hard drive, and backed up the phone. (I sync music and apps on my husband's laptop.)
Now, in trying to sync, though, I get a lot of nebulous messages that really don't explain what the outcome will be.
Box says:
The information on the iPhone "Susan's iPhone" is synced with another user account. Do you want to sync this iPhone with the information from this user account instead?
(Choices: "Merge Info mergest th einformation on this iPhone with the information from this user account. OR "Replace Info" replaces the information on this iPhone with the information from this user account. )
My best guess would be 'Merge info" but then, will I end up with double everything? I have many hundreds of contacts and years of calendars.
It seems with Apple I'm always cleaning up one mess after another. Today when installing iTunes, it corrupted my Outlook and I had to repair Outlook. So it would be a nightmare to have double of everything on my phone and on my computer.
Does anyone have a clue as to what to expect?

On a PC with Windows or with Paralels iTunes 8.2 has an option for Outlook which works with Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 (if it works - see my post on a case where it doesn't ...)

I recently had a hard drive crash and had to reinstall PS. Now it doesn't work right.

I recently had a hard drive crash. I replaced the C: drive with a solid state and now have 3 internal HDs. C: for the OS (Windows 7), D: for data and P: for program installation. Because I replaced the C: drive, I had to re-install all my programs. Now, PhotoShop will not let me place text, inserting the text tool causes the program to stop responding. In InDesign, if I try to place a MS Word document, it acts as if I never did that action and I can't get it placed.
I can copy and paste, but doing so makes the formatting get left behind. I suspect it may not have installed correctly. I've used Adobe products since 1991 and never had this happen before. I even used Aldus PageMaker before the Suites were available. Can anyone help? Is it a reinstallation issue?
I use PhotoTools from OnOne and if I uninstall it to reinstall CS4, I'm afraid it will no longer honor my product key.
I will not give up until this work like it used to. I'm too old to upgrade.

The faulty HD was replaced with a solid state one and that works fine. The fan that caused the errors on the old HD was removed. The system is probably not an issue since I had to reinstall my Windows 7 and it was the only thing installed on the C: drive. I have another drive that I run programs from and one other that I use only for data. Plus a backup drive. The BIOS was reset. The only remaining problems I have are trying to find the software for the web cam driver and I think I will just download it again and my problem with PhotoShop and InDesign. Those two are the sticky ones,I depend on those programs. They work, even my PhotoTools plugin works. The only problems seem to be using the type tool in PS and placing MS Word documents (.docs and .docxs) I think the program must not have installed correctly but I'm afraid if I reinstall it, it might be worse and then I might have to reinstall PhotoTools. That would require calling the company again because when I reinstalled it the last time, it said that it couldn't accept the product #, it had been used before. Yeah, by me. I called them and they gave me a new number, but I don't know if they will be happy if I do that again. So, my best bet is to see if I can fix those two functions. Thank you for your response. let me know if you have anything to add. I appreciate your time.

So, about a week ago my macbook pro started having lots of issues: wifi connectivity, slow performance, sound issues, spotlight wasn't working. After going through the issues with apple support, they decided the best course of action was to erase it...

So, about a week ago my macbook pro started having lots of issues: wifi connectivity, slow performance, sound issues, spotlight wasn't working. After going through the issues with apple support, they decided the best course of action was to erase the hard drive and do a reinstall. Since I have a recent backup this seemed like a good enough option. They were kind enough to send me a copy of the snow leopard disk to do the install since we couldn't get it to complete through the disk utility. Not sure why, since it says we are fully connected, it just never completed.
Anyway, so now that you have the background here is the new issue. The macbook pro keeps spitting out the disk I'm trying to install from. Disk utility and using the 'Startup Disk' function from the apple menu doesn't read the disk.
Can anyone suggest a solution to this vexing problem?
Thanks in advance.

Jeremy.Laurin,
have you tried agb76’s approach here?

Hard Drive Crashed - Non-Recoverable - Reasons for Crash?

Hi, My hard drive crashed this week and was not recoverable. It was running on Tiger 10.4.
I have since bought a new hard drive, maxxed out my RAM, installed Leopard, and am reinstalling all my apps. QUESTION: does anyone know the reasons that would cause a hard drive to crash?
My specific concern is that I had some kind of bug in the system. If I reinstall all my old files (primarily Word docs, mp3s, and photos) will that trigger a second crash on my NEW hard drive?

Hard drive failures are often simply random. Most times when the heads touch the platters, maybe a little bit of data is destroyed or maybe none at all. If the head crashes really hard it can do all sorts of bad things including taking out the system area (sort of the mother of all head crashes).
There are things you can do to reduce the chances of a crash. Minimize movement of the drive when it's in operation (it's generally safe to move when the heads are parked where there's no data). Some head crashes are caused by sudden environmental changes. It's important that the breather hole in the drive isn't blocked so that it can adjust to pressure changes. The heads are flying on a cushion of air, and abrupt changes in pressure can increase the chance of a head crash.
Of course the future may be in solid-state drives replacing hard drives for mobile applications. They're already highly resistant to shock and "best in class" SSDs outperform even the fastest 10,000 RPM mobile hard drives in read speeds.

My hard-drive crashed, I own lightroom 5, where can I download it again t re install it. The ADOBE email I had has links that no longer work (thanks for that). Running Windows 7 Home Premium

My hard-drive crashed, I own Lightroom 5, where can I download it again t re install it. The ADOBE email I had has links that no longer work (thanks for that). Running Windows 7 Home Premium

Hello Andrea,
did you try this: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_lightroom&promoid&promoid=DT EML
What concerns your eMail you should talk to Adobe, please have a look there: http://helpx.adobe.com/de/contact.html by clicking throug their questions and if "open" please use chat, I had the best experiences.
Hans-Günter

IPod hard drive crashing problems

Sorry this is going to be long, as I want to give some background, because I would love to hear opinions about this:
I had a 6th generation 160g iPod for just over 3 years. I was on vacation using it over a long weekend a week ago. I was listening to music and decided I was going to watch a Simpsons episode that I bought from the iTunes store and was in my "tv shows" section of my iPod.
As I went to switch to the episode, the iPod froze black. I had been having issues with it randomly resetting itself or pausing during songs, so I thought it might be on its way out. - Sure enough when I did the reset it never booted back up. I tried several times. So when I got back home 2 days later and plugged it into my computer, I was not surprised that it still would not reboot.
I was bummed. 3 years is not a long time when you spend that much money. I am broke right now and since I am a music fanatic, with a huge music library I was wondering how I was going to carry on. I cannot afford to buy a new iPod.
My dear father came to my rescue and showed up at my house with a brand new 7th generation 160g iPod on Saturday evening, just as a nice jesture. - I let it sync up, went to bed. Sunday afternoon, I was taking my daughter to the park and I brought my iPod into the car. I noticed that much of the artwork was not popping up as I looked through both coverflow and sampled some songs in playlists. And when I went to try a video again... BAM, the iPod locked up and wouldn't reset, just like the old one.
I thought... maybe this is a fluke, but how strange that a brand new iPod would crash again on legally purchased iTunes video. So after trying to get it to reset, I plugged it in and again, it would not reset and my computer would not recognize it. The hard-drive just wouldn't boot up.
Then I thought... even though it wasn't plugged into my computer either time and I had used the old one for a while without syncing, maybe it was something on my computer... so I plugged it into my wife's laptop and it said "found new hardware" and then there was a new message saying something along the lines of "there is a problem with your new hardware and it cannot be installed".
My dad had gotten the 2 year warranty, but since it wasn't even 24 hours, I went to Best Buy and brought them back the iPod. They checked it out and said "wow, it's rare that out of the box it would crash, but it's crashed" and they gave me a new one. - I asked them about the possibility of something corrupting it, but they said it was unlikely and they since it's a hard-drive, hard-drives crash.
So on Sunday evening, I did the same routine, I synced my iPod. This time, I tried a little bit of music and a little bit of video without syncing my library and it worked... Then that night I let the whole thing sync.
This morning (Monday) I took it to work and played some music while I dropped my daughter off, and all of a sudden all the artwork is gone again... I figured I deal with that later, because although it bothered me, at least it was playing song after song with no issue.
I'm at work now and I was letting a playlist play on shuffle. It was working just find and was so happy to have an iPod back.
Then I hit the menu button and it takes me back to "coverflow" (the last place I was browsing) and all of a sudden the sound starts buzzing and the whole thing locks up. It's stuck, so I go to reset it...
And low & behold, it won't reset, like the hard-drive crashed AGAIN. This is the 3rd iPod in a row. I plugged it into my work computer, just to see if it would recognize it. (I downloaded the latest iTunes on there) It won't. Again it just won't reboot.
Now the first one, I was having hard-drive troubles, and hadn't been synced in a while, so unfortunately I think the product just doesn't last very long.
But now with 2 new ones, it's making me think that there could be a problem with something in my computer. But I can't imagine what. Everything is either ripped directly into iTunes from a CD, bought from the iTunes store or were WAV files I put into iTunes and converted to aac files. I am a musicians and don't believe in illegally downloading music and don't use torrents. I can't imagine what could corrupt anything I'm syncing.
I have about 110g of music that I am trying to sync. And then some tv shows, which I don't always sync all of them. Most of them were purchased from iTunes, but I have a few that I took from DVD and converted and put into my iTunes.
I have called the apple help line, but they want me to call them back when I'm at my computer at home and we can trouble shoot, even though I know they won't be able to help me, because my iPod won't be able to be read.
I would love to get some opinions and help.
Thank you,
Paul.

Okay, by looking at my previous posting in this forum, it has apparently only been 2 1/2 years since I got my last iPod.

My hard drive crashed, and I got a new one. How do I get my contacts and calendar from my Iphone back into outlook?, my hard drive crashed, and I got a new one. How do I get my contacts and calendar from my Iphone back into outlook?

My hard drive crashed. I have all my contacts and calendar in my IPhone. I now have a new hard drive and am trying to get my contacts and calendar into the reinstalled outlook on my desktop but can't sync. Suggestions? Thanks

Well, let's hope that nothing was jiggled out of place when you were installing the new hard drive. Your optical drive may just be out of alignment or the disc you have is "dirty." Get a lint-free cloth and some rubbing alcohol, then clean the disc as thoroughly as you can starting from the center and working outward in a concentric circlular motion. See if that helps. In particular clean the inner portion well.
If this does not help, then you have a problem. You have opened the computer yourself. That action voids all support from Apple. If you take the computer in for service the store may refuse to service the computer. This is not related to your now expired warranty.

Hard drive crashed! Now itunes wants to erase ipod in order to sync?

My hard drive crashed and I lost my itunes library. Now, when I want to sync the ipod with new music I've purchased it looks like itunes wants to erase everything on my ipod first. Am I correct? I've already transfered the purchased music to the new hard drive from my ipod, but can't figure out how, or if it is possible, to transfer the rest of the music. What's my best option to hold onto my playlists etc. and be able to sync ipod to itunes library on new hard drive? Thanks.

1). Connect your iPod to your computer. When you get the 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".
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 the rest of your music from the iPod not just the purchased tracks. There are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. 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. This is just a small selection of what's available, you can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
Senuti Mac Only (iPod Touch & iPhone compatible)
PodView Mac Only
PodWorks Mac Only
iPodDisk PPC Mac Only (experimental version available for Intel Macs)
TuneAid Mac only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPodRip Mac & Windows
YamiPod Mac & Windows
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
Floola Mac & Windows
Music Rescue 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
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

Hard drive crashed. how to replace? how to recover data?

My 1st gen 12" aluminum PB with the 60gig hard drive crashed on me. Over the years it has been dropped twice from a 3ft high table onto a concret floor(KIDS!!).
Then one day while using excel the colored wheel appeared and never went away.
When I start it up I get the question mark for a second then just stuck on the apple screen.
Tried disk utilities, target disk mode, etc. I really beleive the disk is toast.
I just bought the new iMac G5 and the new iPod video so I have a replacement on the way.
I still want my PB and i really need some of the data off of the drive. A few files did not get backed up before it crashed.
Question 1: can you reccommend a place to get a new hard drive for it and a new battery? I have been looking on eBay already.
Question 2: How can i get the data off the old drive? I tried booting in Target Disk mode and hooking into my other laptop via firewire but the drive would not mount so i could not get the files I need off of it. I don't want to spend a fortune at one of those data recovery places.

I have a similar problem, but in a sense it was caused by a glitch in TechTool Pro 4.
disk utility had indicated that I had a couple of bad blocks in my start up disk and recommended that it be replaced. Since I already had a second internal hard drive with plenty of room on it, I simply installed OS 10.4 on the second hard drive and designated it as the startup drive.
Then I ran maintenance on the problem drive. After spending an hour or more grinding through every sector it appeared that the drive would pass master. However for some reason it hung up, stopped making progress and disabled my computer, i.e., I could move the cursor but could not click anything or select anything. Finally my only choice was to manually shut down and restart. Restart seemed to work fine except the disk on which I was performing maintenance did not show up on the desktop.
Finally I was able to locate it using disk utility and discovered that the mount point was missing and it was not mounted. Of course this is what I should have expected since techtool pro unmounts a drive while it performs maintenance and when I had to interrupt, it did not remount.
I spent three days trying to find a way to remount it, including downloading MountMe. Strangely when I ran MountMe it recognized the drive and gave me a successful remount message, but the drive was not actually remounted according to disk utility.
I have moved the drive to a different G-4 with no more success.
So, first I suggest you be cautious about the data rescue software or drive maintenance software.
Now for my greatest problem -- I had used Backup from .Mac but apparently was not careful enough about where the backup file was located. Generally I download to my desktop and then if I want to save a download I move it to an appropriate location. Unwisely I had done the same with backup which means of course that when the old startup drive crashed it took my desktop files with it.
Included among those backups were all of my financial records (Quicken) for the year. Three checking accounts, all of my credit card accounts, all of my business accounts, etc. I am talking about days of contacting credit card companies and banks for replacement of records for the year and, worse yet, they don't have the details in their files regarding the accounts to be charged nor do they have any info about inter account transfer, etc., etc., etc.
So, I am looking for a reasonably priced service provider to copy my defective hard drive for me. I don't think there is any problem with the data on the drive, I just can't get it remounted.
Maybe someone knows how to work around the mount point problem????
My main desktop computer is a G-4 quicksilver with dual 800, OS 10.4.3 and 1.4 GB of memory.
thanks,
John Cleek

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

Hard drive crashed, best course of action?

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