Help downloading, please.

Question

My computer glitched out on me, not sure why, I suspect a power surge, but I had to re-install Windows XP home on the system, it wouldn't be nice and just recover. Of course, I had to reinstall iTunes as well...
Anyway, I have some music, some photos, and some movies on my iPod. Not all of them were backed up, yet, I was trying to work on that but this happened before I could get it all done. Now, of course, I only have them on my ipod, which is a 30 gig fifth gen, btw.
I have found some files here dealing with recovering music from other ipods, but how do I recover everything?
Any help is much appreciated! (Whines and begs nicely... ^_^ )
Toshiba Satellite 2410   Windows XP   Gen 5 iPod, 30 gig.

Answer 1

If you are using iTunes version 7 or later, then you can transfer purchased iTunes store music from the iPod to an authorized computer by using the "file/transfer purchases from iPod" menu. Note that the maximum of 5 authorized computers applies here.
For all other non purchased music (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 can be messy.
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 and playlists etc from iPod back to the computer. However, it does not transfer playcounts/ratings etc.
Another free program is Pod Player.
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.
If you copied photos to your iPod using the full resolution option, enable disk use, open your iPod in "my computer", open the photos folder then open the "full resolution" folder and drag the photos out of that folder to your desktop. For enabling disk use look here.
Disk Use.
If you only copied the photos as thumbnails, you can't do this so you'll need a program such as this one.
CopyTrans Photo
Photos as thumbnails won't be of the original quality when copied back to your computer.