How do I recreate my library from my old hard drive?

I've been reading around and can't quite find a solution for my problem.
My hard drive boot sector crashed, so I had to install a new one. However, I can still access my iTunes data (library data, music, applications) from the old hard drive.
In my old Windows XP installation I had users. So my iTunes library was stored in the \documents and settings\my user\my user's documents\my user's music\iTunes. In my new installation, I just went away from users as it was just too much and did not add any value to me. So once I installed iTunes, my new (still empty) library ended up in \documents and settings\administrator\My documents\My Music\iTunes
I want to recreate my library (copy everything) in my new hard drive, as I can't trust the old one any more. I still have it connected to be able to recover all my old data, but once I do that I will take it out from the computer.
Any one can help in on what to do? While I don't want to loose my 'library data' I am also concerned with my applications, ratings, and all the 'music data' I have edited along these years that I am guessing is in the library files (as opposed to the actual music files).
Thank you!

Ok, so I just did it. After launching iTunes again I got an 'Updating library' message for a while, then I was able to see my whole library, BUT... most songs (not all) had an exclamation mark, and iTunes says it can't find the original file. I spot tested and they are in there (under the iTunes Music structure within the corresponding 'artist' folder). So I went ahead, changed the iTunes folder in the Preferences to point to the new 'iTunes Music' folder, and after that I could see everything. I did the 'Library Consolidation' after that (probably did not have to do that) but.. that gave me strange results:
Now I have a 'Music' folder within the 'iTunes Music' Folder, with all my music, but I still have a few artists at the 'iTunes Music' level, and even at the 'iTunes' level. Seems like they are duplicated... as they were also copied down to the 'Music' sub-folder.
Movies and podcasts seem to be fine.
I can't see the 'Applications' entry in iTunes. Any idea?
Thank you!!

Similar Messages

How do I move my library from Windows Vista hard drive that is now in an external box to a Windows 8 PC?

My old PC operating with Windows Vista failed to reboot, ironically but only coincidentally right after I installed the latest Itunes update a few weeks ago. It would not get past the DOS screen but getting that far I was at least able to conduct a diagnostics. The result was Hard Drive failure "BIOS-HD." I have a new PC with Windows 8 and have installed Itunes there as well. I removed the Hard Drive from the old computer and placed it in an external drive box. Fortunately, I can access everything on that drive including Itunes. How do I move my Itunes Library from my old hard drive in the external box and connected to my new PC, to the hard drive in the new PC? I see all sorts of instructions on line but none for the specific circumstance of the old hard drive in an external box and moving to a new PC with newer operating system (Windows 8). Thanks

Aside from checking here, I also Googled for an answer. Then I faced the problem on the Internet where stuff stays there forever and so I see solutions for previous and maybe obsolete versions of Itunes. I have no way of knowing if the seemingly sound advice was solved in later versions of Itunes. In one case there is a great YouTube video with a guy from Circuit City (now out of business). I found an extensive explanation that made my head explode with all the detail but I did understand enough to see that the solution they precribed has you go onto your new computer and make sure you rename your new hard drive to match the name of the hard drive from your old computer. That way Itunes on the new computer will be able to find it okay. These instructions also tell you to downlaod Itunes software on the new computer first and then move two different folders (I think one has the extension of .itl); one folder with the library and the other has the metadata--to the new computer. Then to confuse things I have seen instructions that also say to just move the files and they don't address the issue with the file names like turringtest said. Most discouraging is that all of the instructions I have talked about, explain what to do without ever addressing my specific situation where the old hard rive used to reside in an old computer and has an Vistas Operating System that apparently failed and caused me to get a new computer in the first place (I guess I could have loaded a new operating system but not sure if that would have wiped out my extensive files...also irrelevant to the discussion }:) Sorry). Thanks for your attempt to help. I appreciate it much.

How do i import my library from an external hard drive. Exported it as had to wipe pc and reinstal windows but when i try to import nothing happens

How do i import my library from an external hard drive. Had to export it as had to reinstal windows due to a conflict between windows and i-tunes. Wen i try to import nothing happens despite selecting the file. Can you import from an i-phone to i-tunes?

What do you mean bye exported the library?
There is nothing to export or import.
The correct process to backup the iTunes library would be to copy the ENTIRE iTunes folder from the computer to the external drive.

My old computer has broken and I had not backed up my Itunes. I now have the hard drive from my old computer but cannot transfer the music. How can I transfer the music from my old hard drive to the new laptop?

My old computer has broken and I had not backed up my Itunes. I now have the hard drive from my old computer (windows 7) but cannot transfer the music. How can I transfer the music from my old hard drive to the new laptop (windows 8)?

Copy the entire iTunes folder from \Users\<User>\Music on the old drive into your music folder on the new computer.
Or see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

How can i recover my data from an old hard drive after replacing it?

How can I recover my data from an old hard drive after replacing it?

Internal or external hard drive? Was the drive still working before you replaced it?

How to move mt itunes library from one external hard drive to another

I would like to move my itun4es library from my external hard drive H to external hard drive M; how do I go about this? without losing items

Short version: use the itunes consolidate command
Long version: read this
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/

My computer died. Can I recreate my iTunes library from my old hard drive?

My computer died and I had not backed up my iTunes library (I know, I know). The crash was not due to a corrupted hard drive, however, and I can access all the files from my old hard drive with my new computer, including any iTunes files. Can I recreate my iTunes library from these files on my new computer?
Thanks!!

Yes.
Transfer the iTunes named folder located in the Music folder from the hard drive on the failed computer to the appropriate location on your new computer - with iTunes quit when doing so.
In Windows Vista and Windows 7, click the triangles next to the folders and drives to navigate. In Windows Vista, the default location is: \username\Music\iTunes. In Windows 7, the default location is: \username\My Music\iTunes.

How do I transfer applications & data from my old hard-drive to my new one?

My old hard drive started to crash, it was on it's way out and making funny noises. I have brought a new hard drive and connected it to the same leeds as the old one. I have put the opperating system on to the new hard drive and it is all up and running..... but.
I want to transfer all my old applications like garage sale and limewire without having to pay for them again and transfer all my music and photos from the old hard drive to the new.
So:
1: How do i get the old hard drive out of the position it's in it seems glued in and i can't see any screws?
2: How do i connect both hard drives and transfer everything from the old to the new? Do i need to buy another set of leeds or should they be in the computer
Your help would be most appreciated.....
power mac G4 466MHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi
You should be able to have both drives installed at the same time in the rear U shaped bracket. One needs to be mounted in the bottom of the bracket, have it's jumpers set to master and be connected to the end connector of the ribbon cable. The other needs to mounted above it, have it's jumpers set to slave and be connected to the middle connector of the ribbon cable. The computer should have the leads to do this, i.e. one ribbon cable with two connectors and two molex power connectors. With both drives installed, you can then drag your music and photos etc from the old to the new. You could try dragging the applications, although if they install additional files elsewhere they'll need to be reinstalled from the original CDs or DVDs.
The old drive may be screwed into the U shaped bracket from below. There should be a single screw which secures the bracket to the chassis at the front, although it may be hidden under the ribbon cable. If you unplug the ribbon cable and undo the single screw you can remove the bracket still containing the old drive, by sliding it forwards and lifting it up at the front. The screws securing the drive to the bracket can then be undone from beneath.

Computer died...now how can I retrieve keyword tags from my old hard drive?

I got a new computer and installed Elements 9.0 on it. I am retrieving the pics from my old hard drive just fine but I seem to have lost the majority of my old keyword tags. Any help? Thanks.

If you didn't write the keyword tags to all the photos when your old computer was working, you can't get the tags back by simply retrieving the photos.
You'll need to retrieve the entire catalog directory. When you open that old catalog on your new computer, all your photos will be listed as "missing". Use the Reconnect All Missing Files to connect them by browsing to their current location.
Ken

How to use one music library from one external hard drive on two different computers

I have 57 gigs of music in my itunes library on my laptop (Windows Vista). I backed up the library onto an external hard drive. I would like to play the music on a second computer (Windows XP) without putting the music on the second computer, just keeping it on the external hard drive.
I have the latest version of iTunes and Quicktime installed. In iTunes on both computers, under Advanced Preferences I changed the iTunes media folder location to the folder on the external hard drive and checked the boxes for "Keep iTunes media folder organized" and "copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library". Also under the File tab, "Organize Library", I clicked on "Consolidate Files" and "Reorganize Files in the folder itunes music".
On the second computer I tried holding SHIFT while launching iTunes until the prompt appears asking to create a new library or point to an existing library. While attempting to point to the new location, I am only able to open the music folder, not set it as the location. In advanced preferences when I click "change" for the itunes media folder location, I can locate the folder but the only button I can click on is "open" or "cancel". "Open" will open the folder showing all my music. I tried typing in the location. It shows the correct location.
I was able to see the songs in the library in itunes on the second computer but it won't play the music. There are no exclamation points next to the songs. I am also able to see the playlists but there aren't any songs in the playlists.
There are no problems with itunes on the first computer. Everything works as it should.
Ideally I would like to use the same folder on the external hard drive for both computers if possible. But for now I want to at least get the music playing with the playlists on the second computer from the external hard drive.
Please help.

See this post on making a split library portable.
tt2

How to move an iTunes library from the internal hard drive to another bootable disk.

         I got two Mac OS X installations on my i Mac system. One on the internal hard drive (320 Gb), that has been there since the iMac was bought 3 years ago, upgraded to Lion on 2 August. (call that INT) . I have a USB external drive, and recently bought a firewire Lacie external drive (2Tb), so to boot from there when I can, with hard drive space getting tight this year. I successfully installed another copy of Lion on LACIE.
         Then I went to work to transfer my iTunes library, which the media files were optioned to store on the USB drive. Intending to transfer both the music and video files, and the megadata ( playlists, ratings, playcounts ) I found the media files and the iTunes library file and the .xml document in my iTunes folder from INT. I made a new folder in the USB drive, and copied the contents from the old iTunes folder to that new folder. I re-started in LACIE, and found my empty iTunes folder. I copied over to the new iTunes folder, then opened iTunes. My eyes saw the music library to the same number of items, with the playlists etc showing.
        However, I tried to sync an iPod Nano, and a window came up saying 100 songs could not be copied to the iPod because they could not be found. After ejecting the iPod I tried to play a song from iTunes, and the screen filled with exclamation points. A small window came up, asking for a password to open "sparsebundle" and my name. I entered my password for the administrator's log-in and it said try again with the password. Without knowing what password to put in, I clicked Cancel, and got another small window asking to locate the file. Then clicked Cancel again, not knowing where to search. All the media folders were showing after quitting iTunes and opening Finder .
      I re-booted into INT, and opened iTunes. The library was still there. I synced my iPod again, ejected it, played 3 songs on the iPod, synced again, ejected it again, and opened the playlist "Recently Played". It showed up okay with no problems. So my iTunes library in INT is alright.
      Has anyone got any idea how to make the transfer into LACIE and get it running alright, or what went wrong with what I did ?
      In the meantime I will empty my LACIE iTunes library folder's contents to the trash, and securily empty the trash .

Solved the issue without using the trash . I tried to consolidate the library in LACIE, then clicked on any exclamation-mark song and tried to locate the file. Repeating those steps 3 or 4 times cleared it up. That was confirmed when I synced the entire library on a iPod Classic, and showed up no problems after syncing the Nano.
     What went wrong was perhaps to fail to consolidate the library at first .

I recently had to back up itunes play lists to external hard drive, how do I restore the library from the external hard drive to the new computer

I recently had to back up itunes play lists to external hard drive whilst computer was fixed. reinstalled itunes but dont know how to reinstall my music from external hard drive. help?

The same way the library was copied/moved to the external drive.
Copy it from location A to location B.
Then point iTunes to the correct library.

How to get back the emails from an old hard drive that has no more OS ?

Hello,
My computer crashed recently.
The problem came from Windows somehow. So the hard drive is fine.
since windows couldn't be repaired I just copied a disk image backup to a new hard drive.
The problem is that I lost all the emails that were recieved between the moment I did my backup and now.
I can still access the folder :
%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\XXXXXXXX.default\Mail\
How can I use the files in that folder in order to get back my emails in Thunderbird ??
thanks for your help!

Thunderbird mail is stored in MBOX files. these will be locted in the mile folder (well sub folders) along with an MSF index of their contents with the same name.
This add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/ will import MBOX files. Once installed it adds an entry to the bottom of the Tools menu.

I have Elements 6.0 on a an old machine which has now failed (motherboard issue). How do I re-install it from the old hard drive onto a new machine?

Can anyone help me to re-install elements 6? I have it sat on the hard drive of an old machine which has a motherboard failure. I have the serial no, and I have a hard drive caddy. What do I do?

Sorry I don’t know of any download links for PSE6. It may be worth thinking of upgrading to the latest version PSE13. It now has 64 bit support so you should see improved performance if your new machine has more than 4gb of memory (RAM)
The interface is different to PSE6 although most of the tools you are familiar with will work the same.
Why don’t you download the trial version from the link below and use it free for 30 days. If you are happy with it you can purchase from Adobe or any retailer or on-line store. No further installation is required; you simply enter your serial number to make the trial permanent. It’s a good way of ensuring a successful installation before making a commitment to purchase.
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_elements&loc=en

How can I transfer specific date from my old hard drive to a new one?

I'm planning on buying the OWC Data Doubler and installing an additional drive [240GB OWC SSD]. I want to transfer everything except my iTunes library to the SSD so that it will run faster. I can't transfer the iTunes library because it's too big. How can I transfer just the data I want [OS, Documents, etc.] but leave the iTunes library on the drive. I do have an external drive/time machine backup available.

Hello,
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449

How do I recreate my library from my old hard drive?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for