I need to restore my iTunes lit file after a hard drive wipe

My laptop was stolen and wiped, but I ended up getting it back. I'm a DJ and manage my music through iTunes and stupidly had not backed up for several months. I've recovered all my files, and am trying to recover my latests itl file so I get my most current version of my playlists back. Problme is, when the frive was wiped, all the itl files lost their names and date created info, and I seem to have over 35 of them. I figured the largest file would be to most recent, but that is not the case. Any ideas on how I can find the most recent itl file out of this group? they range in size from a 65 kb to 45 mb,
Thanks

Well, other is all your personal data. So you'll need to go through that and delete a lot. Also, if you're using a laptop local snapshots may be taking up space in backups.
If you run TM you don't really need local snapshots so if you need the disk space you can disable them in Terminal with this command...
sudo tmutil disablelocal
To undo this, rerun it with "enablelocal" instead of "disablelocal".
Most folks using a small flash drive will keep only the system on that drive and use another larger drive for everything else. It sounds like you need another disk.. but what type Mac are you on?

Similar Messages

  • Restore Windows 7 backup file to portable hard drive

    Restore Windows 7 backup file to portable hard drive
    I have a full system backup on an NAS - 241 zip files.
    The backed up Windows 7 laptop failed irreparably, and I now have a new laptop running 8.1.
    I have attempted to create a mounted drive of the old backup - but get a compatibility error from 8.1
    I would like to make an accessible copy of the original Win 7 drive on a portable hard drive and access the documents, .pst files, and music files.
    Any suggestions very welcome.
    Thanks

    Hi,
    To restore your file from Windows 7, you need to restore these file from Windows 7 system, then choose the feature of system restore to restore these file.
    Please refer to the link below for more details about how to restore your file. Especially notice "To restore a backup made on another computer".
    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-hk/windows/restore-files-backup#1TC=windows-7
    Roger Lu
    TechNet Community Support

  • I need to move my iTunes library to an external hard drive

    I need to move my iTuns library to an external hard drive in order to free up space on my macbook pro.  I've checked the external hard drive & it is playing my iTunes fine. I've moved the iTunes folder on my macbook to the trash can.  Is there anything else I need to do before emptying it from the trash can?

    Sounds like you are OK. Be sure to open iTunes then preferences. Click on Advanced icon in toolbar. Set the path to your media folder in the field where you should see the path to the original location. Or, you can hold down the OPTION key while starting iTunes and choosing the library you wish to use.
    This should be it. If all is working well delete the data in the Trash. Now, if it were me I would have a backup somewhere just in case. Better safe than sorry.

  • I need to move the iTunes library to an External Hard Drive to free up space on iMac.  Need suggestions on type of External Hard Drive to use.  A Multimedia Hard Drive like LaCie LaCinema Classic HD Multimedia Hard Drive OR a Large Desktop Hard Drive?

    I need to move an iTunes library to an External Hard Drive to free up space on iMac.  I Need suggestions on type of External Hard Drive to use.  Should you use a Multimedia Hard Drive like LaCie LaCinema Classic HD Multimedia Hard Drive OR a standard Large Desktop Hard Drive like Western Digital/Seagate/LaCie?

    There is no benefit to the multi-media feature on the first drive you mentioned. If you are going to look at differences between certain drives, I'd look at the differences in reliability first.

  • Restore iTunes library from Time Machine, after full hard drive wipe

    I had to do a full hard drive wipe on my MBP running 10.6.6, so I made a full Time Machine backup before hand. I reinstalled os x (10.6.3) and used migration assistant to restore my files from the Time Machine backup.
    Most of this process has been painless, however, when I open iTunes it's empty. I have all the music files, iTunes Library.itdb, iTunes Library Extras.itdb and iTunes Library Genius.itdb. Is there a way to restore my previous iTunes library with these files? I feel like this should be a pretty basic thing to do but I haven't found much/any documentation of it online. Any help would be much appreciated.

    Take the files that you list and the iTunes music folder from the TM b/u and drag them to the iTunes folder. To put it in simpler terms - drag the iTunes folder from the TM to the same location on the internal HD.
    By default the path should be HD>User>Your Account>Music>iTunes(your iTunes files are here)>iTunes Music (your music files are here)
    MJ

  • Help! I need to open my iTunes library from my external hard drive

    Hey everybody
    I recently moved my iTunes library to an external hard drive. It worked great for a while; whenever I opened iTunes I made sure my hard drive was plugged in. Since then, I've used iTunes without plugging the hard drive in to sync my iPhone contacts, so there is also a local iTunes library without any files. My question: how do I tell iTunes to open the library on my external hard drive again? The hard drive is plugged in but iTunes won't open the library on the hard drive. I think there is some key I have to hold down while opening iTunes (?) it's not ctrl or option. Help! Thanks
    Ryan

    Yep. You're right. My problem was that I wasn't holding the option key down long enough... wow, epic fail... but thanks! I now have my music back!

  • HT201250 How to restore laptop from time capsule after replacing hard drive

    How do I reload all my programs and files from a time capsule after changing hard drive?  Also Apple store reloaded with Snow Leopard and not Lion.  Will that be a problem?  Thank you

    Plug the external drive into a computer by usb or whatever box you have available..
    When you say blank, is it correctly formatted.. we recommend HFS+ which is Mac OS Extended (jorrnaled)
    Make sure you use GUID type disk setup not MBR if it came from PC world.
    Copy the files via finder from TC to the external drive.

  • How can I restore my itunes data from an old hard drive?

    Hey guys I hope this isn't confusing... but! My motherboard on my computer died yesterday, and I had to buy another computer. I had 2 hard drives in my old computer and also an usb external drive that had all my music on it. Now here is the problem... I only had enough room in my new computer to add 1 extra drive so I put the bigger drive in, but that is not the drive that itunes was installed on. So I was going to download itunes but then realized I would not be able to get my settings back. So here is what I did. I installed the drive that itunes was on to another computer so I can access the hard drive.
    So my question is I guess, Is there a file that I can take off that old hard drive and copy it over or import it into my new itunes that was just installed so I don't have to resetup all my ipods ( I have 2 iphones 2 videos, and 1 touch) remember that all the music and video files are on the usb drive so I can just set itunes to look in that drive for the files. it is just the settings that I am looking to import.
    Thanks for any help

    It's your PC that needs to be authorized, not the iPods. If you didn't authorize your old PC before it crashed, you have lost one of the 5 authroizations, but I wouldn't worry about it - once you reach 5 authroizations you can deauthorize all, once per year.
    Article onthat: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1420
    +will this also keep my info for all downloads+
    I don't understand this part of your question.

  • How do I restore lost iTunes from a crashed external hard drive?

    My external hard drive that I used to store my downloaded cds has crashed and I was using iTunes to play my songs.  Is it possible to recover my them?  No backup was ever done.

    This is a tricky one.
    Open up Time Machine and go back to a date using the timeline on the right side of the window when you know the drive was working and was backing up as part of Time Machine backups.
    Click on the name of your Mac under the Devices heading on the left side of the window in Time Machine, and if things are working correctly you will see Macintosh HD (or whatever you have named it) and the name of the external hard drive that was backing up in the past.
    Right-Click on the name of the external hard drive and then click on "Restore (name of drive) to....."  You may be asked for your adminstrator password at this point.
    It might be easier to restore the drive contents to your desktop if you have room on your Mac, and then copy things over to the new external drive where you want to store the Aperture and iMovie Libraries.
    Once the libraries have been moved over the new external hard drive, you will likely need to "point" Aperture and iMovie to the location of the libraries on the new external hard drive.

  • How to restore files after a Hard Drive crash?

    I just had my Hitachi 320 Gb Macbook HD crash (out of the blue started clicking when restarted, and the folder with question mark appeared).
    Good news is that I have a duplicate of the entire HD (using Retrospect "duplicate" function) from about a week ago.
    I have installed a new HD in my MacBook and I'd like to restore all my old files without losing any bookmarks, preferences, having to re set up email etc.
    I thought I could just drop the whole Retrospect duplicate on to the HD but that didn't work, then I loaded the OS X disc (10.5.6) and tried getting everything on to the HD using Migration Assistant, but nothing showed up in the Migration Assistant box......?
    I know all the data I have backed up is good, I'm just looking for the best way to avoid having to manually drag everything over in case I miss ssome things, or there are some preferences etc that are stored someplace and I miss them?
    Also, does the user name have to be exactly the same for this to work (my name was mis spelled by one letter on the old HD, should I make my new user name match?
    Thanks for any help!
    Alan.

    Boot from the external drive that contains the duplicate. Use Disk Utility to prep the new drive:
    Extended Hard Drive Preparation
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    When formatting is completed use the Restore option of DU to restore your clone to the new hard drive:
    Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
    1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
    2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
    3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
    4.Check the box labeled Erase destination.
    5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
    6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
    7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    Destination means the new drive.
    Source means the clone drive.

  • Restoring Outlook files after replacing hard drive

    My MBPro hard drive crashed a couple of weeks ago.  Fortunately I use Carbonite to backup so I'm good there.  I reinstalled Office for Mac and have found my Outlook files in the Microsoft User Data Folders.
    How do I make Outlook point at these files so my catagories, contacts, mail, etc will be restored?

    At this point it would be interesting to know if the same would happen with 100 GB HDD. Can you obtain such or similar HDD somewhere for testing purposes?
    Problem is that you cannot manipulate recovery image and recovery installation procedure. Either it works or not.
    To be honest I am a little bit surprised with your upgrade. I cannot imagine that some small car can run with 10 time stronger engine. What do you think?

  • Why does iTunes sort files on the hard drive differently to on the iPod?

    Hey guys! im using itunes 8.2 and my new iPod classic 120GB.
    I updated all my music in iTunes so that it is now perfectly organised on my iPod. The ipod appears to organise its artists using the "artist" field not the "album artist". because of this i decided to use "artist" like the album artist and "album artist" like the usual artist field so that i still had the names of some of the featuring artists etc (example: i have a song by Air featuring Beth Hirsh. normally this would have "artist" = Air feat. Beth Hirsh and "album artist" = Air. but as the ipod organises the other way around I swapped them over.) This all went fine and my iPod is perfect, as is the itunes library itself as i just sort by "artist" and it keeps everything as i like it.
    As I had managed to get that in order I thought I would then let iTunes organise the music on my hard drive. Frustratingly iTunes then decided to organise everything on the hard drive by "album artist"! which means i've got 2 folders for my Air album one under Air and one under Air feat. Beth Hirsh.
    Basically what im asking (after all that waffle) is 1) why is it different and 2) can i change it?
    if there is a way of changing it (which im sceptical of considering apple tend to tell you whats best and then have done with it, as they are more often than not right!) then im assuming there is more chance of changing itunes than the ipod.
    Any help will be much appreciated!
    thanks Andy

    The problem you've run across has been inherent in iTunes & iPod software for quite some time - I suspect they don't consider it an issue or it would have been addressed by now. See my previous post on Grouping Tracks Into Albums for suggested workarounds for this and other organisational issues, in particular the topic One album, too many covers.
    tt2

  • Do I need to back up itunes library to a portable hard drive?

    I'm in my late 50's and I'm totally new to ipod & itunes. I have just purchased the ipod classic 160g mainly because I want to store all my CD collection & download all the new stuff too. Have loads of tunes in my library & have been given mixed messages about backing up. If iTunes is stored online is the sole purpose of backing up just incase laptop goes down? Also, can I access my iTunes account from another computer?

    I would definitely back up your iTunes on a seperate hard drive, iTunes is only stored on line if you've either bought the music from iTunes or if you subscribe to iTunes Match. Even if you have iTunes match, it isn't designed to be a back up, besides, why trust a third party with your valuable music?
    You can have your iTunes account on 5 seperate computers. I wouldn't try to download music to a different computer using your iPod though, it might work if you sign in to your account on the other computer first but it'd be better to transfer from a portable hard drive.

  • Recovering iWeb Files after replacing hard drive

    I had 5 functioning websites on iWeb. In April this year I replaced the hard drive on my Mac. I definitely backed up everything onto a new external hard drive, but I can't find my websites on this hard drive and can't work out how to recover them. They are all still live however. Any help would be much appreciated, but please bear in mind I'm not really up on the tech talk, so if you could dumb it all down that would be great!
    Thanks very much!

    You need the 'Domain' file which by default lives in (user)/Library/Application Support/iWeb (note that this is not the Library at root level and may be hidden - see below*).
    iWeb cannot import the HTML pages which are online, so if you are unable to retrieve the Domain file in which it keeps its data all you can do is to recreate the site from scratch, using the online pages for reference and as a source for the text and images.
    If you have to do this you may want to consider not using iWeb, which is no longer supported and may well stop working with any upcoming system upgrade. Everweb is designed to be very like, and to improve on, iWeb and is well liked.
    *Apple have hidden the user’s Library folder in Lion and above to casual viewers, in an attempt to stop new Mac users messing their machines up. To access it, in the Finder go to the ‘Go’ menu and hold down the Option (Alt) key; the Library folder will appear as a choice. In Mavericks you can make it permanently visible - open your Home Folder the from the Finder's View menu, choose show View Options and check Show User Library.

  • Recover files after assumed hard drive crash

    I have a PowerMac G4 with its original hard drive and an additional 80 GB hard drive and I am using OSX 10.3.9. Last night, after restarting the computer, I got the flashing question mark. I rebooted using my OSX install disk, checked Disk Utility and it showed only the 80 GB hard drive. Up to this point, I was still using the original drive for applications and some files. I have read a large number of the forum postings about this type of problem, but no matter what I try, the computer only recognizes the 80 GB drive. I assume my original drive has crashed. Now the question is, can I retrieve any of the files or applications on the original hard drive and what is the easiest method of doing so?
    DeWayne R.

    If your drive is dead and you really need to salvage data, you can always contact a professional data recovery service and see what they can do for you. Otherwise, it seems your drive has failed. One way of keeping an eye on your drives is to regularly check it's S.M.A.R.T. status. You can check this in disk utility by clicking on the appropriate drive and looking at the information about the drive mentioned at the bottom of the window. If a drive is about the fail, it will report in red "failing". You can check the S.M.A.R.T. status any time you wish. Many third party disk utilities do it for you in their routine checks, such a Techtool. A third party disk utility may be something for to look into if you haven't already to prevent further loss of data.

Maybe you are looking for