ITunes 10.2.1.1 Crashing in Windows 7 SP1 - My solution

Question

I will first start off and say my solution isn't the prettiest girl at the dance but it will get you what you want.
Like most of you I spent the last couple weeks combing the Internet for answers but nothing works. iTunes would just stop working/crash whenever I connected my iPhone (3GS). So finally what I did was uninstalled iTunes, ran CCleaner to clean up my registry, rebooted and installed iTunes without all the bloatware (guide here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28727/how-to-install-itunes-without-extra-bloat/).
The next thing I did before I started up iTunes was i backed up all my music, mobile apps, ringtones, etc on to an external hard drive so that i could have an untouched copy. After that I deleted the original directories and an library, preference or whatever files that had to do with the previous installations of iTunes. Then I copied all my music, mobile apps, ringtones, etc to a third location (my desktop) so that I can keep the external hard drive pristine.
After all that I opened iTunes and let it search my desktop for music to put in the library. After this was done I consolidated the files back to the original location on my NAS. Then I closed iTunes moved my mobile apps, ringtones, etc directories back to my iTunes folder on my NAS. I then went back into iTunes and connected my iPhone. I got a message that there was a new (iOS 4.3.1) update for the iPhone but I canceled that for now.
I sat there for about 10 minutes waiting for the Task Manager to show iTunes - Not Responding, but that never happened. I then went ahead and set iTunes to sync with the phone . I got a message saying that the phone wasn't synced to this library and that it will have to be erased and what not. My phone wasn't, but I am not sure your phone wont be. I clicked yes and then went thru the normal sync process of having the apps and everything backed up. After this was done I updated with the new 4.3.1. iOS and everything seems to be working fine now. It did take me about 3 days to do all this but i have a huge music library.
I might have missed a step or two but you get the idea. Someone screwed up somewhere and the new iTunes doesn't play nice with old library or preference files for some reason. Not sure if it was someone at Apple or MS, but it really doesn't matter because both companies should be able to prevent this.
I do not offer any support in this manner and the last thing I will say is be careful and make sure you backup everything often.

Answer 1

Hey, I have had my intunes soley shut down my computer numerous times, for the past month or so. I realize now it is only within my itunes, but it may not only be itunes. My desktop and a lot of cashed info have been cleared now, as a result of a ton of restarts by completely shutting the power most likely.
I have been too lazy to back up my music because it messes stuff up, and goes so slow it crashes. it will probably work better if I dont even touch itunes and just transfer small parts of my library at a time, not all 120+ gb!
I think a my computer is
           a fried
           b my files are terribly corrupted
           c or my itunes is compromised
either way, i will back up my music, but what do you think the chances are my music is the culprate, and by backing it up I will have the same problem in the future?
i've been thinking re-installing itunes would be best
let me know....thanks