My hard drive crashed and my itunes library is gone--what do i do?

my daughter and i both have itunes library's on the same computer just under different user names.my hard drive crashed and now our itunes library's are gone. should i just download the latest version of itunes and then hook up my ipod to it?not sure what to do.

*should i just download the latest version of itunes and then hook up my ipod to it?not sure what to do.*
If your iPod is set to sync automatically with iTunes you need to take care connecting it to an empty library.
1). Connect your iPod to your computer. If it is set to sync 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 from your iPod.
Alternatively open iTunes first and go to Edit>Preferences>Devices and check the box "Prevent iPods and iPhones from syncing automatically" and choose Ok. Then connect your iPod.
2). When your iPod appears in the iTunes source list change the update setting to manual, that will let you continue to 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 connected and your iPod is safely in manual mode there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. iTunes will only give you the option to copy your iTunes Store purchases directly from an iPod to the computer, you'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
For everything else (music from CDs, other downloads etc) there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
iTunes & iPod software
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
A selection of iPod to iTunes utilities:
TuneJack Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
SharePod Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod2PC Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
YamiPod Mac and Windows
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
iPodRip Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
Music Rescue Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iGadget 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

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Recover media from iPod
See this post from forum regular Zevoneer for options on moving your iPod data back to your computer.
tt2

After hard drive crash cant restore itunes library off ipod

My hard drive cracked it and had to send off the whole computer and get a new one put in...so i have lost everything...after updating my mac to get all applications and program versions back to where they were but my itunes is empty of course...now i cant figure out how to get my songs from my ipod which is synced with the old HD. so how can i get the songs from my ipod to the new itunes?!?!

This question is the most often asked question on this forum. A simple search for "transfer iPod music to iTunes" brings up tens of thousands of threads. (I guess nobody knows how to use any kind of search? Google is your friend, and so is that search box to the upper-right.)
Anyway, since I'm too lazy to post more, Wired will help you instead.

MY hard drive crashed and I had to replace it. Now when I try to sync my iPod with iTunes it says that I have to replace the old library (that is lost forever) with the new library to sync. I do not want to lose all the songs on my iPod! What can I do?

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Copy all the content on your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes. Then go ahead and sync the iPod with your new library.
See this older post from another forum member Zevoneer covering the different methods and software available to assist you with the task of copying content from your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2452022?start=0&tstart=0
B-rock

My hard drive crashed and when I replaced it, I am unable to sync most of my music. The message "file not found" appears. I have all my music on my . How can I upload these to iCloud or iTunes?

My hard drive crashed and I replaced it. I also switched from ATT to Verizon for my iPhone. Now when I sync with iTunes, only about a tenth of my songs are on the new iPhone. one or two from each album. I still have an iPad with all my songs on it. I subscribed to music match, but when I try on the iPad it wants to match with iTunes and erase a\the music on the iPad. I have no music on iCloud when I sign in. Can anyone help me???

If the hard drive that crashed is the one that stored the itunes library, be sure to restore the library from Time Machine (mac) or whatever backup you use on windows. That will get back your music. I suspect that the replacement drive has an empty itunes library and thus, perhaps, the itunes match used that to sync to its servers.
Try posting in the iTunes Match forum, you'll probably find more knowledgeable folks there.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/itunes/itunes_match

My old hard drive crashed and had to get it replaced. How do I reinstall my old library to the new hard rive from my iphone4s so I don't lose my music?

My old hard drive crashed and had to get it replaced. How do I reinstall my old library to the new hard drive from my iphone4s so I don't lose my music?

Officially you don't. Your i-device was not designed for unique storage of your media. It is not a backup device and media transfer was planned with you maintaining a master copy of your media on a computer which is itself properly backed up against loss. Syncing is one way, computer to device, updating the device content to the content on the computer, not updating or restoring content on a computer. The exception is iTunes Store purchases which can be transferred to a computer.
Note: The information below hasn't been updated since early 2013.
Some of the information below has subsequently appeared in a document by turingtest2: Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848 - only purchases from iTunes Store
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- Expod (free) - http://www.headlightsoft.com/expod/ - Mac, universal for 104.+ (newer machines try de-Tune)
- deTune (free) - http://www.headlightsoft.com/detune/ - Mac, 10.5+
- Senuti - http://www.fadingred.com/senuti/
- Phoneview - http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/
- MusicRescue - http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/products/musicrescue/
- Sharepod (free) - http://download.cnet.com/SharePod/3000-2141_4-10794489.html?tag=mncol;2 - Windows
- Snowfox/iMedia - http://www.mac-videoconverter.com/imedia-transfer-mac.html - Mac & PC
- iexplorer (free) - http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/ - Mac&PC
- Yamipod (free) - http://www.yamipod.com/main/modules/downloads/ - PC, Linux, Mac [Still updated for use on newer devices? No edits to site since 2010.]
- 2010 Post by Zevoneer: iPod media recovery options - https://discussions.apple.com/message/11624224 - this is an older post and many of the links are also for old posts, so bear this in mind when reading them.

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Hi all,
I had a hard drive crash and hadn't done a back-up in awhile. My iPod was up-to-date though. I used third-party software to grab the music off the iPod. So now I a good portion of my library back up to another hard drive AND the entire library pulled off my iPod. Should I just direct iTunes to the files I pulled off the iPod or direct it to the backup and add the missing files from my iPod files? Clear as mud?
Also what will be the sound quality of the files I pulled from the iPod?

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Use your backup copy to put everything back.
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Thank you.

Without a backup of your "crashed" HD you will have to download your iTunes purchases again. Make sure your restored computer is running the latest version of iTunes.
Here is the procedure for your reference.
On your restored computer, launch iTunes. Click on iTunes Store on the left
On the right you will see this
"Sign in" using the Apple ID used to purchase your songs, then click on "Purchased" (with the orange blob)
On the summary page that appears select the tab "Not on This Computer" on the right.
On the list that appears, select what you want and then click the "Download" button.
When you want to play your newly downloaded music, you will have to "authorize" it. Don't worry about the lost HD until enough of your computers crash that you reach the limit of 5. Then you can "deauthorize all" and re-authorize as necessary.
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519

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You can re-download the software from Download CS5.5 products
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http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
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http://www.rarlab.com/
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