Old ipod 2 new ipod, please help!

Question

Good evening friends,
I hope you are well. I am planning to get an 160GB ipod classic next week.
I currently have a 4th generation ipod (not colour screen) with about 8,000 songs on it. These songs are not on my computer as I manually update my ipod, this is because i use a work laptop and they constantly update it / change it and I am scared I lose my songs.
I am very worried about losing all my music on my ipod as it has taken me ages to put them all on, however I believe that there is no way to transfer these songs from the existing ipod to my new one??????
I have seen programs - ipod2ipod, etc are these any good?
I am leaving my work to go travelling and will be handing the laptop in soon so I am keen to transfer all music, pictures etc onto new ipod, but not store them on laptop?
I would be very grateful for your help? i am very scared!!!!!
Best Regards,
NJT

Answer 1

You can't transfer directly from one iPod to another so at least until you load the new one you'll have to copy the songs back to your computer. Once they are back in iTunes you can add them onto your new iPod.
Connect your iPod to your computer. If it is set to update 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. When your iPod appears in the iTunes source list change the update setting to manual, that will let you use our 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
If you have any iTunes Music Store purchases the transfer of purchased content from the iPod to authorised computers was introduced with iTunes 7. You'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
The transfer of content from sources such as songs imported from CD is designed by default to be one way from iTunes to iPod. However 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. Have a look at the web pages and documentation, this is just a small selection of what's available, they are generally quite straightforward. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
TuneJack Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod2PC Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
SharePod Windows Only
iPodRip Mac & Windows
YamiPod Mac and Windows
Music Rescue Mac & Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
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 - Windows version only)
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
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.