[solved] transferring (migrate) my install to a new hard drive

I did some googling, but could not find a howto which replicated my situation...
I bought a new SSD for my netbook and I am wondering what the best way to go about transferring my arch install to it without going thru an install-from-scratch would be...
I'm planning to partition the new drive with / (10GB) and /home (the rest) in separate partitions.
I bought a usb hdd external enclosure and plan to connect the SSD to it to make the changes.
my old hard drive is 160GB and the new one will be 30GB, so I'm guessing dd would not work well? Or rather, I am not sure how to use dd in this situation (in part because some kind of "partition alignment" is needed for SSDs, which I guess dd would break? and the size mismatch would cause me trouble?). any pointers?
I'm guessing rsync would help me in this situation (I'm more familiar with it as I do my backups via rsync -av --delete --checksum), but then, how do I transfer grub to the new drive, so that when I (internally) connect the SSD and boot, all I have to do would be to wait as it boots to *my* Arch without me having to do anything.
also, if I do an rsync, which files would I need to change so the thing boots ok? I know I will have to change fstab entries to get the id of the partitions right, but what else?
any ideas, or pointers, or links would be very much appreciated.
thanks and sorry for this newbie question...
update: solved using the following:
pyther's comment below:
) Boot Live CD
2) Partition New Drive
3) mount old drive and all partitions /boot, /home, etc... (/mnt/old)
4) mount new drive and all partitions /boot, /home, etc... (/mnt/new)
5) Use cp or any tool that allows you to transfer files, make sure to preserve permissions. I would suggest the following command cp -av /mnt/old/* /mnt/new/*
6) Mount /proc, /dev, /sys (mount -t proc none /mnt/new/proc; mount -o bind /dev /mnt/new/dev; mount -o bind /sys /mnty/new/sys)
7) chroot /mnt/new /bin/bash
8) Modify any configuration files (ex. fstab and menu.list)
9) Rebuild initrd image mkinitcpio -p kernel26
10) Install grub
11) unmount everything
12) reboot
panuh's link
Quick search gave me this: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10093
things to be careful about: (1) grub's menu.list has both uuid and hd(X,Y) fields that need to be updated, (2) if you use an ubuntu live cd and chroot's grub-install doesn't work for you, ubuntu comes with grub2. when it craps on you during boot, see http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRU … ue_console . using this, after booting to arch, use grub-install along with --recheck http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual … stall.html
Last edited by vajorie (2010-03-10 23:41:24)

Graysky covered fairly nicely I'll add my own notes...
1) Boot Live CD
2) Partition New Drive
3) mount old drive and all partitions /boot, /home, etc... (/mnt/old)
4) mount new drive and all partitions /boot, /home, etc... (/mnt/new)
5) Use cp or any tool that allows you to transfer files, make sure to preserve permissions. I would suggest the following command cp -av /mnt/old/* /mnt/new/*
6) Mount /proc, /dev, /sys (mount -t proc none /mnt/new/proc; mount -o bind /dev /mnt/new/dev; mount -o bind /sys /mnty/new/sys)
7) chroot /mnt/new /bin/bash
8) Modify any configuration files (ex. fstab and menu.list)
9) Rebuild initrd image mkinitcpio -p kernel26
10) Install grub
11) unmount everything
12) reboot
Edit: Don't be afraid to ask for more help
Last edited by pyther (2010-03-08 22:29:55)

Similar Messages

I have all my music on an external hard drive. I just transferred all my files to a new hard drive . How do I sync all my files with my itunes library without losing all my playlists etc and keep everything intact?

I have all my music on an external hard drive. I just transferred all my files to a new hard drive . How do I sync all my files with my itunes library without losing all my playlists etc and keep everything intact?

Launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and specify it. If the external drive doesn't contain the iTunes database files, create a new library there and import that music.
If the library contains any rented movies, they won't play on a different computer.
(109334)

I need to deactivate this copy of Acrobat X to install on a new hard drive.

I need to deactivate this copy of Acrobat X to install on a new hard drive. When I click on help, there os no Deactivate or Activate. Wjat do I do?

I do not know. I have a serial/key number for the software. Can I
install it again and use the same number?
Denis

Transferring Purchased Music from iPhone to new hard drive

Hard-drive burned up and has been replaced. Most music was backed up, but not all. And most of the new music (that hasn't been backed-up) is on the iPhone. But I can't copy the files on my iPhone back to my new hard drive. Obviously there are security measures to keep folks from transferring files all over the place. But it seems that if it's on my iPhone, I must have obtained it legally, and there must be some accommodation for a dead hard drive.
Same question for my iPhone apps. I'd rather not pay for apps twice, and iTunes won't let me copy them from my iPhone back onto my 'puter. As soon as I sync apps, they'll all disappear, unless there's some way to convince the phone that it's looking at the old, pre-burned-up-hard-drive.
File>Transfer Purchases sort of worked, but not completely. I have about 600 songs on my iPhone, and it copied about 200 of them to my new hard drive. I have music purchased from iTunes, music copied from purchased CDs, and free downloads (Starbucks, Paste, etc). And there's no trend in what got copied and what didn't. Some of each category was copied, but not all. Very confusing that I can't find a pattern.
OS X 10.5.8, iPhone 3G with 3.1.3

Apps issue solved. Or, more accurately, it's a non-issue. iTunes prompts you that you already bought the app and can download it for free. Not so with music, I'm afraid.

Problems "transferring" files from time machine to new hard drive

I was experieincing the spinning beach ball of death so I replaced my hard drive with a new one. I am running mountain lion (10.8.2) and the new Hard drive has two partions - one for "start up" which I was able to use migration assisant to move over my applications from my time machine. The problem I am having is that I can't figure out how to get my user account data transferred to my the data partition (journal extended) on my new hard drive.
When I enter time machine I can't "see" my last back updates before I changed hard drives.
I put my old hard drive in a case and it "isn't working" so I can't just copy data from my old hard drive. It did work initially but now it doesn't mount and I can't see it in disk utility.
Any Ideas on how I can get my user data off my time machine back up?
I forgot to mention that when I go into my external hard drive containing my time machine via finder and click on the folder with my user data I'm not able to open the various files - they have a red "-" and it says, The folder “Desktop” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents. In disk utility I can't run repair disk permision on my time machine drive because it is grayed out.
Thanks - Dave

I see. Don't do that. I do not believe using Migration Assistant is a valid method of accomplishing what you intend.
Furthermore, unless you are using the "Enter Time Machine" feature, you really shouldn't pick and choose what you want to copy from a Time Machine backup... "no user serviceable parts inside". You can certainly find and individual files and folders in the Finder, but you will run into the permissions problems you describle. I would not attempt to circumvent those protections.
As I understand Time Machine, you must either restore a volume from a Time Machine backup, thereby erasing the volume first, or restore individual files and folders by using "Enter Time Machine" when the backup has already been properly designated for the source.
Since your replacement hard disk - the source, now - is technically new, the latter is not an option. It's as if you were trying to restore to a different computer. This can't be done.

Transferring Itunes data and Library to new hard-drive question

Hello,
First I want to state that I made a mistake when I transferred my music to a new bigger harddrive. My bad.
I look here for some guidance, I read this article after the fact: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive so it was too late for me and I got these "!" signs on all my song. I have over 5000 songs (not including podcasts, movie and TV shows.
I tried to move my library (succesfully) in my new hard drive so I could keep my laptop clean of all music.
I though I will be clever and replace the target links into the "Itunes Library.xml" and "Itunes music Library.xml" files. Well not so clever because I still have the issue.
My question: Does anybody knows what else should be done to fix this issue (if fixable)? I would try to avoid linking all my music one at the time by using the "locate" function that ITunes pop up when you try to start a song.
It is also too bad that you must do it one song at the time, I calculated that if I do 20 songs a day it's going to take me 250 days and more...
Thanks for any idea/solutions you may have
Thierry

I though I will be clever and replace the target links into the "Itunes Library.xml" and "Itunes music Library.xml" files. Well not so clever because I still have the issue.
iTunes does not use these files.
They are created only for other apps to access the iTunes library.
Does anybody knows what else should be done to fix this issue (if fixable)?
See this -> iTunes Track CPR v1.3
"This script attempts to locate the files of so-called "dead tracks"--iTunes tracks designated with (!)--that you assume are not actually missing but are still located in the iTunes Music folder in their "iTunes File Order" (Music -> Artist -> Album -> file.xxx). Any correct files found will be added to iTunes and will replace the "dead track" in each playlist it appears in (except Smart Playlists). Most tag data will also be rescued."

Install to brand new Hard Drive

13" MacBook Pro would no longer boot (2010 model). Took into the Apple store and they tell me the hard drive is fried.
I bought a new hard drive, replaced it and held 'c' down during boot to load from the install DVD that came with the system when I bought it.
I'm now forever stuck at the gray Apple logo with the gray swirly circle below it. Can hear the DVD spin up and down over and over - doesn't go anywhere.
Can anyone tell me what's going on here and why I can't boot off this DVD to install the OS to this brand new hard drive?

I have done both. When I hold down the "C" key it pauses for a few seconds while the cd spins and then the flashing folder icon appears.
Could be you have the wrong cd/dvd. The mac will only boot a supported cd/dvd for your machine. The flashing question mark indicdates your machine could not find a valid os.
When I hold down the "option" key for the startup manager the cursor comes up and moves but the actually manager doesn't come up no matter how long I leave the laptop on.
Not sure. Could be your machine does not support the startup manager. You would think the machine would ignore the key.
Where did you get the dvd? What is the number on the DVD?
What machine do you have anyway?
This site provides more information, but lacks security.
"A serial number is a unique, identifying number or group of numbers and letters assigned to an individual piece of hardware or software. It's used for various things depending on the product / brand but what is your Mac's serial number for and more importantly... what is it hiding and what can it do for you ?"
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
or
This site provides more information, but lacks security too.
"A serial number is a unique, identifying number or group of numbers and letters assigned to an individual piece of hardware or software. It's used for various things depending on the product / brand but what is your Mac's serial number for and more importantly... what is it hiding and what can it do for you ?"
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html
( hint by K Shaffer )

Can't Install OS on new Hard Drive

I just got a brand new iMac G5 with a bad Hard Drive. Apple sent a new hard drive but after I installed it I can't install the OS 10.4. I ran Disk First Aid and it says Invalid extent entry, Volume check failed, ERROR: The underlying task reported failure on exit, 1 HFS volume checked, 1 volume could not be repaired because of an error. I also can not run the Apple Care disc because I have a wireless mouse. I have installed no hardware upgrades.

Like Mike said, erase fixes that type of error a lot of times. I have also had a lot of success using a program called DiskWarrior. It rebuilds the directory files and usually fixes errors like that without data loss.

Transfering itunes and music to a new hard drive

A little background on my situation before I get to my question. I recently upgraded my desktop and before trading out hard drives I saved my itunes folder -including all of my music, to a flash drive. I opened up the flash drive once I installed the new hard drive and downloaded the itunes information onto it. Whenever I open up itunes now it shows all of my music, but I get a message that says, "song cannot be played because the original file cannot be found." My question is this: How do I get around this issue, how can I make itunes recognize that these are the original files from a previous hard drive?
Thanks for any help that is provided.

It would make more sense to move your whole home folder.
1. WARNING: This procedure is for advanced users only. Some third-party software may not work as expected, or may not work at all, if the home folder is moved.
2. Back up all data. Do not proceed unless you know how to undo these steps without having to ask for help. This website is not a support portal; it's a discussion forum. Don't assume that someone will help you if you get into trouble.
3. If you do this wrong, you could end up with a bricked machine and no way to recover without losing data.
4. Copy your home folder to the desired location, which must be on a volume of type "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" with file ownership enabled, as shown in the Finder Info dialog. Encryption is optional. The volume must be on a local storage device, not on the network, and it must be mounted automatically at startup — before any user logs in. A disk image will not work.
The name of your home folder is your short user name. Do not rename it. Do not copy the "Users" folder.
5. Select
 ▹ System Preferences ▹ Users & Groups
Click the lock icon and authenticate. Right-click or control-click your name in the account list, and select Advanced options from the popup menu. In the sheet that opens, change the location of the home directory. Log out and log back in.
6. Test. If you have problems, reverse the above steps. If you got this far, you should have no trouble doing that. If everything works as you expect, delete the original home folder.

Why won't my edited RAW images show after a LR re-install onto a new Hard Drive?

Hi there. Recently my hard drive took a (hike) and crashed - data may or may not be recoverable (Geeks are working on that), and I needed to reinstall my CS5 and Lightroom software to a new hard drive (I had to buy a new one). All of my RAW photos are stored on an external drive and were not harmed, thankfully. Here is my dilemma. Most of the presets I used also went crashing with that hard drive, (yes I believe they were backed up but also on that hard drive...stupid I know-trust me I know!!) but most of them were the free ones from the adobe recommended users on this site. I actually found many of my favorites still posted on the Adobe site and re-downloaded and installed the presets I'd been using the past year and a half, and imade sure those presets were housed properly in their folder via Preferences in Lightroom. Great. I can continue on with my work. WRONG! When I went to go import a recent shoot that I had already edited, it imported the RAW files but none of the previous edits I had worked on for these photos were showing up...it was as if I didn't even touch them and they came right from my camera. What in the world is going on? I'm baffled...and freaking out as I have thousands upon thousands of edited shoots in RAW, and I fear that none of the edits and enhancements made to those photos are going to be present and I'll have to start over. Please tell me that all of my last 2 years of editing photos are still with the RAW files?!!!
I found a deal on a an HP Intell Core i7 processor) 2 TB hard drive tower, so I ended up needing to install the 64 bit versions of CS5 and Lightroom 3.6.
I did test out the RAW (.NEF) file in Photoshop CS5 and my edited RAW image came up "correctly" - so I know that the information is still with the RAW image...I just need it to work and show in lightroom, as it is easier to export the files to the sizes I need them to be.
Please be kind in your replies...I appreciate any help/guidance I can get on this. Plus the photos I need are for Seniors graduating in a few months here so you can imagine the panic mode is just a bit higher than normal. Many thanks.

The default location for the backups created by Lightroom on exit is in the same folder as the catalog itself (i.e. that would be on the same faulty drive). It is, however, possible to redirect those backups to a different destination, such as a different hard drive.....but only you know if you did that or not. Do you have any other backups, e.g. drive level backups?
Just to be clear, if you are importing afresh into a new catalog from Raw files that do have XMP sidecar files, you should see the final edited state from the previous catalog, but you won't see the individual history steps that got you there (as that's one of the things that are not included when you write XMP data from within Lightroom). If there is no XMP sidecar, you'll just get the original OOC image.

Can't install(format?) new hard drive

I recently purchased a Wetern Digital Scorpio 250GB PATA HD for my Toshiba M35X-S114. This was the drive recommened on the Toshiba Laptop Accessories page. I physically instaled the new drive but can't figure out how to get it started. I used the System Recovery DVD for my computer thinking I could install the original software on the new hard drive. The guy on the tech support phoneline said I could. When I tried to use the recovery disc I got all the wall to the message where it prompts me to "press C for continue or A to abort". When I press C, the cursor moves right below the prompt and just blinks. The tech support line said the process may take several hours but I let it do this for for 3.5 hours and the cursor was still just blinking below the continue/abort message. Is this normal? Do I just need to be patient? When I used the recovery disk on the old, original hard drive my computer was completely recovered in 45 minutes. Oh, BIOS reads "none" next to hard disk. I hope this helps.

I emailed Hitachi support and got this response.
It works. Just a pain!!
Hard drives of SATA type interface does not have jumpers to configure. You
can still use a SATA 3.0Gb/s drive (set to 3.0Gb/s) in your system, but it
will only work at 1.5Gb/s.
If your have a PC system, you can temporarily install the drive internally
and use our utility called Feature Tool that'll allow you to change various
ATA settings. This utility has the diskette and CD version. If you do not
have a floppy drive and are unable to create a Feature Tool diskette, you
can select the Feature Tool CD image. The fourth download link is for the
image file. This file will allow you to create a bootable CD version of
Feature Tool when a floppy diskette drive is unavailable. For instructions
on how to properly use this file, please refer to the documentation
included with your CD burning software.
If you have any questions regarding the usage of Feature Tool, please refer
to the User's Guide (see page 17 on how to change the drive capacity). The
Feature Tool and User's Guide can be downloaded from the following URL:
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#FeatureTool
Before running Feature Tool, ensure that your system boot sequence (in your
system BIOS) is set to boot to your CD ROM drive as the first device.
Insert the bootable Feature Tool diskette or CD that you created and let
the system boot to this CD.

Installing Tiger on new Hard drive

Archaic as it is, I would like to get Tiger to install on my Macbook.
It originally came with Tiger, and then the hard drive recently crashed. (Don't ask about back-ups, it's a sore subject). I've replaced AND formatted the hard drive already. However, when I boot from the Installer disc (10.4.9) which came with my computer and try to install, iit does not recognize the hard drive (I couldn't even use the disk utility to reformat it-- had to go a different route).
So, the installer doesn't recognize the hard drive (at the "choose location" or whatever screen, it's blank)
and
the disk utility shows a partition, which exists and is formatted it to Mac Extended Journaled plus), but with the wrong name, and incorrect size. The full drive is listed at 2.3 TB instead of 320GB.
I have done a lot of reading on the internet about Tiger not being able to format a "large" drive. But now that it's formatted, I don't quite understand why it wouldn't be able to see it.
Thoughts?
Thanks!

Step by step:
1. Turn on ur Macbook.
2. Load the CD. Your macbook should automatically use it to boot since there is no OS on ur new hard drive.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to install tiger.
It's a very easy installation process. Don't be scared.:)

Mavericks will not install on brand new Hard Drive

Trying to install Mavericks to a brand new internal 2TB Samsung SATA 3.0 HD on a 3-yr old 12 Core Mac Pro system that was running Mnt Lion just fine. After multiple failures upgrading the Mnt Lion disk to Mavericks. Decided to just use a brand spankin' new hard drive and do a clean install of Mavericks. Now during the install to the NEW DRIVE, getting error message "Mavericks cannot be installed." Then I reboot and try to force the continuation of the install, doing this repeatedly, and I sometimes get a error log instead of a just an error message. Error log says: Thread 34 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.root.high-priority. Then the 1st line listed under that is: 0 libsystem_platform.dylib 0x000000010fa5a06a _platform_memmove$VARIANT$Nehalem + 138. If anybody knows what any of that means?
Thanks.

Without the full listing of the trace I can't be sure, however it would look more like a bonafide logic board or memory error rather than the HD that's causing the problem. The low level drivers on Mavericks have obviously changed (otherwise it wouldn't be a different OS version) and possibly they're exposing a lack of performance in your memory. The actual Mavericks install may not be the problem, but rather being corrupted during installation. In the line you quoted, Nehalem is the Intel name for your CPU, the memmove operation failed (move blocks of memory contents from point A to point B) and they shared library containing this was in the system library....sort of critical stuff.
You could try the following:
Re-seat the RAM and try again.
Try an old OS installation and see if it succeeds (Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, etc)
Try an install to an external enclosure
If re-seating the RAM does the trick, then you're set.
If it doesn't, then install an older OS to see if they work OK. If older OSes work OK using the internal drive and you have after market memory in the system, it would imply to me that the memory probably isn't quite up to snuff and Mavericks is exposing it. If it's original memory then it should be OK.
If the older OSes now don't install correctly and it's giving similar problems try doing the install in an external enclosure. The point here being to try to move your data path off the internal SATA cable. If these install OK, try it with Mavericks. If any of these work it could be the SATA cable or I/O controllers on the logic board (SATA cable most likely). A good reference for these sorts of problems is:
Bad Hard Drive Signs and Symptoms
Possibly a last option, which I would think (or hope) would be rare, would be that the binary for Mavericks install got corrupt during download. You could also try some of the resets they have in the linked document above. They might work and it doesn't take any effort.
Good Luck

Having trouble installing and configuring new hard drive

I bought a larger (320GB) Hitachi hard drive for my T61, to replace the 100GB that came with the computer. I had no touble making the physical installation, but can't boot up and use the new drive. I:
--used Acronis software (True Image 11 and Disk Director) to partition the new drive. The new partitions are proportionately larger than on the old drive.
--copied files from my original HD to the new one.
--tried, unsuccessfully, to boot up from the new drive.
--tried Thinkvantage software, but it wouldn't (1) recognize any external drives (USB HDD or my backup drive, also an external); (2) let me change the order of my boot devices (I get a synbtax-challenged message: "All items on this menu cannot be modified in user mode...[C]onsult your system supervisor." Well, *I'm* the "system supervisor," and I still can't get the program to let me edit the boot order).
I have tried to boot the new drive from original OS software (XP Pro), with no success. Same deal with Acronis's emergency book disk. At the moment, I'm letting Thinkvantage reformat and (maybe) reinstall everything that was originally on the factory computer. Whether it'll actually do this on a new and larger hard drive, I guess I'll eventually find out. If it works, I'll then try to restore my real files with Acronis.
Has anybody else had to deal with this exciting sequence of events?
--Fred Powledge

Lets start afresh. First do you want an XP or Vista system on your new hard drive? Do you know if the recovery disks you got with your system are for the operating system you want on the new drive?
If you bought a Vista machine with XP downgrade Vista will be preinstalled on the system and it gets delivered with XP recovery disks. The opposite can also be true the machine is delivered with XP installed and with Vista recovery disks. Iin both cases if you want to upgrade to a new hard disk on the preinstalled operating system you must first yourself burn recovery disks for the preinstalled system. Start -- All programs -- Thinkvantage -- Create Product Recovery Media, first disk must be CD the last two can be DVDs.
When you are sure you have the right set of recovery disks XP or Vista, boot from them and let them format the disk. They will automatically install the service partition and use all the remaining space of the new hard drive for the C partition. When I think about it even for Vista on the T61 there will be only two partitions C: and a hidden partition for the RnR service partition. The S and Q partitions only apply to the new T400/500 -- I should not have mentioned them.
If its the recovery disks that were delivered with the machine that are the right one for the op sys you want on the new hard drive and they dont produce a bootable system -- call Lenovo support and get new ones.
The details for Acronis I can't help you with -- I used my Windows home server backup when I restored my C: partitions on the new hard drives both on my T500 and my T42. Just be careful you dont mix up which is the old and new C: partition so you dont destroy the C. partition on the old hard disk by mistake. But as long as you don't point Acronis to the old hard disk the worst that can happen is you have to rerun the restore to factory settings on the new drive once more.
T500: Vista 32, 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 15.4" 1680x1050, 500GB 7200rpm, ATI Radeon HD3650 + Intel 4500MHD. T42: XP, 1.7GHz, 2GB RAM, 14.1" 1024x768, 250GB PATA, ATI Radeon 7500.

Transferring songs from iPod to computer (new hard drive)

My hard drive crashed and won't be able to backup all my music/songs that are not purchased from iTunes. How would I transfer all the songs from my iPod to my new hard drive (PC)? Is there any possibility?

Be very careful when connecting an iPod full of music to an empty iTunes library.There is very real risk of permanently losing all the music.
To prevent auto sync, before you connect the iPod go to the iTunes preferences and select "devices", then select "disable automatic syncing for iPhones and iPods".
An alternative method is to connect the iPod whilst holding down the 'control+shift' keys and do not let them go until your iPod appears in iTunes.
If you see a message that your iPod is associated with a different library and asks if you want to link to a new one, make sure you press "Cancel".
If you should click on "Erase and Sync" will erase all the content currently on your iPod and it will be replaced with the content of the iTunes library you just connected to.
When you've pressed cancel your iPod should appear in the iTunes source list under "devices" and allow you to change the update setting to manage the iPod content manually, and that will let you use your iPod for the time being without the risk of accidentally erasing the contents.
Then do any of the following to transfer your music from iPod back to the computer/iTunes.
For iTunes version 7 or later, then you can transfer purchased iTunes store music from the iPod to an authorized computer by using the "file/transfer purchases from iPod" menu. Note that the maximum of 5 authorized computers applies here.
Find out how to do that here.
How to copy iTunes purchases from an iPod or iPhone to a computer.
For all other non purchased content (your own CDs etc), check out the instructions/suggestions here.
Music from iPod to computer (using option 2). This a manual method using "hidden folders" and although it works, it is a little more involved than other methods.
Much easier ways are to use one of the many 3rd party programs that copy music from the iPod to the computer.
One of the most recommended is Yamipod. This is a free program that transfers music from iPod back to the computer. However, it does not transfer playcounts/ratings etc.
Other free programs are Pod Player, SharePod and Floola and iDump and iPodRobot.
If you want to recover just the structure of playlists from the iPod (and not the actual song files themselves), there's iRepo for Windows. which I understand has this feature along with all the standard features for these programs.
iPodRip also has the feature enabling you to reconstruct playlists.
There is also CopyTrans. This does preserve ratings/playcounts etc if those are important to you but this program is not free. It also supports video transfer.
More information is contained here.
Copying content from your iPod to your computer - The Definitive Guide.

[solved] transferring (migrate) my install to a new hard drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for