Will upgrading iTunes cause a problem for existing iPod?

Question

My wife has a nano that has been established on this PC and I just got a 30GB iPod video model that I want to put on this PC. iTunes said that my iPod cannot be recognized unless I upgrade our verion of iTunes. Will this harm the library that my wife already has in iTunes?

Answer 1

Will this harm the library that my wife already has in iTunes?
Default settings in Windows XP place your song files in the iTunes Music folder which, along with the Album Artwork and Previous iTunes Libraries folders and the iTunes Library files , is found at C:\Documents and Settings\ user name \My Documents\My Music\iTunes - far away from the iTunes program itself which is located at C:\Program Files\iTunes .
Although iTunes certainly makes use of the contents of the iTunes folder - among other things the library files tell iTunes exactly where to find the song files which are, of course, necessary if iTunes is going to play any music or transfer it to your iPod - the folder is not actually a part of the program so upgrading iTunes should have no effect at all on the contents of the iTunes folder ...
... but ...
... one of the funny things about computers is that sometime, somehow, somewhere when you least expect it , they can do some not so funny things, like losing data that they're not supposed to. Which is why it's a good idea to always have a back up copy of any data (such as your music) that you value in reserve ... just in case.
There are a variety of ways of doing so but for most people it probably comes down to one of two options.
The one this article in the Apple Knowledge Base describes in detail uses iTunes 7 to burn a back-up copy of the contents of your iTunes Library and the Library files - but not the Album Artwork or Previous iTunes Libraries folders - to CD's/DVD's.
You can use other storage media besides optical discs for your back-ups. The main alternative is to save a copy of the iTunes folder on a separate hard drive. Some of our Discussions regulars are quite fond of that approach .
If, when and how you choose to back-up your music is your decision to make - just bear in mind that as far as I know we've never had anyone post in these discussions who's regretted creating a back-up copy of their iTunes Library.
But we often hear from people who regret not having done so.