Ipod help...

[Smkn_TA]

I got an ipod touch, 2nd gen. Anywho....my computer took an unexpected ultra dump the other day. There was no saving anything. Just had to reformat. Meaning, my THOUSANDS of songs I had stored in my documents but put into itunes were LOST. Now...if I hook-up my ipod and start itunes. What's going to happen? Should I type all the songs I have on the ipod right now so I know what I have to redownload? I mean, I don't want to loose them off the ipod. But at same time, I know I will have to redownload all of them again. Which sucks major.

If I plug it in, will it load songs to itunes but just not play them on itunes?? What. Much appreciated.

Inb4 make a back-up dumbass.

Inb4 iroc offers to send me copies of the lights songs I lost.

[andrew rs]

im not sure what its called but there is a program where you can just take the songs off your ipod and load them back onto your computer... im sure someone knows the name.

[LSCyaL8R]

Should have got a Zune....

Now that my standard line is out of the way.... here's what you do.... DON'T INSTALL ITUNES just yet....

We really don't care what the filenames look like. It's the ID3 tags on the files that really count for iTunes.

Connect the iPod to the computer. Make sure your machine is set to show hidden files.

You will find a LOT of files with weird 4 letter names or something like that. This is your collection

Copy all that crap to your new install of windows. Install iTunes, point it to this folder. It will build you a lovely library of all the crap that was on your iPod with all the right artist names and song names... though the filenames will still be crap, i think there is an option in iTunes where you can rename files automatically as they are added to the collection.

Once this is done and the computer library looks as it should all you need to do is plug in your ipod and associate it with this library. I left the iPod camp a long time ago but if not too much has changed it will probably want to wipe your collection from the iPod and then reload all the stuff from the "new" library. Which is no big deal since its all the same files. All you will lose is your playlists.

Enjoy