Kinda dumb iTunes/iPod question

[johnjohn320]

So, i want to wipe my hard drive. Only thing I'm worried about backing up is my iTunes playlist (I have thousands of songs, don't really feel like ripping all those CDs again if I can help it). A friend of mine said you can just change one option in iTunes and make it so that iTunes syncs with your iPod, not the (default) other way around. It'd be a pretty convenient way to back up the playlist and put it back in one shot, if it's possible. I checked the Apple website and couldn't find anything about how to do that; but then again, their website is terrible.

Ideas? Is my friend wrong? If so, is there another way to possibly do this?

 

[keeleysam]

Your friend is mistaken.

Just copy the iTunes XML to something removable.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Your friend is wrong because you won't be able to get it off your iPod
What you do:
Take your WHOLE My Music/iTunes folder, back it up to DVD or CD, when you reformat (you shouldn't even need to reformat, nublar) make sure you create an account name identical to the one you had (or be prepared to edit hundreds of lines of XML) and just copy the folder back.

 

[johnjohn320]

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124
Your friend is wrong because you won't be able to get it off your iPod
What you do:
Take your WHOLE My Music/iTunes folder, back it up to DVD or CD, when you reformat (you shouldn't even need to reformat, nublar) make sure you create an account name identical to the one you had (or be prepared to edit hundreds of lines of XML) and just copy the folder back.

That folder is about 10 gigs...

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: johnjohn320

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124
Your friend is wrong because you won't be able to get it off your iPod
What you do:
Take your WHOLE My Music/iTunes folder, back it up to DVD or CD, when you reformat (you shouldn't even need to reformat, nublar) make sure you create an account name identical to the one you had (or be prepared to edit hundreds of lines of XML) and just copy the folder back.

That folder is about 10 gigs...

Its all your music, as well as the database that houses play count, etc. So when you copy it back over to the same location after you've reinstalled Windows, iTunes will be untouched. I did it to make a duplicate of my library on my laptop, worked peachy.

Again, what could have happened to make you reformat?

 

[Baked]

Make sure you unauthorize iTunes before you format C:.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Baked
Make sure you unauthorize iTunes before you format C:.

If he forgets to (I did ) chances are he'll be able to use the Deauthorize All Computers link in the iTMS. I do think it only works once a year though.

 

[torpid]

You can use anapod or something like that to get your tunes from the pod back to your PC, but that won't help you as much as it seems because you'd still have to re-import them all into your library.

 

[johnjohn320]

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124

Originally posted by: johnjohn320

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124
Your friend is wrong because you won't be able to get it off your iPod
What you do:
Take your WHOLE My Music/iTunes folder, back it up to DVD or CD, when you reformat (you shouldn't even need to reformat, nublar) make sure you create an account name identical to the one you had (or be prepared to edit hundreds of lines of XML) and just copy the folder back.

That folder is about 10 gigs...

Its all your music, as well as the database that houses play count, etc. So when you copy it back over to the same location after you've reinstalled Windows, iTunes will be untouched. I did it to make a duplicate of my library on my laptop, worked peachy.

Again, what could have happened to make you reformat?

What I mean is, I can't back up a 10 gig folder to a CD...

A nasty virus I can't get rid of is the reason for the reformat.

 

[johnjohn320]

Thanks for the suggestions. Quick bump to check for more...