# crashed hard drive and itunes accounts

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crashed-hard-drive-and-itunes-accounts/610419>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 23, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crashed-hard-drive-and-itunes-accounts/610419 "2012-01-23T18:34:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crashed-hard-drive-and-itunes-accounts/610419/1 "2012-01-23T18:34:57Z")

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Our housekeeper tells me that her roommate’s computer recently crashed its hard drive. She (the housekeeper) had a LOT of files stored on that disk, and she’s reconciled herself to the fact that those mp3s and photos are gone for good.

She did have (does have) an iTunes account, and many of the files on her account were purchased FROM iTunes. Can such items generally be re-downloaded from the iTunes store, based on records of the purchases?

Thanks in advance for any useful information.

ETA: Just found out that her photos were mostly emailed to her, so those aren’t lost. Still like to know if she still has download privileges on old iTunes store purchases.

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**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crashed-hard-drive-and-itunes-accounts/610419/2 "2012-01-23T18:49:07Z")

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Probably depends how long ago she purchased the music, but technically yes: [http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519](http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519)

Does she have all of the music on an iPod? If so, she can recover them all from that back to a new computer.

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**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crashed-hard-drive-and-itunes-accounts/610419/3 "2012-01-23T19:35:27Z")

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Excellent. Thank you **Omar Little**. I’ve emailed the link to her.