# Do online music stores let you re-download music, like if your disk crashes?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-online-music-stores-let-you-re-download-music-like-if-your-disk-crashes/262947
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 3, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-online-music-stores-let-you-re-download-music-like-if-your-disk-crashes/262947 "2004-09-03T13:19:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-online-music-stores-let-you-re-download-music-like-if-your-disk-crashes/262947/1 "2004-09-03T13:19:48Z")
I recently had to re-format my Windows disk after a system crash, but I was lucky enough to be able to boot from a different disk to LINUX and write my mp3s to CD before remaking it.
This got me wondering about iTune and Napster and the like, can you simply re-download your music if you lose it?
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2004, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-online-music-stores-let-you-re-download-music-like-if-your-disk-crashes/262947/2 "2004-09-03T16:35:54Z")
Napster has a “Sync/Restore” feature for just such a situation.
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### Author:  [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-online-music-stores-let-you-re-download-music-like-if-your-disk-crashes/262947/3 "2004-09-03T17:01:56Z")
> [@Diceman](#):
>
> Napster has a “Sync/Restore” feature for just such a situation.
Yes, and if you’re like me, too dimwitted to figure that feature out or look up the right thing in the FAQ, tech support will help you. With gritted teeth, I am sure, but no foul.
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### Author:  [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2004, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-online-music-stores-let-you-re-download-music-like-if-your-disk-crashes/262947/4 "2004-09-03T18:06:51Z")
[Emusic.com](http://Emusic.com) lets you re-download as many times as you need to as well.
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### Author:  [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2004, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-online-music-stores-let-you-re-download-music-like-if-your-disk-crashes/262947/5 "2004-09-03T18:15:15Z")
With iTunes, you definitely cannot.
> [@](#):
>
> Be sure to make regular backups of your music files (in your iTunes Music folder) by copying them to an external hard disk or other media. Otherwise, if your hard disk becomes damaged or you lose any of the music you’ve purchased, you’ll have to buy any purchased music again to rebuild your library.
From: [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93033](http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93033)
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-online-music-stores-let-you-re-download-music-like-if-your-disk-crashes/262947/6 "2004-09-03T18:26:05Z")
Wow, that sucks with iTunes. If I were shopping for an online music store that would be a deal-breaker for me.
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### Author:  [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-online-music-stores-let-you-re-download-music-like-if-your-disk-crashes/262947/7 "2004-09-03T20:09:01Z")
Yeah, that’s something that I hope will change about iTunes in the future. It also suxors that you can’t move your music from your iPod back into your hard drive without a considerable hassle. There’s third-party shareware that will do it, but it makes no sense to me why iTunes wouldn’t be able to do it. Probably some dumb anti-piracy thing to prevent you from uploading your whole collection to several computers.
But I have a large music collection with more music ripped than downloaded., and it just makes sense for me to keep it backed up anyway, since it’s a lot faster to move over mp3s from a CD-R than to track down and re-rip dozens of CDs. _shrug_