My previous Window 7 computer will not boot after a lightning strike and power loss. I have tried many recovery methods but let us just consider it fried for now.
I have a new Windows 8 machine, and although I really wish I still had Windows 7 well, time marches on. So I am not only going from a crashed computer to a new one, but to a new one with a new operating system.
I need to install iTunes on the new machine and do not want to lose my iTunes library.
If I download a new version of ITunes to the new PC I think that I will recover all of the purchased history but not any songs that I have burned into the old PC off of discs or other media, correct?
I do have a WD Passport hard drive backup from about a month ago of the old machine, but I am hesitant to connect it to the new W8 PC because I am already finding that many programs and even web sites are not yet compatible with W8.
Any input on how to proceed would be welcome. I am just being cautious because W8 appears to be following the standard Microsoft model of having every other release suck.
Do I just download iTunes on the new PC, enter user name and recover all purchased products? Then try to recover additional tunes off the WD backup?
I can’t help you, but I’m in the same situation and so I’m interested in the answers.
I have religion now, belatedly, but my hard drive and mother board died. I sent it out to Best Buy’s “level 2”, where they tell me that they think they can recover the data on my hard drive—for $500.
There was 12,500 songs on my iTunes, and a bunch or work product. As I understand it, they will transfer the data and my iTunes library to a exterior hard drive for me to transfer.
But how do I transfer it to my other computer? (there is no iTunes on that computer now)
It’s fairly straightforward, really: you take your iTunes folder from your backup, put it in the location on your new computer where you want it, download and install iTunes, and when you’re launching it for the first time, hold down ALT while clicking. iTunes will then ask you for the location of the library and, bam, you’ve got your whole library back, complete with purchases, playlists, play counts and what not.
Agree with Pitchmeister except for the “download” part – copy your entire iTunes folder over and just click the .exe instead of downloading the abomination that is iTunes 11. I just did this switching from XP to Windows 7 so hopefully it will work for you in 8.
Hmmm. I just switched from Vista to Win 7 (big improvement) and then when iTunes 11 came out I upgraded to it without any problems. In fact, I’ve found 11 to be much, MUCH more Windows friendly! iTunes 10 would, and I’m not exaggerating here, lock up on me one out of three times I ran it. Had to bring up Task Manager and kill it. 11 hasn’t locked up once yet. BTW, when I upgraded Vista to 7 the upgrade disc detected iTunes and suggested that I first deauthorize the computer before the upgrade, than reauthorize it after the Win7 upgrade was complete. I had issues upgrading and it took a bunch of tries, so I don’t really remember if I did this or not.
But in regards to rebuilding your iTunes library, I had this happen: I have two hard drives C: and D:, C: is for the OS & apps, D: is for data (docs, mp3s etc.). I backup D: with a cloud online service (Mozy.com). So when my D: drive died I just bought a new hard disk and downloaded a restoration of all my files from the online backup (took about 24 hours!) rebooted, and voila! Windows never knew the difference!
However, because iTunes is iTunes it somehow decided that my restored music files (all basic, non-DRM, self-ripped mp3s) on my new hard drive were not ‘quite’ exactly the same as the old ones (even though they were). Long story short, iTunes made me do a total restore of all my iPhone’s 13+ GB of music files. Essentially it insisted that I leave it plugged in all night so it could replace all the music on my iPhone with exact, bit-for-bit, identical digital copies of themselves!
I know it only took one night, but god damn did that piss me off and make me curse Apple!!