Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

Kamal - if I create a playlist in iTunes called backup and then copy the music folder to it, am I not then putting 40 gig of music on iTunes and hence the laptop? By doing that I'm taking up space on my laptop drive, which I dont want to do as it slows the performance up and takes up a lot of space?

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

It depends on how you have your iTunes setup, if it's not set to keeping your music in another folder (I forget what the option is called), then it will only source the music from your external.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

[QUOTE=Kamal;1055472]It depends on how you have your iTunes setup, if it's not set to keeping your music in another folder (I forget what the option is called), then it will only source the music from your external.[/QUOTE]

My post #33 above. Its in Advanced Preferences in iTunes.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

Mirrored RAID on local machine, external drive backup, CD(DVD) of a lot of it, cloud synced to several other computers and backed up to a personal cloud server in another country. You'd have to shoot me in the face to stop me recovering data.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

[QUOTE=GregWhelan;1055133] Before anyone asks, I didnt back any of it up. [/QUOTE]

and that peeps, concludes today's lesson.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

[QUOTE=Huggie Smiles;1056101]and that peeps, concludes today's lesson.[/QUOTE]

did you see the part Kamal posted about possibly "recovering" the files?

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

The danger of naively thinking that technology will last eh!

[QUOTE=Huggie Smiles;1056101]and that peeps, concludes today's lesson.[/QUOTE]

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

Again, pm me a PO Box or address and I'll send you my "Back up". Don't be fucking shy, what is the problem with you people? :D

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

[QUOTE=floridaorange;1056129]did you see the part Kamal posted about possibly "recovering" the files?[/QUOTE]

nah! classic Huggie, reads the first post - ignores the next 3 pages! - who has the time ;)

Hope Greg gets a tonne sent to him

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

after seeing this thread i backed up my ipod to an external drive with Senuti, well worth the $18.99 - i just hope the external drive doesnt give up on me some day!

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

Get SSD Drives, safer imo.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

I seem to have a magic ability fuck other people's lives up.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

iPods are lightweight they can only take limited tunage at once.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

[QUOTE=Homegrove;1056676]I seem to have a magic ability fuck other people's lives up.[/QUOTE]

in general? or related to this thread?

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

[QUOTE=Huggie Smiles;1056686]in general? or related to this thread?[/QUOTE]

Think hes referring to the fact that the last set I put on my iPod before it crashed was his latest set from Soundcloud!

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

So, anyone got suggestions on the next mp3 player to get? The good thing with the iPod was its 60GB capacity but I see now that here is a 160 GB version!

What are the decent alternatives to Apple? Or should I just got a bog standard mp3 player in case it screws up again?!

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

Wait till Sep 12, all going well, the new version of the iPod Touch should be announced, they are already at 64 GB max size on the current gen, pretty sure they'll up it on the next gen. Plus you get so much more than just a player with the iPod Touch.

Btw did you recover your music?

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

^good advice. my ipod touch has been bullet proof for 5+ years and you can get all the apps you get with the iphone. You can even make free phone calls from it using the headphones (i've done it).

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

A. This is one reason why I will NEVER buy Apple products (for myself anyway - my kids have them because they're fashion accessories but I tell them what's what). I have a cheap, generic mp3 player that I can plug into ANY computer and don't need iTunes to read and write. I can just copy stuff on and off. B. I back all my stuff up to the cloud. I've had writable CDs and DVDs that have lasted for years, but I still don't trust them 'cos I know that they can fail at any time. I use Carbonite, but I'm not pushing this service - it works for me is all. C. SSDs are not the answer - they can fail just as any other media. In fact people who know how to use SSDs use them for stuff like the OS and cache data because they're FAST. At the moment the mean time between failure tends to be less than traditional HDDs though it's difficult to quantify becase they haven't been round for long enough. D. The only fail safe option is fully redundant, regular backing up which no-one can afford or have time to do. This is why cloud services are such a great option.

p.s. Really sorry to hear of your woes Greg. I would hate to lose my mixes.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

Been on holiday for the past week, hence the non-response.

I think I have managed to recover all the music. I have copied the entire 'Music' folder from the iPod to my external HD (took a while!). They are all in the funny name format though, which I'll have to correct.

In terms of a new mp3, looks like I'll wait for this new iPod touch - although it galls me to give money to Apple:(

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

I'd just buy a second gen Ipod touch off craigslist or the UK equivalent. Can't be more than 20 pounds.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

Always sceptical of doing that though, people tend to sell their problems on there. Will have a look though, good idea, may get lucky.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

Google play is where it's at. I haven't touched my Ipod since it was released. Room for 20,000 sets, can stream or download them. Win Win

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

[QUOTE=threehills;1059215]Google play is where it's at. I haven't touched my Ipod since it was released. Room for 20,000 sets, can stream or download them. Win Win[/QUOTE]

Now you are relying on Google Play to be active and online for who knows how long, and relying on their servers instead of one in your house. IDK, good idea for those smaller sets or albums on the go, especially if you have an Android phone but idk if I could rely on something like that for a full blown back up.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

if any company is going to be running after armageddon its going to be google. plus when sites go offline they give you ample warning to download what youve uploaded if need be, but with google, thats just not a concern for me. all of my music is on google play now, in addition to the files on my hdd, which is considered my backup now.

id trust googles server farms over some western digital hard drive any day.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

:lol:

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

Greg nothing wrong with your existing iPod. Sounds like iTunes done gone and f'd up. Which is why I HATE iTunes with a passion :) All the iPods and the like are flash memory; when they go you'll know because you can't read OR write to them.

In the future once you get things fixed, while it's OK to copy and run stuff back and forth:

#1. Have a backup elsewhere (or at least manage stuff manually (check box in iTunes) so when you copy in from wherever you have that copy still in that disk/folder). Do NOT manage your "library" in iTunes. One wrong screw up or needing to fix iTunes and it's either all gone or all the metadata is shot/a major PITA to fix with a new installation.

#2. Consider a 3rd party transfer program without having to lug through iTunes each time. CopyTrans is a simple and free alternative when you just want to copy stuff over each time (but there are others). [URL]http://www.copytrans.net/copytransmanager.php[/URL]

#3. As the extra step, safely remove hardware with Windows/USB. Seems to sometimes also be the reason stuff "disappears" since it can write quietly or not finish when you think it's done.

Re: 7 years of music....gone :(

As for backups:

#1. Existing hard drive. #2. External hard drive, whether or not on a RAID setup. #3. Cloud backup. #4. Burned to disc backup.

Silly, but you can't have enough when in theory any media can fail (or go missing) at any time.