ephpod/transferring from ipod to hard drive

[BookerT]

pardon the quasi-spam but i'm hoping someone can help me. basic details = external hard drive with all my music crashed, recovery isn't looking good, not much was backed up. but it's all there on my ipod. so i downloaded this ephpod program that lets you transfer files from ipod to a hard drive. but it's only recognizing about 20% of the songs on my ipod. and i know they are still on there. anyone want to help an idiot out?  thanks much...

[miss pretentious]

Originally posted by BookerT:
  pardon the quasi-spam but i'm hoping someone can help me. basic details = external hard drive with all my music crashed, recovery isn't looking good, not much was backed up. but it's all there on my ipod. so i downloaded this ephpod program that lets you transfer files from ipod to a hard drive. but it's only recognizing about 20% of the songs on my ipod. and i know they are still on there. anyone want to help an idiot out?  thanks much...

you know...this exact same thing happened to me about a month ago...i'm still in ipod limbo.

[jadetree]

when my external drive crashed last year I used this to recover songs from my ipod http://www.fadingred.org/senuti/, worked great, of course that was from ipod to Mac

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Forget any program, here's what you do if it's all on your ipod.
 
 Pull up My Computer (windows key + "e") with your ipod plugged in.
 
 Click Tools > Folder Options > View.
 
 Under advanced, select "Show hidden files and folders."
 
 Go to your ipod in my computer (usually it's like the "E" or "F" drive). Now that it's showing your "hidden" files you will be able to see a folder called "Ipod Control." Double click it.
 
 Inside Ipod Control will be a folder called "Music" filled with fifty folders called F00-F49. Copy the "Music" folder to your hard drive/external drive/wherever you want it. (This might last a while depending on how much you have on your ipod.)
 
 Once it's copied go to the new location and right click on the new "Music" folder (the one on your external hard drive, NOT the one on your ipod) and select "Properties" and it'll have a box checked marked "Hidden." Uncheck it.
 
 Go back to Tools > Folder Options > View and unselect "Show hidden files."
 
 You now have all the files on your hard drive. You can go to itunes and tell it to "Add directory" and select that "Music" folder and it'll add all those files and pull in the info from the id3 tags. Walla! If you use another program for your music other then itunes, you'll need a different final step but it should be similar.

[BookerT]

julian's advice seems to be working. it's gonna take a loooooooooong time to transfer 55gb of music, but at least it seems to be transferring. this is the first time during this whole ordeal -- and that's what it's been, an ordeal -- that i feel confident. of course, i may have just jinxed myself. hopefully not.
 
 anyway, i can't thank you enough, julian. wow, i did not expect to be typing that today. hope it works out for you, miss p.

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by BookerT:
  julian's advice seems to be working. it's gonna take a loooooooooong time to transfer 55gb of music, but at least it seems to be transferring. this is the first time during this whole ordeal -- and that's what it's been, an ordeal -- that i feel confident. of course, i may have just jinxed myself. hopefully not.
 
 anyway, i can't thank you enough, julian. wow, i did not expect to be typing that today. hope it works out for you, miss p.

I've done this several times, and it works but it'll take a few hours (including when you tell Itunes to add the folder).
 
 Only bad thing is all your files are renamed (when you copy an mp3, i.e. "LCD Soundsystem - Yeah", to your ipod, it renames it from LCD Soundsystem - Yeah to a random four character name like PG3E.mp3) so that kinda sucks. But an ipod or itunes still sorts by id3 info, not filename, so as soon as they're reloaded it'll all work fine unless you want to start burning CDs from the mp3s not using itunes.
 
 But in that case, there are programs that will batch scan mp3 files and rename them based on id3 info but that's alot of work unless you need that feature.

[nkotb]

Or, if your iTunes is set up to auto-organize the files, it should go through and rename/reorganize them based on artist -> album title -> track number and name.  
 
 

Originally posted by Julian, good manners AFICIONADO:
 Only bad thing is all your files are renamed (when you copy an mp3, i.e. "LCD Soundsystem - Yeah", to your ipod, it renames it from LCD Soundsystem - Yeah to a random four character name like PG3E.mp3) so that kinda sucks. But an ipod or itunes still sorts by id3 info, not filename, so as soon as they're reloaded it'll all work fine unless you want to start burning CDs from the mp3s not using itunes.
 
 But in that case, there are programs that will batch scan mp3 files and rename them based on id3 info but that's alot of work unless you need that feature.

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by nkotb:
  Or, if your iTunes is set up to auto-organize the files, it should go through and rename/reorganize them based on artist -> album title -> track number and name.  
 

Yeah, if you're using itunes, it's great. Some people want to use third party programs to manage their ipod, and that's when this method gets sketchy.

[miss pretentious]

so um...how do i do this on a mac?
 
 

Originally posted by Julian, good manners AFICIONADO:
  Forget any program, here's what you do if it's all on your ipod.
 
 Pull up My Computer (windows key + "e") with your ipod plugged in.
 
 Click Tools > Folder Options > View.
 
 Under advanced, select "Show hidden files and folders."
 
 Go to your ipod in my computer (usually it's like the "E" or "F" drive). Now that it's showing your "hidden" files you will be able to see a folder called "Ipod Control." Double click it.
 
 Inside Ipod Control will be a folder called "Music" filled with fifty folders called F00-F49. Copy the "Music" folder to your hard drive/external drive/wherever you want it. (This might last a while depending on how much you have on your ipod.)
 
 Once it's copied go to the new location and right click on the new "Music" folder (the one on your external hard drive, NOT the one on your ipod) and select "Properties" and it'll have a box checked marked "Hidden." Uncheck it.
 
 Go back to Tools > Folder Options > View and unselect "Show hidden files."
 
 You now have all the files on your hard drive. You can go to itunes and tell it to "Add directory" and select that "Music" folder and it'll add all those files and pull in the info from the id3 tags. Walla! If you use another program for your music other then itunes, you'll need a different final step but it should be similar.

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by miss pretentious:
  so um...how do i do this on a mac?
 

I can investigate for you, but I've never had a mac so I dunno off the top of my head. Sorry.  

[ratioci nation]

just use this for a mac http://www.fadingred.org/senuti/

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Miss P -
 
  http://www.askdavetaylor.com/can_i_transfer_music_from_my_ipod_onto_my_mac.html
 
 w/o any program downloads.

[ratioci nation]

Originally posted by Julian, good manners AFICIONADO:
  Miss P -
 
   http://www.askdavetaylor.com/can_i_transfer_music_from_my_ipod_onto_my_mac.html  
 
 w/o any program downloads.

from that same link
 
 

Update: in some situations this won't work because iTunes won't let you drag and drop tracks from the iPod onto your Library folder, that is, copy music back onto your Mac. Fortunately, software authors have come up with some slick solutions for this problem, notably the freeware Xpod and the application Senuti. iPod music file transfer tools. If you can can't get the above directions to work, one of these should solve your problem!
 

[miss pretentious]

Originally posted by pdx pollard:
  just use this for a mac  http://www.fadingred.org/senuti/

actually yeah, my friend suggested this prrogram  to me and i did it friday night... worked marvelously.

[sweetcell]

so, as a late xmas gift i received an ipod nano.  third gen, 8 GBs, impressed with this lil' thing so far.
 
 i don't want to use itunes.  the UI is clunky, it's a reseource hog, and leaves 2 or 3 programs running in the background even when its not loaded... yuck.  as far as i can tell i don't need most of its bells and whistles, i only need to move mp3s back and forth.
 
 based on my limited research, winamp's ipod plugin/manager is a well-regarded alternative.  ipod support is built in to version 5.2 and later of winamp, although there is a  third-party replacement that claims to have  more features.  i'll be trying it out sometime in the next week or two.
 
 anyone else have experience or thoughts on iTunes-free ipod'ing?