my computer died and took my itunes music with it

Hi,
I can't help but I have a similar problem--my hard drive crashed and I just got a new one. I found my iTunes CD and am trying to re-install everything, but...I bought a custom-color iPod from a company, and the serial number for the iPod isn't on the back...and of course, I threw the box away months ago. I know the serial number can be found in the iPod menu, but my battery is completely dead and without iTunes, I can't charge it, and I can't turn it on--I'm completely stuck!

You don't need iTunes to charge the battery. Simply plug it into a USB port and it will be charged. I don't know if the old USB-1 ports will charge. Just in case they don't, be sure to use USB-2.

It's a little late for this but your problem is the reason why Apple recommends CD/DVD backups. To my knowledge (and I'm not 100% certain), the only way to take the content from an iPod is if it was placed on to the iPod as data on an external HD. That's commonly done by those that wish to duplicate music on other computers.

nellbaby,

There are ways to get your songs off your iPod and on to a new hard drive. I think it may require a third-party application, but I'm only vaguely familiar with the process, having read about it here in this forum. Don't give up. There are many posters in this forum who know how to do this. It's just going to be a matter of the right person reading this post.

iBook G4 (& an iMac running OS 9) Mac OS X (10.3.9) iPod Video

Don't panic!
There is a way to get your music back, I know because my old laptop was stolen with all my iTunes music on it. On your new computer, open iTunes, then under the 'store' tab, click 'check for purchases' and it will ask you to sign into your account. Do that, and all the music and other content you have downloaded will automatically start downloading again onto your new computer (for free, since you've already paid for the content once).
Hope that helps

Connect your iPod to your computer. If it is set to update automatically you'll get a message that it is linked to a different library and asking if you want to link to this one and replace all your songs etc, press "Cancel". Pressing "Erase and Sync" will irretrievably remove all the songs from your iPod. Your iPod should appear in the iTunes source list from where you can change the update setting to manual and use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Also when using most of the utilities listed below your iPod needs to be enabled for disc use, changing to manual update will do this by default. Check the "manually manage music and videos" box in Summary then press the Apply button: Managing content manually on iPod

Once you are safely connected there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. Starting with your iTunes Music Store purchases, the transfer of purchased content from the iPod to authorised computers was introduced with iTunes 7. A paragraph on it has been added to this article: Transfer iTunes Store purchases using iPod

The transfer of content from other sources such as songs imported from CD is designed by default to be one way from iTunes to iPod. However there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. Have a look at the web pages and documentation, this is just a small selection of what's available, they are generally quite straightforward. You can also read reviews of some of them here: Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes

TuneJack Windows Only
iPod2PC Windows Only
iGadget Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
iRepo Windows Only
iPodRip Mac & Windows
YamiPod Mac and Windows Versions
Music Rescue Mac & Windows
iPodCopy Mac and Windows Versions

There is also a manual method of accessing the iPod's hard drive and copying songs back to iTunes on Windows or a Mac. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available at this link: Two-way Street: Moving Music Off the iPod

Whichever of these retrieval methods you choose, keep your iPod in manual mode until you have reloaded your iTunes and you are happy with your playlists etc then it will be safe to return it auto-sync. I would also advise that you get yourself an external hard drive and back your stuff up, relying on an iPod as your sole backup is not a good idea and external drives are comparatively inexpensive these days, you can get loads of storage for a reasonable outlay.