I just deleted my entire music library.. please help!

thanks anyway, I figured it out ... I was able to get my files off my iPod back to my computer, and recreate my Library.

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nothing came up.
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do a search for ".mp3" or ".m4v" or ".m4p"

make sure your search is well formed for the entire computer, i don't know how easy or good search is on WindowsXP, if i remember right it isn't very good. so they still may be there somewhere.

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what "option key" do I hold down?
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on a windows computer, hold down the Shift key and from the Start menu choose All Programs > iTunes > iTunes.

always the extra steps in windows...

but this is only for a test, and only if you knew where your music was.... you need to find one of your songs, (or all of them) to do that test.

hold down the option key as you start up itunes.... is a Mac trick. If you're on XP, disregard it.

Please explain to me how to take music from my iPod and put it back onto my computer to recreate my iTunes library. I seem to have lost my entire iTunes music library. Everything shows in iTunes, but when I try to play something, I get a message that it cannot play because the "original file not found." It asks me whether I want to find it, but it doesn't take me there. I moved my iTunes library to an external drive but did not back that up before I discovered this problem.

On Macs it is the Option key, on Windows it is the shift key.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589

Can I MOve songs back to computer from ipod.
I deleted songs that were bought from itunes

It might - I've read posts by others who have done it with success.
I've never used the restore feature, so can't walk you through it.

A re-store will not help. I have re-stored my PCs very often. Good Tool, but XP and Vista just ignores the user files, for safety reason.
Only the System files are re-stored. The re-storing function is not a user file backup function.

Looks like this issues cannot be solved from a distance!

I think you should ask an experienced friend to help you with finding the files.

OK been there done that (twice). It is all too easy to delete files to your recycle bin. The problem here is if you have a relatively full hard drive there might not be enough room in there to hold all the deleted songs.

I have learnt my lesson, the "do you want to send files to the recycle bin" button is very easy to press, especially if you are not concentrating or a bit sleepy.

Do yourself a favour, turn off all iTunes assistance, turn off syncing and manually manage your music. you will not regret it.

Keep the iTunes music folder (the default in iTunes) totally empty and load your music from another folder. That way iTunes can never ever delete your music again. iTunes (when sync'd) also assumes that because you want to delete music from your iPod that you also want to delete it from your library and hard drive, totally crazy in my book.

Message was edited by: Stubchain