Installing itunes on a new computer

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Installing itunes on a new computer

This is a bit of a weird question. I did do a search for answers first.

My computer that has my itunes on it has screwed up. The USB ports wont recognise any devices. Ive tried everything to rectify this and its either a loose connection on the mother board or a corrupted OS. Ive decided its about time to get a new computer.

This is gonna mean installing itunes on a new computer. My question is will I lose my purchase history or will I be able to redownload the albums and songs ive already bought to the new computer and itunes?

Also will I be able to sync my ipod and transfer the songs that way, rather than putting each CD back into the machine and adding everything manually?. Ive backed most things up but I have so many songs etc that it would take an awful lot of CDs to do it, and I want to avoid doing that if possible, because I have all the songs on CD already.

Kinda rambling I know but I want to get this cleared up before I actually get a new computer

Thanks

Windows XP

Posted on Nov 23, 2009 4:04 AM

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Answer 1

polydorus

Level 6

11,967 points

Nov 23, 2009 6:52 AM in response to Arianwen

Apple has a strict download once policy so you cannot re download purchased music.

You need to save your iTunes library on an external drive (not sure if you can do this with USB problems) or you need to have a network connection set up to allow you to copy files between the old and new PC.

Assuming a default installation your need to save the iTunes folder in My Music with all its subfolders.

If you have any music files that are not in the iTunes Music folder, you need to consolidate your library before saving it if you want a trouble free transfer.

Once you have saved your library or arranged a suitable network connection for file transfer it is very simple.

Install iTunes on the new PC and authorise it. Don't add any music yet.
With iTunes closed, Drag the iTunes folder out of Music to the desktop on the new PC.

Copy the iTunes folder from your old PC into the Music folder on the new PC so it replaces the one you dragged out.

When you start iTunes again, you should have your old library. Hopefully you iPod will work with it it rather than resyncing the whole lirbary.

.
If you have trouble with transferring files there are other options.

You can get files off an iPod, see this Zevoneer post:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9990366#9990366

Another alternative is to take the drive out of the old PC and put it in a USB drive enclosure. You can then use it as an external drive and recover your itunes folder from it.

Message was edited by: polydorus

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