Recover iTunes library from hard drive of broken computer

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Recover iTunes library from hard drive of broken computer

My old computer died, but the hard drive is o.k, we hooked it up as an external hard drive. How do I go about getting all the iTunes music, videos, etc. over to the new one? I haven't hooked up my iPod Touch (2nd Gen, Os3.1.2) to the new computer yet, just want to make sure I do the steps correctly. Can anyone tell me which files I need to move and where to put them? My old computer had XP, and this one has Windows 7. I did a search but haven't come across advice for this exact situation.

Acer, Windows 7

Posted on Apr 18, 2010 10:24 AM

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Answer 1

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Katrina S.

Level 7

24,151 points

Apr 18, 2010 10:54 AM in response to deannesud

The easiest way is to do a shift-start of itunes. Press *AND HOLD* the shift key while starting itunes.
Keep pressing until you get a prompt to choose a library. Then browse to the old drive and choose the itunes library.itl file that is on there.

I am not sure what the path will be, now that it is hooked up as an external. Should be in a folder named itunes. Once you get that open and working, you can use the itunes consolidate command to move everything to your new PC's hard drive.

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Answer 2

deannesud Author

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Apr 18, 2010 11:36 AM in response to Katrina S.

Will that copy the entire library to the new computer, including movies, videos etc?

Message was edited by: deannesud

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Answer 3

Katrina S.

Level 7

24,151 points

Apr 18, 2010 10:20 PM in response to deannesud

Assuming the consolidate works properly, it will.
But take it one step at a time - see if the shift-start of itunes works, first.

It will help me if I know what the paths are - is the old drive D: or E: or what?
And, is what is the entire path to the itunes folder? Is it something like it was on XP, such as
X:\Documents and Settings\ +old XP username+ \My Documents\My Music\iTunes?

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Answer 4

deannesud Author

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Apr 19, 2010 9:24 PM in response to Katrina S.

Thank you so much for helping me, it worked great! In case anyone else needs to do this, the only problem I had was during the "consolidate library" part. I had to go to the advanced settings in iTunes and change the default folder for music from the old hard drive to the new computer's media folder.

What a relief. I think I will back up to cd now!
Truly appreciate the help!

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Answer 5

deannesud Author

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Apr 20, 2010 8:40 AM in response to deannesud

I just opened iTunes and it is not finding my library although all the content is in the iTunes media folder on the new computer now. It opens as if I have no content. I'm sure there must be a setting or something I'm missing here. The library file is there too. Any advice?

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Answer 6

Katrina S.

Level 7

24,151 points

Apr 20, 2010 10:00 AM in response to deannesud

You're welcome, and thanks for the points.

Right, for the consolidate you need to tell itunes where the new location for storing files will be,
Also, itunes always uses the last ITL file it opened You might want to coy that ITL file from your old drive to the C: drive and do another shift-start so everything will be running from C:

One caution about backing up to CDs - itunes is notorious for burning backup CDs that can't be restored. Your current backup on an exHD is a good idea.

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Answer 7

deannesud Author

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Apr 20, 2010 1:43 PM in response to Katrina S.

I just copied the iTunes .itl, .xml(not sure if I needed this one) files from the old HD onto the new C: drive, and it made a copy so now there are files named "iTunes library (2) Extras; (2) Genuius; ITunes Library (2), etc. I told it not to replace the existing ones as I didn't want to cause any other issues. Am I safe to delete the original files and just take the (2) off the file names or am I better off to leave as is? I did another shift-open and directed it to that library (2) file and it opened my library. Thanks again for the help, I really appreciate it.

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Answer 8

Katrina S.

Level 7

24,151 points

Apr 21, 2010 12:27 AM in response to deannesud

The ITL is the important one. All the others (xml, genius, extras) can be recreated from the ITL. I prefer to only make regular backups of the ITL, but I've seen other posts where folks back up all 4 of the library-type files.

You're safe to delete or rename them if you are sure of what you're doing! This is something I'd have to be sitting at the PC to give a solid yes or no answer. But...if you delete it and itunes doesn't work, you should be able to immediately close itunes and restore that file from the recycle bin.

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Answer 9

deannesud Author

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Apr 21, 2010 7:55 AM in response to Katrina S.

I think I'll just leave them alone for now, I think those first files are just empty anyway.

I really appreciate your help.

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