Q: Trying to migrate files, but some files are invisible to me
Description of problem:
Old PC died, but hard drive was fine. Bought new PC, removed old hard drive from old computer, used an adapter to connect old hard drive to new computer (this part worked fine).
My music files are of several types:
1). Some were purchased from itunes
2). some were purchased from amazon
3). Some were recorded off of vinyl to turn them into digital copies
4). Some were regular old CDs that I loaded to my old PC
Of these different file types, they are all visible on my existing iPod, and I use my PC with iTunes to manage my music. The files I cannot find were all from old CDs that I had loaded to my previous PC (or even the one before that). Approximately 100 "albums" are not showing up in my newly migrated iTunes library. Furthermore, they are not visible on my old hard drive, but they WERE on the old PC and the old iTunes library.
Question: What's going on here? and is there anything I can do to make these files visible? I've looked through all the existing files, and they are not visible anywhere. I no longer have these CDs for the most part. I'm worried that I have to buy the albums again.
Second question: If I sync my iPod with 400 albums to my iTunes library that has only 300 of the albums, will I lose the ones that are not represented in the iTunes library, or will the two systems cross-pollinate? I am worried that I will lose music if I sync my iPod (which has more music files) to iTunes library (which has fewer files) .
Thanks
iPod classic, Windows 7
Posted on Apr 15, 2016 9:11 PM
Thanks for the clarification. Those symptoms definitely suggest that the "missing" media was on your HDD at the time the drive was synced. Is it possible that they were (are) in a non-standard location, or on a different drive? Depending on how you've had iTunes configured, its possible that some of your media may not have been stored within the iTunes Media folder hierarchy - it may be worth searching the entire drive for *.mp3 and *.m4a files just in case they are lurking in unexpected places.
Otherwise, you're best solution may be to use one of the solutions described in turingtest2's user tip on Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device to recover the albums that are on your iPod and put them into your library (this recommends Mediamonkey as a solution for recovering selected items from your iPod).
Once you've resolved the issues, make sure you create and maintain a backup of your library as insurance against future mishaps (as well as making it a lot simpler to move your library between PCs).
Posted on Apr 16, 2016 12:42 PM