transferring my iPod library - HELP!

I think this has been discussed here before, but has anyone moved their iPod library from an old computer to a new one? My old laptop's video card was dying so we bought a new laptop (Windows Vista). The old laptop's hard drive was put into a case to make a removable hard drive which is where the library lives now. At least I think it does. I can see the music we bought, but not the CDs we own and copied to it. I also don't have iTunes installed on my new laptop and am afraid to do anything until I understand exactly what to do. The library isn't huge, but I don't want to lose anything if I can help it. I tried looking at the Apple iPod forum but it just made my head swim. Is there a step-by-step guide somewhere?

Oh how frustrating. I don't know if you went to Apple help but they have like a step-by-step thing on their site.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329

What about saving all ur songs to an external flash drive and downloading itunes on your new computer and just plug it in and drag and drop all the music into your itunes library....then sync.

Good luck!

I think I remember when we wiped the hard drive of our desktop that I had to back up my iTunes library by burning it all onto disk.     I don't know if its changed since then.  (This was last year sometime.)  That may prove beneficial in the long run doing it that way, so you can always have a copy...  Just don't forget to deauthorize your computer when you're done.   

I don't know if you can use your old laptop, but with that computer's iTunes, I would first set your iPod to manually manage music instead of sync automatically.  That way you won't have to worry about your music being wiped off your iPod when you hook it up to iTunes on your new computer.

Use a free program called "Expod" to move all your songs off of your ipod onto your new computer.

Expod looks like a programme for Mac, not Windows. Correct me if I'm wrong?

I use this programme called iPod Access to get the songs from the device, but this is a payware utility.

I've got a similar problem... got all my iTunes onto an external hard drive, but now not sure how to put it onto my new computer... im frightened that i will somehow screw it up.

If the library is on the external HD, all you have to do is transfer it (drag/drop once you have it plugged into your new computer. PM me if you need more specifics on this) then go to Itunes on the new computer and "add folder" (you can do an "add all music files" or something similar, too, if you don't have other music files on the computer.)

If what you want to transfer is on the ipod, you can use Yamipod (google it). It doesn't have to be installed and is a breeze to use. I've used it on my own computers before. It works with windows.

Like I said, feel free to PM me if you need more detailed instructions or if you run into any problems.

I think I remember when we wiped the hard drive of our desktop that I had to back up my iTunes library by burning it all onto disk.     I don't know if its changed since then.  (This was last year sometime.)  That may prove beneficial in the long run doing it that way, so you can always have a copy...  Just don't forget to deauthorize your computer when you're done.   

How do you de-authorize your computer from Itunes?

Honestly the easiest way to do this is to just buy an external hard drive....

you can get good USB powered ones these days for good prices....

the benefit to doing this is that your music, videos, and pictures can all be stored there and no matter how many new computers you get it will be a breeze to transfer, just plug in your external hard drive.

How do you de-authorize your computer from Itunes?

It's in one of the menus at the top. I think it's the next to last one. Just scroll across while looking at the pull down menus and it will say "deauthorize computer". Click on it and there ya go! Easy Peasy!

easy option:  download WINAMP on your new computer.  www.download.com and search winamp, its a free program and it will allow you to xfer music on your ipod to your new computer, and also add to your existing ipod library without wiping it clean.

Its dead easy.  First just download ITunes off the web.  Copy your music from your old PC - you can find this is my music/itunes - this is for PC.  Best way is to use an external drive.  Put this into your new PC.  In itunes find the menu to import music, when you do this browse the external drive, find the file with the album folders, highlight them all and click OK.  This will import onto the PC - hey presto.  You can also do it one album at a time if you would prefer

Right, so I've been too scared to do anything and am glad this thread has been revived. My old laptop died... the shop put all my files onto an external hard drive. As far as I know, the old laptop was NOT de-authorized. Also, I can't see any music in the itunes folder that we copied into it, just what we bought from iTunes. So, what will happen if I try to connect my iPod to my new laptop with a new version of iTunes downloaded?

I'm so confused!

Right, so I've been too scared to do anything and am glad this thread has been revived. My old laptop died... the shop put all my files onto an external hard drive. As far as I know, the old laptop was NOT de-authorized. Also, I can't see any music in the itunes folder that we copied into it, just what we bought from iTunes. So, what will happen if I try to connect my iPod to my new laptop with a new version of iTunes downloaded?

I'm so confused!

If you connect it you will be asked if you want to sync with this new libarary - which would be no!  You can then set to manually sync.  However i wouldnt bother connecting until you can see the tunes.  I would delete the stuff you copied into the folder and import from the hard drive as i described above and see if that works.