Itunes Question

[kbo]

I had an HP laptop with Itunes on it and kept my library on an external hard drive. I had a 160gb classic Ipod.

My computer died and i am buying a new one (mac is out of budget)

When I get my new computer, obviously I will download Itunes. My Ipod still has all the music on it and the external hard drive is ok.

I don't want to "erase" or lose any information when I sync with a new itunes that is "empty"

What are the steps? After I download Itunes and set the folder location to my external harddrive what is next? Will Itunes recognize my IPOD? Will it load the music/list from my ipd or external into itunes?

Thanks in advance

[Conan The Barbarian]

I am an idiot, you might have to restart over.

[Pillfred]

Not sure but i think if you sync your iTunes with the music first, than plug in your ipod it may be ok as it would still be the same account. Not positive though.

[Leviathant]

It's been a while since I've had a standalone iPod, but I seem to recall that you can drag music on to it, but you can't drag music off of it. At least, not by design - but the internet is here to help.

[kbo]

Thanks everyone. Part of the problem that I am having is that everything I seem to read doesn't explain my specific situation.

I have my hardrive with my music stored there as it has always been. My Ipod is the same.

The computer and the Itunes will be all that is moved.

[Conan The Barbarian]

Well, as long as you have your library backed up somewhere ( I think its an XML file or something like that), you can restore it back. If not, then you have to restart from scratch.

But your Id tags and everything should still be intact.

[jessamineny]

I had an HP laptop with Itunes on it and kept my library on an external hard drive. I had a 160gb classic Ipod.

My computer died and i am buying a new one (mac is out of budget)

When I get my new computer, obviously I will download Itunes. My Ipod still has all the music on it and the external hard drive is ok.

I don't want to "erase" or lose any information when I sync with a new itunes that is "empty"

What are the steps? After I download Itunes and set the folder location to my external harddrive what is next? Will Itunes recognize my IPOD? Will it load the music/list from my ipd or external into itunes?

Thanks in advance

i just had to move my iTunes library to a new laptop and then load it onto a new iPod. After transferring the library to a portable HD, I copied the iTunes music folder into the new iTunes, and then had to prompt iTunes to import the folder. When I hooked up the new iPod, iTunes automatically synced it. You might have to deauthorize the old computer and authorize the new one.