A family member’s laptop recently crashed. This person didn’t have any backups at all. They had iTunes installed with a bunch of music that they lost due to the crash. Here’s how to get songs off your iPod if this happens to you:
1.) Enable your iPod for Disk Use – Connect your iPod and iTunes should open up. If you’re running the newest version of iTunes you’ll see an option for enabling disk use. Click it and OK the warning message. Then at the bottom right, click Apply. Alternatively you can right-click on your iPod in the menu on the left and click on iPod Options, you can also use to enable disk use.
2.) Now you can leave iTunes open or close it. Alternatively you can close iTunes, disconnect your iPod and then reconnect it for assurance. Once it’s connected open My Computer. On the Tools menu click Folder Options. On the View tab find the option for Show Hidden Files and Folders and select it. Apply the option and close out.
3.) You should be able to open up My Computer now and see your iPod listed as a disk. Could be something like “Joe’s IPOD (F:)“
4.) Once you’ve navigated to your iPod you’ll see a dimmed folder called “iPod_Control” open that. Click on the folder Music and you’ll see a bunch of folders like F00, F01, F02 etc. These folders contain all of your music files. Copy them to your hard drive and you should be all good.
5.) Once the files are on your hard drive, import them back into iTunes and you’ve got your music back!
Thanks for CNET for this.
