I got a call from a friend on thursday that his hard drive had failed. It was not his primary machine but it was his media machine. It was the computer he used to sync his iPhone and iPods. As much as I wish this would be a success story about how he took my advice and implemented a backup solution, there is no such luck. Reinstalling the operating system and getting everything up and running is rather simple and requires a minimal amount of my interactive time. What he believed the issue would be was trying to recover his media library.Since I have helped several friends do this exact recovery in the past, no one seems to take my advice to backup, I gave him a quick run down how it can be done. While I hope this will not be helpful to anyone, as everyone will just start backing up, the reality is this will likely be useful to many. Here are the step-by-step instructions on doing this for Windows or Mac users.
The software I suggest using is called TouchCopy by Wide Angle Software, previously this software was known as iPod Copy. The software is $24.99 for WIndows and Mac, so provided you have more than 25 songs, this is without a doubt going to be worth the money. The trial version of TouchCopy limits you to 100 songs. Before you buy a copy of TouchCopy, download it and try it out to make sure it works for you.
Download and Install Touch Copy
Download and install a copy of TouchCopy here.
After you have Touch Copy downloaded, install and launch it.
Please run the trial copy to make sure it works before you pay the $24.99.
Click Continue running Demo Version
* Before you launch TouchCopy make sure iTunes is closed
Close iTunes
If you left iTunes running TouchCopy wil remind you to close. While they say you can continue running iTunes I say follow their suggestion and just close it before you start
Plug in your iPhone, iPod, or IPod Touch
Touch copy says it can restore from an iPod without having iTunes installed. If you are restoring from an iPhone or iPod Touch make sure you have a copy of iTunes installed.
Now Plug-in your device
Restoring your Content
Now the process is simple. Select your music, photos, contacts, notes, SMS, or playlists and press Copy to Mac | Copy to PC.
If you need more step-by-step instructions see the support at Wide Angle Software. I have used the software many times to help friends recovery individual music files or in this example recover their entire music collection. Again try out the eval but this product has worked as advertised for me for some time now.
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Nice guide, it’s useful for me. I also found a guide regarding how to transfer files from iPod to iTunes, share it here.
http://www.ipod-transfer-copy.com/how-to-transfer-music-from-ipod-to-computer-itunes.html