iTunes re-install?

[ThatGeekGuy]

I have a hosed computer from a customer, water damage which got to the hard drive. There are some corrupt files on the drive, but it manages to boot into windows, though not everything starts properly. I think I can get iTunes to start up, but I don't know if it will work beyond that.

I've never used iTunes before and I've settled on doing a fresh install of Windows for the customer. I've managed to save all her songs without trouble as well. I hear that the songs are limited to playback on the machine they were purchased with? How does this work? What can I do to ensure she'll be able to play her music on the new installation?

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I think this should help: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364?locale=en_US

 

[NickCat11]

Let's start with Itunes...As long as she purchased the songs she will need to have Itunes installed on the machine and then you need to activate her Itunes account on that specific machine so the songs will play completely. If the account is not activated you will only be allowed a 30 second preview.

In regards to the machine...I would make sure you do a thorough check on everything especially is there was water damage. You may do all this work to find out something else may go wrong. Did you inspect the board and the other components of the laptop?

 

[NickCat11]

AMT you beat me to it!

 

[ThatGeekGuy]

Let's start with Itunes...As long as she purchased the songs she will need to have Itunes installed on the machine and then you need to activate her Itunes account on that specific machine so the songs will play completely. If the account is not activated you will only be allowed a 30 second preview.

In regards to the machine...I would make sure you do a thorough check on everything especially is there was water damage. You may do all this work to find out something else may go wrong. Did you inspect the board and the other components of the laptop?

I did. The keyboard was bad as well. The board somehow managed to escape unharmed.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

AMT you beat me to it!

Had it bookmarked.

 

[NickCat11]

I did. The keyboard was bad as well. The board somehow managed to escape unharmed.

They got real lucky

 

[tburnelis]

If it's a windows formated Ipod, connect it to the computer, and access it like a removable drive. Set the properties to show hidden files, and find the folder named iPod_Control. this is the music folder, the file names are not normal song names, but all the music is there.

If you can recover the music off the hard drive before formating, thats even easier. Fully install itunes, copy all music back into the iTunes appropriate folder, then within itunes, using the add folder to library feature to add all the music back, once that computer is authorized, all music should work as it used to.

I don't remember the name of the program, but I used one once (was free to use, but every few songs you had to click "ok" to continue) that would copy any/all items from the ipod and restore your itunes library. I'll see if I can find it and post the name tonight.

 

[tburnelis]

The program I used before to copy iTunes Music from an iPod to a PC is called Music Rescue ( www <dot> kennettnet <dot> co.uk/products/musicrescue/ ). Hope this can help.

I aparently can't post the link until I have 15 posts....