For the first time in a week - Satisfaction, Peace, Tranquility.
I am (finally) able to get songs/playlists loaded onto a new 3rd gen/30 gig IPOD and can browse by artist/album/song/genre. Songs are moving faster between my PC and my iPod. My iPod gets recognized so much more rapidly upon plugging in. My Library is so much more intergrated with my PC. How did I reach this state of nirvana, you ask?
Simple, I got over my fear of ditching MusicMatch and grabbed my free trial of Media Center 9.
It really did take a sea change in the mental state of "Hey, it came with the iPod so it must be the best way to go... If I don't use it, who will help me?" The sea change was made so much easier by the amazing support I found in reading the Lounge and the limited help I was actually getting from both Apple and MM. If you, too, are locked in this mind-set...free yourself, take the plunge...the water's great!
Anyway the purpose of this isn't to bash those fine companies but to get a few questions answered about setting up MC 9 so this nirvana will last.
Q1) In making the switch I removed all previously loaded MM and iPod software. I assume I am now unable to restore the iPod when needed (since I no longer have the little iPod in my system tray). So, question 1 is do I need to re-add any iPod software and --if so -- how do I do it without reloading MM and loads of headaches?
Q2) I have about 50 gigs of mp3's (all nicely ripped and tagged), an external 200 gig firewire hard drive and a Gateway running Windoes XP w/80 gig hard drive. My songs/albums/playlists are currently scattered a bit around the system (some on the external HD, some in My Music, some I don't even no for sure where -- like my playlists). I have read alot here (from Adam and/or Chris) and the in "The iPod Users Guide" about smartlists or playlists that make it easy to synch parts of a larger library with a smaller ipod and frankly I am a bit confused/overwhelmed.
So, question 2 is what is the best way to set up my mp3s and my files/folders for proper ripping, storing and synching w/Ipod? I know this is a very long-winded question that is probably difficult and time consuming to answer but I would appreciate any help you could give.
Much gratitude for the pyschotherapy and support to be found here!
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