BIG iTunes Problem

[audiodan]

I am an old school iPod owner. I had a 3G then a 4G and now I have a 20GB Colour. One day, when I opened my iTunes Library, all my songs and playlists disapeared! This was horrible. I wanted to upload songs and photos on my ipod, but I couldn't because everything was gone! I have a PC, which has the problem, that has a backup of all the musc. The only thing is that I would have to open all the songs one by one. I want to use a program that is not iTunes to manage the songs now, but I can find one! I have tried "Anapod Explorer" and "CopyPod". Please give me your suggestions.

Thanks,

Daniel

[Shadow R One]

Take a look at XPlay from www.mediafour.com

[MusicManiac921]

I have a dual backup system - backup to external USB drive, and then also on occasion to DVD(s).

I do not use the export function in iTunes, but rather copy the entire iTunes folder - library and playlists are all preserved.

I've also taken to using smart playlists more - they are easer to restore than manuallly selected playlists. You do have to be a bit creative - for example, using BPM as the smart playlist criteria (all my kid's playlist songs are designated with a "10" in the BPM field, so I don't have to mess with the more obvious stuff like 'genre").

Hope that's useful.