Getting music off a Mac formatted iPod onto a PC

[JonEdwards]

I've been given a s/hand 40gB ipod photo for christmas, complete with about 17GB worth of music. (+ itunes 4.7)

It turns out the previous owner used a mac, and so my PC (running XP) can't access it.

Is there a way to copy the music off the ipod onto my PC, so I can then format the pod for PC, and reload the music?

I've tried/discovered the following:-

itunes doesn't "see" the ipod

neither does Podutil or Last Resort

Explorer sees it, but only as a generic USB mass storage device (drive E), that I then can't access without formatting it first.

Device manager does see it as an ipod (partitioned)

I can't run "update" only "restore"

My PC hard drive IS "C"

I've tried all 4 USb ports. the ipod charges happily through all of them.

I'm using my work PC, so while I'm happy to add stuff, I can't go around changing whats already there.

If I got access to a Mac would I be able to use Podutil on that to get the music off the ipod, format it on the PC, then transfer the music back on again?

Any advice gratefully received!

[jefmcg]

Can't be done. Windows PCs can't read mac file systems.

You'll need to find a macintosh, and then podutil i guess (haven't tried it), then go back to a PC to run iPod Updater to restore it as a PC iPod, then back to the mac to copy the files.

[jefmcg]

Oops. Apparently I'm wrong. There is an app called MacDrive that may solve your problems.

[JonEdwards]

Sorted!

Well done that man!

Took a while copying 4700 songs via Podutil, then rexporting back to the ipod, but everything talks to everything else now.

:-)

[jefmcg]

Originally posted by JonEdwards
Well done that man!

Ahem - "well done that woman".

But I'm glad you sorted it.

joan

[victorlima01]

I'm having exact the same problem. Word for word! Where do I find this Macdrive? I hope it saves me as well... I've been trying for weeks now!!!

[victorlima01]

Hey guys. I found Macdrive, downloaded it and thank God it worked beautifully in conjunction with Podutil so now I have my Mac-formatted-iPod songs back in my PC. Now onto the huge problem that arose following this operation.

I proceeded later by uninstalling Macdrive and installing the iPod software and iTunes in the PC where I had ripped the songs to. I then connected the iPod and allowed the iPod software to format it so that I could start using it in that PC. After that was done I opened iTunes and added all the folders containing the ripped songs to the library. I awaited a couple of minutes for iTunes to process them and to my surprise they had not been added!

Why's this happening? Does anybody know? You think it might have to do with the fact that iTunes might recognize them as mac files and thus refuse to add them?

My problem now is potentially huge. I have the files in my computer, they play adequately with Windows Media Player but they can't be "read" by itunes. And since they are no longer in the iPod and I can't seem to get them there, they are as of now useless. So Please help me with any ideas or solutions!

[swb]

I'm having a similar problem, but the other way around. I have a windows formatted ipod (3rdGen) and I want to use it on a mac as well as a PC. I've searched through the forums, but can't find any answers to know if this is possible.

Sorry if the answer has been posted elsewhere, but I did try and find it. Honest!
Cheers.

[jefmcg]

Don't know about 3rd gen, but 5Gs formatted for windows just plug into a mac and work fine.

Suggest you just try it.

[swb]

Cheers for that. I've finally got round to trying it and it works fine with a 3rd Gen ipod. I believe that if your ipod is windows formatted, it works on both PC and Mac, but not the other way round.