Reinstalled XP, library restoration question.

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jamesus

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Good Morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on your location!

I have a question that I have not been able to find answered in these forums. I have recently (yesterday) reformatted my computer. Before I did that I have exported my iTunes library file (Library.xml). My computer is set up as follows. There are 3 partitions in the old environment (C, D, and G where E and F were the CD drives. C and D are partitions on the same hard drive and G is a separate hard drive that I installed a few months ago) and there are 3 partitions in the new environment (C, D, and E where F and G are the CD drives. C and E are partitions on the same drive and D is the hard drive that I installed a few months ago.) In the old environment, my iTunes library was stored on the G drive and now it is stored on the D drive after the drives were renamed in the set up of Windows XP. My questions are as follows: Is there a way to convert the Library.xml file to reflect the new drive letter? Or is there a way to change the drive letters in Windows XP so that I can import the Library.xml file to correctly reflect my iTunes library?

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide. If you need any clarification, please let me know and I will do my best to help paint a clearer picture.

Regards,
James
 
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Actually, you have both options here, and can pick whichever one you prefer.

You can redefine your drive letters in Windows XP by going to Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management and selecting the "Disk Management" folder. From there, you can right-click on any of your hard drive partitions and simply select "Change Drive Letter" This will allow you to reorganize your drive letters the way that you want.

However, if you like your new drive letters the way they are, then your other option is to do a search-and-replace through the LIBRARY.XML file that you exported. You can open it up with something like Notepad, as it's just a text-file, and then just do a search-and-replace to look for G: and change it to D:
 

hotphil

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Well done on thinking ahead and backing up your library file! And a good question with all the necessary info I think.
Personally I think the easiest solution is going to be to rename the old "G" drive back to "G". While you're doing it, it may be worth renaming your CD drives back to what you remember them to be. To achieve this, try these steps:
Right click My Computer and select Manage
Choose Disk Management
Right click a partition or drive in the bottom pane and select "Change drive letter and path"
Click Change
Change the drive letter to an unused letter
Click OK
Read and agree to the warning
And you're done.....

You will need to change the CD drive that is currently your "G" drive first before you can allocate that letter to your iTunes library. Hope that makes sense and that I've read your question correctly.
 

jamesus

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Thanks!

jhollington & hotphil,

Thank you for your responses. They are both very helpful and I cma going to re-letter the drives. I appreciate you taking time top help me with my dilemma. Thanks again,

Regards,
James
 

vickyp

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I am in almost the same situation and sadly, I'm having tremendous problems.

I had Windows 2000 installed. iTunes library sat at c:\My Music

I partitioned the drive and installed Windows XP on the new c: drive leaving the Windows 2000 install on the new d: drive.

Sadly, it seems the Windows XP installation has killed the Windows 2000 installation. :( Still, I thought... I've done backups of everything important (including exporting the library) and I can still *see* all the files on the d: drive... no problem.

I've tried importing the exported xml file (complete with search-and-replace the c: to d: to no avail - the thing crashes every time. I've also tried the Schmolle method where I empty the .itl file etc. etc. to get it to force a rebuild - no luck there either.

Any thoughts? There are over 1000 ratings I'm gonna lose. :(
 

jamesus

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vickyp,

Is there any reason that you are keeping the Windows 200 Install? I am not sure if this will work, but you might want to try booting the 2K OS and moving your library files around (using the consolidate library function in iTunes).

James
 

vickyp

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Sadly, the Win2k install appears to have died...

And even if I did that... I'd still need to tell the new install of iTunes on WinXP to go find the tunes etc. etc.

Any other ideas would be much appreciated... I'm just so gutted at losing all my ratings... or actually, even worse, all my husband's ratings.
 
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