Hoping Someone Can Help...

[BolianAuthor]

Hi, all...

I made a BIG boo-boo on my PC, and I'm really clinging to hope that someone here may be able to help me. This is kind of a long story, but I have to tell it, so you understand what happened.

Originally, I was having some ipod issues, so I had transferred the music library from my ipod onto my PC desktop, and was using iTunes to listen to the songs.

Well... I HAD had a copy of my iTunes library on my external HD, but that had been lost some time ago, so this ipod backup copy that I had was the only copy. Anyway... once I copied the library, I restored the ipod, to address those issues I mentioned earlier.

Now... I was VERY stupid, and thought that since the songs were playable in iTunes once again, that that meant they were firmly in place in the iTunes music folder once again... SO... like an idiot, I deleted the folder that was on the desktop, figuring that now, it was merely a copy of what had been put back into iTunes.

I did NOT put it into the recycle bin... it was too large for that... the computer deleted it.

The songs themselves are still on my PC, but I cannot play them, because iTunes is telling me they cannot be found. SO... I have heard that some 3rd party software MAY be able to restore what had been deleted. Is this in any way true?

Is there ANY way possible to recover the folder? Normally, I wouldn't really care, but I had over 900 songs, so I kinda don't want to have to re-download all that stuff, and re-rip. I know I was stupid, but I did not think about what I was doing, and now, I'm paying. If ANYONE can help me at all, I'd be like so thankful.

Thanks in advance for any help.

-BolianAdmiral

 

[The Borg Queen]

If they're still on your PC, can you try moving them to a different folder or something, to give iTunes a kick up the backside and realise they actually ARE still there?

 

[phoenix96]

You say they're still on your computer - if so, you may only need to copy/move them to your Itunes music library folder (by default under My Documents\My Music\iTunes\).

If they are deleted, you might be able to recover some or all of the files using a utility like Undelete (www.undelete.com).

 

[BolianAuthor]

Thanks for the idea... I did try it, but it would only let me copy/save as an .xml file.

The problem is that the songs are LISTED, but they are like "ghost images" of the original file, because when I try to do anything with them, iTunes tells me that it cannot play the file, because it cannot be found, and asks if I'd like to locate it. But I can't, because the folder was deleted.

EDIT: Would the trial version of DiskKeeper work, or do I have to use the purchased version?

 

[David cgc]

Your iPod still has all those songs on it, right? And they won't be deleted if you sync it because the song entries are still in the iTunes library, even if the files they point to are gone.

You could try looking for a program that lets you copy songs from an iPod back to your computer. However, I've never needed one, so I don't have a specific recommendation.

 

[GMac]

If the song files are still physically there (i.e you haven't deleted the actual files), then it shouldn't be particularly hard to get iTunes to play them again. All you'll need to do is to remove the entries for the songs in iTunes, then reimport them (using the 'Add File/Folder to Library' command). If you have actually deleted the files, then you will need to use a file recovery utility to get them back before you can reimport them or use one of the applications on the market that can transfer songs back from your iPod (such as Xpod or Senuti).

GM

 

[LaxScrutiny]

OK, you deleted the files from your desktop, the file in iTunes was just a list, not the files themselves, so they are not still on your PC.

You can try an undelete program, you'll likely have a great time renaming all the recovered files, assuming nothing has been overwritten since then. (Don't defrag your HD, don't create any new files, if you need to download and install a disk utility is it possible to use a separate hard drive?)

In your story, you got the files onto your PC from your iPod in the first place. They are back on your iPod, and you know how to do this, so your best, safest, easiest solution is to copy them back onto your PC from your iPod.