I've got questions and I figured since music fans are here (and plus, I will be putting artists other than Prince, although he will easily take up a few gigs), I should address my concerns about getting an 120G Ipod on this board.

First, do I have to keep all my songs on the PC/hardrive? I think with my first, anytime I logged into Itunes it would insist that any songs deleted from the hard drive had to be deleted from my Ipod.

Related to this, can I use more than one PC to add songs? I know you can have Itunes on muliple PCs but the songs of course do not transfer from one account to the next.

Also share anything about the Ipod good or bad. Mods, if you think this is out of place, move it but I really think since this is about music in general, it fits. Thanks.

1. i think a lot of people keep their iPod library backed up on their hard drive. i don't. and it's probably just because i'm backward and an idiot, but i save all my mp3s on an external hard drive, in folders, all alphabetized. i do this to save space on my laptop hard drive, and also if i want to share files with friends, i can just take my little external hard drive, which is now as much of a music storage unit as my CD shelves. it's a system that works for me. there's probably a better way.

2. if i'm not mistaken, you can license your iPod to work with up to four computers? i know there's a way people can share their libraries with each other online or some craziness like that - i've had friends try to do this with me - but again, my primitive mind does not understand such concepts well enough to benefit from them.

3. i've had my iPod for a little less than a year now - i went nuts and got a 160G iPod classic - and i have to say i don't have much to complain about. i've yet to experience any tragic issues with my iPod, and i use it a LOT every day. i'm sure someone will find some tragic flaw with it, but considering my simple needs - something that plays lots of music and keeps me from getting bored - i'm satisfied. i would recommend getting one of those hard clear plastic protective shells for your iPod, though. i'm a big ol' klutz, and i'm sure without the shell, my iPod would be a big useless pile of sad by now.

Anxiety said:

Thanks. This was helpful. So you don't have to keep all your songs on there! Do you add stuff to it often or did you just load it up once? The reason I ask about Itunes is because I have a PC that is barely working but filled with songs I bought from Itunes (not filled, but over 50 I believe) and I don't want them to go to waste. Once I take all my stuff from there, I'm trashing that PC.

Definitely a check on buying a case. I have a very bulky satellite radio that I've had to replace once because of dropping it.

Anxiety said:

You're gonna curse yourself if your Ipod falls when you get off your car

I invested alot of time, energy and WEALTH into my 1st Ipod,,,,,I bought an external harddrive after that.

VinnyM27 said:

Realistically you do have to keep them on there to keep the ipod from resetting itself and clearing out the songs you have if you do indeed upload a bunch of tunes to your ipod. I recommend getting an external hard drive to keep the music on as well as the ipod program itself...especially if you can fill up about 120GB. Mine is only 30 which is probably about 6,000 plus videos?

Take the songs off your junk computer then just upload them later..

paisleypark4 said:

I'm trying to figure out how to put my iTunes program in my external hard drive so I can actually store all my music on iTunes without clogging up my computer's hard drive. Is this easy to do? And then I could probably just put a shortcut icon on my desktop leading to the iTunes program on my external hard drive, right? That would be ideal. Meanwhile, if my iPod ever wipes out, I just figured I'd dump all the folders from my hard drive into my iTunes (several smaller dumps at a time, of course) and I'd be good to go?

paisleypark4 said:

Wait....what? I don't plan to fill it up at one time (no way in hell). So are you saying that every time I put new songs on there, if it sees that the old ones aren't on there, it will reset it? Also, does this effect moving it to a different computer? So confused.

BTW, I'll be shocked if I really fill it up. I guess it's possible.
[Edited 8/6/09 16:53pm]

VinnyM27 said:

this has never happened to me. once i load music on to my iPod, it's on there for good unless i intentionally remove it. if i delete music from my iTunes after i load it on to my iPod, it has no bearing on my iPod the next time i plug it in.

Anxiety said:

There are a few syncing options. I have mine set to "make exactly like my iTunes" so when I edit and delete schitt... it brings the changes to my iPod.

For instance, I realized I had an mp3 AND a wav copy of something in my iTunes and deleted the second copy. Now only one shows on my iPod.

Your option for syncing sounds like the.... one that tops up.

Anxiety said:

me too. love it.

Cinnie said:

yeah, i do everything manually. i know there are sync options if you keep all your files in iTunes, and i don't take advantage of any of that stuff. but i don't think it hurts how i enjoy my iPod. it just means i use less of the automatic functions available. that's how i understand it, anyway.

Cinnie said:

i'm going to be very very very sad the day it dies. but i'm hoping that day won't come anytime soon.

UGH! I forget about backing up my music. I wanted to invest in an external drive, but that's not on the list of must-have crucial list. It's going to have to wait. I can back up the downloaded songs by burning on cds which I've done a couple of times, but slacked on that as well.

You can have iTunes on your hard drive, but just move your iTunes music folder over to the external drive. And you can tell iTunes to make the folder on that drive your library folder, I think.

also, Anx, maybe this is how you did it, I'm not sure, but there's an option in iTunes that will re-name the file folders (artist, album,) and file names, etc. on your hard drive to however you have them named/organized in iTunes

errant said:

nope. that would probably be a smarter option, but i arranged all my mp3s completely by hand by creating folders on an external hard drive. iTunes has nothing to do with it.

Anxiety said:

ah ha. Well I think you can make that folder on your external your defaul iTunes library folder, if you want, just like it would be if it were on your hard drive.

errant said:

huh. i'm gonna have to try that.

Anxiety said:

I'd do a test run with some junk folder first

Anxiety said:

That's all I need to know! Thanks!

I bought a 120 hot (for $80)
so glad I did

I hate this thing

VinnyM27 said:

If it's only 50 songs, why don't you just copy them to a thumb drive or burn them to a disc?

I've owned plenty of iPods in the last 8 years (I was a frequent upgrader until I bought my first iPhone). You can manually manage your iPod if you want, but I always advocate syncing with iTunes. If your iPod is big enough to hold your entire iTunes library, you'll have a backup in case something happens to one of them. If your music library is too big, it's easy to sync only certain playlists.

AlexdeParis said:

I'm not going to upgrade. If this bombs, I'll just buyer some knock off. I ended up only paying $107 for it! A bunch of discounts and $100 in coupons. Very nice. I'm still putting music on my computer right now. I'm definately thinking of buying a backup external drive as well.