Re: ipod-backup

[shiza]

Well, re-installed the OS on my wife's computer this past weekend. Her iPod was basically her backup for her music because I thought (as insane as it sounds) that iTunes could suck the music back in after the install. It doesn't.

Yesterday evening I hear screams coming from our office. iTunes apparently doesn't like a dirty iPod and decided to clean it up which entailed deleting 7 Gigs of music and photos. Thanks Apple!

I immediately had my wife call Apple to see if they could help her restore her data. Well, they wouldn't even answer a question until we gave them a credit card number?! Keep in mind it's still under a 1 yr warranty. Thanks again Apple!

My next step was to do some data recovery. I d/l some software and ran it. It found the missing songs and I restored them to my hard drive. Whew, i'm a hero now! Wrong. The restored files are all screwed up. Mis-labled songs, overlapping songs, etc...

CTRL-Z, do you think your script can help me with my situation?


P.S. - IMO Apple purposely weaved this inconvenience into iTunes...LAWSUIT!? I'm just kidding about the lawsuit, but seriously, why leave out simple and obviously needed functionality. If they didn't do it on purpose, maybe they need to re-structure their QA dept. I'm betting it was purposeful though.

[Ctrl-z]

The restored files are all screwed up. Mis-labled songs, overlapping songs, etc...

On my iPod, the tracks are stored in a seemingly random grouping in several folders - like some kind of hash table. The track names are truncated, but the mp3 data is not "overlapped" (is that what you meant?). Maybe your iPod used the Apple HFS+ filesystem? If that is the case, all I can do is point you at the Gnupod/Linux kernel 2.6 references in the POD. Sorry.

If the mp3 data is ok, then you might be able to use the import_ipod function to read the binary iTunesDB restored off the ipod. Just point $ipod_itunesdb at the restored iTunesDB. The original caveats still apply though...

Check out the Gnupod link - it is written in perl, by people who have actually studied the iPod. They could be able to advise you further.

Good luck, man. /msg me if you need more help.

[shiza]

Thanks for the reply. :) I've been doing some research and my suspicion that this functionality was left out on purpose was correct:
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/10/30/apple_to_ipod_owners.html
http://www.engadget.com/entry/7166385640773718/

Let my iPod n00biness shine!

Anyhow, I'll definitely try what you suggested. Thanks again!