migrating Mac iTunes Files to Windows XP

how to...

[mcavill]

not sure if this is the best place to post this....

My girlfriend has an iBook G4 which she's loaded with music in iTunes, and an iPod that's Mac formatted.

She's recently bought another laptop running Windows XP. She's installed the windoze iTunes and want's to move the Mac library to her new laptop.

What's the best way to get the music from the Mac to the XP laptop?

I've got a 30gb USB back up drive, so that can be put to use if needed.....suggestions hugely appreciated :)

[Section_8]

Hmm, well the backup drive would be a great idea. iTunes will accept AAC (usually mac oriented) audio files, as well as all other audio file types on BOTH PC and MAC systems. So you DO NOT have to worry about the file formats AT ALL. As long as you have normal media shoved in there on the MAC, your PC will understand them. So the best way of transfering them...probably your back up. If that doesn't work, try DVD-R's or DVD-RW's(saves DVD's). Again, something like that would work cross-platform. I wouldn't recommend combining the pysical HDD's or anything.

Another thing to be aware of (if you don't already know) is that an iPod usually only likes 1 computer at a time. So if you plug your iPod into the PC machine after you loaded all the music on it...it'll have to reload itself. You'll need to run the updater and everything to get it to like your PC, and then re-upload all of your music/movies/podcasts.

It may be a bit time consuming, but should be easy enough :D

Hope that helped mcavill. If you need further assistance, just post here again.

Regards,
Shaun

[mcavill]

hmm - we've given up on trying to migrate, and are just reloading CD's to the new laptop, bit of a pain :)

[microcars]

although I have not done this, I've been told you should be able to copy all the folders in your iBook's MUSIC folder directly into XP's "My Music" Folder.

then run iTunes and Import everything from the "My Music" Folder and it should all magically appear.

then, as pointed out above, if you plug the iPod into the XP computer, it will ask you if you want to replace the iPod's Library with the one on the current (XP) computer.
If the Library and playlists look the same, just click OK or Yes or whatever.