My old laptop is in its death throws, no longer gives access to net and well just past its sell by date, so I got a new one. So the question is how do I get my ITunes library off the old lappy onto the new one without having to burn my entire cd collection again 😕

Is it a Mac you have? If so, you can migrate your old Mac onto your new Mac and it’ll pull everything over as it is. All settings, prefs etc. Or copy your iTunes library onto an external hard drive (if you have one) and then plug in into your new Mac/PC and copy it back over. Just take the library file too so it keeps all your playlists etc.

sadly not a mac and access to external hard drive 😥

Invest in an external USB drive – so you can have a backup of your media.

it’s a royal pain in the backside when you loose it 🙁

now burning disc 4 only………392 to go 🙁 😥 🙁

Connect them both to your router and do it wirelessly. Will take a little time, depending on how much stuff you’ve got.

Although I think you can do it if you have an ethernet cable and connect them up that way, but it’s worth googling for more info, I’m not entirely sure how to do it.

now burning disc 4 only………392 to go

You’ll be suicidal by disc 15. Give up and do it a better way. Buy/borrow an external hard drive or a large capacity memory stick.

External drives? There’s these new fangled things now called “networks”.

I know little about the intricacies of iTunes, but assuming there’s some sort of sensible import function, moving data between two computers on a home network requires two computers and not much else.

Stop burning discs (and stop ignoring advice once you’ve asked a question), that way lies madness.

EDIT: I’ve just reread and spotted the ‘doesn’t connect to the net’ bit. Might need to fix that first, or transplant the old laptop disk into the new PC. Point still stands though, burning it all back to disc just to rip it again is crazy talk if it’s one disc, never mind 300.

ethernet cable now theres an idea, just need to find the sodding thing 😛

as for these

new fangled things now called “networks”.

I have had my new phone for 3 weeks now and still dont know how the sodding thing works, think I am turning into a technophob, think I may leave until my 10year old son comes back from his mothers this weekend to to sort the whole thing for me.

or better still anyone know if you can still buy TDK90 min tapes lol

Remove HDD from old laptop, put it in one of these:

Read this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

How big is your iTunes library? If its less than about 60Gb, then get one of these:
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_6&products_id=113503
A 64Gb stick drive for £31.59 is a bargain.

tragically 1969 has the best option, I used one of those when my laptop failed, managed to recover all of my stored data. Would be ideal for what you’re trying to do. Although long term look for a back up option in case hdd fails.

No one would consider copying to discs, or have 392 discs in stock at home

ethernet cable & join iTunes match?

As above, hard drive caddy with your old drive, or, do what I did and buy a NAT drive (stand alone drive that plugs into a spare ethernet port on your broadband router) which means you can copy all your files including itunes onto it, and then you can copy stuff back to the new laptop as and when you want it.

Its a little slow as its limited by the network, but, you get a backup of all your files, easy to backup in the future, and you don’t need to copy everything to the new lappy for the sake of not losing it. You can just copy what you want, rather than fill the drive with 6 years of junk.

Advantages over a portable drive, is you don’t need to go and find it each time you want to use it, and it can’t get knocked off the arm of the sofa, (like I did) potentially losing your backed up files. The one I’ve got (Western Digital Mybook) is compatible with itunes and can act as a central server thing, but I’ve never really bothered as I rarely play music from my laptop.

P.S. A normal ethernet cable won’t work directly between laptops will it? I thought it needed to be wired slightly differently, making it a null cable?

P.S. A normal ethernet cable won’t work directly between laptops will it? I thought it needed to be wired slightly differently, making it a null cable?

It would normally need to be a crossover cable, although most modern laptops will sort themselves out so a straight patch cable may work.

Aren’t you supposed to put your iPod into hard drive mode and use it to store the files? I’m old and even I managed to do that.

Don’t forget to de-activate your old computer from iTunes when you’ve finished.