iTunes Library has disappeared

earth mother

This is quite terrible. My complete iTunes Library has disappeared off my computer.
It is a 2 month-old Acer Aspire5610 with Vista.
I've searched and nothing.
As an aside, I have also lost about 4 files of photos.
Now when I plug in my iPod it tells me that I am not synced with this computer.
What shall I do?

HELP

majiktripp

Do a search for "itunes library" in Vista and see what files it displays, if any. If you can find the file, open your itunes program up but do not plug in your ipod. Once its opened up, click File-Import-> and point it to the file you found doing a search. It should reimport the music database that itunes uses.

Spud83

Yeah or run a search on your machine for music files(*.mp3, *.acc) whatever format your music was in and it should show you were all your music is stored.

earth mother

majiktripp wrote: »

Do a search for "itunes library" in Vista and see what files it displays, if any.

Done that and it just takes me to the empty iTunes library, which it told me before was not synced with my iPod. Well, not quite empty. It has one album in it as opposed to about 5gb before.
Is it possible that I have been infected by some weird worm or virus? That has stolen all my music?
Thanks for taking the trouble to reply

majiktripp

Are all your mp3's still in the My Music - Itunes folder? I doubt very much its a virus issue, did you by chance sync the ipod on anyone elses pc recently before your tried to sync it on yours?
Very strange that theres one album left in the itunes library, if someone auto sync'd there ipod on your machine it may have over written the library on your pc.

earth mother

No. Nothing in My Music either.
The only reason that I have one album left is that it was a Christmas present and I played it and added it, before I realised what had happened.
No-one else has synced on my computer and I haven't syncd on anyone else's.
I am beginning to think it's a memory problem, it being a new computer and all.
The good news is that I have a certain amount of music saved on an external hard disc, so all is not lost. But I don't know what to do about syncing my iPod cos I have purchased music, etc
Thanks, again, for all your help
M

Doctor DooM

The prorgam EPHpod would allow you to move music from your ipod to your comp without erasing it. However, I have no knowledge if this program works with vista.

Loveless

The file you're looking for is called "iTunes Library.itl" - that should have all your iTunes info. (Although Vista seems to have trouble finding files you're looking for, even when you know full well the file is on your computer.)

My library has been damaged a couple of times during the year and recent versions iTunes warns you that the library is damaged and makes a new library. OK I lost all the song star ratings that I'd spent time making but all the music was still on the PC, all the artwork is still embedded in the mp3s and I could grab all podcasts again - so making a new library wasn't the end of the world.

Now I back up the "iTunes Library.itl" file about once a fortnight for peace of mind.