Itunes & Cd-rw/ Dvd-rom Drives, Yeh kya ho raha hain bhai...??? Options

[Talaikya]

I have been working with iTunes, trying to name my tracks etc for a CD. In the last 30 mins it's just stopped playing the CD twice. Once it caused my system to freeze, the second time both my CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives got disconnected when the CD stopped playing. What's happening?? Any clues?? Mahn and I am in love with iTunes...

[Talaikya]

I am back - with questions

The burning one right now - Can I "force" an order in a play list? For example mah Tandems - the Awaz Alag Andaz Alag series... if I want them to play chronologically with the slower ones of the pair first... short of renaming them is there any other way?

(Note to myself - Deewz is a whiz, she'll know what I am trying to ask!! )

[deewani]

Hi T, I made you a little screenshot pic to explain how that's done, some think you have to change the track order but that is not so, nor do you have to rename your files or your ID3 tags. Whether you are burnng a CD, or just want the songs to play correctly in your playlist, or on your iPod, you just need to literally drag the songs where you want them to be. I love this feature cause I always change my mind as to what song should come before another. This features gives that flexibility.




I probably mentioned this before, but iLounge has a .pdf download of what they call The Free iPod Book, mostly it's a magazine with ads and neat gadgetry, BUT contained within it's pages, starting on page 104 (110 of 202) as shown in the adobe reader, they have the all things iTunes guide with 125 tips related to iTunes. http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/library/

Now, this is all great and exciting, BUT WHAT IF YOUR PC CRASHES? You lose your playlists if you reformat/restore your PC right? Well smart playlists are easy enough to recreate (though a pain if you've got many), but what about non-smart ones? One nice thing about the newer versions of iTunes is the restoration of playlists. If, for some reason, you have to completely restore your computer/reformat the hard drives, etc. BEFORE you do that, make sure you do this (probably should be done everytime you do a full backup of your music files):

As a safeguard, especially if you've purchased anything from the iTunes store, you want to:
1. Backup your iTunes folder C:\Documents and Setting\User Name\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
(if you've bought files from iTunes store, you also need to read about deauthorization/reauthorization)

2. Use the "Back Up To Disc" function to make sure you playlists will be recreated. Now I'm assuming here that all your music has been backed up to external hard drives, or DVDs, or whatever. So when you restore your PC, you are adding all the music back to the same directory/folder it used to sit. Also, it does not matter if you have bought anything from the iTunes store for this to work.
From: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302392
Go to File -- "Back Up To Disc"
The first option is Back up entire iTunes library and playlists - you can use this option IF you are backing up your music files to DVD, But as I said I'm assuming your music is already backed up on DVDs or external HDs. So we want the SECOND OPTION: Back up only iTunes Store purchases, click Back Up. Now put in a blank CD or DVD (DVD more if you have actually bought large files like movies or games from iTunes store, CD if you've only bought very little music OR even if you've never shopped there). iTunes will burn your library info, and your playlist info to this Back Up Disc.



Now when you go to put your music back on your PC after it's been wiped clean. After you have it in, you re-install iTunes and then insert your "Back Up Disc" you just created. iTunes will prompt you to restore from this disc, click Restore and there you go, your library and all your precious plalyists are re-created instantly.

[Talaikya]

Hi T, I made you a little screenshot pic to explain how that's done

Awesome!!! That simple eh?? Thanks soooooo much... !!

I probably mentioned this before, but iLounge has a .pdf download of what they call The Free iPod Book, mostly it's a magazine with ads and neat gadgetry, BUT contained within it's pages, starting on page 104 (110 of 202) as shown in the adobe reader, they have the all things iTunes guide with 125 tips related to iTunes. http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/library/

Yes, you did and I downloaded it too a long time ago, but... much easier to ask you na? I am not just being lazy, am pretty swamped of late and took a conscious decision to ask you rather than look it up. It's been nagging at me since a while now Now I really feel lazy!

One nice thing about the newer versions of iTunes is the restoration of playlists.

Wow!! Okay this is what I do... periodically I point iTunes to the external drive, won't that take care of playlists and all? My CD and DVD drives have conked and I haven't had a chance to figure it out. I am sooner or later replacing my system, so I have ignored the issue (make do with my hubby's lap top for any burning issues )

Thanks Deewz, mucho obliged

[deewani]

YQW T, I'm sure others will find it helpful as well, I remember when my brother showed me that, I was so excited.

OK so your library exists on your PC probably as well as the external drive, and that's all fine as far as the files go, but what I am saying is, what happens if for some reason you need to re-install iTunes after your PC's HD has been formatted, it will no longer have a record of your playlists or what the iTunes library consisted of. If you have your music backed up, no problem. You just drop it back into iTunes after a clean install, and your music files are obviously restored, but.... your playlists, the ones you made up WILL be gone. You will have to make them again, unless you follow the above procedure. This is one reason I used to rely on Smart Playlists. But now all my playlists can be regenerated by the software itself, I don't have to manually re-create them. I found this out when my main hard drive conked out late last year.

For example for your Tandems, I would have created a Smart Playlist named Awaz Alag Andaz Alag based on the grouping field in iTunes. I would tag all the songs that belong in this playlist with something like "Awaz Alag Andaz Alag" in the grouping field. And then create a Smart Playlist based on this grouping field. Then you can sort the play order as I explained. So if you restored your pc, put your files back, you can manually regenerate this playlist by just entering your criteria into the Smart Playlist field again. But this is now unnecessary if your library - meaning the database that keeps track of your files, not your actual files, and your playlists - separate from your actual files in the list, are backed up as described above. Hope I made some sense there. Wit over 100 playlists I found this invaluable.


Side Note: many of us have recently come to believe that our DVD burners have conked out only to discover that the blank printable TDK discs that Costco has been selling have just plain sucked. I discovered that little fact this past summer, my brother came across the same problem, I asked him Costco TDKs? He's like yes, problem solved, switched brands. My cousin two days ago said he just restored his whole PC in hopes of solving his burner woes - I asked him - Costco TDKs? Yup. He's like why didn' t I talk to you first, lol. So yeah, your DVD burner could be dying, but it could also be the media.