restoring deleted files from iPod

Computers, gadgets, etc. Music/audio-related discussions should be posted in Audio Technology.
User avatar
MK
Posts: 946
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2003 4:24 pm
Location: North America

restoring deleted files from iPod

Postby MK » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:53 pm

If I may be permitted to rant....

I never gave two shits about fucking iPods, and then one day my brother calls me out of the blue and asks me to drive downtown to buy a fucking iPod for him he bought on ebay, the idea being it was a 'better' iPod, blah, blah, some shit about him getting a great deal for essentially an upgrade, of course he also asks me to pay $fucking200 in CASH (fuck that shit, I paid with a check) because he can't. I do it, and he SWEARS about a dozen times to pay me back, but of course, he comes by a week later, he remembers to pick up his fucking iPod I PAID for, but somehow doesn't remember to pay me back jackshit. Part of this transaction has something to do with me getting the old iPod he's replacing with this new one I bought, and something to do with him making back the cost of that old iPod on some past sale, so it's supposed to be a 'gift,' but of course since he didn't pay me back, I basically bought an old iPod I had no fucking interest in for $200.

So I'm stuck with a fucking iPod I never wanted, but I figure, okay, maybe this can be useful. So over the next month I rip my CD's for it, and due to the speed of ripping/converting files into AAC files (much slower than ripping simple aiff files), it's a real pain in the ass. Then my brother comes by, again doesn't remember SHIT about paying me back, and bitches and moans about my computer being too slow and tells me. So he's got Tiger and offers to install it, so I think, hey, it's a nice gesture, right?

INSTEAD it ends up FUCKING up my computer because none of the fucking external drives mount. That is, they don't, or they take fucking forever, the problem I mentioned in some other post. I've reinstalled everything and that SEEMED to have fixed the problem but instead while I was transferring a ripped CD on to the iPod (again, part of the ripping I've been doing for the last month, trying to fill the 30 gig fucker), fucking iTunes freezes. So I have to force quit after an hour and restart the computer.

It comes back on, I fire up iTunes. The iPod is still connected. I don't do anything else to either the program or the iPod, I go off to run a quick errand, come back and notice the iPod is 'updating.' I'm about to stop it but it's too late, it's done 'updating.' For some reason, iTunes automatically went ahead and erased all the fucking music on the iPod.

For the moment, it seems like I have one option: buy something like Pod Genius for $60 and hopefully the undelete feature on that program will work and restore all the music. BUT, it still won't solve whatever crappy problems I may still have with the computer, and if it doesn't work, that's a month of pain-in-the-ass ripping I'd have to repeat again. So at this point, I'm thinking, FUCK it, sell the fucking thing, hopefully get my damn money back and walk away with the lesson to stop doing favors and taking bad advice from said brother.

Anyway, now that I've flushed that from my system, is there any easy alternative to restoring the iPod to the way it was, preferably something that won't cost even more money?
"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war." – Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Neither slave nor tyrant." - Basque motto

User avatar
Rspaight
Posts: 4386
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:48 am
Location: The Reality-Based Community
Contact:

Postby Rspaight » Tue Jul 12, 2005 9:30 am

I don't know of a free way, but here are some more options:

http://forums.ipodlounge.com/showthread ... adid=45619

Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney

User avatar
MK
Posts: 946
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2003 4:24 pm
Location: North America

Postby MK » Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:47 pm

Thanks for the link, it pointed me in the right direction.

Pod Genius apparently hasn't come out yet so I tried FileSalvage and it's a fucking pain in the ass. There's 30 GB of unlabeled files you have to sift through, in NO particular order. All song titles, etc. don't pop up, every file is given a random number. If it was just the music I put on there, fine, but it's got a sizeable chunk of crap left over from the previous user.

Plus, I contacted FileSalvage and they say the program is designed NOT to overwrite old date, so I can't just use the iPod as my target source - which means I have to clear 30 fucking gigs elsewhere to save this shit. At least, play some kind of shell game with 30 gigs of space, that is, copying and deleting files as I go along. So far, I've sifted through 900 of 9000 files, which took 2 hours in addition to the hours it took to scan the drive. Whoopee...
"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war." – Dwight D. Eisenhower



"Neither slave nor tyrant." - Basque motto

User avatar
Rspaight
Posts: 4386
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:48 am
Location: The Reality-Based Community
Contact:

Postby Rspaight » Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:57 pm

Blech. What a giant pain in the ass.

I'm glad I don't have a brother.

Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney