Format your iPod to copy music for free
Apple and the music industry would never teach you how to cpy your friends iTunes Music
Library and take it home with you to add their music and videos to your
iTunes Library, but I will. The first thing we need to consider is what
file system your iPod needs.
As an iPod user, there are many opportunities to actually use your iPod to carry music back home with you from a friends house
and add it your iTunes Library.
Let me say that again... iPods can be used to copy your friends entire
iTunes Library while you are visiting them at their house. You can bring it back to your house and add it to your own iTune Library
*at no charge*.
In order to do this the iPod must be formatted so your friends computer can recognize it as "an external hard drive".
In the Windows/PC world this shows up as an (E:) or possibly (F:) drive.
In the Macintosh world, the iPod mounts and displays on the desktop automatically with the name of the iPod.
But here is an important difference between the operating systems. A
Macintosh compuers' OSX is a slightly more robust operating system.
If you connect a "Macintosh formatted" iPod to a Windows machine, the PC will display a message saying it can't read the drive until
you format it (to a FAT32 File System).
If you connect a "MS-DOS Windows formatted" iPod to a Macintosh, not only does the Mac read the drive and let you copy files back and forth
as functional external hard drive, the Macintosh based iTunes will allow you use the Windows formatted iPod as though it had been formatted
in the Mac Extended file system. The Mac will let you use its iTunes program to sync a PC formatted iPod.
This means if you elect to format your iPod/drive as a Windows based iPod, you can use it on *BOTH* Macs and PCS.
Because you can copy Libraries from friends that are both Mac and PC
users, formatting your iPod as an MS-DOS FAT32 file system is a real benefit.
The only reason this is possible is because the Mac operating system is
more inclusive and in many, many ways a better operating system
than Windows/XP/Vista.
If you are a PC user your iPod will automatically be formatted as the
MS-DOS FAT 32 file system.
If you are a Macintosh user, you can re-format your iPod to be an MS-DOS
drive. Here's how
you do it.
I'm in Sonoma County... Northern California wine country.
If you live nearby, are traveling through or live in the San Francisco Bay Area bring your iPod to me and I can do the work while you wait or go wine tasting for a while. Send me an
email just to make sure I have on hand whatever parts your repair will require.
Call or email me
with questions or to set up a repair. You can also call, I am here most days from 8am to 8pm
Toll Free 1-877-iPod-Pro (1 - 877 - 476-3776)
Send the device to:
Frank Walburg
2145 Service Court
Santa Rosa, Ca 95403-3139
Methods of payment
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