XYlophonetreeZ
08-17-2009, 12:26 PM
I have a problem here. I will tell you all about it in the next paragraph. But please, for the love of God, don't turn this thread into an ethical debate. At least not until I have figured out how I will resolve my problem. Because I'm telling you, I have a problem. Skip the next two paragraphs in case of tl;dr.
Problem: All of my music was erased from my iPod. Most of that music was backed up on a hard drive from my old computer, which has since deceased. I had turned it into my school's help desk to attempt to get the viruses removed, but they were unsuccessful. At the time, they told me that everything should still be on my hard drive.
Here's the thing though: I was out of the area when they told me this, and so I couldn't pick up my computer for a few months. I finally did, and didn't do anything with it for a while. In the meantime, I bought a new computer, and in my attempt to transfer all of my music from my iPod to the new computer, only about 350 songs (out of over 2400) successfully made it (PC to Mac). I couldn't figure out any rhyme or reason to the songs that made it vs. the songs that didn't. It wasn't just purchased music, it wasn't just music from CDs, it wasn't just music I got from iTunes... no pattern whatsoever. Since my old laptop was unreliable/iffy for a good 3 months before I ever bought my new computer, I had gotten used to either not having my full library while sitting at my computer or else just bringing my iPod everywhere, so I didn't worry about this for a while. So I finally tried to retrieve the old files from my old hard drive today, and... empty. Gone. Kaput. I immediately called the help desk where I had turned it in, and they told me now, several months after they had returned it to me, that they had lost all of my data. And I can't do shit about it because I signed a waiver at the time.
So basically I need a shit ton of music back. Just over 2000 songs were lost. Out of that, I probably have about a quarter of it on CDs somewhere, and another quarter I don't really give a shit about. That still leaves about a thousand songs that I need to reacquire somehow. I've never been anal about my music "collection," and I don't even have a list of all the music I'm missing, so I'll have to kind of get it back by feel and the music I care most about will be naturally selected. Especially since I'm already gonna have to buy a new iPod, I really want to avoid paying for stuff I already paid for once. I used to download music for free all the time in my teens, but I never do it anymore. I buy most of it and get the rest from friends. How safe is it? Which file sharing networks are the best? I've heard of people calling some number in Russia to get free music without any legal risk. I just need suggestions. Bah.
Problem: All of my music was erased from my iPod. Most of that music was backed up on a hard drive from my old computer, which has since deceased. I had turned it into my school's help desk to attempt to get the viruses removed, but they were unsuccessful. At the time, they told me that everything should still be on my hard drive.
Here's the thing though: I was out of the area when they told me this, and so I couldn't pick up my computer for a few months. I finally did, and didn't do anything with it for a while. In the meantime, I bought a new computer, and in my attempt to transfer all of my music from my iPod to the new computer, only about 350 songs (out of over 2400) successfully made it (PC to Mac). I couldn't figure out any rhyme or reason to the songs that made it vs. the songs that didn't. It wasn't just purchased music, it wasn't just music from CDs, it wasn't just music I got from iTunes... no pattern whatsoever. Since my old laptop was unreliable/iffy for a good 3 months before I ever bought my new computer, I had gotten used to either not having my full library while sitting at my computer or else just bringing my iPod everywhere, so I didn't worry about this for a while. So I finally tried to retrieve the old files from my old hard drive today, and... empty. Gone. Kaput. I immediately called the help desk where I had turned it in, and they told me now, several months after they had returned it to me, that they had lost all of my data. And I can't do shit about it because I signed a waiver at the time.
So basically I need a shit ton of music back. Just over 2000 songs were lost. Out of that, I probably have about a quarter of it on CDs somewhere, and another quarter I don't really give a shit about. That still leaves about a thousand songs that I need to reacquire somehow. I've never been anal about my music "collection," and I don't even have a list of all the music I'm missing, so I'll have to kind of get it back by feel and the music I care most about will be naturally selected. Especially since I'm already gonna have to buy a new iPod, I really want to avoid paying for stuff I already paid for once. I used to download music for free all the time in my teens, but I never do it anymore. I buy most of it and get the rest from friends. How safe is it? Which file sharing networks are the best? I've heard of people calling some number in Russia to get free music without any legal risk. I just need suggestions. Bah.