Q: i just got a new studio 15 laptop and i want to move all of my music to my laptop. it has vista but i dont know if that matters. everything else ive tried doesnt work. pls help
A: ITunes stores all of your songs in "hidden" folders on your computer. What I do is unhide these folders so that I can drag and drop them where ever I want. Here's how you do it: An iPod formatted for Windows uses a data-hiding scheme to hide the iPod_Control folder and the Music subfolders where the goodies are stored. Wonder why they do this -hmmm? First you'll have to tell your windows computer to display these Hidden Folders. Select Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Theme > Folder Options to display the Folder Options dialog box. In this dialog, you can check the Show Hidden Files and Folders option to see all of the files and folders on your computer. Click OK. Now, when you open your iPod in My Computer, you'll see the elusive iPod_Control folder (it will be dimmed). Double-click this folder, then double-click the dimmed Music folder it contains. You'll see a bunch of folders hiding in the shadows, with names such as F1, F2, F3, and so on. Double-click any of these folders to see their contents. You can copy these music files and burn them to a CD or drag and drop onto a Flash Drive. Then drag them all into your iTunes music library. The best way is to make sure that iTunes is set to copy music you add to its library into your iTunes Music folder. Open the iTunes preferences, click the Advanced tab, then check Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library. When you drag your files onto the iTunes library window, iTunes will copy them all, even placing them in the appropriate folders by artist and album. You'll have to re-create any playlists, and you'll have lost any additional information, such as ratings or comments, but you'll at least have all your music files intact. Cheers!