Freaky Shit!!

[The Fresh Prince]

Ok, before I start I want to say that I don't understand this at all.

A few guys here might know that I made a huge mistake last weekend and left my Macbook Pro in a taxi. I know that Scampy knows and that LT will be along soon to chastise me but it was a mistake and I'm over it.

So I had to go out this week and buy a new one, I got the 2.8 Pro and its sweet with the new Snow Leopard installed.

So tonight I'm having a late night beer with 2 buddies, both mac guys, one has the one I lost and one has a G4. I showed them my new mac and one of them wants to stick some tunes on and test out the speakers.

Me - Don't bother dude I've lost all my music.

Mate - But I've just started up iTunes and its importing music, a lot of music.

Me - How much?

Mate - 22gigs!

Now understand that the only thing I thought I'd lost (except for the machine) was my music, it was saved on my old laptop and was backed up on my external which was inside the bag that I lost. My work shit was backed up on a separate hard drive which has been connected to my new mac but wasn't at the time and definitely doesn't have my music backed up on it, I've just checked.

I also have no Time Machine turned on or any other method of auto back up. I've just been through the whole external drive and there is no back up and no accounting for the 22gigs.

So we waited for the music to finish importing (took about 4-5 mins so wasn't from the internet) and I check through it and its my music. Even the realy rare stuff that no one would have is all there.

How the fuck is this even possible? I just woke my wife up to see if she'd connected her iPod to it (not that I think ipods do that) but she said she hasn't even used her ipod this week.

How the hell have I got all my music back?

Daffy, could probably do with your input on this one.

[The Fresh Prince]

Come on dude just answer it answer with some funny comment at least. I need to go to bed but this shit is bothering me and cant sleep. Its fuckin impossible. Isn't it?

[mediamanbkk]

You are up too early. Open up your laptop and check you haven't been dreaming it! If you haven't and you've got 22 gigs of music out of thin air then thats definitely freaky shit... scary too

[kingwilly]

The aliens are coming for u mate

[Butterfly]

it's a mac, it works in mysterious ways, god probably intervened

[DaffyDuck]

Fresh prince -- that's interesting (I just saw your thread), but not knowing any specifics of how you restored the installation on your new MacBook Pro (good purchase, by the way, same as mine), or your home network configuration, I can't even begin to make guesses as to what happened.

Do you have a home network that might have a time machine drive on it? Do any of the extra drives you have, possibly have your actual iTunes materials on it?

Obviously, the data was copied over when you were configuring the MacBook after system configuration, and since you have restored some of your other prior data, it's possible that you have had a prior backup of your iTunes data in an older, or related folder within the /Music/ folder. This is a far reaching guess.

What I would do is simply use spotlight, and search for an iTunes files with a unique enough name, and repeat the search with every of your external drives plugged in... it will most likely find a second so named file on one of the drives, and that's where your music is.

....Either that, or that Music Amulet you wear finally paid off, and it made Pee Musica bring your 'tunes along.

[goostewart]

it's a mac, it works in mysterious ways, god probably intervened

Or the higher power - Steve Jobs.

Really, I want to see legislation in the States to protect Mr Jobs. I want a medical field unit, 24/7 security and someone to test all his meals. We can never lose this genius. Never.

[Marmite the Dog]

What genious? Most Apple products are designed by a bloke from Essex.

We can never lose this genius. Never.

[Butterfly]

Steve Jobs is a Cylon God,

[Loy Toy]

Did you have this song on your lost program?

[baldrick]

unless your n wifi connected to an AP with gigE to a backbone fibre it had to be wifi n to your home network and a drive , to get 22gig in 4-5 mins


steve jobs wouldn't know a syn from an ack

[The Fresh Prince]

What I would do is simply use spotlight, and search for an iTunes files with a unique enough name, and repeat the search with every of your external drives plugged in... it will most likely find a second so named file on one of the drives, and that's where your music is.

Yep, I've only got one external left, 750gig Buffalo (very apt) and I can't find any iTunes on it.

You are up too early. Open up your laptop and check you haven't been dreaming it! If you haven't and you've got 22 gigs of music out of thin air then thats definitely freaky shit... scary too

I'm up now and I've still got the music? And I'm still a little freaked out.

[Travelmate]

There is always a sensible explanation.
You had the music all along and loaded onto your lappy, whislt stoned no doubt.

[The Fresh Prince]

^I've thought of that but, I did my last back up on the Friday before I lost it on the Saturday, and on the Saturday morning i downloaded two albums that I know none of my mates have got and I doubt anyone else would be into. And I definitely didn't back them up anywhere.

N.O.R.E God's Favorite

and

Jane's Addiction, Strays

I have them both back.

And up until the point when my mate opened iTunes my memory reading was 470gigs which is around your 30gig usage for programs reading, now its down to just below 450gigs so where was the music hiding without using any memory?

[DaffyDuck]

The music wasn't obviously on your MacBook Pro -- also, the MacBook Pro does not come by default with a 500GB internal drive, so when you refer to 470GB and 450GB, which drive are you referring to?

My guess would be that you previously kept your iTunes collection on an external drive, or at least kept a backup on an external drive.

You also haven't answered how you initially reinstalled, and restored your data when you brought the new MacBook Pro home - no further guesswork or analysis is possible in a vacuum of information.

[DaffyDuck]

What genious? Most Apple products are designed by a bloke from Essex.

Yet another guy who mistakes 'package' and 'content'.

Johnny Ive designs the look. Groups of talented engineers design the insides.

Steve Jobs comes up with the initial vision, idea and concept of what he wants to see.

Johnny and the engineers work to realize that vision.

There are fine differences -- though I don't expect you to understand that.

[Marmite the Dog]

Sorry, I didn't know you worked for Apple.

[The Fresh Prince]

so when you refer to 470GB and 450GB, which drive are you referring to?

The 500gb

My guess would be that you previously kept your iTunes collection on an external drive, or at least kept a backup on an external drive.

I did but I lost the external in the taxi along with the macbook.

restored your data when you brought the new MacBook Pro home

It was mostly on disk as far as software goes. I had all my work stuff on a separate hard drive and appart from that there was nothing else to restore except the music.

I'm thinking that my wife must have plugged her ipod into it, and she's too scared to admit to messing with my computer. Can ipods do that? I thought that to retrieve data from an ipod you have to use it as an external hard drive and bypass the itunes software.

[Travelmate]

I'm thinking that my wife must have plugged her ipod into it, and she's too scared to admit to messing with my computer. Can ipods do that? I thought that to retrieve data from an ipod you have to use it as an external hard drive and bypass the itunes software.

Seems ur wife is the smarter one.

[The Fresh Prince]

Was that ever in doubt?

[Butterfly]

The iPOD will sync with iTunes, so it's possible everything was downloaded back to iTunes automatically, including the latest download

[baldrick]

Steve Jobs comes up with the initial vision

first step to starting a cult

[Norton]

The iPOD will sync with iTunes, so it's possible everything was downloaded back to iTunes automatically, including the latest download

The most plausible explanation so far.

If iTunes, Edit, Preferences, Device window doesn't have a check in the Disable Auto Syncing with iPhone and iPod, when plugged in iPod will copy all it's music into your iTunes library.

[DaffyDuck]

If iTunes, Edit, Preferences, Device window doesn't have a check in the Disable Auto Syncing with iPhone and iPod, when plugged in iPod will copy all it's music into your iTunes library.

Except that's not how it usually works - synching is a one-way street, from iTunes to the iPod, not the other way around. It can be done with different software, but iTunes will not do it by default.

The fact that Butterfly suggested it should have been a pointer at the inaccuracy of the 'advice'.

so when you refer to 470GB and 450GB, which drive are you referring to?

The 500gb

Jeezus Krist -- I figured that much out (that it's a 500GB hard drive), but is this an internal 500GB hard drive on your new MacBook, or is this some other external drive you used to restore from?

It was mostly on disk as far as software goes. I had all my work stuff on a separate hard drive and appart from that there was nothing else to restore except the music.

Sorry this tells me nothing about the specifics I asked about.

What is the size of the drive that contained your work stuff? How did you restore it back? What kind of software did you need to restore?

I'm thinking that my wife must have plugged her ipod into it, and she's too scared to admit to messing with my computer. Can ipods do that? I thought that to retrieve data from an ipod you have to use it as an external hard drive and bypass the itunes software.

If you had the iPod set up in external drive mode, and if it was configured to allow access to the music (i.e. if it had a hack applied) then this could be a possibility - but as it's usually only a single iTunes installation to an iPod, when she plugged it in, iTunes should have offered to erase the iPod, not the other way around.

Again, this depends on how the iPod was set up, but usually without specialized software, the iPod doesn't just synch back to an empty version of iTunes.

[The Fresh Prince]

ut is this an internal 500GB hard drive on your new MacBook, or is this some other external drive you used to restore from?

The hard drive on my macbook is a 500gb internal and my back up external that contained all my work files is a 750gb Buffalo. And the external which I lost along with my macbook which contained the back up of my music was a Maxtor 160gb.

The programs I restored from disk were, Adobe creative suite and 2 cannon drivers for my printer and scanner.

Then from the internet I restored, Vuze, Firefox, Thunderbird, Image Well, Transmit and Ice Clean.

but usually without specialized software, the iPod doesn't just synch back to an empty version of iTunes

This is what I thought aswell. It also wouldn't explain the 2 albums that I downloaded on the morning when I lost it, which I have now.