The topic was hard to find, I just tried to consolidate the iTunes related posts there.. Stop apologizing, we all had to learn somewhere. you have no idea how resistant I was to this software, it's the instant search feature that sucked me in and I've been a hopeless addict ever since. I also had to walk the beginner's path, I had my bro to help me in person though.
Ok so the first thing I have to ask you, are your files on your computer still in the files they were in originally? In other words is your original method of organizing music into folders that YOU CREATED still intact and on your computer? If so, also browse to C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\My Documents\My Music\iTunes and check - are the same files also copied to this folder, but rearranged by artist, doubling your HD space of these files? If that is so then you had iTunes install and had it rearrange your files, but your original folder structure could have been preserved depending on how it went about it.. If you now have 2 copies of your songs, you can uninstall iTunes and not worry about losing your music, just make sure on your PC your original files are wherever they are first!!! One thing that I want to mention is that if your PC has 2 drives, it's a good idea to keep your music on the D or second drive because this drive is less affected by viruses and system restores.
Whatever music is on your iPod has no effect on the music stored on your PC and in your iTunes library database. If you would like to erase your iPod easily, use the restore button in iTunes and it resets your iPod back to factory conditions.
iPods do not recognize folder structure like a Hard Drive. It CAN be used as an External Hard Drive, but mostly for things that are not music related - this is of course to minimize file transfers/illegal file sharing, etc. Like all MP3 players, it relies on the ID3 tags I'm sorry to say. This is why I am always stressing about the importance of these tags... you can edit ID3 tag info right in iTunes - one thing that it does automatically is show the file name of the songs in the "Name" column, but the rest you have to fill in if it's not there, at a bare minimum artist and album name would be the other 2 columns I would recommend. But it all depends on how you listen to your music really. And one thing I want to make clear is that although iTunes shows the file name in the "Name" column, if you use an id3 tagger like Tag&Rename to create to create the id3 "title tag" from the "file name" it will replace the "Name" column in iTunes. (I can elaborate on this point if you like). Tag&Rename is another good way to easily batch edit many of your files at once.
I know like it sounds like a lot of work. And the first time you do it, it will be. Better 4000 now then 40,000 later.. In the future it's best to tag your new music as you go before dropping into iTunes. I always tag the recordings I have done as I do them, that helps immensely. Once it's done, it's done for life and the more your learn about your iPod and iTunes the more you will appreciate the myriad ways that are available to you for enjoying your music. I highly suggest that you adopt a standard way of tagging for yourself. For example if there is a song that is a Geeta Dutt/Rafi duet, in the artist field, choose one way of entering the dual artists, for example: "Rafi & Geeta Dutt, or "Geeta Dutt & Rafi" and always name every duet of theirs THE SAME WAY in the artist field. This way when you go to your iPod and go to the Artists submenu, you can scroll to "Geeta Dutt & Rafi" (if that's what you have chosen for your naming convention) and see all the songs of theirs you have, and if you chose, you can play that entire list. Also iTunes does have data entry memory, so the second time you have to add Geeta Dutt into the Artist field, most likely you just have to start to type "G" "e" "e" and it will auto fill it in for you!
So you can re-install iTunes once you have made sure that your files are intact on your computer. And for good measure, I would move them all to a second physical drive if you have one in your computer (or second partition). In any case, make sure they are not sitting inside the iTunes Music folder because that will be erased by the uninstall.
To make sure that iTunes is fully removed from your system and your settings are not remembered, please follow the instructions here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93976 Please skip to the part that says General Installation Troubleshooting and then " Completely Remove itunes and Quick Time" Then you can re-install iTunes following my screenshots in the other thread, but please read below first..
Will your iPod be better? I can't really say, it really depends on your tags...
When you install iTunes this time, you will face the same choice. Do you prefer to have your music organized in the folders you have created? (In other words, you do not want iTunes to touch or alter your files at all!) If yes, then make sure you choose the options as I have chosen them in that other thread. In this case, your original folder structure is not touched. But you have to manually add all of your music into iTunes - which is as simple as going to your top most music folder and dragging it into the iTunes library, it will take a while to add all 4000 songs the first time. This process does not create any new folders at all, your music is still where it has always been, you are just able to search through it rapidly via iTunes.
The other choice is to have iTunes organize your music for you, in that case, it
will create new folders and move your songs; and as I have said, these folders will be artist based. If you let iTunes organize yourmusic, iTunes basically organizes music based on western standards, and most folks in the west do not listen to soundtracks but to albums by their favorite artists. So it will create, based on your ID3 tags, for example, a folder for Geeta Dutt (any song tagged with Geeta Dutt in the artist field) and inside this Geeta Dutt Folder will be more folders named by the Album/Soundtrack, ex, Aar Paar, Anarkali, inside those folders will be the songs, it will create a second folder for Geeta Dutt and Rafi, for example, etc.
In either case playlists are very simply created.
For Regular Playlists, they can be made at any time in iTunes by clicking the plus sign in the bottom left of iTunes window, or going to File --> New Playlist, you will then see the new playlist popup in your source window under playlists. To add songs to this playlist, go back to your library and then drop the songs you want onto that playlist. Please see
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/...ists-in-itunes/For Smart Playlists, please see:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/...ists-in-itunes/A New User's Guide for iTunes is up at Apple:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303635, with videos.
Another VERY helpful link:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/tutorials/Please do check out the helpful links in this thread and the other thread for more help about iPod and iTunes, they do a better job with the screenshots and videos etc. Any of these points you can ask about in detail and I will help you further.