Comments on: SO my laptop was stolen

Question: SO my laptop was stolen

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:22:21 -0800

SO my laptop was stolen...

I've replaced it now, but I have two concerns...

1) How do I get back my iTunes. I've been told that Apple keeps a record and can sign-in, and all the purchased music will load (true?)

2) What back-up systems do people most often recommend. I'll buy an external hard drive, but are there websites where I can sync my computer, thus backing-up my memory (or am I creating science fiction.

By: The Deej

The Deej — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:29:49 -0800

Mozy for seamless backup.

Contact Apple. Their official policy is they don't restore your music. The reality is, I have heard numerous stories like yours where they have restored music "Just this once." However, if all your music is on your iPod anyway, there are freeware options to copy it all back to your new Mac.

Good luck! Bummer to ripped off.

By: The Deej

The Deej — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:30:26 -0800

(add a "be" between "to" and "ripped off.")

By: disillusioned

disillusioned — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:30:51 -0800

Regarding number two, there are about a dozen solutions listed here.

By: SpecialK

SpecialK — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 14:16:11 -0800

I like SuperDuper! for backing up to an external drive.

By: niles

niles — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 14:17:15 -0800

Another vote for Mozy. The Windows version is completely seamless and ridiculously easy to set up. I'm sure the Mac version is just as easy.

By: feloniousmonk

feloniousmonk — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:00:31 -0800

Apple will definitely allow you to re-download your purchases. They even went so far as to merge two of my accounts after I realized I'd inadvertently set one up at gmail and the other at a long-disused hotmail account.

By: camcgee

camcgee — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:05:35 -0800

About the iTunes restoration, it's unlikely but not impossible that you'll be able to get your songs back, but only the ones purchased via the iTunes store -- if you had other music that you either ripped yourself or downloaded from other places, Apple will not be able to restore this for you.

I further recommend Mozy as an off-site backup solution, and for backing up to an external hard drive, the free version of Syncback has served me very well -- it's Windows only, though, and I wasn't clear from your message what OS you are using. (Though I guess since you have to buy a new laptop anyway, you could take your pick...) For Macs, I use Silverkeeper.

By: mysterious1der

mysterious1der — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:47:49 -0800

Mozy for off-site
Syncback for on-site (though it can FTP)

(I would do both if I was you, since anything that you've only backed up once isn't really backed up)

By: Taken Outtacontext

Taken Outtacontext — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:38:24 -0800

Also, you might want to deauthorize your iTunes-purchased music on your stolen laptop. Apple allows only purchased tunes to play on five (I think) computers.