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iPod Classic 6th Generation. Model A1238 / 80, 120, or 160 GB hard drive / black or silver metal front

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How to reformat to use with Windows not iTunes please

Hi

My son just gave me his old 6th gen 120GB iPod classic. I don't have a Mac, nor do I use ITunes, but I have a boatload of music on my PC in a variety of formats: MP3 FLAC, WMA etc. that I would like to upload to this ipod and manage it from my PC.

Can I do this please? I would assume I need to reformat the drive as it's an actual hard drive, but would I need to use NTFS or FAT please? Unfortunately, knowing those acronyms is the extent of my computer knowledge - not even sure how I know those, lol.

I understand from Mac users that ITunes is all-invasive, and tries to overwrite - oops, I mean Sync - every time you plug it in. I would assume I would not have that problem with a PC?

What sort of software could I use to upload the music please?

Any tips on this greatly appreciated

Thanks very much

Phil

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Phil Moseley yes iTunes is a bit of a hog, but you can set it up so that your iPod does not sync automatically etc. After all it is free software and made for your iPod. To use it on a PC vs Mac, you will have to restore it. Again, easiest with iTunes. Restoring will erase and reformat the iPod's hard drive, reload the software with the Windows version and put it back to default settings, so if you have songs on your iPod that aren't on iTunes you will lose them if you have no back up. Restore your device:

Connect your device to your computer using the cable that came with it.

Select your iPod when it appears in iTunes.

In the Summary panel, click Restore.

Click Restore again to confirm that you want to restore your device to factory settings and delete all data and content.

There are some iTunes alternatives, but that will be personal preference. So give it a try and see what you like.

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Hi

Thanks for your replies

I hate to be a clueless old fart but all I want to do is take the music on my Windows laptop and drag and drop it to the iPod to keep in the car. Once done I don't ever want or need to connect it to a computer again!

So can I answer Yes when Windows asks if I want to reformat the drive then just drag-and-drop music folders to it please? That's what I do to a $30 mp3 player and it's fine - just not enough storage space.

I'm sure it will take a long time to drag and drop 80 GB of music folders, but I'm willing to do it just so I don't have to mess about with software I don't want to learn because I don't want to DJ parties or download artwork, or update software, or ever sync to anything, period.

Thank you

Phil

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The iPod does not support drag and drop. The easiest would probably be PodTrans.

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Hi

I looked into PodTrans as you suggested. I think it would work great, I have some albums which are just one big mp3 to drag/drop. But most of my music is one folder per album with like a dozen or so mp3s - however many tracks happen to be on the CD.

Will Podtrans allow me to drag folders please? It isn't immediately clear from their site. But it wouldn't make much sense to have one giant list of some 15000 songs. Also, would I need to reformat the drive please? I may not have a choice - the iPod is plugged into my PC and it keeps telling me the drive needs to be reformatted - I assume that whatever music was on it has been dumped.

Thank you, Phil

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With regard to using software other than iTunes I recommend Media Monkey Gold. It allows you to do numerous things to music files that I have not found iTunes to be good at doing. Additionally it is not iTunes and will not dominate the connection between you iPod and iTunes when you connect. Media Monkey Gold, in my opinion, allows you most flexibility with regard to loading and unloading music, archiving your collection, and in general looking into you iPod.

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Hi

Thanks for your reply.

Please see the comment I added to oldturkey's answer.

Phil

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Phil Moseley will be eternally grateful.
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