What if my computer dies, what happens?

[phillies20]

I'm curious, I know I sync and all my apps on my phone are in my itunes account on my computer. fine.. but what if my hard drive on computer crashes and the computer is unusable? if I get a new computer and download itunes again, are the apps stored in my itunes account by apple? would they come back, or can i get them off my phone into the new computer... just confused about this.. I have an older computer and have no idea how long it will last.. thanks.

 

[Alli]

Your apps will still be listed in your Purchased section of iTunes and you could download any/all of them again without paying. Same with any music you purchased from iTunes.

You should, however, consider making a backup of your music and documents so that you don't have to worry about any of that, should your hard drive go.

 

[leharris22]

I back up everything with an external hard drive in case this happens. But everything will be linked to your Apple ID. However, the music that I put on iTunes that I didn't purchase I also want backed up so an external hard drive is a good way to do this.

 

[Duvi]

I don't have any backup for my music... It's rare that a hard drive crashes and I can't retrieve the data.

I also have my data partitioned. Media/Docs on one and the OS on the other. I had one hard drive crash and all the stuff was in tact, except the OS itself.




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[phillies20]

Thank you!! I will probably use an external hard drive just I'm case.

 

[Crisdean]

Yep. Good advise to use external disks. Partitions don't help you if the mechanics fail on you. Thought you meant the amount of PCs you can have listed against an account and if that was used up to which I wouldn't have an answer.

 

[END]

You have to re-install iTunes and then you can re-download any purchases you made.
If it is say music you ripped yourself then you have to transfer it back from where you kept your backup.

 

[Alli]

I'm going to recommend SafeSync from Trend Micro, as always. Works on both Mac and Windows and automagically backs up the folders of your choice. No moving stuff or duplicating stuff like you have to do with Dropbox.

 

[BLiNK]

i'm thinking, if you're set up for it, backing up to iCloud would be a good idea too. of course you'll need to handle photos, videos and music separately

 

[chobbs1]

The OP's situation just happened to me. So I bought a new MacBook air. I had everything backed up to a disk, several disks actually, and I used them to restore all my music, photos, settings etc....

I didn't work out so well. My new computer was acting weird, so I reinstalled a fresh version of lion, then manually moved photo's, music and other documents to my computer. It was a major PITA! I was using an old back-up program and backing up to dvd's.

An external hard drive is now my new back up location (time capsule by apple) and using "time machine" to automatically back up. I'm still going to make a new full back up to DVD's just in case both the computer and the hard drive fail. PLUS with iCloud, I now have a place to back up the small things like settings, bookmarks, the iPhone.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, back up back up back up.


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[imwjl]

I don't have any backup for my music... It's rare that a hard drive crashes and I can't retrieve the data.

I also have my data partitioned. Media/Docs on one and the OS on the other. I had one hard drive crash and all the stuff was in tact, except the OS itself.




Sent from my iPhone 4s using Tapatalk

At 23+ years of sys admin and technician I can't say that. I've done recoveries with SpinWrite where some have given up but some still fail. The important thing to know is backing up is not just for truck drivers. Storage is cheap so it's foolish to not back up anything that has cost relative to money, time or sentimental value.