FANTASTIC!! A way to retrieve your song files from iPod

It's a love at first sight when I saw Bob's iPod. That was the first generation and I was still in high school. Not long after the second generation came into the market and bhoy...it was totally selling hot cakes. I remember it was Christmas and I wanted to only buy the 20gb but it was all sold out. I didn't want to get the 40gb but I got psycho-ed (so to say)...haha...then again, I was saving so hard for it and with that 20gb extra, it costs me only RM200...so I was like...okay, I could use that extra storage.

That was how I got hold of my first ever iPod. Love at first sight and happily ever after. I was using it most of the time until I decided that it is a little inconvenient for me to carry it around. Well, all thanks to the battery. Yup, battery was a pain and moreover, I can't find a way to transfer my songs back to my PC -- that was not only a pain but totally frustrating.

Back then, no site offer any suggestions at all on how to transfer the files and I was so sad over it because there are some good songs which you can't find it elsewhere-- especially chinese songs. I mean, I've got some really good oldies which I got through P2P and multiply. (Damn huh that nowadays, they forbid songs sharing in multiply :(( )

SO, I really really wanted to keep the digital copy but I guess mr. Steve knows better. Anyways, I haven't been using my iPod much until recently and so I googled again to find if there's a way to get back my precious songs. There you go, I managed to find a way! Thanks to the genius out there:

1. Connect your iPod — Warning! if iTunes loads when you plug in your iPod, and is set to automatically sync your entire library (erasing your iPod), you MUST stop it — hit the little “X” in the upper right hand corner of the window.
2. Open your iPod — It should show up on “My Computer” as a “Mobile Device”; right click and choose “Explore”. Alternatively, go to the Control Panel, Portable Media Devices, and double-click your iPod.
3. Unhide the files — By default, Windows hides hidden files and folders (thus the name). Go to Options (in the Tools menu), and on the View tab, check “Show Hidden Files and Folders”.
4. Find the Music — The music is stored (in current iPods) in the directory “\iPod_Control\Music”. This may have a lot of odd looking stuff in it — it doesn’t matter; select everything and drag and drop them to a folder on your hard drive.
5. Configure iTunes — Go into iTunes Preferences, and under the Advanced tab, check “Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized” and “Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to the library” (settings move around a bit between versions of iTunes, but these settings will be there somewhere).
6. Add Your Files — In iTunes, select File, Add Folder to Library, and select the folder where you copied the files from your iPod. Alternatively, just drag and drop this folder onto iTunes

(courtesy of-> http://www.metaphoriclabs.com/articles/5-ways-to-copy-music-off-your-ipod-windows-mac-os-x/ )