windows media player from desktop to laptop

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Drummerchick

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#31715 28-Mar-2009 03:53

Hi,
First of all, I'm a newbie so apologies if this is the wrong forum, I've had a look and this seemed to be the only one for my question.
I have windows media player on my desktop and have recently bought a new laptop and I would like to copy all my music on to it. Can someone tell me how to do this without having to copy to lots of cd's? I'm sure there must be a way but I'm stumped!

I also have Itunes for my iphone and tried to download them onto th elaptop only to delete the songs from the phone!!!!!

Anyone any ideas????
I would appreciate some guidance.
Thanks

Jeajea

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#208488 22-Apr-2009 09:33

It depends a bit on whether you have some kind of portable hard disk drives or flash drives (memory sticks), and how much music you have... but if you can get one with a reasonable amount of storage capacity, you could use it to move your music.

But first you need to *find* your music... so here's what you do (assuming you have the same or a similar version of windows media player to me): right click on some song (any will do) and select 'open file location'. This will open the folder with the file for that song. Go up a few folders (two or three) until you get to the folder with all your music - it's likely that it's literally called 'Music', in your 'My Documents' folder.

Now find out how big your music collection is - to check that it can fit on whatever drive you've found - and copy it onto the drive, and from there into wherever you want to keep your music on your laptop.

This is all a bit vague - I'm trying to write it so it'll help regardless of which version of media player and windows you have. If you could let me know (Vista? XP? WMP11?), then I will be able to give much more exact advice.

As for your iTunes / iPhone problem, I'm afraid I never use either. Hopefully someone else can shed some light on that one.

mjb

996 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#208491 22-Apr-2009 09:38

Do both the PC and the laptop have ethernet? Then creating a simple network to copy data across may be easier than a portable drive if you don't have one already.

contentsofsignaturemaysettleduringshipping

Drummerchick

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#208718 23-Apr-2009 06:01

Hi MJB and Jeajea ,
Many thanks for your responses.
I will try the way you suggest Jeajea, although, I will probably need the "Idiot's Guide".

I have tried the "network" thing only to cut off all my internet connection and it was a bugger to try to get it back!

I have an external hard drive thing which I thought I could easily just copy the music folder over! Sadly, not to be!

I will try your suggestion of the "find" my music thing... Here's hoping!

By the way I have Windows XP and Media PLayer is 11.

Oh and Ethernet?
Em... I'm guessing you mean wireless connection? If so. then YES its a Livebox.

Many thanks

Jeajea

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#208720 23-Apr-2009 06:51

Actually, by ehternet, mjb meant cables rather than wireless networking, which is related to but not the same as wireless internet. Literally hooking a cable from your desktop to your laptop and using it to transfer the files - a good option, if you have the right ports (ethernet ports) in both machines. The ethernet cable will have ends that look like this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ethernet_RJ45_connector_p1160054.jpg - and the ethernet ports will look a bit like this - http://wiki.pomona.edu/pub/FAQ/NetworkDormSetup/LaptopEthernet.JPG. If you want to have a go that way, it's not a bad way at all - I personally dislike the complication of setting up the network correctly. In my experience, it's never easy.

So with media player 11, it should work like this:

Open WMP

Find a song, any song

Right click on it to get a menu

At the bottom of the menu, you should find 'Open File Location'. Click that.

You should have a folder window with that song file in it. Go up three folder levels. In xp that means press the button on the bar at the top of the window that's to the right of the 'back' and 'forward' buttons; the one you want looks like a folder with a green arrow pointing upwards. Click that three times to go up three folder levels.

If your music is arranged in the default way that WMP arranges music, you're likely to be in the folder C:\Documents and Settings\(USER NAME)\My Documents, where (USER NAME) is probably your name. The folder with all your music in it is going to be called 'My Music'. That's the one you want to copy across.

Find out how big it is by right clicking and going to 'Properties'. It'll tell you next to 'Size:'

And let me know how much music we're talking about. If any of that is too simplistic, well, y'did ask for the "idiot's guide". ;) So that's the folder you want to copy across. A couple questions about the external HDD you say you have - how big is it (physically and in terms of memory, if you know) and what does it look like? Basically, are we talking memory stick (http://thelinuxcauldron.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/usb-memory-stick.jpg) or external HDD (http://planetimagehost.com/images/10085Calmee_Storm.jpg)? And when you say it didn't work, what went wrong?

Drummerchick

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#208921 24-Apr-2009 06:48

Hi Computer whizkids!

Many many thanks for you advice.

I printed off a copy of what you suggested and went through it bit by bit!!!
Hurrah !
It worked.....

So grateful for all your expertise.

Many thanks

I'm off to listen to my music on the laptop!

Jeajea

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#209098 24-Apr-2009 21:25

No problem, glad to help.