Why do I still hear the Music on my PC ?


I have been ripping my CD's to an external hard drive for some time now. I think I have completed about 1200 CD's.

Today, without the Hard Drive connected to my PC I double clicked on one of my I Tunes listed songs and the song started to play!

So, is the music still on my Computers internal Hardrive?
128x128ozzy
Well I think with the help of this posting and responses and emails I have recieved I think I discovered what went wrong and how to fix it.

First off, with the help of the above poster Onhwy61 and telling me to check the "Get Info" tab I was able to find where the songs were being stored. That showed it was stored, c:users\ozzy\music\itunes\itunes media

With that info I copied that path and pasted it into the "Search Programs and Files". Then the elusive music file became visible.

I was able to right click on the "Music" and one of the options was to "Send To"
I then sent that file to my external Drive. It took about 2 hours to transfer all , but now its done.
I then deleted the C: Music files.

Final Notes:
I still dont know how some of my ripped Cd's went to the C Drive, but at least I know how to correct it.

I also think that Windows 7 certainly made it hard to find where the music was stored.

I have been working with Win 7 now since beta and it's pretty twisted. As mentioned above, a quick tip to find old features or files is to click the start button and in the "search programs and files" box just above the button, type in what you are looking for. It will find a lot of the old functions now buried deep in new menus. It can also find data files. The first thing I did was turn off UAC (user access control) and that disables some of the security ... I don’t recommend this for a heavy internet use box but for a music player it gives you a little more freedom. Just search on UAC and you can adjust a slider depending on how secure you want things. I hate to say it but I gave up on iTunes and switched to dBpoweramp to rip FLAC files. It has all the power of EAC and none of the headaches. You can specify where to put the files how you want the directory structure setup and the files named – it tags the FLAC files and pulls down album art.

Some still like the look and feel of iTunes but I didn’t appreciate the way it takes over. The lack of file support and constant updating was the final straw for me. If you are used to iTunes and love the look and feel it’s got some slick features but as a computer tech I have “control” issues and prefer a more straight forward approach. Watch the updates on iTunes ... it can at times reset certain adjusted settings like file storage paths. I imagine that might be how your music got rerouted. If I am going to spend hours ripping CD’s (4000 at last count) I want to know where everything is at and how it all works. Lots of sharp Windows and Mac people on this forum and I have picked up more than a few tips Keep em coming. Remember just because I do something one way doesnt make it law ... the more complicated these systems become the more variations are created to do something. Beware the "THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT" solutions. different comfort levels create different trains of thought.

PS – One last tip and it’s an old one. Buy a second or third drive and get everything backed up. I have 4, 2TB drives just for music. I keep copies of the library at home and at work. I hate to say it but I have had to use the backups twice now and they have saved me.

BACKUP .... BACKUP ... BACKUP
Horseface, So many Good points, thank you.
ITunes auto updating is probably what changed the routing from my I drive to my C drive. I will have to be more aware of this, again thank you for that information.

So, many reccomend getting away from Itunes. As you can tell I am still new at this. Itunes is the only system I am familiar with.
Can all of my tunes(Apple lossless) be converted to dbpoweramp and FLAC Files?

I did buy a 2nd 1TB External Hardrive for back up for my 1TB External drive. Maybe I should start looking for 2TB units.

Again, thank you all for the help. For the moment it looks like I am now back on track with 1200+ CD's ripped.