Thanks, le_nubian! That's what I thought but I didn't want something screwy to happen at the last minute.

Lisah, when you hook it up, you can turn OFF the sync thing, so if/when she gets a computer, it will not sync and wipe it. I believe (and it's been awhile since I connected a virgin pod up) the first time it's hooked to a computer, itunes asks "This is a new gizmo, do you want to sync it to your library" (but slightly more apple phrasing).

and it's been awhile since I connected a virgin pod up

Now the rumors of omnis and the slutty iPods have been confirmed!

Of course, I just realized that joke perpetuates the virgin/whore iPod dichotomy.

when you hook it up, you can turn OFF the sync thing, so if/when she gets a computer, it will not sync and wipe it. I believe (and it's been awhile since I connected a virgin pod up) the first time it's hooked to a computer, itunes asks "This is a new gizmo, do you want to sync it to your library" (but slightly more apple phrasing).

ah okay. Although the important thing is that she not wipe it before her wedding and that's next weekend and there's no way she'll get a computer before that! Also, i'm going to put the playlist on my iPod and bring that so we have a back up just in case.

"This is a new gizmo, do you want to sync it to your library" (but slightly more apple phrasing).

Yes, basically, that's what happens. Although at some point I did something where it stopped asking me that question, and I *couldn't* synch it. But I haven't stopped trying to fix that problem.

Although at some point I did something where it stopped asking me that question, and I *couldn't* synch it.

My guess is that you set the iPod's preferences to manually update rather than synching automatically -- handy if you regularly use the 'pod with multiple computers, not so much otherwise.

My guess is that you set the iPod's preferences to manually update rather than synching automatically

That sounds right. I've been trying a lot of crap to get the stuff off my iPod before erasing it. If anyone has had success (and I mean, actually made it work) with getting everything off their iPod and onto a PC (not just purchases, I know how that works), suggestions are welcome.

I was mostly successful by transferring the itunes library as a data object onto my harddrive. (Following instructions like the ones found here: [link] The drawback is that you lose the metadata (song, artist, title info) but you get most of it back when you grab that library in iTunes again (I have a few orphan songs that I don't recognize.) I did seem to lose a few songs entirely, however.

I tried something similar, and I got the music onto my hard drive, but I couldn't get iTunes to add it to the library. I might try it again without iTunes installed, though-- thanks, Sue. The other problem here is that I'm doing it with Vista, so it's hard to tell if my problems are Vista-related.