I JUST LOST 3000 SONGS!!!!! Help!
 

I thought they were saved in my itunes & my wma...blah, blah, blah. I loaded PC recovery & it's so freaking confusing! I found the shared folder I deleted, I just don't know where to put the freaking music because apparently I can't put them in back in the shared folder or my playlists in Limewire. Apparently doing that jumbles all the music & I only got 2000 screwed up songs back. Please someone help me? Do I reload them one by one? Do I put them somewhere else? Holy crap what have I done?!?!?

It sounds like you're a windows user not a mac user. To properly add music to iTunes follow the directions here: Importing songs to iPod & iTunes

So you thought the LW playlist within iTunes meant the songs were actually within iTunes Music Library. No, you need to add them yourself.

You've created playlists within LW & imported those to iTunes but haven't consolidated the library.

Always look in the main iTunes library list to ensure the files have been properly imported.

If you're missing any songs from any of your playlists or they're not where they were originally then the playlists probably won't work. It might be better if you create new ones from the files you've managed to recover. PC Recovery is apparently very effective & a good utility considering it's free. But user reviews suggested it can be a pain to use. And perhaps recover the files bit by bit. Recover them to a different HDD or partition or storage device other than the one they were stored on otherwise you may overwrite the skeletons of the remaining erased files.

I've been using PC recovery for 4 days now. I've put the music back in the shared folder, I've put them back in the playlist, I've even tried putting them in itunes & yes I am a dumbass Windows user (tried to save some dough) I got a lot of the songs back but apparently I re-wrote over exixting files. Is there a way I can create a new folder to put them in? I am freaking out here? Thanks for the quick response btw.

Normally if you need to recover erased files, you should immediately stop doing anything that may overwrite that info. Then set up a 2ndary storage such as external HDD or another partition to use as the location to save the recovered files to.

If you've finished recovering the files, just drag & drop the songs into iTunes program or use the Add to Library command under the iTunes File menu. So then they're all properly entered into iTunes. From there you can reorganise them by arranging them by artist or year or alphabetical title, etc. Then you can create your own playlists from within iTunes. The Smart Playlist function is very good to use for this. It can automatically set up a playlist realtime by defining what type of play list it is. eg: all songs belonging to a certain artist. Or all songs dated during the 1990's or most often played or by file size or song length, or music style, etc. Remember to have a look at the link I gave you above. And have a close look at New Smart Playlist option within iTunes. Else you can create manual playlists.

Do I need to erase all the screwed up songs I put back into Limewire? How do I use that second drive option you spoke about, sorry computer novice over here. I just feel like I might have messed everything up trying to put the music back everywhere

The songs themselves are ok right? Just add them to iTunes "after" you've finished recovering the erased files.

Do you have another partition on your system with any spare space? If yes then recover the files to that partition not the original. After recovering all you can, then add them to iTunes (control & O keys within iTunes.) What other storage devices do you have? An external HDD or another computer or a zip disk or something similar? Utilise what you have. (No need to move the files you've already recovered back to Drive C because they won't do any more harm there for the moment.) Oh & your old .m3u playlist files are probably not worth anything now anyway so just concentrate on the mp3's. (Playlists are simply references to the whereabouts of the songs ... playlists do not contain music themselves.)

Thank you so much honey, it's 5 am over here all try all you suggested later. If I need any more help can I contact you again? You've been wonderful, thanks.

oh wait no, the songs are not ok because they've been over written so when I play them in itunes one song has like 10 other songs mixed into it, that's why I wondered if I should erase everything again & start the PC recovery all over?

Sure! If I'm online or if not someone else might have better solutions.

It's always a heart wrenching thing when that type of thing happens. It's something you learn from & set out to never allow it to happen again. After my HDD died, I got a dvd burner & external HDD & replaced the HDD. So that made it 2 internal HDD's (I do video work so I need the space.) Good luck! ;) :)

Hello? Still there? No, the songs are not ok because they've been over written so when I play them in itunes one song has like 10 other songs mixed into it, that's why I wondered if I should erase everything again & start the PC recovery all over?