How do you sync apple tv with a new computer??????

Do you have a backup of your media that you can restore on your new hard drive? The Apple TV is not a replacement for a backup of your media.

The general procedure should be to restore your iTunes backup on your new drive and then resync your Apple TV.

If you don't have a backup of your media and some of it only exists on your Apple TV, there is no official way to get it back.

Utilities exist to do this from an iPod, but I don't know if they would work from an Apple TV...

Explain to Apple and see if you can re-download content.

I think if you remove the drive from the Apple TV then you can copy the content back to another drive/Mac. This, however, should only be done as a last resort since it will probably void the warranty on the Apple TV (assuming that it is still under its one year warranty). In fact, there may be other, easier ways and thus I'd say that you should only remove the drive after you have exhausted all other options.

Here is a link that shows a good way to remove the drive from an Apple TV (it's actually an article on replacing the drive, but you can just follow the steps to remove the existing drive and then put that same drive back in again):

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/AppleTV_HD_Upgrade/AppleTV_HD_UpgradeGuide.htm

In fact, you may want to look through the posts on xlr8yourmac's Apple TV forum to see if there is an easier way to get the content off of your unit. Here is a link to the Apple TV forums on that site:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/apple_tv_user_reports.html

rsdq said:

I think I might skip the removing of the hard drive - I've done this before - but probably don't want to mess with it.

My guess is I've got a couple of hundred dollars of paid content on the atv - I might just be screwed

I'm going to call apple and see what they say.

Click to expand...

I would second the recommendation to call Apple. I have read stories here about people who were able to re-download their content. If most of it came from the iTunes store that is definitely the way to go.

If that fails, then why not take the drive out and try it that way? Especially if you have had the drive out before? Get one of those cables where you can access almost any drive with a USB cable, and then you should be able to poke around and find your files.

They probably have weird names, like they do on the iPod, but I would think you would be able to get them back.

Good luck!

rsdq said:

...I think I might skip the removing of the hard drive - I've done this before - but probably don't want to mess with it.

Click to expand...

The procedure on the link I provided shows a method where you don't have to remove the rubber covering on the bottom of the Apple TV and after you make the modification shown in that link you can open the Apple TV as often as you like in only about one minute. Of course, the original modification takes some time (you need to cut some small holes in the rubber covering) but I've actually done that modification and it's pretty nice to have access to the Apple TV's hard drive whenever you want (I did a drive upgrade on my).

I hope somebody learns from my mistake and syncs all their content today

Click to expand...

I'm not certain what you mean by "sync," but I suspect you meant a backup of the iTunes library that is on your Mac/PC.

For a few hundred bucks of content, I'd crack it open. I replaced the HD on one of my AppleTV's. It was not too difficult to take out the old drive and put the new one it. I had trouble with putting the OS on the new drive and expanding the partitions, but you do not need to do that.

However, you would also need a bridge to allow you to connect the bare drive to your mac -- about $20.00.

I'm sure it would be easier to use the free patch stick creator to enable SSH access on your ATV then just SSH into it from your Mac/PC and copy the files over that way. Saves having to open your ATV.

Curious if any progress was made on getting data off of the ATV. I had a weird situation this weekend where my hard-drive failed when I was reloading my iphone profile onto a new iphone. My music and pics are now only on ATV and I need to get them off.

Someone mentioned talking to Apple. Are you suggesting talking to a Genius at a store or something different. Think I'll try and set an appointment for this upcoming week.

Thanks!

same here. new hdd and rather than puting in lots of dvd,s would be easier if i could just sync from the apple tv. hope there is a way to do it