iTunes: Maintaining Rankings after hard drive wipe?

[wayland1985]

I reformat my mac every now and then. It's probably not great for my hard drive, but what can you do??? I like the "clean" feel of a fresh OS install...


Most of my media, though, is on an external hard drive. Whenever I reformat, I have to re-rank my songs. Is there a way I can save the ranking of my songs???

 

[reubs]

I think your best bet is to export your library file, and then import it back in once you reload the library.

 

[evilspoons]

If you have your iTunes configured in the default manner, you will have a file called "iTunes Library" of type "iTunes Database File" located inside the iTunes folder inside your Music folder.

You will also likely have "iTunes Library Extras.itdb", "iTunes Library Genius.itdb", "iTunes Music Library.xml", a folder called "Album Artwork", and a folder called "Previous iTunes Libraries".

If you back all of these up, or at a very minimum, "iTunes Library" and "iTunes Music Library.xml", and replace them into /users/your name/Music/iTunes after your reinstall, you should be good to go.

On a side note, reinstalling your operating system repeatedly will do little to wear out your hard drive. The biggest thing you're wasting is your time if there's nothing wrong with the computer before you reformat.