setting up iPhone on new computer with no backup data

[sockenpuppen]

I've been searching for a solution to my specific problem, but I haven't really found any answers yet.

I have an iPhone 4, which I used to sync to my now-dead (PC) laptop. Right now I can't (and may not ever be able to) access the files that are on the hard drive of my dead laptop, because the hard drive might be dead for good. I have all my music on an external hard drive so thankfully all of that is safe. I haven't been able to back-up my phone for at least 2 months.

My problem is that I currently don't have my own computer to use, so I have to use my mom's computer (PC) for the time being. She also has an iPhone that she syncs to iTunes on her computer, but she uses a different Apple ID than I do. I was hoping I could sync my phone to her computer so I can back it up and update to iOS 5. I don't know how to go about setting up my iPhone to sync on her computer without running the risk of wiping all the data on my phone.

Is my solution as simple as logging out of her Apple ID and logging in under mine and then setting up my iPhone as a new phone in iTunes on her computer? Or is it more complicated than that? I'd also prefer to have only MY phone's files to back up onto my external hard drive so it's easier for me to set everything up later once I get a new computer.

 

[toiday]

It would make since to me that iTune would allow you to "reverse sync" from iPhone to iTune but I don't work for Apple... Since you got all the music on another hard drive, I can help you get two things out of your phone. You can plug your iphone to a Mac and bring up iPhoto so you can get pictures out of your phone. There is an app calls Contacts Keeper that you can backup your contacts to Dropbox then later restore it. For all the apps on your phone, you will have list them one by one and reinstall them. I know, some of the app, like Angry bird, takes you awhile to get to certain level then you will lose them all... That's the price you have to pay for using iPhone. The next time, you will also need to backup your iTune library. May be you should backup your Mom's iTune too.

 

[cristovao]

I'm faced with a similar situation but let me see if I can help with yours first.

I believe (and the more versed folks in here can correct me if I'm wrong) your best bet would be to create a new Windows profile on your Moms computer, run iTunes and associate it with your account. Plug your iPhone in and before you do anything, run a backup and also do a transfer purchases so all your apps are backed up. This will back up all your data, apps (but not music). Then you should be able to run the iOS 5 update. As a side note, I've heard some problems with data/apps being lost during the iOS 5 upgrade so maybe holding off a couple of days might be a good idea.

The problem I'm facing is I've never been able to transfer music onto my iPhone except on the computer that I first hooked it up to when I got it last fall. That machine is gone now, and although I can backup data and transfer purchases on my MBP at home, I can't manually transfer music onto it. I too want to upgrade to iOS 5 and have full functionality on my MBP but I have a couple of apps that are no longer available in the app store that I want to make sure I don't lose. Any thoughts?