Time Machine recovery (iTunes) to PC

[stevielo]

Hi Everyone,

I was an avid Mac user until a couple of months ago when some fool burgled my house and stole my MBP . It looks like i'll never see it again, however they did leave behind my external hard drive with my Time Machine backups. At the moment, I just can't afford to replace the MacBook so my only option is using my Windows work laptop for the interim.

I'm therefore without my iTunes collection. Is there any possible way to restore my iTunes from the Time Machine backup onto my Windows laptop?

I have hunted forums high and low, and there seems to be no answer to this other than "Time Machine is for OSX only", which I accept. What I refuse to accept is that there is no workaround for this issue.

Any constructive ideas would be much appreciated

Best,

Stevie

 

[simsaladimbamba]

If you use HFSExplorer or MacDrive (the 7 day trial), you can read the TM HDD and go into the Backups.backudb folder to recover your iTunes Music folder from your Users folder.

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)

• Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
• Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! backups of Mac OS X system files.
  [*]To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
  [*]To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
• Maximum file size: 8EiB
• Maximum volume size: 8EiB
• Mac OS X: Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus) volume and file limits
• You can use this format if you only use the drive with Mac OS X, or use it for backups of your Mac OS X internal drive, or if you only share it with one Windows PC (with MacDrive installed on the PC)

 

[mfram]

Do you have any friends with a Mac you can borrow? Or maybe go to an Apple Store and do the transfer there to another external hard drive?

 

[stevielo]

Hi Guys,

Thank you both for your replies. Simsaladimbamba, i think i'll see what I can do from your suggestion as that's more like the type of process I was after. When i've a bit of time to try it, i'll certainly post the results.

Thanks again,

Stevie