Moving iTunes collection from Windows XP to Windows 7

I have just moved my collection from XP to Win 7 verbatim ... complete with all playlists, ratings and play counts. Thought of sharing the various steps I did to make it happen. It is easy enough if you can do basic copying.

First, move your complete collection to a portable drive .. say F: (and let iTunes manage the collection).

Backup your My Music folder as well as your Document and Settings folder in XP. (generally found under C:\Documents and Settings\...)

Next install iTunes on your Win 7 box. Pretty straight forward.

Start iTunes and deselect all auto search et al. You have a clean iTunes installation. Close down iTunes. Wait for few minutes to ensure that it has exited completely.

Next Follow These...

1. Copy "C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes" from XP backup to "C:\Users\yourusername\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes" in Win 7.

2. Copy "C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes" from XP backup to "C:\Users\yourusername\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes" in Win 7. (this look identical but notice Local Settings in path.

3. Copy "My Music\iTunes" (from my documents backup in win xp) to "My Music\iTunes" in Win 7 Libraries.

In above steps, replace with your user name (yourusername) in corresponding operating systems. Also, if you are like me, you would have moved My Documents from default location to separate drive. Remember to change the path accordingly.

Now start iTunes again.

All your music, playlists and settings are back. As if nothing happened.

Note that if you are in different systems, the path to removable drive should be same (such as F:) in both systems. Change the system drive letters, if need be to achieve this. Choose a path that is rarely used such as letters from M: / N: / O: etc.

Good Luck...