Deleting Songs off Computer, Keeping on iPod

I am about to clear my Hard Drive, and Ive been wondering if theres a way to keep songs on your iPod, but delete them off your computer. I dont want to have to keep hundreds of songs on my computer clogging memory, it would be nice if the iPod would just ADD the new songs, instead of taking off anything that has been taking out of iTunes.

Another thing, I did some searching on both of these, but couldnt find much and my computer is being screwy, but since Im clearing my Hard Drive, I know there is a way to use my iPod as a hard drive. I just want to store all of my pictures, documents, etc on there and then clear my hard drive, and put them back on my computer. I was just not sure if it was possible to have it work as normal, with music on it, AND have it storing all of your files. And ive heard of a few programs to do this, and was unsure which were the best free ones.

This has got to be a little confusing, and its pretty long, so [u294293ab6f]any help at all would be appreciated and +kma.[/u294293ab6f]

well as far as i know, if the songs are on ur ipod then it doesnt matter if the songs are on your computer any more, they will stay on ur ipod, and for pics and word documents and stuff u just drag it onto your ipod icon when u have it connected via usb or firewire. it should save on ur ipod, as far as i know u dont need a special program to do all that stuff. when u are ready to take off all of the stuff u put on ur ipod just search through the ipod files when u have it plugged into ur computer and drag the files back onto ur comp. desktop.

in iTunes..
Edit>Preferences>Ipod>Enable hard drive use

Just leave them on your iPod and delete them from your computer.

If you want to copy them back after you clean up your HD, you can copy them all in one batch like williebeamin2000 said or you can use Ephpod to copy your music.

http//www.ephpod.com

The only caveat is that the above software does not work for 5th gen iPods yet...

make sure you change the prefs on your ipod first

from auto update ipod and playlists to manually

or else when you delete them off your comp and bring up itunes you will wipe your ipod.

[quote55591e7620="justinag06"]make sure you change the prefs on your iPod first

from auto update iPod and playlists to manually

or else when you delete them off your comp and bring up itunes you will wipe your iPod.[/quote55591e7620]

exactly. and from now on, you will have to simply drag and drop things to teh ipod as opposed to have it load them to the ipod automatically. and as a side note, once you have switched it from auto sync to manual, you MUST leave the list of songs in itunes. they will appear listed as they do now, except they may have a "!" beside them indicating the songs were not found on the computer. although they are not on the computer, the songs must stay listed (as in do NOT clear the list!) because if you delete the list then the ipod WILL clear itself when you plug it in and bring up itunes. i found out the hard way, but luckily i had just finished putting all of my music library onto data CDs so i could delete them from my computer. i removed them from the computer and they were still on the ipod when it was hooked up and itunes was loaded, but when i deleted the list on itunes, the ipod cleared itself completely. all i had to do was load each data cd, though, and drag the songs to it. had i not had the data cds, i would have been screwed.

so, to sum it up turn off the auto update and remember you will have to manually add and remove tracks from now on, and even once the songs are deleted form your computers hard drive, make sure to keep them listed in the itunes playlist!

[quote8acaf4dbe2="i blame history"][quote8acaf4dbe2="justinag06"]make sure you change the prefs on your iPod first

from auto update iPod and playlists to manually

or else when you delete them off your comp and bring up itunes you will wipe your iPod.[/quote8acaf4dbe2]

exactly. and from now on, you will have to simply drag and drop things to teh iPod as opposed to have it load them to the iPod automatically. and as a side note, once you have switched it from auto sync to manual, you MUST leave the list of songs in itunes. they will appear listed as they do now, except they may have a "!" beside them indicating the songs were not found on the computer. although they are not on the computer, the songs must stay listed (as in do NOT clear the list!) because if you delete the list then the iPod WILL clear itself when you plug it in and bring up itunes. i found out the hard way, but luckily i had just finished putting all of my music library onto data CDs so i could delete them from my computer. i removed them from the computer and they were still on the iPod when it was hooked up and itunes was loaded, but when i deleted the list on itunes, the iPod cleared itself completely. all i had to do was load each data cd, though, and drag the songs to it. had i not had the data cds, i would have been screwed.

so, to sum it up turn off the auto update and remember you will have to manually add and remove tracks from now on, and even once the songs are deleted form your computers hard drive, make sure to keep them listed in the itunes playlist![/quote8acaf4dbe2]

THANK YOU! Holy shit, I had like ten million questions, you just answered them all. Only thing I am left wondering is, what do you mean by i have to do it manually? I'm assuming you mean, I have to import the songs I want, delete the ones I dont want, and click Update Ipod now and such, but I want to make sure I'm not missing something.

Anyway, +kma to you, and the rest of you as soon as I get a chance.

it will be a sad day when your ipods hdd crashes or you drop your ipod...

I know ( Dont say that though. I guess I ought to back it up onto discs...

well, i have NEVER had mine set to automatic update, so im not sure of the difference.... when i want a cd on the ipod, i just rip it via itunes. i then click the ipod icon on the left of the screen, which opens up a separate itunes window with a list of all the stuff on the ipod. then i locate the tracks listed in itunes, and drag them one by one from the library to the ipod tracklisting.

gah hope thats right... its been a while since i put anything on there!

Hey....another thing. Why is it that after i update my ipod, my computer says its okay to disconnect, but my ipod says not to? It wont mess it up will it, I mean, I've got to disconnect it sometime.

[quotedb401d1432="Jake"]Just leave them on your iPod and delete them from your computer.

If you want to copy them back after you clean up your HD, you can copy them all in one batch like williebeamin2000 said or you can use Ephpod to copy your music.

http//www.ephpod.com

The only caveat is that the above software does not work for 5th gen iPods yet...[/quotedb401d1432]
I use CopyPod. I have a crack PM me for it.
Linky[=http//www.copypod.net/]Linky

umm that whole thing about keeping the playlist in itunes....i dont think that matters, i dont keep my playlists. I have no songs on my small computer harddrive but my ipod is half full. In my song library I keep new songs, but once ive edited the information how I like it (ie album, song title, etc.) I update to the ipod, then delete everything off my computer including the playlist. Hasnt deleted anything off the ipod yet.

[quote2b5496752b="mpj31"]umm that whole thing about keeping the playlist in itunes....i dont think that matters, i dont keep my playlists. I have no songs on my small computer harddrive but my iPod is half full. In my song library I keep new songs, but once ive edited the information how I like it (ie album, song title, etc.) I update to the iPod, then delete everything off my computer including the playlist. Hasnt deleted anything off the iPod yet.[/quote2b5496752b]

well all i know is that once i deleted the songs from the computer, they remained on the ipod, but once i cleared the playlist in itunes, the ipod was completely cleared... i even checked the disk space, and it was close to the 20gb it was supposed to have empty (we all know you never have the full amount fo disk space!)