Reverse Sync - All Music Lost

The other day, my hard drive containing all of my MP3s died (and my backup drive died about a month ago). While frustrated, I just figured I'd do a reverse sync from my Zune and get the 35-ish GB of MP3s back. Since it was my E: that died, I removed it in the settings for containing music and added a new folder. I didn't want to copy all of the music from my Zune at once, so I selected a few folders and copied them to my collection, which worked fine. The Zune software then decided to sync my device. I was watching the sync status when all of the sudden it said "Removing..." Confused, I stopped the sync and turned on my Zune to see what happened and everything was gone. The only remaining music is the few artists I selected when I copied from the collection. My question is, is there any way to restore the music that was removed or did I just lose my only backup and entire music collection?

Hi Dimidium,

Unfortunately from how it sounds you may have just lost your collection...it sounds like you had the "All Music" sync setting and you happened to catch it the device and copy music from it back to your collection before a sync started.  Once the sync started, the Zune software saw that none of that music was in your collection (on the PC) and promptly removed it from your device as well.

Hopefully I'm wrong and your collection is just hiding somewhere...

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Toffer Davidson
Zune Product Team
.: This posting is provided "as-is" with no warranties, and confers no rights :.

Toff Daddy, Thanks for the response. I just did a registry tweak which allows you to view your Zune as mass storage and it appears that my collection is indeed hiding. Most of it anyways. About 75% of my collection still remains in the Music folder, but there are only a handful of .ALB files in the Albums folder (the music I grabbed when I did the "Copy to Collection"). So I guess since there are no .ALB files for the files in Music, they just aren't showing up as being in my collection. The only problem with the registry tweak is that it only allows you to view the files and not actually copy them (It gives an "Access Denied" error). I'm assuming this is a security function built in to the Zune. Is there any way around this so I can get my music back?

The unfortunate answer is no.  By design, access to the device is only allowed through the Zune software.  I'm actually surprised the registry hack even let you see the files on the device.

What I would try however with your device unplugged, go to Settings / Account / Computers and Devices and remove your Zune device from the list (not your computer, but your device).

Then the next time you plug the device in, you'll have to re-setup a sync relationship.  If you leave it as a guest, it may allow you to sync the files.

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Toffer Davidson
Zune Product Team
.: This posting is provided "as-is" with no warranties, and confers no rights :.

I just tried your suggestion of using the guest account, but that didn't work either. The only other thing I can think of is would trying to access the hard drive directly from my PC work? By that I mean removing the HDD from my Zune and hooking it up to my PC with an external enclosure (my warranty ran out long ago, so I'm not worried about it). Would I be able to access the files or would they still be protected? Sorry in advance if I'm not supposed to ask warranty-voiding questions :-p

Toff Daddy, I just removed the HDD from my Zune and that did let me recover most of my collection. Thanks for the help.

Doh...sorry I didn't see this until I came in today.  Glad you got most of you collection back.  Please let me know if there's anything else I can try help with.  :)

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Toffer Davidson
Zune Product Team
.: This posting is provided "as-is" with no warranties, and confers no rights :.