Anybody familiar with the Zune (help needed)

[mooby]

I'm not sure how many (if any) of the posters here are familiar with the Zune but if there is someone who could help me out I'd greatly appreciate it. I've tried looking for help on the Zune's official support site and I can't get any responses there either so now I'm just looking for anybody at this point that could help me out here. I've got a 30 gig Zune that I bought back in November '07. I had no problems with it up until my computer crashed back in February and I had to pay $100 to get it fixed and then I had to buy a new hard drive as well.

Well basically I used about 16 gigs of the 30 gig I had and since my old hard drive crashed and I had to buy a new one I wanted to transfer all the music/video/pictures on my old Zune back onto my new hard drive. So I read up on the whole "reverse-syncing" thing which is apparantly something you can do to send content back to the computer from the Zune. So I tried to do that but it didn't work, anything I send from the Zune back it will sync a certain percentage and then stop for no reason. I can't do anything with the files on my Zune because when I connect it everything gets recognized as "guest content" which apparantly is inaccessible.

So I looked up solutions online and I figured maybe it's because when I got my computer set back up in Julyish that I set the Zune software and I labeled my pc as the home computer for my Zune. Somebody recommended I reinstall the software and then set my computer as a guest so the Zune thinks it's a different computer and it should be able to reverse sync it then. So I reinstalled the software but it didn't ask that question again so I assume you can't change it once it's set as the home computer for the device.

So I'm at a loss because I had 5 years worth of pictures and music on my computer that would be lost forever (pictures wise) that I won't be able to get back. I don't know what to do anymore, Microsoft's official support system blows and didn't do anything for me help wise and even their official Zune hotline didn't do anything, trying to get help from the people that work for them is just a dead end.

Microsoft doesn't care one bit about anybody that's had problems with the old Zune (They only care about the people that have bought the new Zune HD atm) and it's pathetic. Microsoft's official support forums don't have barely any support whatsoever for everyone that's had problems with this (and believe me, I'm not the only one that's had this problem, there have been thousands of different questions from people who have had problems on there that haven't gotten an answer of any kind because there isn't anybody that knows the answer) and it's just gotten to the point where it's a major hassle. Makes me wish I had backed up everything I had on my old hard drive, instead I was stupid for figuring that 4 3/4 years of never having a major problem of any kind on my pc other than gradually slowing down because I had used 78 gigs on my old 80 gig hard drive would mean anything.

Run on sentences aside I can't believe how pathetic Microsoft is, makes me wish I just gone with the popular consensus and bought an Ipod instead. You can't even access the folders where the Zune stores the music, you have to do everything through the Zune software you are forced to install on your computer. Otherwise I would've just connected the Zune and dragged all the folders back onto my computer like I used to do on my old MP3 player.

I've taken the Zune and my external hard drive to the Geek Squad at Best Buy as well as the computer support center at Staples and neither of them could do anything about it. I might try taking it up to Microcenter in Vienna but I'm not confident they'll be able to do anything about it either, and I'd rather save another 150 bucks and do it myself if possible (All these places charge exorbitant prices if you want to transfer large amounts of data more than 5 gig approximately.)

[tryfuhl]

It probably leaves the original computer info in the registry or something, so you'd need to get rid of all traces of the zune software info out of that.. I'm sure that there's something out there.. I'll look into it

[saden1]

Admittedly I don't know much about Zune but is there a way to connect to the device as if it were a USB hard/flash drive and download your files that way? Also, have you tried re-syncing incrementally rather than all your content all at once?

MS support blows. I was shocked to learn a while back that if you get the red ring of death after your device is out of warranty you are shit out of luck. Complete rip-off.

[mooby]

Originally Posted by saden1

Admittedly I don't know much about Zune but is there a way to connect to the device as if it were a USB hard/flash drive and download your files that way? Also, have you tried re-syncing incrementally rather than all your content all at once?

MS support blows. I was shocked to learn a while back that if you get the red ring of death after your device is out of warranty you are shit out of luck. Complete rip-off.

I wish I could. The cable that comes with the Zune is your standard USB on one end and Zune specific cable on the other. The only way you can access it is through downloading the Zune software. I've tried looking for a way to maybe access the memory on the Zune but I haven't found anything. There are multiple programs out there that you can buy for the Ipod that lets you access it like a folder but they are all Ipod specific and there aren't any that can do that for the Zune out there.

And yes I've tried that. I tried sending one song back but it only got to 80% sync wise and then it stopped, so it's not just a mass sending thing.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by saden1

Admittedly I don't know much about Zune but is there a way to connect to the device as if it were a USB hard/flash drive and download your files that way? Also, have you tried re-syncing incrementally rather than all your content all at once?

MS support blows. I was shocked to learn a while back that if you get the red ring of death after your device is out of warranty you are shit out of luck. Complete rip-off.

As with anything, if you bitch enough they will fix it.

They extended the warranty from 1 to 3 years too. Still sucks that it's had as many problems as it has, I've had the red ring twice.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by mooby

I wish I could. The cable that comes with the Zune is your standard USB on one end and Zune specific cable on the other. The only way you can access it is through downloading the Zune software. I've tried looking for a way to maybe access the memory on the Zune but I haven't found anything. There are multiple programs out there that you can buy for the Ipod that lets you access it like a folder but they are all Ipod specific and there aren't any that can do that for the Zune out there.

And yes I've tried that. I tried sending one song back but it only got to 80% sync wise and then it stopped, so it's not just a mass sending thing.

I'd guess there is a way to do this. I can do it with my IPod. If I install ITunes on one profile and then plug my ipod in under another profile it recognizes my ipod as a regular usb device/lash drive. You may be able to perpetrate something similar. This has got to be a common issue. I can't believe that there's nothing out there on the interwebs to help you. Forget MS...they punt when it comes to rights management or anything that gets close to it. They always assume you're trying to screw them in some way.

[mooby]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

I'd guess there is a way to do this. I can do it with my IPod. If I install ITunes on one profile and then plug my ipod in under another profile it recognizes my ipod as a regular usb device/lash drive. You may be able to perpetrate something similar. This has got to be a common issue. I can't believe that there's nothing out there on the interwebs to help you. Forget MS...they punt when it comes to rights management or anything that gets close to it. They always assume you're trying to screw them in some way.

Hmm. I'm gonna try that momentarily, it sounds like it might work. And I'm not sure where else to look on the internet. I've tried a couple Zune forums I found through google but I haven't found any new ideas or possible solutions to this yet. Let me see what plugging it in under a different profile will do. And yes, MS is starting to become a big waste of time. It's not just the Zune, it's all the problems I've had with my computer dating back to February. That and the fact that Mac has a lot of support for it right now is making me consider a switch. I've used IE/Windows ever since I started using a computer but it's unbelievable how un-user friendly Windows has become. I'm not even sure whether to believe the hype about Windows 7 either.

[tryfuhl]

Originally Posted by mooby

Hmm. I'm gonna try that momentarily, it sounds like it might work. And I'm not sure where else to look on the internet. I've tried a couple Zune forums I found through google but I haven't found any new ideas or possible solutions to this yet. Let me see what plugging it in under a different profile will do. And yes, MS is starting to become a big waste of time. It's not just the Zune, it's all the problems I've had with my computer dating back to February. That and the fact that Mac has a lot of support for it right now is making me consider a switch. I've used IE/Windows ever since I started using a computer but it's unbelievable how un-user friendly Windows has become. I'm not even sure whether to believe the hype about Windows 7 either.

What's your issue with Windows?

[BDBohnzie]

Check this out:
How to Do Everything with Your Zune - Google Books

Instructions on how to connect your Zune as an external hard drive. This should allow you to copy the files from the Zune to your HD. Then what I would do is once you've successfully copied everything from your Zune to the hard drive, I'd do a hard reset of your Zune and resync it with the computer.

Oh and Windows 7 is a dream compared to Vista...