11.5 Unmounting the iPod Drive

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You're not supposed to detach any kind of hard drive just by ripping its cord out of your computer. If it happens to be right in the middle of copying a file, or performing some automatic internal maintenance that you're not even aware of, you risk badly scrambling the data on that disk.

The same goes for the iPod. Yes, you can "eject" it as you would a CD ”that, after all, is its whole delicious advantage ”but only after first unmounting it (that is, removing its icon from the screen) like this:

  • iTunes . In the iTunes Source list, select the iPod and then click the Eject iPod button (identified in Figure 11-4). On a Mac, you can also use any of the usual disk-ejection methods : drag the iPod icon on the desktop to the Trash, Control-click the iPod icon and choose Eject from the contextual menu, click the Eject icon next to the iPod's icon in the Sidebar (Mac OS X 10.3), and so on.

    Figure 11-4. Top: In iTunes, click the first button to get to the iPod Preferences box, or the fourth button to safely eject the iPod from the Mac. Bottom: If you're sticking with MusicMatch Jukebox on the PC, you can get to the iPod's Preferences box by clicking the Options button in the corner of the MusicMatch Portables Plus box. Clicking the Eject button is one of several ways to safely unmount the iPod from the PC.
    figs/11fig04.gif

    At this point, if you have iTunes open , the iPod disappears from the Source list and from your desktop. Depending on your iPod model and software, either the main menu or the "OK to Disconnect" message appears on the iPod's screen.

  • MusicMatch Jukebox for Windows . If you didn't have 6,342 different ways to do something, it just wouldn't be Windows.

    Here are some of the different ways to detach your iPod from your PC.

    NOTE

    In all cases, don't disconnect the iPod until you see the iPod's "OK to Disconnect" message or its main menu appear ”which may take as long as 15 seconds.

    Method 1 : In MusicMatch, click the Eject button at the bottom of the Portables Plus window (Figure 11-4). When MusicMatch asks if you're sure, click Yes. Wait a few seconds while the "Ejecting iPod" and "It is now safe to disconnect iPod" messages flash on the PC screen.

    Method 2 : See the tiny white iPod icon in your system tray (Figure 11-2)? Right-click it and choose Unmount iPodster (or whatever your iPod's name is) from the pop-up menu.

    If this trick doesn't work, it's probably because MusicMatch or Windows is still communicating with the iPod about something. Quitting MusicMatch Jukebox usually clears this up.

    Method 3 : Click the Safely Remove Hardware icon, which looks like a small green arrow floating above a gray box (Figure 11-5). Choose whatever variation of the "Stop IEEE 1394 Disk Drive" option you see.

    Figure 11-5. Top left: The icon for the iPod Manager program looks like an iPod. Right-click it to unmount the iPod. Top right: It's OK to disconnect. Bottom: Here's another way to release the iPod.
    figs/11fig05.gif

    When the "Safely Remove hardware" message appears, click OK.

NOTE

Apple advises that you not eject the iPod by right-clicking its icon in the My Computer window and using the Eject option from the contextual menu.

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iPod & iTunes. The Missing Manual
iPod: The Missing Manual (Missing Manuals)
ISBN: 1449390471
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 171
Authors: Biersdorfer

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