Tip: Restore Downloads from Marketplace

[Adam Krebs]

So you moved to&nbsp;a new PC, you wiped your harddrive, or you just want to re-download a track you deleted long, long ago. Lucky for you, the Zune team built a feature specifically for this purpose, and it's pretty simple to get to. <br /><img alt="" border="1" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1214425714.usr495.jpg" /><br /><br />In the Zune software, go to Settings (in the upper-right hand corner of the screen) and then Account. In the left-hand menu select Purchases (it should be the third option down) and then select the individual songs you want to download, or click Restore All to re-download all of your previously-downloaded songs.

[Jason Dunn]

A relative of mine had about $600 in iTunes music and his Windows XP computer got a virus that wiped out almost everything...and he of course can't get his music back. That's one of the hidden "gotchas" about iTunes that the Zune Marketplace is far better at. I still loathe DRM, but the Zune Marketplace does the right thing where this is concerned...

[Akuma]

i never downloaded from itunes or zune marketplace but doesn't the zune program save all your music in the zune file located in document/my music file because when i configured my computer i saved all my files to an external hard drive and and when i was looking threw it i found it all their

[onlydarksets]

A relative of mine had about $600 in iTunes music and his Windows XP computer got a virus that wiped out almost everything...and he of course can't get his music back. That's one of the hidden "gotchas" about iTunes that the Zune Marketplace is far better at. I still loathe DRM, but the Zune Marketplace does the right thing where this is concerned...
It's still not as good as Yahoo Music. Yahoo doesn't show you your entire download history - only the files that are in your "collection", which is stored on the server. So, you keep your "collection" up to date, and when you get a new computer, you just download the entire thing.

With the Zune software, I have to sort through all of the junk I downloaded and immediately deleted. It's better than nothing, but not ideal.

[Adam Krebs]

It's still not as good as Yahoo Music. Yahoo doesn't show you your entire download history - only the files that are in your "collection", which is stored on the server.

Rhapsody and Napster have a simiar thing. There's your "collection" and then it shows tracks that are marked as "streaming" (in your collection, but not downloaded) or tracks that you have on your PC. I have a feeling that this, as with other not-as-fleshed-out bits of the Zune experience, will get better with time.

[onlydarksets]

Exactly. I agree, it's a matter of time, but it's a feature with which not everyone is familiar.