PC iPod to Mac Conversion

So, I became a Mac user.

Here's the problem:
My iPod is formatted for Windows, and the library on the iPod has a ton of music that came from different computers. All of the tricks and tips I found for migratng the library over to the Mac still required having all of the original music on the computer, not the iPod. Or it required paying for software.

I didn't have or like those options.

Now, this solution will assume that you are OK with creating a new library, and having iTunes control it.

My extremely heterogeneous OS setup is the following:
desktops: windows
laptops: windows, linux, mac
network storage drive: (I believe linux)

all on a GigE backbone, with supplemental wireless.

So, opened up my iPod on the Mac terminal. Its listed under Volumes.
I switched iTunes to manage the directory structure of the library and to store it on the network storage drive.
I copied all of the music files off of the iPod and onto the Mac into a designated folder

mkdir ~/orig_ipod/
cp -R /Volumes/MY_IPOD/iPod_Control/Music/* ~/orig_ipod/

Then i attempted to import that directly into iTunes. That didn't work. Some sort of strange permission on the directories coming off the iPod (anyone ever seen an @ on their permissions)?

So, I did the following:

mkdir ipod_cleaner
cd orig_ipod
for dir in `ls`; do cp -R $dir/* ../ipod_cleaner/; done/

Then, once both of those complete (each takes a while, depending on the size of your iPod's files, you simply run an Add to Library command from inside iTunes and let it create the new directories.

The files in the middle steps are unuseful gobbledygook. You have to check the 'Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized' or else it will stay uselessly encrypted filenames.

My end result moved 100% of my music to a new library on the network drive, and didn't require booting up my Windows laptop once.