What the hell is happening to my MP3s?

Have you checked the files in a different program? Does it always skip on that exact part of the song every time?

The reason I ask is it may have nothing to do with your files and may be an iTunes hiccup. Since you didn't say what OS you have I'm going to guess Windows (we Mac users tend to make it known). Last I heard, iTunes on Windows still had some bugs, especially with older versions of Windows. So if you're using a 32-bit version of XP that might have something to do with it. Doubly so if you're using Vista, oh that lovely horror...

My recommendation would be to check it in a different program from iTunes just to make sure it's not iTunes itself and that the file really is corrupted. If the file behaves, try deleting it from iTunes (without deleting the actual file) and re-adding it to iTunes. It may be something wrong with how the track is cached or how it's written to the library database.

You might want to consider doing a hard drive test and memory test to be sure that your computer is not messing up the files.  I've had some strange things happen over the years, especially with hard drives.  Heck, I just lost over 1,000 flac tunes because a seagate drive I had puked.  Needless to say that sucks....

Consider downloading the UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) from ultimatebootcd.com and burning that to disc, run the memtest+ 4.10 on there for at least 3 or 4 passes, as well as the hard disk test that matches the maker of your hard drive.  Never can be to certain that your parts aren't going bad.  if you find the drive is going bad - back it up ASAP.  I've also had power supplies give me problems over the years, but those are far more rare than bad hdd's.  Also, check your motherboard for any electrolytic caps that are bulging or leaking.

When in doubt - ask someone you know can handle parts stuff too...some local computer shops will do free evals....

I had a HDD scare myself just the other day...good thing all of my important data is on another HDD...

ALWAYS have backups. Always. Always, always, always.

I doubt iTunes is corrupting your music. At least, I've never heard of it doing that and I'm not sure how it would. However, it wouldn't be unreasonable for hard drive errors to account for the problem.

UBCD is a great suggestion and I'd say follow up with that. The other thing to do is go out and get another hard drive to back up your music to. You have a large enough collection that losing it would be the biggest pain in the ass to replace. Notice how I'm saying backup and not move it to. It's always important to have multiple copies of your music so that if one file becomes corrupted you have a perfectly good file to replace it with.

Ultimate Boot CD does come in handy...that was the first thing I popped in xD

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waspinators 

Yeah, every track I don't own on CD is backed up on an external hard drive. The weird thing is, I imported a track from the backup that had become corrupted in iTunes and that one got corrupted too. I really have no clue what's causing this or how to prevent it.
 

 

Try setting them as read-only?
 

Try installing a SMART monitoring tool like Personal Smart Check, or Crystal Disk Info. If it is the hdd, corruption that bad would indicate a hdd on the verge of death, and that should show up in the SMART info. If you have a back up on a different drive that you know to be good, use a hash checker to look at the CRC values of the corrupted file and the backup. If the file has been altered at all, the values will be different.