I have a 1st gen iPad. This is my only apple device so please bear with my iIgnorance. I currently have the iPad sync'd to iTunes on my laptop. From what I've read I cannot sync the iPad to more than computer. I am going to replace my laptop with a new one and I don't know how to deal with the iTunes/laptop link issue. Any help is appreciated.

Do you own an external hard drive?

Yes

Right that's good forgot to ask are you a windows user and if so is it xp, vista or windows 7?

Windows XP. I don't care about the music on the iPad. I want to keep the emails, bookmarks and apps. I also have some movies that I put on the iPad using the digital copy feature from the movies I bought on disc. I feel like I have to be missing something here. People replace computers all the time. Steve must have made provisions for the folks that replace the computer the iPad has sync'd to.

Are wanting to move everything from the iTunes on your current laptop or just the things currently on your iPad?

Just what's on the iPad. When I connect the iPad to another machine with iTunes, it says it will erase everything on the iPad.

iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer

The Transfer Purchases options is the one you are most interested in.

Also, check this link as a good reference for other types of content you may want to transfer, and how. Because the first step of getting all your content onto a new device is to make sure it all gets on the computer

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2109


But the short of it is, cancel out of the sync/erase dialog, right click on the iPad in the column on the left, and choose Transfer Purchases.

Thanks guys. I used a combination of sync/purchases and transferring files in the iTunes folder over my network. I have things where I want them, I hope. I now understand there is a difference between backup and sync. I hadn't paid much attention to them until now. I thought sync was a backup. It is apparently a combined process unless you launch them manually.