I want to back up my iTunes library in case my hard drive were to crash. I currently have about 2 GB of music. iTunes help gives instructions to back up using CDs - wouldn't that take a lot of them? Couldn't I back up using a flash drive? Just wondering what other people do. Thanks!

 

You can backup to a flash drive, CDs, DVDs, another hard drive.
With 2gig of music, DVDs or another hard drive are the best choices.

 

I bought an eight gig flash drive recently that I use for backing up pictures and itunes.

 

I was actually wondering how to back up the iTunes library to another type of media other than a DVD or CD too.

The newest version of iTunes has a back-up function in the tools drop down menu but it doesn't give an option to select a destination...... You can only burn the back-up on to a CD or DVD.
Phil

 

I see the flash drives are up to 8GB now. I feel safer using my 500GB external USB drive though. Many of them come with backup software and the drives are getting cheap if you shop around. You can backup all your stuff not just the music. I wrote a batch file to backup all my data using Robocopy, it's like Xcopy on steroids. After the initial copy it just copies changed files. Refreshes the data in just a couple of minutes. I have a scheduled task run every week to kickoff the job. It's a mirror image of all my data. I got burned once, never again

 

I have an older PC with USB ports. When I get a new one (next year?) with USB2 drives, I'll get an external hard drive as well.

 

It would take 3-4 CD's. This assumes that you copy the files, not create music cds. Another backup option, if you have 2 computers, would be to network them and save the files on the other computer too. You could even authorize that computer to play your songs. To backup to another media, you will have to find the folder your songs are saved in and manually copy them to their destination. If you change computers or reload windows, don't forget to deauthorize your computer!

 

Strategery,
When I got my new computer, and installed the new iPod software, I noticed iTunes said I was allowed to authorize up to five computers. (is that something new?)

Also, the problem is that on my old computer, I have my music stored in different folders; and then the songs I purchase from iTunes are stored in yet another folder.

I put all the music files into one folder on the new computer but the iTunes software can't find them. It's still looking for the songs in the location where they were on the old PC.

So far the only fix is to manually go into the folder where the song is and start to play it from there with iTunes open in the background. But with hundreds of songs, you'd think there was an easier way.

Plus, the reason I'd like to do a "back-up" and "restore" is so I can keep my song arrangement. Putting all the songs in one folder messes that up and requires me to rearrange them.

It's kidna' dumb that iTunes doesn't give you a destination option other than a CD or DVD drive to do a back-up! My old PC doesn't have a DVD burner.........

It would be nice to be able to do a mirror image back-up on to a USB Thumb-Drive and then restore on to the new computer!
Phil

 

There is, just copy folders over and import the root folder.
IE: \Music\"album folders" just import Music and iTunes will see everything.

There are alot of things I don't like about iTunes but there are some tricks to get around some of the isues. Like the Hanna Montana album I just bought for my son. He's making a video slideshow and wanted to add music. Has to be an MP3 or something. Of course iTunes won't let me convert "protected content"! So I buy the music but I can't convert it? That sucks. I suppose I can rip the CD I burned from iTunes back to MP3 but that's BS. I bought the music I should be able to convert it. First and last time I buy music from iTunes.

 

You didn't buy the right to convert it. You knew that (or should have known that) when you "bought" it.

 

There are valid reasons to do what you want. Here are a couple interesting articles on the subject.
http://askbobrankin.com/convert_itun...p3_format.html
http://askbobrankin.com/convert_itun...s_to_mpeg.html

 

That was the first method I tried; I figured "This is too easy" and I was right because it didn't work.

The songs show up in iTunes but wont play........
That's why I want to try the built in iTunes "Back-up/Restore" method.......
Phil

 

Why have a file converter as part of the app then? When I bought all my music on CD I bought it knowing I could do whatever I wanted to with it. You're right I should have known what I was buying when I bought it. Now I know, I bought DRM crap music and won't buy anymore. I was able to convert it BTW but it's a hassle I don't need. The only reason I bought an iPod was because it is a slick piece of hardware and I plug it into my Alpine when I go mobile. But if there was a comparable product out there using MP3 or whatever I would have gone with that instead. I can understand the industry trying to control piracy but DRM is BS.