Backing up my library -- my plan

Ok, my computer is reaching its limit. It's been there for a while and it's time to reformat. I accidentally got a trojan that I've tried for weeks to get rid of. In cases of earlier infections, my father would bring the hdd into Stony Brook university and have one of the technicians there clean it. This time however it was apparently too much for even him so the comp needs to be reformatted.
I have a little more than 1300 songs in my iTunes library and I don't want to go through the tedious task of downloading them all again. I also want to retain my iTunes library data. Instead of burning them to a CD however, I thought I might try something else. I don't know if this is a good solution or not, but I thought I would import my songs little by little onto a flashdrive, then put that flashdrive into my PS3 and copy the songs onto the hdd (It's a 60 GB PS3 and has plenty of room). Then, when the computer gets reformatted, put them back on the flashdrive (again, little by little and place them back onto the computer.

it is better to burn all your songs into a disc coz using a flash drive to transfer 1300 songs is quite a job.
regarding your last question, i'm not that sure if you can still have all your playlists, playcounts, ratings etc. saved into your itunes music folder. since im using vista, there is an option of ratings in the folder but it's just there for referrence.
1 question though, do u have all your music saved or copied whenever you try to transfer music to itunes? if no, then it is a handful job. easiest way is to use sharepod to transfer music from ipod to computer. if yes, then there's no problem, all you have to do is burn all your songs in a disc.

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  • Questions re backing up iPhoto Library

    I have a 20” iMac purchased last January and have been using iPhoto a lot since recently acquiring my first digital camera. I am adding extensively to my collection of digital photos and wish to back up my photo images to DVDs in case the originals are accidently lost or corrupted. However, I am running into some seeming weirdness along the way that is making it difficult for me to figure out how best to accomplish this. I would appreciate one of the experts on this forum clarifying this situation for me.
    It appears that one way to back up the photos to a DVD is to open up iPhoto, and then click Library/Share/Burn, after which you insert a blank DVD to complete the process. However, I note a discrepancy here. When I click on Library I note that I currently have 653 photos in the Library at a size of 3.4 GB which would easily fit on a DVD. The discrepancy shows up when I open up the iPhoto Library folder in the Pictures folder and find that the size of the iPhoto Library folder is 4.73 GB which would be too big to fit on a DVD. Why does the size of the Library show up as 3.4 GB in the first case and 4.73 GB in the second case? Which value is correct? Should I back up the Library in iPhoto per the Library/Share/Burn indicated above or should I attempt to burn the iPhoto Library folder to a DVD? If the latter, what would be the best way to do this?
    A related issue is creation of new photo libraries. I plan to continue to back up my library by burning to DVDs, which means that I would want to create a new library every time the current library reaches a size of about 4 GB. This would assure that each library would fit on a DVD. I encountered another bit of weirdness in my attempt to find out how to create new libraries and to switch between libraries. It appears that in creating a new library or in switching to a different iPhoto library it is first necessary to locate the current iPhoto Library folder and rename it. I can find no explanation for this. My plan would be to retain “iPhoto Library” as the name of the original library with “iPhoto Library - 2”, “iPhoto Library - 3”, etc. as the names of subsequent new libraries. Why would I want to or need to rename these libraries? Weird!
    Back to my current iPhoto Library: If the actual size is 4.73 GB it won’t fit on a DVD. It would seem necessary for me to create a new library and then transfer some of the photos in the current library to the new library in order to reduce the size to about 4 GB. I presume that this is possible and would appreciate guidance on how best to accomplish this. I don’t want to chance losing any images in the process!
    To date, except for the oddities incurred in working with iPhoto, I have not had much difficulty in making the transition from a Windows computer to the new iMac. I’m now a definite Mac fan! I trust that one or more experienced hands here can steer me in the right direction so that I can continue to enjoy the use of iPhoto, hopefully knowing what I am doing and why.
    Bob

    Hello, Bob,
    Terence is correct. You don't need to rename your library.
    I use iPhotoBuddy to manage my libraries; currently I have ten of them. I separated them chronologically by dates and named them appropriately, such as iPhotoLibrary2007.
    You can burn DVDs or CDs in two ways:
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    2. From FINDER Burn from Finder This method is good for preserving your photos for use in any computer or photo processing company. You may find that this method will allow more photos per disk because you are only burning the photos that you exported to the desktop folder/file. When you insert this disk and open iPhoto, you will not see the disk in the Source pane and will have to reimport the photos to use them.
    Which method you use depends on what your ultimate goal is. If you want to delete the photos from your current library, but have access to them easily,then method 1 would probably suit you better.
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    Another suggestion for you is to get an external drive (or two) to use for iPhoto. As your photo collection enlarges, you may find that it is too big for your computer's drive to handle. You keep the iPhoto application on the computer's drive, but you can put the library(ies) on the external. It is easy to do; just drag the entire iPhotoLibrary (located in Pictures folder) onto the external. (Be sure the external is Mac-formatted first).
    When you open iPhoto and it asks you to create or locate the library, just point it to the external drive.
    If you make use of an external for your iPhoto Libraries, remember that unless you copy them onto disks, you have not backed up. That is why you may need a second external, for backup.
    I have two external drives for iPhoto, and I make iMovies->DVDs of all our family photos and videos, and I burn DVDs of my photos. I had an external drive fail once. Fortunately, none of my photos were on it, just some papers of my daughters and some documents of mine. Makes me extra-cautious

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    Not all of my perviously purchaced songs are showing up on itunes purchaced link on my account. It show that I have already purchaced them in the itune store, but i have no way of downloading them back into my library.

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  • Would like to know how to back up iphoto library to external harddrive

    I know this question has been asked and very well answered, but I could not find it in the pop up discussions.  I have copied my library to an external hard drive by dragging and dropping the events into folders.  This works, however is time consuming and all the photos, I think are out of order.  I would like to use the "export library" link in iphoto, but when i do it say something about can't create volumes??  Sorry if this is not as clear as it could be, but I don't think I am the first with this problem.  Links to previous solutions would be great!  I do use time machine as a back up to an external hard drive, but would like to back up the library to a USB also, which I can then put somewhere else. 
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    Copy the iPhoto library intact to the EHD  --  or use a incremental program so you can update it without recopying everything - I use Carbon Copy cloner - Superduper is another good one - there are others
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  • I have music on my iPad, but I can no longer find it in itunes on my mac.  How do I get those CDs back in my library?

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  • HT2329 the songs on my ipod are no longer in my itunes library...how do i get them back to the library...

    My computer crashed and i have a new hard drive.
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    See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
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    If your iTunes library is on an external hard drive, but iTunes is not recognizing the library, first make sure the right library is selected.
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  • HT1751 i can't open itunes. how can i back up my library? i need file MSVCR80.dll

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  • Backing up iPhoto Library on external hard drive through Time Machine

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  • Want to "move back" my iPhoto library +photos

    Hi,
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    thanks
    Jacques

    James
    Welcome to the Apple user to user assistance forums
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    LN
    Message was edited by: LarryHN

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