Backing-up ONLY NEW ITEMS to external hard-drive

I like to stay on top of backing-up my iTunes media to my external hard-drive.
My question is how do I do this where I'm backing-up my entire library but only adding new and/or changed items to the back-up folder(i.e. backing-up ONLY new/changed data since last back-up)?
As of right now, my iTunes media folder(Primary) is 66.5GB that is stored on my "D" drive on my pc.
My back-up external drive is a Western Digital 160GB with about 45GB free space on it. While that's plenty of space for growth of my back-up files, it's not enough for me to store a 2nd NEW iTunes back-up folder which would then(after successful back-up) allow me to delete the prior back-up.
Here's another relevant question that ties in with this:
Why doesn't the following option exist right now in iTunes?;
+*File>Library>Back-up to external drive...*+
Which should also include: being able to select the drive and also tick the box for "Only back up items added or changed since last backup"
Anyone?

Forget itunes and use SyncToy from Microsoft. It does incremental changes.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5 -98d0592d8c52&displaylang=en

Similar Messages

  • Hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?

    hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?

    When you boot the new machine for the first time, you'll be prompted to import your data from a Time Machine backup.

  • I have a macbook and I'm having trouble backing up my pictures on an external hard drive.  The Macbook won't install the backup drive soft ware? It is a new Sea Gate hard rive from costco.

    I have a macbook and I'm having trouble backing up my pictures on an external hard drive.  The Macbook won't install the backup drive soft ware? It is a new Sea Gate hard rive from costco.

    You don't want to install the software that came with the drive, you don't need it and it will be problematic. Connect the new drive, open Disk Utility, select the new drive and partition it using the GUID partition scheme, then format it as Mac OS extended journaled and it will be easy to use with your Mac.

  • I have been backing up my photos to an external hard drive. I usually choose the photos, copy and paste them to the EHD. It has started saying "an item named "unnamed.jpg" already exists in this location. I don't know what to do.

    I have the MacBook OS X 10.5.8, 2.4 GHz, 2 GB. I have been backing up my photos to an external hard drive since I purchased it. I usually choose the photos, copy and paste them to the EHD. It has started saying "an item named "unnamed.jpg" already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the one you're moving? Don't replace/Stop/Replace". I don't know what to do.

    Thanks Jim, I kind of thought that was the answer, but was hoping against hope that I was just missing something. Like I said, it's not a big problem. One work around I've found is to name a folder on the external hard drive the same as the name I give the folder to import to and then choose this folder to back up to. I still get a subfolder inside that folder named Imported on...... but at least it's in the folder with my chosen name.
    Thanks again,
    Jack

  • HT1338 I was backing up my MacBook with Time Machine on my new (correctly formatted) external hard drive.  It was going fine when my 2 yo knocked the hard drive.  Now TM said "failed" and the Mac refuses to recognize the external hard drive.  Help please?

    I was backing up my MacBook with Time Machine and using my new (correctly formatted) external hard drive.  All was going well when my 2 yo knocked the disk leading to a "failure" by time machine (Latest Backup:  Failed).  Now the MacBook will not even recognize the hard drive.  I have rebooted, tried all I can think of, but no acknowledgement of the drive.  The drive itself makes noise and vibrates as if working, but nothing from the Mac.  Please help or $100 down the drain...  Thank you.

    You may have already done these resets in the "tried all I can think of " portion of your post.....if not then here they are.....
    PRAM
    support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
    SMC
    support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
    .....hopefully that is all that is required.....

  • Can I syn my new iphone to my itunes library on my PC even if it is already registered to my ipod? If so will it delete the library on my computer? And can I back my library up to my external hard drive instead of CDs?

    Can I add my iphone to an exising itunes account which is registered to my ipod without wiping my computer library? Also is it poss to back up my library onto a external hard drive instead of CDs?

    "am I still able to register another phone to the same ID?"
    Yes.
    ") that I do end up creating a new apple ID "
    This will cause complications.  i do not recommend this.

  • I recently had to back up itunes play lists to external hard drive, how do I restore the library from the external hard drive to the new computer

    I recently had to back up itunes play lists to external hard drive whilst computer was fixed. reinstalled itunes but dont know how to reinstall my music from external hard drive. help?

    The same way the library was copied/moved to the external drive.
    Copy it from location A to location B.
    Then point iTunes to the correct library.

  • Problems backing up I-tunes library to external hard drive.

    Help - I'm having problems backing up I-tunes library to external hard drive. The drive appears on the desktop but when I try to drag in my i-tunes music folder I just get the circle with a line through it symbol. I can drag items from my mac to a different 4 gig memory stick with no problems. I put some music onto the hard drive from a windows p.c. and that dragged into my i-tunes fine. Any help would be much appreciated.

    i'm guessing the external HD is NTFS formatted, which your Mac cannot write to (read only).
    you will either have to reformat it (FAT32 or, better yet, for Mac) or install the _*NTFS 3G*_ driver.
    JGG

  • My hard drive that is sync to my ipad crashed! Good thing is all my photos were transferred to my ipad for viewing - now my quesiton is how do I back up my ipad on another computer without losing my pictures? can I back up my ipad on a external hard drive

    My hard drive on my computer crashed!  This is the computer my ipad was sync with! All my photos of my three girls are on the ipad, but how do I get them transferred to either an external hard drive or to another computer - or just have them all printed - nearly 1000 photos!
    Also, can I back up my ipad with an external hard drive?  If I try to sync to a new computer it will erase everything I currently have on the ipad , correct?
    Thanks for your help - I am worried if I don't do something quick, my ipad will crash too!

    Right.  You didn't read the post, you only read the title.
    The title came from an earlier step in the process when I was posing a question to the systen.
    The pertinent part of the question is "How to I back up documents that are stored in iCloud" 
    That the destination for the backup is NOT my internal HDD should be clear from the rest of the post.
    And frankly, even if that is where I want to back up to, that would at least give me two copies, at least giving me one duplicate of the stuff on iCloud.
    So please stop wasting my time if you can't answer the actual question: How do I backup content that is stored in iCloud.  The destination of the backup is irrelevant.
    --P

  • After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files.  When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error.  What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

    After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files.  When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error.  What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive?? 

    Janet.b wrote:
    About 3 years old...pretty dated now I guess.  Am thinking I may just need to have it upgraded by a Mac tech.
    For what the Apple Store's charge you can buy almost buy a new computer.
    Just for giggles I brought my old laptop in for a drive upgrade and asked, they wanted $600 for a drive that only cost $120 at the time and it was a slow 5,400 RPM drive. The new Mac's of a similar make were going for $1000.
    I did the drive replacement myself, got a faster drive of better quality for $300 instead.
    Then another time I asked for a RAM upgrade from 4GB to 8GB, they wanted to charge $400 + $35 for the labor.
    The same RAM is on Crucial.com for $90 and all I need is a 00 micro phillips screwdriver.
    So you see what's going on here.
    I think what you should do, if your out of warranty/AppleCare, is to call up the local PC tech guy who also does Mac's and have them fix you right up.
    They can offer more personalized care which you need. Clone your old drive to the new and everything.
    With Apple they are overworked at the Genius Bar and just place roadblocks so you buy a new machine instead.
    For instance, all new iMac's now have proprietary drive software installed on the hard drives for heat monitoring. So now the only choice a user has is to bring their iMac into a Apple Store for a very expensive drive upgrade, which a person then decides the money is better spent buying a new machine.

  • HT1351 I have just reformatted my hard drive and re-installed iTunes; how do I connect back to my library on an external hard drive?

    I have just refromatted my hard drive and reinstalled itunes; how do tie it back to my library on an external hard drive?

    If the whole library was on the external drive then press and hold down shift as you start iTunes, then use the Choose option to reconnect to it.
    If it was only the media folder, but you backed up the library folder then restore that to <User's Music> in your rebuilt machine and you're good to go.
    If you forgot to backup the library folder, but you don't care about ratings, play counts, playlists etc. then shift-start-iTunes, Create a new empty library at the root of the external drive, e.g. at X:\iTunes, move the media folder inside that as X:\iTunes\iTunes Media, then use File > Add Folder to Library to import the media.
    Otherwise see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
    tt2

  • I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

    I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
    What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
    From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
    Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

    sydababy wrote:
    and then deleting them off of my computer.
    BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
    Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
    The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous.  One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
    Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
    follow here:
    Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
    Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
    The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
    Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
    Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
    Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
    Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

  • If i backed up my iPhotos on an external hard drive can i delete them off my mac?

    I recently backed up my Macbook pro on to an external hard drive. I was wodnering if i could delete my photos from my iphoto library to save space, and if so can i then get them back on my computer from my external hard drive?

    Depends on exactly what you did
    And if you delete the information from your main computer then you do not have a backup - to have a backup you need hte original on your computer and an exact copy on another disk
    What format is the external drive? It must be Mac OS extended (journaled) to have your iPhoto library on ti
    What did you copy to the external drive? The iPhoto library or your photos?
    What you probably need to do is to run your iPhoto library on an external drive and to have a second external drive to backup to - Time Machine is a good choice
    To run your iPhoto library on an external drive verify that the drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and drag the iPHoto library to it intact as a single entity - depress the option and command keyus, launch iPhoto and select the new location - fully test the library on the external drive and after one successful backup cycle verify that the external drive is being backedup - then delete your iPhoto library on the main drive - test one more time before emptying the trash
    LN

  • IMac 10.5.8 is stuck on Apple logo loading screen , how can I back up my files with an external hard drive ?

    so my iMac (10.5.8 its pretty old ) got stuck on the apple logo loading screen (as I call it lol) and it will not go beyond that .I've already made and appointment for the genius bar but now would I back up my files with an external hard drive ? No unfortunately I don't have any other laptop or computer just the external hard drive. how would I back it up? Does it have something to do with "target disc mode"?

    Hi,
    Thank you for great advice re SuperDuper.
    You wasnt to know we didnt live in  USA.  We will try to get the full retail version of Leopard off the net.  We will also phone round the apple resellers.
    In the meantime, we are happy running Tiger with the knowledge that SuperDuper has cloned our hard drive in case of a disaster.
    SuperDuper recommended backing up the hard drive with a new user account if we were using filevault on the master account.  We backed up our hard drive without creating a new user with filevault as we could not read the pdf `Instuctions as preview was not responding.
    Is this copy safe to use as a bootable drive or should we copy our entire HD again using a new user account without filevault?
    Keith & Shem  

  • I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine.  It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride?  It's been going for about 7 hours now.

    I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine.  It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride?  It's been going for about 7 hours now

    It does not immediately delete the files that are missing.. it merely tries to backup the new files it has discovered on the external drive. Since you moved the files there, the backup at least for a while will contain both copies.. and that is why it doesn't have enough space to backup.
    Fixing the problem.. hmm pondini is the expert.. you should be able to delete the backup of the photos in existing backup.. there are instructions to do it.. but it is a very poor way to do things.
    Much better. .archive off the existing backup.. this is long and slow but worth it. you need a usb drive of the same size as the TC drive. Then erase the TC and start a fresh set of backups.
    The alternative is to use the USB drive as a new target.. but it is much slower than the TC internal drive.
    http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

Maybe you are looking for