Backup library / transfer songs from PB to G5

Question

ok, i have been doing my best to use mac help (one of the best things in OSX) and searching around the boards....
im not sure i have the exact answer i need.
so, I have several macs. The two main ones i use are my 17" powerbook, and my quad G5. The PB is a few years old, and has been used for ALL of my iTunes and iPhoto content - including managing all of my iPods. Needless to say, with 6 thousand images (40% are 8 mpx files) and several thousand songs, im out of space on my Powerbook. I have about 90 gigs free on my quad, as well as a FW drive w/ about 70 gigs free (of 250)~and plan on adding a 500 or 750 gig drive to the quad soon. Ultimately, i want to migrate all of my photos and songs to the G5 and clear off room on the powerbook and use that mainly as an "in the field" machine.
Im unsure if I can/should just target mode FW connect my powerbook to the Quad and drag the iPhoto and iTunes folders to the Quad. Or should I back up to MANY dvd-r's then copy each onto the G5 - which i anticipate taking a long time... The majority of my music is self ripped, and only have about 100 iTunes bought songs so far. Is either method going to cause the itunes purchased music to not play on the Quad?(both machines are authorized to my account and i frequently share the PB library through the Quad speakers.)
I have lots of media that i will be pretty upset if lost (vacation photos, work images~im a photographer/graphic artist.) and i really just want the best, most reliable way of tranferring this stuff to my G5. Seeing how many gigs worth of files i am working with, id hate to burn 20 dvds, and then have some playback issues on a different machine.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
Once all these files are moved, I am planning on setting up a monthly backup of new media to disc, for safe keeping. I have just never been much of a backup person, and now am starting to worry of something happening to my powerbook HD and losing years of work.
sidenote - 99% of my music is mp3 so ID3 tags should remain for them correct? If i ever do need aiff or other fomats (which i do often for use in final cut studio), i just convert on a song to song basis. So there are very few aiff's and i dont really care if i loose those.
this new album flow in iTunes has got me trying to go back and organize years worth of songs and add artwork. its a pain, and i stress to anyone to keep up on your file naming from the get go. (when i used to import in older versions there was no get cd track names feature - at least that i knew of, so i poorly labled alot of tunes.)
thanks again for any info in advance. again, im sure this is covered often, but i searched quite a bit and couldnt really find a satisfying answer.

Answer 1

If photographer/graphic artist is your living, I would recommend to purchase an external drive for storage/backup ASAP.
Even if you don't do that for a living and the files are valuable for you, backup, backup, backup.
There are two kinds of computer users:
Those who experienced a HD crash
Those who will experience a HD crash
I can tell from experience (about 10 years ago) how it feels to experience a HD crash and not having a backup. I lost some important documents, so I decided to spend part of my money in backups.
Nowadays large storage devices are relatively cheap compared with costs of computers.
Back to your questions.
The easiest way to transfer your iTunes library is to put the PB in FireWire Target Disk Mode and copy the 'iTunes Music' folder to the G5.
If you don't mind loosing the playlists, comments and ratings, just add that folder to the iTunes library on your G5.
To retain all information, use your external disk drive as an intermediate to transfer your iTunes library.
Here is how it's done:
Follow the instructions in iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder to move your library from the PB to the FW drive.
Copy the 'iTunes Library' file (more info about the library files here) to the FW drive.
Connect the drive to the G5 and copy the 'iTunes Library' file to the proper location.
Run iTunes. It should find the library on the external drive.
Now move your music to the G5 using the instructions again.
Which method you use, the ID3 tags will not be lost.
If the G5 is authorized, it will also play all your purchased music.
As far as I know, you can simply transfer your entire 'iPhoto Library' folder to the G5 using FW target disk mode.
Holding the Option-key when launching iPhoto on the G5 will give you the option to choose the transferred library.
I don't know much about iPhoto, so if this not works, ask in the iPhoto forums.
iTunes is a bit more complicated and requires to do it in a special way.
Most (if not all) Mac suitable large capacity drives come with (limited) backup software.
I bought a Maxtor Onetouch II (300 GB) about a year ago, which came with Retrospect Express. It suites the purpose well enough for my backup needs.
If you find it too limited for your needs, upgrade to the full version of whatever backup application that comes with the drive.
If you have questions left, let us know.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac 800 MHz, 768 MB RAM, 200 GB HD, DL burner   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   iTunes 7.0.1