Backup Library using external hardrive?!

I understand that I can use a DVD or CD to backup my Library but is there an easier way to back up my library using an external hardrive other than individually moving all 2000 of my mp3s??

If you go into the My Music folder, there will be an iTunes folder. Inside that folder is all of the information for playlists, all of the songs, etc. You can copy and paste that if you want.
If you're looking to run all of the songs in iTunes off of the external HD, go to Edit>Preferences>Advanced, and change the iTunes music folder to a folder on the external HD. Now, go along the top of iTunes and choose Advanced>Consolidate library. That will copy everything to the external HD, and will make iTunes run off of the external HD. I don't usually recommend this option if you're just wanting to back up your content.

Similar Messages

1 library, 1 external hardrive, 2 macs using it.

Hello out there, Ive got my entire itunes library on my external 500gb hardrive. I would like to use both my imac g5 power pc and my macbook pro to use and share this one external hardrive so that I don't have to duplicate anything. my g5 is running itunes 7 and my macbook pro is running itunes 8. I don't wanna upgrade to either if I don't have to.

I would prefer to use it one at a time on which ever computer I am running. I constantly connect and reconnect it to either computer. Still, to answer my question, A) Do I still have to run the same Itunes version? and B) How do I get the song list to read on the second mac. Simply going to preferences/advanced and setting the itunes music folder location isn't working.

Using external hardrive to backup

My external hardrive is set up to automatically backup when I plug it in. I have used it twice, both times
when its arrow at the top of my desktop quit spinning I dropped its icon into the trash and then removed the external drive from my laptop. This time it must have finished quite rapidly. I went in to Time Machine to see if I could tell for sure. I pressed a blue 'up' arrow and its icon on my desktop disappeared. I can not find the icon anywhere and do not want to take any chances of unplugging it from my laptop incorrectly. In Time Machine it says that the latest backup failed and Next Backup will take place 'when Disk is connected'. It also says that the latest backup was delayed.
CAN I REMOVE this external drive without dropping it into the trash. Where did its icon go? I just can't afford to take any chances.

I agree that you should be able to just pull out the hard drive if you don't hear any activity from it writing or see a light on the casing blinking. Make sure the hard drive is formated Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to work properly with Time Machine.

Backup library to external hard drive

Hi,
up to now I made my backups of my iTunes library using DVDs. Now I would like to switch to an external hard drive. However, I didn't found a way in iTunes to do this. Is this supported by iTunes?
Is it possible to make a backup using another backup application - does this cause a problem (some of my bought music files still have DRM)?
Thanks!

Yes - just drag the iPhoto library to the external drive intact as a single entity
And you might want to look at an incremental backup program to keep it up to date - I use SuperDuper - http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html - which clones my entire system once a day in addition to TM's hourly backups
LN

Moved main Library to External Hardrive. Now it is running slower.

I ran out of room on my G4 Laptop and bought a 300gb Seagate hardrive. Now that I have changed the main library to this drive it takes a minute or more to bring up all the thumbnails in any of the folders I click on. Sometimes it take 2-3 minutes. Once they are there the working speed seems to be about the same as the internal hard drive.
Is this to be expected from using the external hard drive as the primary library source?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Brent
G4 17" 1.67 with 23" Cinema Mac OS X (10.4.4)

It seems that AP only really runs fast on the
internal HD, where the system is installed on.
I have 2 internal HD and tried to use the one without
the system - I had the same problem - AP was super
slow. As soon as I moved the project back to the
internal system HD it worked fine.
There must be another explanation for what accurred to you, here. I have my Aperture library on a second internal 500GB Hitatchi drive. It's as fast as anything else.
I don't recall the model of computer you have, but is your second drive sharing the bus? Have you tried putting your second drive on a seperate bus? Just some thoughts.

Karen - Using External Hardrive for Video Projects

karen..ETAL...(anyone who has helpfull comments)
You gave the following advice to someone:
on laptops (=tiny harddrives), it is allways a good suggestion, storing mass datas as 'video for editing' on some external harddrive.. to keep the internal free for the temp-files, system/apps need..
How is it possible to import video and encode it properly to use with IMovie using and external drive. Do you just copy things back and forth to use??? I guess my real question is how do you use an external hard drive in conjuction with video editing etc. Some of the files will not take files from an external source and manupulate them and put them back on that source?????
Mckinzy

mckinzy wrote:
karen..ETAL...(anyone who has helpfull comments)
You gave the following advice to someone:
on laptops (=tiny harddrives), it is allways a good suggestion, storing mass datas as 'video for editing' on some external harddrive..
+.. that advice sounds familiar to me.. but I'm a boy, not a girl???.. :D+
purchase an external harddrive, firewire preferred, but usb2 does work too...
format/'erase' that drive with DiskUtility to 'MacOsExtended' ..
.. tadaahh - iM08 will show it in its Event Library as device ...
in this example, you see my mini, my 400er Gigger and my 200GB HDD listed..
on any import (file or from camera), iM08 asks you where to store the data..
so, no back and forth needed..
but, you are allowed to drop any Event from any drive to another.. do that in iM NOT in Finder!

Moving Itunes library using external Hard Drive

I am just about to acquire a new PC with Vista and am wondering how best to transfer my iTunes music library from my lap top (xp) using an external hard drive rather than CD's?
Can anyone kindy provide a step by step 'idiots' guide to enable me to do this!?
Many thanks,

EDIT: If you want the tracks to remain on the external drive (you may not; I may have misread), you can just drag the entire iTunes folder (the entire folder, not just the iTunes Music folder) to your desired location. Then hold down the Shift key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location.
Don't delete the tracks from the old location until you've confirmed that they're working correctly from the external drive.
Otherwise, follow Chris' steps.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

Backing Up Library onto external hardrive

Well I got a 16 GB iPod touch and I'm running out of hard drive space (32GB out of 40GB). Is it possible to relocate the folder to an external hardrive

Quit iTunes.
Drag the *iTunes folder* (My Documents/My Music/iTunes) to the external drive.
Drag My Documents/My Music/iTunes to the trash but do NOT empty it yet.
Start iTunes holding the Shift key.
Select *Choose existing library* & select the *iTunes library file* in the folder you copied onto the external.
Once you verify it works, empty the trash.

Importing old library using external hard drive

Hi There,
My old PC (XP) died. I removed the old HD and stuck it in an external Hard Drive case.
How do I re-import my old iTunes library (with star ratings etc) onto my new PC (Vista)?
Thanks

Assuming that you have installed iTunes on you old PC and not yet added any music.
With iTunes closed, drag the iTunes folder out of music to the desktop.
Copy the old iTunes folder form the external drive into Music so that it replaces the iTunes folder you dragged out.
Ensure that your account has ownership and full control of the itunes folder.
Vista file folder permissions help
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/2464a180-e5dc-45d1-a2b8-3c8a 2b571e9d1033.mspx
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/25/how-to-take-ownership-and-grant-permiss ions-in-windows-vista/
You should have your old library when you next open iTunes.
If you did have some music files in the folder you dragged out, you will have to add them back to your library.

Backup External Hardrive with Timemachine

Hi,
I have a iMac and an external Hardrive.
I store all my data in the external hardrive - music, movies, documents. No data is stored in iMac harddrive.
Is there a way to backup only that external hardrive with TimeMachine?
If so how?
I am using macFuse in my external harddrive since i read the data from bootcamp xp also
Thanks for your help

I hope you are not getting my Question
Nice comment.
I know you do not want to backup your internal drive, that is why you need to select it as I said. Time Machine will backup the internal HD and external HD's by default. When you go to Time Machine preferences and click the options and choose specific drives look at the dialog it will say *"Exclude these items from backups:"* so if you choose your internal HD it will NOT _I repeat_ NOT be backed up.
If for some reason you cannot do this then make an appointment at your local Apple Store and they will help explain it to you.

HT1178 Time Capsule used as External Hardrive Backup

If I want to use a Time Capsule as an external hardrive backup for my MacBook Pro, how do I do it?
What cords do I need and can I get it to back up wirelessly? I don't want my own wireless from it,
because we already have it in the house - I just want my own storage unit and I have one, but no
cords to go with it. Need to get cords - which ones?

This is out of my area of expertise, but I believe you can set the Time Capsule up so it doesn't generate a network, but is on the existing network.
Then you can back up to it wirelessly.
You should still do the first backup via an Ethernet cable if at all possible, as it will be 2-3 times faster than WIFI, but then backups can be done without having to connect the cable.

Can i use backup of music library on external hd as original

Had my iTunes music folder located on an external hd 1 that recently failed. Had recently made a copy of that music folder on a separate external hd 2. My question is can i plug in my external hd 2 with that music folder copy, open iTunes, and when it asks for the location of the music folder can i just point it to the external hd 2 music folder and have the iTunes library use that location instead? Will it keep all my same playlists, album covers, library ect. all the way it was before but just grab the music from a different location? Want to know before i try it and mess up the library I've got going on. I've done a lot of work installing album covers I couldn't find and lots of ratings that I don't want to loose. Thanks for any help in this situation.

If you just change things in Win Explorer, itunes will lose the paths to the music files.
Your ratings & other metadata are stored in a file named iTunesLibrary.itl. That database also stores the exact paths to all the music.
If your exHD2 has the same folder structure/paths as the exHD1 that died, you might be able to assign it the drive letter that exHD1 was using, and it will all work.
Here is a good background article to read before doing anything.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/
Especially the section, *iTunes: The Database versus the Content*.
My advice is to make a backup of your ITL file now before doing anything, and put it in a safe place so you can get to it if you need to try a few things.
I assume you are like most folks and still have the iTL file in the default place on the C: drive.
Make a copy and put it on exHD2 or in another folder on C:.

I've backup my iPhoto on WD My Passport. When I try to pull up the photos from the external hard drive onto a different computer, it says "You can't open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto." It says I have to use a later version.

After backing up my photos on a My Passport hard drive I can't open iphoto from the hard drive. It says "You can't open your current photo library using this version of iphoto. You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iphoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iphoto." I have done all the upgrades for iphoto. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

What versions of iPhoto and OS X are on each computer? You can find out by going to your iPhoto application (from the Applications folder), clicking it once to highlight it, and click cmd-i to open its information window. The version number is in the General tab.
Your version of OS X can be found from the Apple menu, then About This Mac.
The latest version of iPhoto (9.5.1) requires OS X 10.9, so if you have an older version of OS X on that computer, you will have to upgrade to Mavericks and then upgrade to the newer iPhoto.
Matt

Using my external hardrive question!

Ok, so I'm a little computer challenged and probably not nearly as knowledgeable as most of the people here. Anyway, I'm sorry if my question sounds stupid! I bought a 250GB external hardrive today to back up all my music and pictures. When I plugged it in, it automaticaly opened Time Machine and asked if I wanted to backup my computer on it, so I hit yes. Now, my question is, if I unplug it from my computer, will it rebackup everything again when I plug it back in? I also looked around in it and was unable to find all my music and pictures so I copied all that onto the external hardrive again. This is probably a really stupid question, but I'm paranoid! Thanks!

{quote}
I also looked around in it and was unable to find all my music and pictures so I copied all that onto the external hardrive again. This is probably a really stupid question, but I'm paranoid! Thanks!
Were you using Finder to look around the drive or did you use the Time Machine program?
If you gave Time Machine enough time to actually do the backup, and left it on for a couple of hours, you should be able to see several restore times that you can go back to. To see music files - launch iTunes first, then Time Machine. To see iPhoto picture library files - launch iPhoto first, then Time Machine. To see emails - launch Mail first, then Time Machine.
For other files in folders or on your desktop you just go to the folder where the file used to be, and then launch Time Machine. You can also get back different versions of the same file, based on when it was re-added to the Time Machine backup. Everytime a file changes, Time Machine makes another copy of it.
Time Machine Demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWdkfCwd4qU&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n055CqFnjyo
And for a little fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofWnyUHwoYI&NR=1

How can I add songs from my internal library to my external backup library without losing ratings and comments?

Hi, I have some 30.000 Songs in my constantly growing internal library and another 25k in my external backup library. I noticed that I lost all my ratings when fusing my libraries the last time.
As ratings and comments are essential for my work as a radio dj: How can I fuse libraries or add songs from my internal to my external library and keep ratings and comments and: How can I make sure, iTunes adds ratings and comments from songs I still have in my internal library to the same songs (without ratings and comments) in my external library? Thanks a lot for your help!

I use http://decimus.net/Synk to keep my iMac's iTunes synchronized with the backup iTunes folder on an external disk. Any changes I make are automatically synced to the backup. You might find it useful.

Backup Library using external hardrive?!

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