How do I back up Itunes library to External HD?

Hello:
Anyone who read my prior post knows that my internal CD-RW Drive crashed. I am now forced to find another method to finally get around to backing up my itunes library which currently has about 2-3 GB of music. When I open itunes and go to file it gives me the option to backup to disk. Obviously with the external HD I will not be backing up to disk. Can anyone assist me with the following:
1. How will I backup my data to the external HD once I get it today (I am not all that computer literate so as detailed as you can be would be much appreciated).
2. If I ever need to restore my itunes music back onto itunes how do I accomplish this?
3. Will backing up my itunes also back up all of my podcasts or just music that I purchased or downloaded from CD, ect.
4. After I backup today on the external HD can I then open another itunes account on my wife's computer (which is brand new and much faster supporting USB 2.0 where mine is 1.1) and transfer all of my data to her computer so that I do not have to use my computer anymore?
THANKS FOR THE TIME READING THIS!!! I greatly appreciate any replys and have a safe and happy new year!

Its pretty simple to do. Long as you have some extra space to spare on your INTERNAL harddrive (aka the C drive in windows) because you will want to consolidate the library.
In iTUnes when you goto Advanced>Consolidate library it will COPY all songs listed in itunes to the "iTUnes Music" folder, located in My Music>iTUnes.
All purchased items from the itunes store are already in this folder, so itunes will not copy them.
Once this is done all you need to do is goto My Music rightclick the "iTUnes" folder and select copy.
Now open "My Computer" double click the external drive there, rightclick in a blank field and hit "Paste". this will put the whole itunes folder on the external drive with all your music AND the "iTUnes Library.xml" file.
Now use the "Safly remove hardware" to remove/eject the external drive from your PC (This will be a little small green arrow icon in the lower righthand corner of windows, where the clock is).
Far as your wifes computer goes, you may have to create your own user account in windows first UNLESS she doesn't use itunes or you want to combine all your music with hers on her user account in windows.

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Nah that's fine I think.
The other thing to make sure of, is that you aren't doubling up on your music/video/podcasts.
If you have a neat folder where all your stuff is great. But if you have set itunes to Copy files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to library, then there is going to be 2 copies. Your original, and your copy, as far as I can remember.
You should double check that.
Because your backups will be backing up twice as much.
Also note, time machine backups back up all files that have been changed. If you are downloading a 5GB movie, if you download an extra 4MB and do backup again, it will backup another 5GB file.
I always have my download folder as not part of the backup due to this.
You could also add a 2nd HDD in your Macbook: http://eshop.macsales.com/owcpages/datadoubler/

How to back up iTunes Library on external hard drive & computer, after purchasing new music?

I keep my iTunes library on my computer's hard drive and also backed up on an external hard drive. I have added more music to my library since my previous back up, and I want to back up the new music to my external drive.
What's the best way to do this?

The first time I backed up my iTunes on an external drive, it took a 1 hour +. Do I basically need to start over on my external hard drive? Or is there an easier/faster way?
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How to back up iTunes Library to external drive so it can be restored

I recently moved my iTunes Library from a firewire Lacie external hard drive to a Western Digital USd hard that is now having problems (It keeps unmounting itself and I don't think that's good). It was not easy to move my iTunes folder and make it work again. I do not want to send 3 weeks plus using my spare time relinking songs or recreating playlists. I had to re-link 6,000 songs one by one. I iTunes will make a backup on CDs or DVDs why not an external device? Why would I want to copy 80 plus gigs to CDs?
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I'm going to copy the file for now but it's really a poor solution.
Message was edited by: CindyLoo

I want to back up every thing, but I can't find a way to do it. That is the problem. Apple recommends if you are backing up to an external drive to copy folder the music folder to the drive via drag and drop. But I know when you do this that if you try use the backup you will only have the songs as if they were first added to iTunes.
I was able this time to move my music folder successfully (Last time the problem wasn't immediately apparent as it didn't affect my iPod, so I hope I'm not jinxing it). For now, my music is back on the Lacie drive, but it's still not backed up. If the LaCie drive were to fail I'd be faced with reimporting all my music and re-purchasing the TV shows and movies. (I almost always make a CD of new iTunes Purchases. which is why I have no desire to have a second huge stack of CDs.) My computer will not burn DVDs.
I want to backup everything so that it could be restored and be like it is now, but I don't see a way to do it. And I am not backing up all 80 plus gigs to CDs. My computer would crash and burn.

Re: Best Way to (Continuously) Back up iTunes Library to External Hard Drive

Hello friends :
My iTunes music library is getting rather large and I feel it's time to "properly" back it up to an external hard drive.
I understand that you can back up your iTunes music folder to an external hard drive by the simple old "click and drag" approach using Windows Explorer.
What I'd like to know is ... after intially copying the entire iTunes music folder onto the external drive, how can I achieve regular back-ups where only the files, playlists, etc. that have changed since the last back up are then added to the external drive . . . rather than having to copy the entire rather large folder all over again (and again)?
Hopefully, you know what I mean! Thanks for your help.

The first time I backed up my iTunes on an external drive, it took a 1 hour +. Do I basically need to start over on my external hard drive? Or is there an easier/faster way?
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May have missed this... but I just bought an external hard drive for use as a backup. It didn't come with backup software. For now, I just copy and paste personal folders. What do I copy to backup my itunes library? Itunes internal backup apparently only backs up to CD or DVD. Can I not back up some weird voodoo protected version of my music to an external hard drive wthout having to copy to DVD? I mean, that would go through a lot of DVDs over a year wouldn it?
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The link William provided is about Windows computers. It will tell you the principles and the importance of backing up specific files.
If all your music is on your internal HD in the 'iTunes Music' folder (default setting), just drag the iTunes folder (in ~/Users/YourUsername/Music to the external HD.
This way, also your 'iTunes Library' file is copied.
If your ext. HD has a Firewire connection, it will copy about 1GB/min.
To make regular incremental backups, you have to use a 3rd party backup application.
M

Backing up Itunes library to external

Can I back up my entire ITunes library to an extternal hard drive? I don't want to move the library off my laptop - I just want to have a back up on my external hard drive in case of a catastrophic laptop failure.
I see options to back up to DVDs or CDs - bt that seems inefficient compared to an external hard drive for storing a back up.

+Can I back up my entire ITunes library to an extternal hard drive?+
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While you are at it, copy over all your photos, documents, and other valuable items.
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See if this helps: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

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Message was edited by: camoracer

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Give these steps a try.

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tt2

Backing up iTunes library to external hd

Okay, get ready for a couple questions...
How often do you guys backup your iTunes music library?
Do you store your music on your computer or on an external hard drive or both?
Do you have your iTunes Music folder located in your external hd so that it updates whenever you add new music to iTunes?
Is it a good idea to delete your iTunes Music folder on your Mac and just have your music folder located in your external hd so that it updates whenever you add new music to iTunes?
Hopefully someone can answer those for me! Thanks in advance.

Here's what I do:
1) I use SuperDuper to clone my whole hard drive 4x per week to a 250GB EHD This clone is "bootable", so if my Mac should take a dive, I can boot from the clone. I have a 2nd smaller EHD (160GB) that I run another clone to several times per month, just in case the primary EHD & the Mac try to go down the toilet at the same time. Lastly, I burn data disc backups of iTunes about once per month.
2) With the clone of the hard drive, I would say that I have my music in both places. It is very easy to run iTunes from an EHD, if you need to save space on your main drive.
3) If you are running iTunes from an EHD, any new music, whether it is imported or purchased will automatically go to the iTunes music folder located on the EHD as long as you have "booted up" the EHD prior to opening iTunes.
4) If you intend to run iTunes strictly from the EHD, especially if you need to save space on the main drive, you will most certainly have to delete the music folder off the main drive. The whole trick to all of this is to change the iTunes music folder location in your preferences to the EHD.
I think I've covered everything. If you are considering moving iTunes to an EHD, here is a link that will explain how to make the move. It's very important that you follow the instructions on the link EXACTLY. Hope this helps.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748

How do I back up Itunes library to External HD?

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