How do I backup copy of music library to a hard drive not CDs ?

I have a Maxtor 500 Gig backup drive and want to put all my itunes stuff in there ... how can I do this without going thru the hassle of burning everything to CD/DVD ?

The following link should help you out. A couple of things not mentioned on the link, there are 2 associated database files for iTunes, the .xml & .itl files which contain playcount, last played, playlist info, etc. These 2 files MUST STAY on your system's main HD (C drive, I assume) as that is their home & they can't be moved. The other thing is that once you have made the move, you want to make sure you boot up the EHD prior to opening iTunes or iTunes will revert the music folder location back to the main drive. If you should forget, simply close iTunes, boot up the EHD< & re-open iTunes. Hope this helps.
<a class="jive-link-external-small" href="http://">http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748

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How do I backup a large music library to two smaller drives?

Does anyone know if it is possible to split a library in half, when backing up? I have an external 1000 gig lacie drive that is the home of my itunes media folder location. I also have two smaller lacie drives that put together could have enough space to cover the amount of music that is on the large lacie.
The total size of the library is now 397 gigs, and since I've been reimporting many favorite albums in the full aiff form, the library is growing. But since the library is too big now for any one backup drive I'm getting nervous. The smaller drives are 250 and 175 gig drives, and up until now have been the place where I would double backup to, when the library was much smaller,[ only aac files ].
So how do I send part of the library to one drive and the rest to another???

Thanks J.G. ... I checked out all these fixes, and none address my issue. I am not looking to change the location of the library to be able to play specific genres, or different kinds of files [movies] on different drives. I am happy that all my files are stored and played from one place.
I am only [ and, perhaps it is a too big only..] looking for a way to portion out the library [ one portion that would fill the smaller drive and the other portion that would correspond with the size of the other external drive] to utilize the drives that I already own, as a place of backup. I know that the easiest way to fix the problem would be to buy another large drive similar in size to the main one I am now using to store my music.
Even perhaps one that has double the size and, an automatic mirroring function, like the western digital two terrabite model.
But, failing that option, I am still looking for a cheaper work around!

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". need help

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". But when I have my external hard drive plug in the song will play with no problem. What do I need to do to play my music without having the external harddrive plug in ???????? Please help

Because the location for each song in your library is on your hard drive. If the hard drive isn't there, how can iTunes play it?
You'll have to move/copy the music from your hard drive to your computer's hard drive.
Basically, EASIEST way to do all this, if you don't care about your play counts, etc...
-Delete EVERYTHING from iTunes, so that your library is now empty.
-Go to "Advanced" inside of the "Preferences" window, found in the "Edit" drop-down. You can also access Preferences by pressing Ctrl+, (Press Ctrl and the comma key)
-Change your iTunes Media Folder Location to something simple, but on your computer. I use C:/iTunes. Make sure "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" and "Copy files to...." are both checked. You can close Preferences now.
-Now, drag and drop your music from your hard drive into your iTunes library. iTunes will automatically add the music to your library, as you would expect, and also creates a copy of each file to place into that iTunes Media Folder you just created.
Shouldn't have any more problems...

HT1660 I lost my entire music library when my hard drive crashed 2 wks ago. It's all on my iPod, though. I just cannot figure out how to download my iPod music BACK into my iTunes library. All they seems to address is Library - iPod. I'm not an iT geek..

Hi, I lost my entire music library when my hard drive crashed 2 wks ago. It's all on my iPod, though..but the songlist appears gray. I just cannot figure out how to download my iPod music list BACK into my iTunes library. All they seems to address is Library -> iPod transfers. I'm not an iT geek.. Help meeee!

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

TS3212 ITunes worked fine on my Windows 7 machine. Had to rebuild the machine but all the data remains. Downloaded a new version of iTunes and cannot figure out how to load all of my music currently on my hard drive. Tried moving Library file. Did not

ITunes worked fine on my Windows 7 machine. Had to rebuild the machine but all the data remains. Downloaded a new version of iTunes and cannot figure out how to load all of my music currently on my hard drive. Tried moving "iTunes Library" file. Did not work. Never had trouble like this before.

Many thanks for your post. I've been trying for days to get this sorted and was getting well fed up with I-Tunes. Really thought i'd never get it working again. Tried un-installing it, loading older versions and they still wouldn't work.
Came across your suggestion by chance and top man - it worked..!!!!
How you even knew what to do is beyond me - but thanks so much. I really was pulling my hair out.
You need to put your post over the Web as there seem to be loads of people having the same trouble.
Thanks again.

How can I backup my MacBook Pro to an external hard drive

How can I backup my MacBook Pro to an external hard drive?

Basic Backup
For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:
1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;
2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is
     used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine
     requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the
     drive being backed up.
Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
1. Cool Drives
2. OWC
3. WiebeTech
4. Firewire Direct
5. California Drives
6. NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

I have upgraded to a new computer. I have installed iTunes from the internet and copied my music from the old hard drive to my new one. What do I need to do to get my new computer to recognize my old playlist?

I have upgraded to a new computer. I have installed iTunes from the internet and copied my music from the old hard drive to my new one. What do I need to do to get my new computer to recognize my old playlist?

See https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Backing%20up%20and%20restoring%20bookmarks
and
https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Backing%20up%20your%20information?s=new+computer&r=4&as=s#os=win&browser=fx8

How do I copy my music from one external hard drive to another one?

How do I copy my itunes library from one external drive to a bigger drive?

Drag the entire iTunes folder to the new HD.
MJ

HT5664 how do you copy the iPhoto library to the hard drive

I copied some photos onto a DVD and my new iMac won't let me download them into iPhoto. I don't understand the instructions to download the iPhoto library into the hard drive. How do I do that? What do I do once that part is downloaded?

1. Drag it.
2. If you're moving loose files, open iPhoto and import or drag them into it. If you're moving an iPhoto library, double-click it.
(93079)

How do I transfer my iTunes music library to a flash drive

How do I transfer my iTunes music library to a flash drive

Drag and Drop the iTunes Folder to the Flash drive.
Locate and organize your iTunes files - Apple Support
Since this really has nothing to do with Appleworks (a long dead Officie suite of Apps), I'll request it be moved to the iTunes forum.

Switching music library to new hard drive

Hi.
I recently bought a new external hard drive and transferred all of my music onto it from my old external hard drive. I'd like to change the music folder location to the new hard drive. My question is this: if I change it to the new hard drive, will the playlists be lost? I exported the library, but I think if I import it after changing the folder location that there will be double the songs in the library, but only half of them will be valid and I'd rather not have to go through all my songs and delete the ones that aren't found. Or will the library not be imported at all because it's a new location?
Long and confusing question, but I've probably just made it too complicated in my head. If anyone can offer me some advice, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.

If you want to move your library to an external location, do it this way.
Copy the entire iTunes folder over to the new external hard drive (not just the iTunes Music folder you find inside it). Once copied then use these instructions to open the library from its new location...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
That's it. Nothing else to do. Just start using the library from its new location. Just make sure the external is always powered up and mounted before opening iTunes. If you start iTunes and the external is not on, it will default back to the internal drive location for anything added to the library. You may not notice it for a while and find a bunch of your stuff is spread across the external and the internal drive. You would then have to change the preference back to the external drive location and do a Consolidate library command to correct.
Patrick

Backup and restoring itunes library from external hard drive?

is there a way to backup and restore my itunes library to external hard drive and not through the internal itunes backup utility cos i have over 20gbs of music and i want to keep my album art and renamed songs etc. because i will be reformating my pc and dont want to go through painful task of manually adding stuff again.

Try this...
*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
Grab SyncToy 2.0, a free tool from MS. Use it to create a backup copy of your iTunes library & any other media folders onto another hard drive or network share. After making the initial backup copy use SyncToy to periodically synchronise the backup copy with your library and only the changed files will be copied saving lots of time.
When the time comes to reformat your PC, do a final sync, then open iTunes & deauthorise the PC, reformat & rebuild Windows, copy the backup folders back to the same location as they were previously, install iTunes and it should all work perfectly.
tt2

Backup I-Tunes Music to another portable hard drive?

I would like to backup my music to a portable hard drive instead of multiple DVDs within the I-Tunes program. Is there another way to do this?

You can't backup to an externa hard disk in iTunes, but there is nothing to stop you doing it in Windpws Explorer.
Assuming you have a default installation i.e music files in the iTunes Music folder, just close iTunes and copy the iTunes folder to the external disk.
It more convenient to use backsoftware which can backup changes, so after the intial backup, further backs are fast.
There is an article on backup here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1522195&#1522195

How do I transfer my iTunes music from one internal hard drive to another internal hard drive without having to locate every song?

So I have two internal hard drives in my laptop but the hard drive that my music is on is running out of space. I want to transfer my music from the smaller hard drive to the larger hard drive so my computer can run faster. If I do this I'm afraid I'm going to have to locate every song within the iTunes library. Is there a way around it so I won't have to go in my files and locate every song? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Instead of moving the entire iTunes folder you can copy it, then do the Shift-launch trick to select the .itl file from its new location. If it works, then go back and delete the original location.
But maybe clarify your configuration ... specifically, is your "iTunes Library.itl" file currently on the same drive that your music files are stored on? Or, do you keep your .itl file on a separate drive than the native files? If the .itl file is on a separate drive right now, then moving or copying the music files over to be on the same drive can result in iTunes not knowing where your native files went. You can get around that using the Consolidate utility in iTunes, but that is not necessary if the .itl file lives with the music files.

Need help using music library on external hard drive

Here is my scenario. I am hoping some one can help me as I have been having a heck of time trying to figure this out. I am what you would call newbie to Mac(I just purchased macBook) so bear with me).
I have a iTunes library on an external hard drive that was created using Windows PC machine. I now would like to use the same library on my Mac. How can I get the Mac to connect to the iTunes Music on the external hard drive?
This is what I have done so far. I have been able to network the Mac with my current network so it does see the external hard drive.
BTW, I would like to achieve this without having iTunes open on Windows machine. I know about the sharing option in iTunes but I have discovered that it only works if I have iTunes open on the Windows machine. This may not always be the case so this is why i am hoping their is an alternative to get the mac to connect to the library on the external hard drive.
I look forward to help on this one.
...Bruce

Maybe I did not explain myself clearly. All I want to do is be able to listen to the music in my itunes library on external hard drive on my new MacBook. I am thinking all I will have to do is create the itunes database file on my Mac using the music in my library(on external HD).

How do I backup copy of music library to a hard drive not CDs ?

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