Way to only backup new songs, not all songs that we backed up before?

Question

I know this isn't a forum for my specific external harddrive, but I'm hoping one of you brilliant people might be able to help me. Every time I add a new song to my iPod, I back up my music files (as found by viewing/saving the "hidden" music files in the iPod_Control folder when viewing the iPod as a disk drive). I like backing my songs up this way because the hidden files contain everything that I've saved to the song files (album art, artist, etc.), so if I ever need to re-add these songs to iTunes, I won't need to add these things again. However, copying ALL of these files to my external harddrive takes FOREVER. Unfortunately, these files aren't labeled with the name of the song or artist, they're simply letters and numbers, such as F05, so I have no idea which file is which song. Does anybody have any tips for distinguishing when these files were created/what's in them or how I can only back up NEW data-things I haven't backed up previously? I'd really appreciate ANY tips!
Dell Dimension 8400   Windows XP   20 GB Color iPod

Answer 1

Rarely would one want/need to 'backup' the actual iPod. It is easier to just backup your iTunes system from the PC.
The generally accepted method of iPod/iTunes use is to:
- Have the complete Library contained within iTunes on the PC
- Have a complete or partial Library on the iPod
- Have a complete backup of the iTunes Library stored externally
If anything happens to the iPod's music (which is very possible), just re-sync to your iTunes. If anything happens to your iTunes music, just recover from your backup files.
Transferring data to/from the iPod itself outside of iTunes is slow and usually confusing.
If you want to completely backup you music Library, see this post as a start:
http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=1350956
- Backup all music files
- Backup the Library metadata database file
- Backup the .pref files of iTunes (not as critical)
- Make an XML copy of your Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played attributes for all files (See: http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=1339320 ) This is a redundant partial copy of the ITL metadata file information.
Your method will work, but it sure is a back-end around a rather simple process.
BTW:
Song attributes stored directly in each music file are as follows: Artist, Album, Song Title, Year, Comments, Compilation tag, Lyrics, Genre , Grouping, Composer, BPM, Album Artwork, Bit Rate & Kind (Both not tags - inherent to the file itself).
Song attributes stored in the iTunes Library database file only are: Playlists, Ratings, Play Count, Last Played, Date Added, Date Modified, Equalizer, Volume Adjustment.