Backing up your music files

[Eddie Knucks]

Thank you very much for the feedback guys. I think I have a better understanding of how this works.

This is how I thought it would be like: You see...I belong to an online digital record pool. What I wanted to do is use the portable drive as the destination of my music files when I download them (right now when I dwnld them they get automatically opened by itunes and saved on my macbook's HDD).
I would then organize them on the portable drive and if say, for example I need access to my breakbeats, soul, or funk , I can just grab the folder, move it to the macbook and take that to my gig, then get back home and dump the folder back on the portable. (Either that, or just plug the portable into the macbook at the gig and pull the music from there but I hear that is not very reliable)

I guess my main reason for that was to save space on my laptop's hard drive because there is a ton of music that although I may not need often, I would still love to own and have access to at any given time.

Does that make sense? I'm sorry to trouble you with nooby questions and I thank you for your assistance.

[DvlsAdvct]

Yeah, that makes sense and will save you space.

What you might want to do, when you re-import the folder to the external, just delete the old one and put whatever was on your Laptop onto the external fresh.

That way you will update the tags and stripes and all.

[TK1129]

I ran into the same problem a while ago, as i was backing up all my music on an external hard drive, i then put some folders back on my PC and over time i did edit the mp3 tags, then when i moved them back to the external it was duplicated, because i had changed titles, artists, etc.
I had to sort through the mess and find the most current songs and delete the duplicates. I did try just cutting and pasting for a while, but that i find defeats the purpose of having a back-up drive.

[Eddie Knucks]

Are any of you tech savvy when it comes to Mac's? if so, do you know how I can have my downloads sent to my portable instead of my internal HDD?

[DvlsAdvct]

You should be able to set it in the preferences of iTunes, or whatever software you're using to download. There should be a default location.

Just change that.

[luv2xra]

Hey eddie there is a way. If you have a mac you will go to itunes/preferences/advanced and then you will tell your mac to save it on your external. But the best way will be to grab the itunes music folder and drag it to your external, it will copy over that folder, then delete the original. Now, before you click on the itunes icon, hold option. This will allow you choose the itunes folder, locate it on your external and all of your preferences, playlist, and music will load. From there on, your itunes will use that folder to boot from.

on a windows the first step will still work, but the rest I have no idea.

Pm me for any other questions

[Eddie Knucks]

Those are very helpful tips. Thanks guys!!! If I do what luv2xra says, will I have to have my portable plugged in to launch itunes?

[14N-FR]

I back all mine up to DVD. I do have two external HD's but one is always travelling with me when I work abroad and the other stays at home.

[luv2xra]

You will have to have itunes plugged in, since itunes is locating the itunes folder in the specific folder you assign to it. But for example, I have multiple itunes libraries and I always option boot from my internal or external hard drive. If itunes cant find the itunes folder to boot from, it will prompt you to create a new one, find it or create a new one. The choice is yours.

[DIGITAL-KNIGHT]

YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY BACK-UPS.

yes it's tricky to keep things up to date the more you have but you will be glad that you have them when a drive breaks. I take two ext HDD (1 backup) and store another backup on a Drobo at home (expensive but brilliant), I also give a another EXT HDD to a friend and update regularly (once every 3 months). that way if 1 breaks on the road I've got a spare and if the house burns down whilst I'm at home I've got offsite storage too.

DON'T FORGET TO BACK UP THE COLLECTION FILES AND STRIPES (OR WHAT YOU USE FOR YOUR DJ SOFTWARE)

DON'T JUST THINK ABOUT IT EITHER!!! DO IT!!! BEFORE SOMETHING DOES GO WRONG BECAUSE IT WILL SOONER OR LATER.