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Backing up your iTunes music library is essential if you love your music collection. If malware overtakes your operating system and destroys vital data, you may have the recourse of System Restore. Failing that, you have to start from scratch with your computer in order to save it. This is easily done with a start-up disk in most cases, but all of your data is forfeit at that point. All iTunes files will be lost. This could be a huge amount of data encompassing music, photographs, videos, movies and memories contained therein. On top of that, if you have invested considerable money in purchasing your music directly from iTunes, you are at the mercy of Apple to allow you to restore all of your bought music.
They may or may not do this for you, and if they do, it's likely that they will only do this for you once in your lifetime. That, at least, seems to be their policy. This could mean that if Apple is not in a particularly giving mood, and you have not backed up your data, you are out hundreds or potentially thousands of dollars. An external hard drive should be a standard inclusion with any computer, but it is not. This is something that you have to purchase separately and between losing money invested, and losing vital work or family files, it is definitely worth the investment. If you have neither an external hard drive back up, nor physical CD's of your music, it's just gone. This is the reason that Windows schedules regular system backups.
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iTunes Can Be Backed Up to DVD, USB, HD, and More
Backing up iTunes or any other hard drive data can be done on any removable media. It can be done on DVDs, CDs, high-capacity flash drives, newer high-capacity SD cards, and external hard drives. By far, the most reliable option is the external hard drive. They do not cost as much anymore and you can purchase an external hard drive with 500GB of memory for under $100. By taking the time to backup your iTunes media to an external hard drive, you can preserve everything that you have been carrying around on your iPod, iPhone, iPad, and other media devices including cameras, camcorders, and any device that you may use for storage.
The Necessity of Making an iTunes Backup
An iPod can easily be damaged, so it is necessary to backup iTunes files to an external data source. (And given the fact that the warranty on Apple products is dismal at best, unless you purchase the pricey Apple Cares product, damage to the product can be the end of your iDevice.) The external hard drive not only offers more memory capacity than any other removable media, it is sturdy and easy-to-use. Imagine if you had to start over after years of collecting music, pictures, TV shows, videos and movies? Don't allow that to happen and simply invest in an external hard drive. What you need to do next is simple.
External hard drives come pre-equipped with software for most operating systems, including Mac OS X. They are ready to go straight out of the box. Here are the steps to backup iTunes to an external hard drive:
- 1. Plug your external hard drive into your computer via any USB port. The drive will usually be identified as Drive E:\.
- A. Open iTunes and begin dragging and dropping each individual file into the external hard drive until you are done (this is only a good idea if you do not have much to backup or you have already been backing up to this particular drive).
- B. Open the system files for C:\Users\(your userid here)\My Music\Itunes . The pathway may also be C:\Windows\iTunes rarely. This is the best approach as opposed to the single drag and drop mentioned above. That only works when you have a few things to add to an existing backup.
- C. Right-click the folder and choose "Copy".
- D. Move the pointer over the icon for the external hard drive in the Computer menu (this is where the pathway for the folder was found). If you accidentally closed the window, go to the Start Menu and select Computer. You will see that Drive E:\ is the external hard drive. Right click over the icon for the external hard drive and click "Paste".
You should see a small window indication that the transfer is taking place. If you do not, start over. This process will take a long time in general and the more information that you had in the iTunes file, the longer the transfer will take. This is the most direct approach to backing up your iTunes files to an external hard drive.
Manual iTunes Backup Plan
You can also run a system backup from the control panel under System and Security > Backup and Restore > Back up your computer. This will backup all files on the hard drive including iTunes. Certain files are missed sometimes and these might be iTunes files. To avoid this, simply copy the files directly and paste them to the external hard drive icon. Any additional files that you may have created for iTunes should be copied and pasted as well. After you have done this, run a full system backup if you have not already done so. This will ensure that any extensions and file associations that are inclusive to your iTunes configuration are also preserved. It is usually advised that you do this at least once weekly and any time that you add new iTunes files.
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