back up itunes songs?

[mommacanary]

I always have this thing poping up on itunes telling me to back up my songs to cd. My cd/dvd thing on my computer gave out. So, I have no way to do this. Is there any other way to back them up? Someone told me I should get USB portable memory? They were not sure it would work to put itunes songs on though. Anyone know? Or have any other ideas on how I can back up my songs?

If USB portable memory is that way to go are there any brands better than others?

[TCMoulton]

All of my music I use for ITunes is stored on a portable hard drive. You can copy everything over to the portable drive and update it when you add new music.

[mommacanary]

Originally Posted by TCMoulton

All of my music I use for ITunes is stored on a portable hard drive. You can copy everything over to the portable drive and update it when you add new music.

Oh good I was hoping I could. May I ask, what name brand is your portable hard drive? Also, I have been looking at itunes and I can't figure out how you put the songs on the portable hard drive. (I see where it says to back up to disc but not portable hard drive) Can you please tell me how you do that?

[TCMoulton]

I have 2 western digital external hard drives, one is just for my music. All of your music right now is probably stored in your ITunes folder on your c drive - you can locate this by going into My Preferences while in ITunes. Then just open that folder on your computer while ITunes is closed, attach the external hard drive and open it on your desktop, select all of the music in your ITunes folder and drag and drop it into the external hard drive folder. It's actually pretty simple and should only take a few minutes to transfer everything!

[Viola]

I back my whole computer up periodically, and don't specifically back up iTunes. Most of the music I have in iTunes is stuff I ripped myself and I still have the original CDs, but I should probably back-up the purchased stuff separately to disc just to make sure.

[mommacanary]

Originally Posted by TCMoulton

I have 2 western digital external hard drives, one is just for my music. All of your music right now is probably stored in your ITunes folder on your c drive - you can locate this by going into My Preferences while in ITunes. Then just open that folder on your computer while ITunes is closed, attach the external hard drive and open it on your desktop, select all of the music in your ITunes folder and drag and drop it into the external hard drive folder. It's actually pretty simple and should only take a few minutes to transfer everything!

Thank you for your help. Next time I'm in town I will get a portable memory so I can try it.

[zaadad]

I was doing a google search and found this thread...why I didn't even begin here is beyond me.....

I am having an issue with something similar and if anyone can help me out, I would appreciate it.

I have my Itunes library backed up on a portable hard drive. I just got a new computer at work and when I installed Itunes, plugged in my portable drive it found all my music just like it was supposed to. Today when I went to use it, though, there were exclamation marks by 95% of my collections (some 2000 songs) saying it couldn't find the location, would I like to find it?....I don't want to have to do this to every song. Is there an easy way to have Itunes re recognize where all my music is stored?

Thanks,
Curtis

[TCMoulton]

Make sure that your portable hard drive is plugged into the same USB port that it originally was when you loaded the library. Sometimes ITunes is picky and if you plug in the hard drive to a different USB port it won't recognize it. Also, make sure that you hard drive has been plugged in long enough for your computer to completely recognize it before starting ITunes. Hopefully this will fix your problem!

[zaadad]

Originally Posted by TCMoulton

Make sure that your portable hard drive is plugged into the same USB port that it originally was when you loaded the library. Sometimes ITunes is picky and if you plug in the hard drive to a different USB port it won't recognize it. Also, make sure that you hard drive has been plugged in long enough for your computer to completely recognize it before starting ITunes. Hopefully this will fix your problem!

Thanks...I will try that!

CR