Online Backup Guide

Backing Up Your iPod

Did you ever suffer a bad stroke of luck when your system crashed and you lost all your music files? Did it leave you wondering how to copy your music files from your iPod back into your PC? At such times, you feel that there should be some way out to take back up of your iPod so that you may never have to go through this tedious process ever again. You can create a true back up of your iTunes music library from your hard disk.

Every system can be prone to a hard drive problem. It is imperative that you cannot afford to lose any vital information and you need to take a back up of your files regularly. There are easy options available now to take a back up of especially your iTunes library, your playlist, ratings and other information stored in the iTunes music collection.

Handling iTunes

If you are using Windows OS, locate your iTunes folder in My Documents >> My Music folder. In case of Mac OS X, you can find your Music folder in your Home folder. The iTunes folder contains 3 main components as iTunes 4 Music Library. It contains database of all the songs in the iTunes library. Next is the iTunes Music Library.xml but xml extension might not be visible. Although the two files have similar names, nevertheless, they contain different information. This one contains details about playlists, play counts, last played dates and other small bits of information about how you have played your music. If you want to use iTunes, then you would need both these files. The xml library provides access to your music to other programs. If you delete the iTunes 4 Music library files, you would find your playlist as empty. The third component is the Music folder that carries the music files in the iTunes library that you have stored in iTunes. This is the default folder where all your music files are copied by iTunes. You would not find any files here if you have turned off this feature in the iTunes preferences section. You would find files only if you have checked the option for Copy Files to iTunes Music Folder when Adding to Library. If you have this option checked, it is easy to create back up.

Taking a Back Up

Transferring files from iPod option has its own limitations. You may lose some of the data in the while transferring the files. If you have already suffered a hard disk crash, it would spell in double loss for you. You would need to spend time and money again to build your collection of music. If you want to download your files to your computer once again, you would need to pay to iTunes music store once more. You also lose all data associated with your music files.

You can choose to buy an external hard disc and back up your iTunes music files. Just make a copy of your iTunes folder whether in Mac or in Windows in your new external hard disk. It is strongly recommended to purchase an extra hard disk rather than creating a partition in the same one. At a cost of less than $100 you can not only create a back up of your music files but also of your personal files as well. Just drag and drop your desired folders to the new destination and you have a ready back up of your treasure.

Alternatively, you can create a back on CDs or DVDs. This is an easier and cheaper option if you just need to back up your music files. It can be easily done with Windows Explorer or Mac OS finder. iTunes would prompt you insert a blank CD or DVD before burning the disk. Once the disk is full, it will automatically eject it and ask for the next one if more files are left to be copied. Go to File >> New Smart Playlist and select the Date Added After to create a new CD or DVD next time. This option would back up only the new files added after the last back up taken. After you have taken a back up, change the date in Edit Smart Playlist. This way you can keep on adding new files to your playlist and updating the Smart Playlist after each back up would let you take a systematic back up each time and preserve your favorite music.

All you need to do is to remember to take a back up of both the iTunes library files and place them in a safe place after taking a back up. This option is a fool proof one to store all your favorite music unless you really face a nature’s fury or a REAL stroke of bad luck such that your hard disk crashes and your CDs, DVDs, etc are also lost. God Forbid!