Backing up itunes

[kjs862]

One of these day I'm going to backup my iTunes library. I'm under the impression if I want to do this I go to file in iTunes and select backup. From the three options I select backup entire itunes library and playlists. After I do this I insert a blank DVD.

A few questions though...

All my playlists are under folders that I made by going to file and selecting new folder. The way I organized my music is I made the folder for the arists name and all the albums from that arist I make playlist that goes under that folder. Now when I do this backup will it backup the folder and the playlists under it or just the playlists?

Also, when I select my entire itunes library in itunes it says on the bottom of the itunes window that I have 18.61 GB of data. Now when I go to finder select music > itunes > itunes music .. it says I have 51.26 GB. To me this doesn't make sense.

Also I have an external hard drive that is completely empty. Could I use this to backup all my music and if so how? Would it be easier than using the method I described above?

Any info about this issue would help. When leopard comes out I'm going to format my drive so I'm starting to think about it now.

Best,
Ken

 

[EricNau]

If you have iTunes manage your music (I'm not sure from your post), you can just click and drag the iTunes folder (located in your user's music folder) to your external HDD.

 

[rhoydotp]

i backup mine thru cron. here's a snippet of my script:

rsync --progress -av ~/Music /<path to the externall hdd>/

hope this helps

 

[theBB]

Also, when I select my entire itunes library in itunes it says on the bottom of the itunes window that I have 18.61 GB of data. Now when I go to finder select music > itunes > itunes music .. it says I have 51.26 GB. To me this doesn't make sense.

Is it possible you have deleted a lot of songs or some movies from your library, but told iTunes not to move the files to Thrash?

 

[mopppish]

ibackup is awesome. I use it to back up my itunes, school docs, and recording projects from my internal and firewire recording drives to a Lacie d2. And it's free.
http://www.grapefruit.ch/iBackup/