MP3 help - external hard drive backup

[Mandito]

Ok so i have my music on an external harddrive, in folders according to genre.

I have been trying for so long to drag and drop into another external harddrive to back up my collection but it always seems to have glitches, or says that the folder already exists (i have used disk utility to wipe EVERYTHING from the harddrive/s i am attempting to back up to).

And lets say I was to manage to copy them all across, how would i then be able to back it up? If i add things to folders or change the names of songs or ID3 tags....

Is there a simple way to back up from one hard drive to another, the files?

sigh.. if someone can help me i would be so grateful and relieved.... i have put hundreds of hours into my music collection and if i was to drop/lose/damage my hard drive my life would be a misery

 

[eternlgladiator]

If I understand you right you want to have two copies of your backed up files on separate hard drives. If that's correct what I would do is first get everything backed up on one of them the way you want it. Then disconnect that drive and set it aside. Wipe the other drive to a new and clean state then use a program called carbon copy clone to copy your first back up identically onto the second drive. Is that what you're going for?

 

[Mandito]

nope - all my music is on one harddrive. I use the harddrive plugged in when i use serato (dj program) at gigs. I burn CDs with he hard drive plugged in.... basically all my music files are on the harddrive, its not a backup of anything on my computer....

Will check out carbon copy and see if thats a help, ta

 

[Consultant]

Take screenshot showing both drives and the error you get.

 

[Mandito]

The operation can’t be completed because an item with the name “Beats” already exists.

but its a BLANK harddrive (i used disk utility to erase it to MS-DOS FAT) and im just dragging the files over?????

 

[Fishrrman]

"Is there a simple way to back up from one hard drive to another, the files?"

Get yourself an external hard drive, or a "bare" hard drive and a USB/SATA "docking station" (I like the latter).

Then, you need to initialize the drive that will become the backup.

If you are going to use this backup drive for ONLY your mp3's, you don't need to partition it. I would suggest that if it is going to be used for multiple backups (as a system software backup _and_ an mp3 backup) that you create two or more partitions, each specific to the task it's going to be used for.
(You can use Apple's Disk Utility to initialize and partition)

Now, you need a program that can "dupe" the files. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the free "CarbonCopyCloner" utility which you can find here:
http://www.bombich.com/

Once you have it, you need to launch it and set it up to do what you want.

In the left-hand side of CCC, you pick your "source" drive.
In the right-hand side, you pick your target location (the backup)

Now, where it says "cloning options", you should pick "incremental backup of selected items"

Go back over to the left-hand side.
You will see that EVERYTHING is checked there (by default).
What you want to do next is UNcheck everything EXCEPT the folder that contains all your music files.
When that's done, click the "clone" button at the lower right and enter your password when prompted.

After CCC finshes, CHECK YOUR BACKUP VOLUME to be sure that everything you wanted to be there is in fact "there".

You can also use CCC to create a bootable backup of your main computer drive. If you don't currently have a bootable backup, I strongly suggest that you create one. Having a SECOND bootable drive makes things VERY easy when you have problems!