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Newbie help how to store and backup iTunes library

It must be an age thing--pushing sixty and I can't make heads or tails out of the advice on the Computer Audiophile site. I just want to move my iTunes library from the internal hard drive on my Sony Vaio laptop to an external hard drive, and simultaneously back it up on another hard drive. I would like for the external drives each to have at least 3 TB of storage. I would like for them to be linked so that the backup drive regularly and automatically updates. And I'd like the drives to work with a Mac Mini, which I'm thinking about buying to use as a music server. If you can recommend specific hardware, I'd appreciate it. Or if I'm going about the storage-and-backup the wrong way, please set me straight. Thanks.
jhold

Showing 1 response by kbarkamian

kbarkamian
647 posts
 
I own a PC, but I don't think that'll make much difference. Here's what I did...

I bought an external hard drive - Seagate something or other 1TB.
Connected it via USB
Opened up the My Music folder and found the iTunes folder
Opened the hard drive folder
Dragged the iTunes folder from My Music to my hard drive

Everything was copied to my hard drive. Took a while, but it was all there. I also made a copy to another external hard drive as a back up.

After I was sure I had copied everything, I deleted the music in the iTunes folder on my computer. I went into iTunes and changed the location of where my library was stored; I use a pc, so it was E/iTunes.

Never had an issue. I'm sure there are subtle differences with a Mac, but I'm confidant it's the same basic formula.

Whenever I rip a new cd, it goes straight to the primary hard drive. I drag and drop the new albums to the backup drive after a few albums.
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