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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
ltkije's avatar
ltkije
37 posts
 
Here' what I've done. Two years ago I bought a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo - works with PC and MAC. There are several models which can handle the 3TB requirement. The ReadyNAS has RAID capabilities which can easily be configured to perform automatic backups to the secondary drives (and tertiary.... depending upon the model). Additionally, ReadyNAS is Squeezebox, SONOS, UPnP enabled should you want to go in that direction. If so, I would recommend the newer models - faster and Squeezebox supported Spotify due to the use of x86 architecture). There's a lot of information on the net regarding both the Netgear offerings and Squeezebox. Good luck. Love the convenience of my Transporter. Always re-descovering my CD collection and new music on Pandora and internet radio.
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.
tobias
1,534 posts
 
I did much as Kbarkamian. I bought two external 2TB drives from Other World Computing. I copied my iTunes folder to one of them using a FireWire 800 connection. I then daisy-chained the second drive to the first and made an exact copy using SuperDuper.

Then I opened iTunes with the Option (alt) key held down. iTunes asked me to choose an iTunes library and I directed it to the one on the first 2TB drive. From then on iTunes has opened automatically with this library.

Whenever I add new music to my iTunes library, I back up the changes to the second external drive using SuperDuper.
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