Hi there, I want to help you by sharing the way I currently back up my entire library with play lists which are the heart of any ones collection. Like many other itunes users, I lost my music from computer crashes and despite saving the entire library on external hard drives, I could not restore it to the original condition with intact play lists, since my prior methods did not back up the play list file properly. I used the automatic back ups provided by windows, nero, western digital and other hard drives which typically change the library files to a compressed zip files and when you try to restore them to recreate your itunes library, you simply get a million folders worth of music back into itunes library but not your play lists you spent days creating.
Here is the best method which works for me and I use it to back up my entire library/play lists to another internal hard drive and an external hard drive.
1. Use a free program called "filesync". Download it at
http://www.fileware.com/download.htm. Don't use any other back up software.
2. Follow the directions once you open the program and select a source path(itunes music folder) and a target path(ext/int HD) appropriately. Under file types check "include subfolders" as it helps to view all the files.
3. Click the button "compare files" and after it matches up the itunes music library to destination, click "sync" button. This first sync takes few hours and subsequently, you can click "files requiring synchronization" rather than "all files" so it will do an incremental back up for all future back ups.It may ask you few questions about creating folders etc.,(say yes)
4. You have to manually do this each time you add new music to your library as there is no option for automatic sync. I hope they provide it in future if we all pay money(optional)for this software developer.
5. Once you did this successfully, provided you backed it up to your ipod, go ahead and delete your entire library/play lists, just to confirm that this method really works! If it does, as in my case, it will give you peace of mind that your music is safe forever in more than one hard drive and you could restore it any time by:
1. Holding shift and open itunes
2. When message comes to choose library, point it to the hard drive you backed up the music and like magic, you will see all your play lists just like original source, including purchased music from itunes store. I don't have any podcasts so I can't tell you about them.
3. Open "preferences". It will show the new hard drive location under the itunes music folder location. At this point, you could either leave it the same or click reset to get the default location if you would like to restore music to original location. After you changed it, click consolidate library button and your entire music will be copied to that location. Also always check the boxes for "keep itunes music folder organized and copy files when adding to library" and they solve lots of problems you get into like unable locate file Etc.,
*I tested it many times by deteting the source file(I backed it to ipod first)and this is the best thing I have ever done to save my music already on my computer. Ofcourse, if you have never backed it up to external hard drive(but you did to your ipod)and your computer crashes( which happened to me twice),the best solution is pay $20 and get "copypod" which works like magic to restore all your paly lists, purchased music etc.,
** Since typical stored apple lossless music is ~100gb and my biggest ipod is only 80 gb, that is not the safest option to rely on (unless you have two ipods)! Above mentioned is the cheapest way to back up your music. Try it and let your friends know as well.
