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How to Backup iTunes to an External Hard Drive

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By gus2004
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Preserving your itunes music library
Preserving your itunes music library

Is your iTunes music library growing larger and larger with great music? It's a scarey thought, and a costly one, to think that all of the iTunes music that you love would be gone if your computer crashed. The best thing you can do to preserve and save your iTunes music, should something ever happen to your computer's hard drive, is to backup your iTunes music library to an external hard drive.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions

Things You'll Need:

  • Computer
  • iTunes Music Library
  • External Hard Drive
  1. Step 1

    First, you will need to purchase an external hard drive. A great external hard drive to purchase is a 500 GB hard drive. This will give you plenty of space for your iTunes music library. This external hard drive usually sells for less than $100.00. Best Buy has a great variety of external hard drives and the salesperson can help you find the one that is best suited for your needs (either for a desktop computer or for a laptop).

  2. Step 2

    Plug in the external hard drive to your computer and open up "my computer". You will see the external hard drive listed. It is usually listed as "E". Open up "E" and minimize it to the bottom of your screen. Next, locate the iTunes folder on your computer (usually in "my music"). Once you have located the iTunes folder, right click on the folder and select "copy". Now open up the external hard drive folder that you have minimized. Right click in the folder and select "paste". This will copy your iTunes folder and iTunes music library into your external hard drive.

  3. Step 3
     

    Now that you've backed up iTunes to an external hard drive, you can rest assured that your entire iTunes music library is now preserved and safe from a disasterous computer crash.

Tips & Warnings
  • A lot of external hard drives come with a software program that you can set to backup your iTunes folder automatically when you turn on your computer.
  • It's a good idea to backup your iTunes music library each time you add new music.
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