How to Back Up Music in My Windows Media Player Library

Back up the music in your Windows Media Player library by burning data CDs.

Backing up the music in your Windows Media Player library creates a second copy of the music, should your computer crash. A computer crash can lead to losing files, but a backup can make it possible to restore these files quickly and easily. One inexpensive way to back up music files in your Windows Media Player library is to burn the files onto data CDs, which can typically hold well over 100 songs. After you burn data CDs for all the music in your library, you'll have a backup of all your Windows Media Player music.

Things You'll Need

• Blank CDs

Instructions

1. Place a blank CD into the CD drive on your computer.

2. Open Windows Media Player.

3. Click on the arrow below "Library," and click on the "Music" option in the list of choices that appears.

4. Click on the arrow below "Burn," and click on the "Data CD" option.

5. Click on the "Burn" button. You'll now see a list on the right side of Windows Media Player called the "Burn List," as well as the music library in the middle of Windows Media Player. Click on the first song at the top of the music library. Scroll down to the bottom of the music library list, and while pressing down on the "Shift" key, click on the last song. All the songs will now be highlighted.

6. Right-click on one of the music files and click on "Add to Burn List."

7. Click on the "Start Burn" button at the bottom of the right side of Windows Media Player. The music will begin burning to the blank CD. If the music library has more files than can fit on one CD, it'll separate the files into different CDs. After the first CD is finished being burned, the "Burn List" will no longer have these files in it. Take the finished CD out of your computer, insert a new blank CD and press the "Start Burn" button again to continue the process. Repeat this until all the music has been burned onto CDs.

Tips & Warnings

• Label your backup CDs. Consider writing the date on there to show when you last backed up the music in your Windows Media Player library. Likewise, store your CDs in a safe place.

References

• Microsoft: Burn a CD or DVD in Windows Media Player

Resources

• Microsoft: Windows Media Player