How do I back up & re install my library.

[sootshe]

Just playing the devils advocate here, as I want to know how to do this should a disaster happen.

 

So at the moment I have all my music files stored on the hard drive of my Mac book pro & backed up to 2 seperate USB hard disc drives. I copied & pasted them from the original files on my Mac Book Pro.......(Directory path...Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music). I'm using iTunes as the database/library & play through Amarra.

 

I read that I should also backup the following files - iTunes Music Library.xml & iTunes Library.itl. Do I just copy & paste these onto my back up drives as well? And if I lose everything, I know I can copy all the music files back into iTunes, but what do I do with the .xml & .itl files??

 

Many thanks,

John

[mwheelerk]

Why not let Time Machine do it and it will cover all the bases.?

[sootshe]

Why not let Time Machine do it and it will cover all the bases.?

 

So, does Time Machine store the data in the "clouds"? Not sure how this works.

[baddog]

Time Machine can save the data to any hard drive you specify. Enable Time Machine, specify a disk to backup to, and you can also specify disks and directories to include/exclude in the backup. It will incrementally backup changes you make over time. Let me know if you need further details.

 

Barr

[sootshe]

Time Machine can save the data to any hard drive you specify. Enable Time Machine, specify a disk to backup to, and you can also specify disks and directories to include/exclude in the backup. It will incrementally backup changes you make over time. Let me know if you need further details.

 

 

 

Barr

 

OK, so I've had a look at Time Machine & it backs everything up to the selected external drive. Problem is I only have a 500Gig external drive & this seems to be going to backup every hour & every day. So with 200 gig of music files I'm going to run out of space very, very quickly. I just want to back up my music library & put the back up drive away & just add new files to it as I add music to the library.

[baddog]

You can configure Time Machine to only backup your iTunes directory and music files only. In this manner it will only backup up files that changed or were added. It will not consume excessive amounts of your external hard drives disk space. Will post an example for you tomorrow.

[sootshe]

Thanks for the help. I'd appreciate the example, as I'm having trouble getting my head around how to make it backup only the music files & also how it will only back up files that have changed or were added. If I only want to back up the music files then I would have to exclude everything else on the computer, right? Not quite sure how to do this. I've been in to TM & excluded "applications', etc. pretty much everything that is listed in the left hand column of "finder", except "music".

 

I'll wait for your example before asking too many more questions.

 

Appreciate the help.

 

John

[mwheelerk]

You are on the right path. It makes the incremental changes.

[baddog]

Correct - you want to exclude everything save your Music directory which will then back up the first time everything in the Music directly and then anytime you connect the drive it will only make incremental backups of files you added or changed in that directory, those backups will go much faster then the first one.

 

Some examples that may or may not help:

 

You may exclude items from a Time Machine backup as follows:

 

1. Open System Preferences.
   
2. Click Time Machine.
   
3. After having enabled Time Machine and chosen a backup disk, click Options.
   
4. Click + to specify an item that is not to be backed up. The backup disk is included on this list automatically so that it does not back up itself.
   

 

Unfortunately you cannot just specify folders to backup, only folders NOT to backup.

 

Here is one way to try and make it easier to exclude everything and then include only the Music Directory:

 

In the Exclude Folder window click the + sign to add and choose your home directory then CMD+A to select all files and folders. Then hold CMD down and click on the single folder you want to include in the backup.

This gets you most of the way there, you will also have to:

 

add the system folder (and click yes to exclude all system files)

 

 

[sootshe]

SO when I open the "exclude" window in TM it brings up my Finder directory in which I have the following.

All My Files

Applications

Desktop

Documents

Downloads

Movies

Music

 

So should I select all of these, except "Music" to exclude them from the backup.....even the "All My Files" folder??

 

What is CMD+A??

What is "add the system folder"??

 

 

& how does this all relate to my original question regarding the .xml &.itl files??

 

I already have all the music files backed up to my external hard drive.

 

Many thanks,

John

 

Many thanks,

John

[baddog]

Ok, good point, let's take a step back for a moment, to consider whether you even desire to back up these files.

 

Here is where they are located and their purpose (thank you Apple)

 

[h=3]Location of the iTunes library files:

Mac OS X:

/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl

/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.xml[/h]

[h=3]About the iTunes Library.itl file[/h]This file is a database of the songs in your library and the playlists you've created. Some song-specific data is saved in this file. If you delete the file, iTunes creates a new, empty copy when you open the application, but any playlists, song ratings, comments, or other information you created is lost. The iTunes Library file is only used by iTunes, and is the only one backed up by Time Machine on OS X.

[h=3]About the iTunes Library.xml file

[/h]This file contains some (but not all) of the same information stored in the iTunes Library file. The purpose of the iTunes Library.xml file is to make your music and playlists available to other applications on your computer. In Mac OS X other iLife applications (like iPhoto, iDVD, and iMovie) use this file to make it easier for you to add music from your iTunes library to your projects.

Furthermore, consider the following:

 

Generic track data such as song name, artist, album and genre are generally stored within the tracks themselves as well as in the iTunes database, as it artwork that you add to your tracks manually or via third-party artwork utilities

 

 

So let me ask you this, is there some reason you do not want to back up your Macbook Pro in it's entirety with Time Machine? That is what I want to do. Remember it is ONLY the first backup that takes a longer time, subsequent ones are only for data that has either changed or been added.

 

Barr

 

 

 

 

 

[sootshe]

Yes, I suppose you're right. As the MBP is purely dedicated to the task of music playback, apart from a few smaller files I have created, such as the codes for activating Amarra & such like, there's no valid reason not to do a complete backup of everything I have on it.

 

Does it matter that I have "spotlight" disabled when I do the backup?

 

I"ll set things up & run the process.

 

Just for my curious mind......What is CMD+A??

 

Thanks,

John

[baddog]

My instructions were less than perfect, and I just ran through them in Time Machine, and what I wrote is confusing. Short answer is CMD+A (Hold down Command key and Press A) is a keyboard shortcut for selecting all items in a list). Similar to Command-A in most Mac apps which is Select All.

 

I have a Mac Pro as well being used identically, it only has the Operating system, iTunes and Pure Music, and I only use it to playback music to my DAC. I backup everything in case I ever lose the system, it makes it easy to restore. In fact if I ever want to upgrade to a new system it makes it easier as I can restore the apps and whatever data files I specify from the Time Machine backup. And heaven forbid if your drive ever crashes you will be grateful you backed up the whole drive.

[sootshe]

Ah....CMD+A........I see now.

 

This has been great advice & I agree, very good security in case a disaster happens. I certainly don't want to go through the ripping process again. This is, in fact, the third time I have done it. I started with ALAC, then went to AIFF & have now finally settled on WAV, so it's vital that I have a secure backup.

 

Thanks for all the tips.

 

I can get most of the album art work via iTunes & am waiting to see if Jacob Weber can find a fix for "Cover Art" to operate successfully.

 

Cheers,

John

 

(I've got about an hour to go before my first TM backup completes)

[avta]

You might also consider using a program such as Carbon Copy Cloner. It's free and allows you to set the backup parameters as you wish. It also provides for creating a bootable backup should your OS become unworkable. I use it am am completely satisfied.

[sootshe]

Thanks, will look into that also.