BleepingComputer.com: how to backup my music -- can I use a USB memory stick?

Hi guys,

Just wondering what the best way to backup over 4,000 songs.

I am not familiar with the technical names, so my apologies.

I have a ton of songs in my iTunes, and 98% are not "legal", so iTunes will not back them up as they were not bought through them. [In my defense, most of these were obtained from friends, or from the Napster era before all this anti piracy campaigns...I've seen the light, no more illegal downloading]

Anyway - I'm guessing the volume of songs would require way to many CDs... so is there a large enough USB device I can transfer them too, and if so, can someone recommend a model or brand?

Thank you!

You need to figure out how much room you will need and triple or quadruple it, for the future.

The memory sticks are available in 16GB or even 64GB (maybe 128GB now). If that is enough for those tunes, you are ready to go. Otherwise you should look into an external hard drive.

Good luck

DR

Hmmm... 4,000 songs at an average of 4MB each would give you around 16,000MB worth of songs. That is about 16GB, so you'll likely want a 16GB flash drive and another 4GB one to be safe. As rigacci said, there are also 64GB flash drives available, so you may want to check those out as well.

A few DVDs would do the job.

Louis

I have two Western Digital (My Book) 250 GB external hard drives packed with Flac files But I have heard horror stories from people on the trading forums that their externals died within two or three years of purchase, with their entire collection, gone with the wind.

So I backed up all my Flac files, on DVD's, also, like Louis said. That's a lot of DVD's, but I think the DVD's might outlast the externals.

Mark

People tend to feel that they can back things up and then delete them from the source. But a backup means you have the original AS WELL AS the copy.

You really can't trust an external drive for very long. The final step in backing up should be to Archive onto DVD disks. That way, the original (or backup) is still easily accessible and you have a hard copy for when the hard drives fail (which they will, eventually).


I hope this helps.

DR

Bit off the subject, but still relevant! you can now get 1.6 Terabyte flash drives.............. priced at a whooping $71,000!!!
But a more viable option is the Kingston DataTraveler 150 USB flash drive - 64 GB - for just over £100.
Really useful, incredibly reliable (due to the solid state-ness). you can also get the 32GB model for...guess what - Half the price. These last virtually a lifetime. Highly recommended - Great for storing music