Hi all. New to this site. I guess it goes to show how perfectly my Ipod/Itunes experience has been thus far that I haven't had the need to look for help in the year or so that I've had my Ipod.
My basic question is this: how do I best backup my Itunes library on Windows Vista file system between two drives while maintaining ratings, playcounts, artwork, etc.? I'll go more in depth about my SNAFU below:
My setup: I'm using a PC with Vista and Directory Opus 9 in place of explorer. I have two internal hard drives, the C: being the OS and primary Itunes location. The F: drive is data/backup, where I have been keeping a "clone" of my Itunes folder. Now, up until I switched to Directory Opus, I would just drag the Itunes folder from C:, drop it on in the "Backups" directory on F;, and let windows skip everything that had the same date during the overwrite dialog shenanigans. With DOpus9, there is a "sync folders" option. I thought that this would be more convienent for some reason. Also, I have my Classic set to sync automatically, but only to selected playlists, thus I am able to keep the Ipod's library managed in a seperate playlist folder in Itunes.
My problem: I recently added several gigs of music to my library only to have it "revert" back a few days and delete everything. After successfully adding the folders, sorting them into the proper "ipod" playlists, and syncing the Ipod, everything was as it should be. Then I figured I should backup Itunes after such extensive fooling around. Here's where I'm sketchy as to what went wrong. I started Itunes the next day only to find that none of the new songs/albums/artists are there and even my podcasts are out of whack/old. I open the Itunes folder and find that all the files were dated from 7-8 days ago?? I"m not sure at what point things "reverted", whether during the backup, or perhaps at Itunes shutdown/startup?
Ok, so I've written this up as a lost cause as far as recovering the files and am prepared to redo it all. I would just like to know the best/most rock-solid method of backing-up Itunes library on a regular basis. I'm insane about wanting to maintain ratings and playcounts, and have in the past migrated from one machine to the other via an external drive without incident, so this strange "reversion" behavior is baffling me!
My basic question is this: how do I best backup my Itunes library on Windows Vista file system between two drives while maintaining ratings, playcounts, artwork, etc.? I'll go more in depth about my SNAFU below:
My setup: I'm using a PC with Vista and Directory Opus 9 in place of explorer. I have two internal hard drives, the C: being the OS and primary Itunes location. The F: drive is data/backup, where I have been keeping a "clone" of my Itunes folder. Now, up until I switched to Directory Opus, I would just drag the Itunes folder from C:, drop it on in the "Backups" directory on F;, and let windows skip everything that had the same date during the overwrite dialog shenanigans. With DOpus9, there is a "sync folders" option. I thought that this would be more convienent for some reason. Also, I have my Classic set to sync automatically, but only to selected playlists, thus I am able to keep the Ipod's library managed in a seperate playlist folder in Itunes.
My problem: I recently added several gigs of music to my library only to have it "revert" back a few days and delete everything. After successfully adding the folders, sorting them into the proper "ipod" playlists, and syncing the Ipod, everything was as it should be. Then I figured I should backup Itunes after such extensive fooling around. Here's where I'm sketchy as to what went wrong. I started Itunes the next day only to find that none of the new songs/albums/artists are there and even my podcasts are out of whack/old. I open the Itunes folder and find that all the files were dated from 7-8 days ago?? I"m not sure at what point things "reverted", whether during the backup, or perhaps at Itunes shutdown/startup?
Ok, so I've written this up as a lost cause as far as recovering the files and am prepared to redo it all. I would just like to know the best/most rock-solid method of backing-up Itunes library on a regular basis. I'm insane about wanting to maintain ratings and playcounts, and have in the past migrated from one machine to the other via an external drive without incident, so this strange "reversion" behavior is baffling me!