Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPod What are everyones Backup plans for Itunes

J

JamesMay82

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 12, 2009
1,628
1,357
Hello,

Just curious how everyone backs up their itunes libraries?

I'm getting annoyed with how much storage costs etc.

I bought a Drobo with plans on storing all my media on there but then I got paranoid because if drobo broke that would be the library gone.

My library is 1.1TB and its just so expensive to keep buying external drives.

at the moment my library is on my 2TB imac drive and is backed up to Drobo.
Need to have a rethink though because my internal is running out of space.
 
entropyfl said:
Hello,

Just curious how everyone backs up their itunes libraries?

I'm getting annoyed with how much storage costs etc.

I bought a Drobo with plans on storing all my media on there but then I got paranoid because if drobo broke that would be the library gone.

My library is 1.1TB and its just so expensive to keep buying external drives.

at the moment my library is on my 2TB imac drive and is backed up to Drobo.
Need to have a rethink though because my internal is running out of space.
Click to expand...

Try compressing your digital files..?
 
I'd sell the Drobo. I never really understood the need for RAID storage for media files which are being properly backed up. I suspect most folks are relying on the redundancy to be their backup, which, as you indicated, is not a particularly good idea.

My files are stored on several drives in my Mac Pro, backed up to external drives, and those are rotated with offsite copies. I suggest buying three external drives 2 or 3 TBs in size. Put your library on one, back up to another, and back up to the another which is kept offsite, but rotated frequently with your onsite backup. If any one hard drive fails (actually two could fail), you have a complete copy of everything. In the event of a fire/lightning strike/other calamity which takes your home with it, you have a copy at the offsite location.

I suspect you'll get enough for the Drobo to more than cover my suggested storage solution. You can buy three 3 TB external drives for less than $400.
 
Spectrum Abuser said:
Try compressing your digital files..?
Click to expand...
All modern codecs utilise compression already, so compressing them further is likely to add overhead rather than reduce file size. Unless the OP is storing everything in PCM then it's not worth it.
 
Using the "OWC Mercury Elite Pro" with two 2TB hard drives inside for a primary/backup configuration. The chassis is set for independently addressable drives (no RAID or striping), one drive holds the "live" iTunes library while the other is a backup. Connection to the computer is FW800. Chronosync runs once a day to mirror the primary drive to the backup drive.

The chassis provides a compact design for two drives and reduced chords, is easily upgraded as my space requirements increase.

Good luck.
 
Crashplan+. For 50 bucks a year, you get unlimited off-site storage and can restore files to an iPad/iPhone if the devices support it. CP also supports real-time file changes so it will monitor your drive for changes.

I have Crashplan backing up my entire 1 TB external in the event of a fire or break-in. Time Capsule will soon be used for Mac backups only.
 
Last edited:
Was about to suggest the same thing...

HazyCloud said:
Crashplan+. For 50 bucks a year, you get unlimited off-site storage and can restore files to an iPad/iPhone if the devices support it. CP also supports real-time file changes so it will monitor your drive for changes.

I have Crashplan backing up my entire 1 TB external in the event of a fire or break-in. Time Capsule will soon be used for Mac backups only.
Click to expand...
 
I don't use iTunes (I use MediaMonkey and Amazon MP3) but I keep all my music on a MyPassport external harddrive.
 
Carbonite.com - It is $59\year for unlimited storage. It monitors the directories you tell it to and it automatically uploads (incremental). You can then access you files online from any device.
 
Ive always just used external hard drives but lately Ive been looking at sites like crash plan because if there were to ever be a fire I wouldn't want to have to start my music collection all over again
 
Right now I have 3 externals, 1 contains the active iTunes library, 1 is the copy or backup of that library, and the 3rd is the time machine/carbon copy cloner drive that backs up everything else from the internal drive. But yea it's a pain to have that many externals, and I'm wondering if I would be better off just having an online backup service.
 
dexthageek said:
Carbonite.com - It is $59\year for unlimited storage. It monitors the directories you tell it to and it automatically uploads (incremental). You can then access you files online from any device.
Click to expand...

Carbonite as of last month didn't backup externals. For me, that's was a no go. My iTunes library and media is on an external and that's what needs to be backed up. For 9 bucks less a year, it was no-brainer going with Crashplan.

freediverdude said:
But yea it's a pain to have that many externals, and I'm wondering if I would be better off just having an online backup service.
Click to expand...

Do it. I have ONE external with it being backed up daily in real-time. If something bad happened, weather or robbery, you'd have nothing. Go with the peace of mind of having an offsite backup.

combatcolin said:
Well, i own the original CD's....

:cool:
Click to expand...

I have 12,400 songs in my iTunes library at the moment. I'd much rather download them again from an offsite backup than re-rip all of them.
 
TheMTtakeover said:
Ive always just used external hard drives but lately Ive been looking at sites like crash plan because if there were to ever be a fire I wouldn't want to have to start my music collection all over again
Click to expand...

an external drive stored at your parents' or friends' solves this problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back