[icibaqu]

Hi there,

I've done some searches and perhaps I'm not using the right terms -- so I'll ask.

the situation seems commonplace enough. an older ibook with a 40gb hard drive, a newer iphoto with 30gb storage space and the issue of whether you can just keep music on your ipod but still be able to organize it without having it saved on your hard drive....

is that possible? can you reimport music to your HD when you've put it on your ipod, or does autosynching it only go from the HD to the ipod? if so, is there a simple crack/work around/method to bring the music back from your ipod (one that the generally computer disinterested/illeterate could easily master?)

and once you put music on your ipod, can you put it on cd? i guess the reason behind my asking is what is the best way to create a backup (in the event that the ipod dies). i mean, all the itunes music store music doesn't have a CD from which i originally imported it. so when i buy off the music store do i just have to immediately create a cd to back up? seems so, right?

anyhow -- so basically i'd like to know how to go from the HD to the ipod and back without having the music saved on my HD (seeing as that the iphoto is 3/4ths the size of the ibook in storage capacity). that way it's easier to later reorganize playlists, etc.

any help would be appreciated.

[icibaqu]

crickets chirping bump

no one knows???

[Randman]

You can manually manage your iPod but you can't very easily pull items back to the hard drive without a third-party app (and you always run the risk of iTunes not accepting the software hack or messing with the music).

For your questions, it's been covered in many, many threads.

For a backup, I copy my music to an external hard drive but I've also burnt DVDs with the collection and I keep that away from home in case something ever happened. It takes a little time the first time but later backups are cake.

For that, I create a smart playlist and set the date to the last backup, Then when I need to backup new music, I know exactly what needs to be copied.

[JMan09]

Randman do you keep your music on you computer and an external drive or just on the external and burnt dvds. thanks.

[Randman]

I used to keep it on an external but after getting a mini as the family 'puter, I have the library on it. It's about 45GB of music. I keep about 10GB at anytime on my PB . I also have the music files burnt to DVD just in case.