[storer]

I need some help.

This christmas, I will be getting an iPod mini. When I receive it, however, i will be miles away from my machine with my iTunes collection on it. This collection has taken hours to build and customize, so;

Can I burn my entire collection to a DVD R and import into iTunes on my laptop with playlists and everything intact? Can I just burn the whole thing? Do I do it through iTunes Data Disc feature or through my cd program? How exactly do I do this? Then, if I can do this will I be able to sync it with my desktop when i get back, or is it tied to the notebook until it is reformatted?

Anyone's help to answer any of my questions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Storer

[DigitalEl]

I'm just thinking out loud here and certainly someone with concrete knowledge will soon chime in, but most peoples' Music Folders wouldn't fit on a CD. You'd need to somehow get your Music Folder onto the new machine for your playlists, et al to come over intact.

Would some sort of compression (.zip or .sit) file make this possible? I dunno.

Anyway, if you can get your entire Music Folder on a disc, it's as simple as putting it on the Mac your new iPod mini will sync to.

Anybody?

[Randman]

I take it your regular Mac isn't an iBook, but you have an iBook at hand? You could copy the library over to the iBook and sync it up. But you'll either have to keep it on the iBook or redo it once you get back.
Unless you're going to be away from a long time, bite the bullet and just do it the right away.
Of course, it's just a Mini, so you're not going to have more than 900 songs on it anyway. Now if you had a 60GB iPod photo with photo syncing, you'd be in for work.

[audvidsvs]

You can burn data cd's with your collection on it/them but I am not sure of the limit each one will hold.
I have gotten around 500 songs on a single data disk and I think there was room to spare.

Also it is not clear,do you have two macs?A desktop and a portable?

If you have both I would do as suggested above and move your library to the portable so you will have it with you when you get the mini. I am guessing you do have a portable or none of this will be possible anyway when the mini arrives.

[storer]

Answering questions:

These are 2 Windoze PCs, a laptop and a desktop. yes groan groan.

My iTunes Music Folder is only 2 GB so it will fit on a DVDR, so that will be fine.

So what I really want to know (sorry if it wasn't clear before) is if I can burn the entire collection to DVD in iTunes? And then can I import it into the other machine's iTunes with playlists intact, or do I need to recreate.

Thanks!
brendan

[iMacfan]

Yes, you can if the PC version is anything like the Mac version. Just make sure that the burning preference is set to Data CD/DVD, create a playlist with all your songs in it, and click burn disc. Then, put it into the other machine, open iTunes and select Add to Library from the menu, and hey presto!!

Hope this helps

David

[storer]

Its all been done successfully!

Thanks guys,
Brendan