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How to Back Up iTunes to a USB Flash Drive

iTunes includes a Back Up to Disc option under the File menu. It guides you through the steps needed to back up your playlists, audio and video files to a CD or DVD for safekeeping, in case your hard drive goes bad and takes your media collection with it.

As an alternative, you can drag copies of your iTunes file to an external hard drive or USB flash drive. Once you have your backup drive connected to the computer, you need to find your iTunes files:

Windows XP or 2000 My Documents > My Music > iTunes folder.

Vista Music folder > iTunes.

Mac Home folder > Music > iTunes.

Dragging the entire iTunes folder to your external drive icon makes a copy of your media files, playlists, album artwork folder and library database. If you don’t have room for all that and just want to back up selected albums or songs, open the folder called iTunes Music, which is inside the main iTunes folder. The tracks are sorted into folders by artist name with album folders inside, so find the files you want to back up and drag them to your external drive.

Tags: back up, iTunes