I’m not a computer guy.
I want to back up my iTunes (1500 songs) and some photos from my Mac. Will a 1 gig flash drive be enough? If not how much memory would I need?
Steven
How much memory are you using now? That’s how much you need. You do know how to read file sizes, don’t you?
A typical MP3 song file is 3MB or a little more. Can’t say for your pix, as they could be tiny or humungous. So, roughly, 3MB * 1500 songs ~= 5000MB.
No, 1 GB will not be enough.
If each song was only 1MB (a random mp3 from my hard drive was about 3MB) you would need 1.47 GB of space for 1500 songs. 4.4 GB’s of space would be enough if each song was 3 MB.
The best way to figure out how much space you would need is to copy all of the files you need to transfer into a folder on your desktop and figure out how much data is in there (I’m not familiar with how to do that on mac’s).
-No. I opened iTunes but was unable to find the indiviual song file size or the combined library file size.
I know it sounds pathetic but I just don’t understand computers that well.
Steven
If they’re all in the same directory(or beneath the same directory) – say something like /home/hypo/mp3s – then you can find out how much space you’ll need by opening a terminal and typing:
du --si -s /home/hypo/mp3s
That should tell you how much space you need in flash-gigabytes(yes, there are different “kinds” of gigabytes, because hard drive and flash manufacturers like ripping people off).
If that command failed, try
du -s /home/hypo/mp3s
Divide the number it gives you by 1000000000 to get the number of gigabytes you’ll need.
In iTunes, if you click on your music library and select “All Artists, All Albums” so that all your songs are visible in the list, you will see the total size of your library displayed in the bottom-center portion of the iTunes window.
For instance, mine says “1338 items, 3.9 days, 6.59 GB”. If you click on a particular album or playlist, this figure will update to display the size of only the items that comprise it.
As for your photos, I don’t think iPhoto has an equivalent feature. You can do as AHarris suggested - create a folder on your desktop, drag the pictures you want to save directly from the iPhoto window into that folder, then select the folder and click File->Get Info (or press Apple-I). The total size of the folder will be displayed in the window that appears.
You can also drag songs from iTunes into that folder, if you wish to do everything at once.
Absolute’s suggestion sounds way easier, but be careful. Dollars to donuts iTunes is reporting the total size in binary gigabytes, not decimal gigabytes(which is what flash manufacturers use). To convert binary gigabytes to decimal gigabytes, multiply by 1.074. Also, be sure to leave yourself some extra space, as some of the flash drive’s space will be used for storing bookkeeping data(this isn’t specific to flash; all types of file storage will have to use some space for bookkeeping).
I can only help you with Windows computers. You mentioned a Mac, but you didn’t say all files were on that.
On Win, using “My Computer” or any browser like Explorer, find the folder where the tunes are stored (might be multiple folders, either do them one a time or select the parent, if you are so lucky as to have them organized that way). Select all the files you want (you do know how to “select”, don’t you?). Right-click on the selected group, select “properties” and you will get the file size(s).
Sounds like a dual-layer DVD drive is the way to go.
If you want to back up your library, the current version of iTunes has an option in the file menu. If you have an external hard drive, or a CD or DVD burner, you can backup that way. Go to iTunes, open File —> Back Up to Disk. Navigate the options. The files themselves are stored by default in your Music folder. You can just copy over the whole iTunes folder (located in the Music folder) to an external drive if you want to do it directly. I suggest going through the menu option since there’s more hand-holding and guidance that way.
I’m betting that your music library is a lot bigger than 1 GB. I mostly rip music at higher than the default, 160 or 192 kbps in AAC format, and with the 2500 songs or so that I’ve got, my iTunes library is about 16.5 GB. Even at 128 kbps (default for ripping with iTunes) you’d have several GB worth of data. If you use burnable CDs you’ll need about 1.5 disks per GB. Depending on how much you’ve got, 1 or 2 burnable DVDs could hold all your stuff. If your Mac was bought in the last couple of years, I’m betting that it has at least a Combo Drive, which will burn CDs, though not DVDs. The more expensive Super Drive, available on some models of Macintoshes, is a CD/DVD drive.
Flash memory drives do not come in high enough capacities to handle this amount of data, unless you’re willing to spend a lot more than other solutions. A second hard disk is probably cheaper, faster, and more reliable over time than an external CD/DVD burner, if you don’t already have a drive that can handle burning media.
iPhoto also has a backup option in its File menu. Your iPhoto library is in your Photos folder by default, so you could copy that directly too, if you want.
Thanks Sleel. I’m off to buy an external hard drive.
Steven