How do I back up my music?

C

Cindy

I need some help please. I have over 1300 songs in Dell Musicmatch. I
know I need to back them up, but I have no idea how to do this.
I use a MP3 player, and I have put music on the 1 GB memory card that is
with my MP3 player. I was able to that, but I have never worked with a USB
flash drive.
Do I buy a USB flash drive and copy all my music to it as a backup? If
so....I have no idea how to do that. I have a Dell computer Dimension 4700.
There is a slot in the front to insert the flash drive. I made the mistake
of not having a DVD slot put on the computer, I have only a CD slot as I
knew I would not be watching movies on my computer, I know..... a big
mistake.
Thank you for any help. It is much appreciated.
 
B

Bert Kinney

Hi Cindy,

Place the memory card into the notebook and copy all the files to a folder
on the desktop. This is actually a form of backing up. The music files are
in more than one place now.

The safest way to backup the music files is to burn them to a CD and move
them to a safe place, or two. Do you have the ability to burn CD's with the
Dell 4700 notebook? And if so is there burning software installed?

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

I need some help please. I have over 1300 songs in Dell Musicmatch. I
know I need to back them up, but I have no idea how to do this.
I use a MP3 player, and I have put music on the 1 GB memory card that is
with my MP3 player. I was able to that, but I have never worked with a USB
flash drive.
Do I buy a USB flash drive and copy all my music to it as a backup? If
so....I have no idea how to do that. I have a Dell computer Dimension 4700.
There is a slot in the front to insert the flash drive. I made the mistake
of not having a DVD slot put on the computer, I have only a CD slot as I
knew I would not be watching movies on my computer, I know..... a big
mistake.
Click to expand...


You can copy the music files to a CD, or multiple CDs, if they don't
fit on one.

Having a CD burner instead of a combination CD/DVD burner was perhaps
a mistake, but not necessarily a *big* mistake. You can replace what
you have with a combination CD/DVD burner for $40 US or so.
 
C

Cindy

Hi Bert,
Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I do not have a
notebook computer, my computer is a full size with a monitor and a hard
drive on a computer table.
I have over 4 GB of music, if I burn all of the music to CD's that
sounds like a lot of CD's to me to buy and a lot of hours to make copies of
the music. Yes I have the ability to burn CD's and have done that lots of
time.
Wouldn't it be better to put the music on a USB flash drive and save it
that way? I can buy a 4 GB and possibly a 2 GB USB flash drive which
would give me more space if I want to add more songs to my collection.
What do you think?
Thank you
Cindy
 
B

Bert Kinney

Hi Cindy,

You're welcome and sorry about the notebook mix-up.

40 GB's of music files should fit on about 6 CD's. That should not take to
long to burn.

Backing up to a flash drive is another option. If you go this route, you
could alway find a PC with a DVD burner and burn the files from the flash
drive to a DVD for safe keeping.


Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org
 
C

Cindy

Hello to all,
No way could I get all my music on 7 CD's. I have 1420 songs. I am
getting about 23 on each CD. That figures out to approx. 62 CD's to
save all my music. Again, I appreciate your help, I just want to be doing
the easiest and the best way to save a copy of all my music.
Sincerely,
Cindy
 
J

JS

I though you said in an earlier post that you had 4GB worth of music files.
I don't mean creating a playable (Music CD) but a data CD with the files
burned to it.

JS
 
B

Bert Kinney

Hi Cindy,

That's because your burning them to create a audio CD. Burn them as data
file files and you will get 700 to 800 MB's of files on one disk.

If there MP3 files, most new home DVD player will play these CD's also.

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org
 
J

JS

OK, how many files are in the folder where your music is stored and the size
of a typical and largest file.
Also what is the file extension (.mp3, Etc.).

JS
 
C

Cindy

OK Bert, I think I finally got it:) Below are instructions taken from Dell
Musicmatch which talks about data files. I was not aware of them as I never
had a reason to use or make data files before. Thank you again for
everyone's help.
Cindy
Create MP3 or Data CDs
1.. Click the Burn to CD button to open Burner Plus.

(You may also open a saved Playlist and then click the Burn button under
the Playlist. ( "CD-R" button on some older skins).

2.. Change the type of disk you're going go create by clicking the button
Tools>Disk>Change Type, and choose either Audio, MP3, or Data.

3.. Add tracks or files to the Burner Plus window by clicking the Add
button or by dragging and dropping files from anywhere on your computer
into the burner window.

4.. Click the Burn button in the Burner Plus window, the CD will be
created and eject once complete.

As you add files the capacity indicator will neutral indicating you have
space on the CD media. If the indicator turns red you have gone over
capacity and you'll need to remove tracks, or use SmartSplit).

You may reorder files in the Burner window by dragging and dropping each
file to a new location in the burn order.



See also
 
H

Harry Ohrn

Copy the .mp3 files directly to CD-R as .mp3 files. You should be able to
get about 150 .mp3 files per CD-R depending on the size of each file. You
can easily restore them back to your hard drive when needed by simply drag
and drop them from the CD-R back to your hard drive.

An .mp3 or .wma file is actually a compressed file. When you create an audio
CD from .mp3 files the burning program, in your case musicmatch, converts
the .mp3 to back to it's expanded size. Which is why you can only get around
20 files on a CD-R. But if you simply burn the .mp3 files to disc as data
you can then retain the .mp3 format and take advantage of the compressed
size.

If you don't have decent software that will burn data try the free
CDBurnerXP program http://www.cdburnerxp.se/features.php . Use the option to
burn a data disk and not the option to burn audio
 

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