Appols if this is well known....

I have been agonising how to succesfully back up my growing mp3 collection from my pc. The tracks are arranged in a complete nest of subfolders of different sizes. By chance i discovered that my copy of Nero 6 has a backup tool and it works a treat!! - point it at the folder / subfolders you want and tell it you want to use the DVD drive.

It does all the working out about which folders to put on which disc, so that they are efficiently filled up and then calculates how many DVD's you need and simply propmts you to insert blank discs when needed - brilliant..

I used a new pack of DVD+RW and it even formats each disc before burning and has an option to verify the data on each disc after burning.

[extremelydodgy]

I rotate two USB2.0 hard disks and use Foldermatch. It's saved me on a few occasions where different music management software have gone on the rampage in my library.

[JohnG]

I would agree on the USB2 (or firewire) external hard drive routes. You can use old drives in external caddies as well if you want to do it on the cheap.
Edit - just thinking about it, if you already have Nero with it's backup utility it would be even cheaper with the 1st suggestion of using DVD+RWs to do it.

Originally Posted by JohnG

I would agree on the USB2 (or firewire) external hard drive routes. You can use old drives in external caddies as well if you want to do it on the cheap.
Edit - just thinking about it, if you already have Nero with it's backup utility it would be even cheaper with the 1st suggestion of using DVD+RWs to do it.

Exactly - thats why i so like this method - 5 DVD+RW disks for under a fiver and i can back up 21gig. Its also portable and i can take my collection to another pc.