As I’ve previously written, I got an 80GB iPOD last Friday, and have been busily loading it up (when not out of town) since then. This process consists of loading a stack of CDs into my computer, then copying them out to the iPod, and then deleting them off my computer. I don’t keep them in iTunes because I don’t want to take up most of my disk with the music. So far, I’ve copied 17.4GB of music to the iPod, consisting of 5930 songs, or some incredibly large number of albums. I still have a lot to go; I figure I’m a third to slightly under half done.
However, the time it has taken me to do all of this is making me realize that I need a backup. I also need to be careful about “sync”ing, for iTunes seems to think if it isn’t in its library on the PC, it should be deleted off the iPod. My home PC has the iPod set to manual sync mode, so I’m safe there. This raises a few questions:
- If I was to connect my iPod on a different computer, how do I prevent iTunes from trying to sync immediately?
- For backup, I’m thinking of buying an external hard drive to store the backup of the music (or to perhaps serve as the iTunes repository). The question then become how to get the music safely off the iPod. I’ve found a few references to a program called iPod Access. Has anyone tried this program? It sounds like it would fit the bill to backup the iPod, or even to permit repopulation of an iTunes library from the iPod.
Well, back to the ripping…
ETA: A useful google ad let me to another possible software package: iPodCopy. Has anyone used this?