Topic: Storing/Backing up music from CD&CDR's

[eddie20850]

It's pretty basic I know, but I am looking for simple/safe way to store music that I'll rip from CDs.  I have had a few problems transferring stuff (lot's) from released CDs (store bought prerecorded albums) to iTunes then to external drives and also duplicating some of those backups.  I'm considering simplifying by getting a Macbook Air and a Mac external CD drive.  I would then 'backup' iTunes to an external HDD.  Or to Cloud storage. I think I understand that backing up/moving iTunes libraries can fragment some of the info i.e. song info etc.  I also have a analog DAT clone collection and want to safely put those on a HDD using a 1st Gen D10(RCA out only lol) or Tascam DA-P1.  What would you do?  I have several hundred hours of bt.etree.org shows downloaded and am comfortable storing/moving those.  Any advantage to keeping to one platform for iTunes as in using Mac computer?  Maybe it's a excuse to buy a Mac though I know some may advise against it.  Thanks for an input.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

I'm not really sure exactly what you want to do, but I'll give it a go.

At this point I rip CD's to FLAC with EAC. If you're on a Mac I think the best option is XLD. Both require you set up the programs to get the best results. I figured it was worth the extra time to set up EAC perfectly so I don't ever have to go through ripping 400+ CD's again.

For EAC I use this guide: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=EAC_Lossless_Backup

Someone else will have to chime in for an XLD setup guide.


I have no idea how to convert DAT's as I skipped over DAT. I'm sure that info is around here somewhere.


As for storage, I keep all of my data duplicated (nightly) to 2 identical hard drives. Also I keep another identical drive off site (currently these live in my safe deposit box at the bank).

Again, I'm on Windows 7 so that's all I know about. I use SyncToy from Microsoft (free) to run my nightly backups. This does require a little configuration, but it's not too hard to do.

I used this guide: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/25046/schedule-synctoy-to-run-automatically-with-task-scheduler-in-windows-7/

In addition I have all of my favorite music stored on Google Music in MP3 form (all 320kbps MP3's). This isn't a great backup option because you can only download each file 2 times...but I figure the more places you have your data backed up the better...and obviously it's nice to be able to stream it all to my smartphone and to my work computer.

[H₂O]

For DAT the easiest option may be to get a used full size deck w/ SPDIF COAX out and a used m-audio micro track (which are pretty cheap now a days - How many tapes?


For cd xfers EAC or XLD are the only way to go IMO