iPod® and iTunes® for Dummies®, 7th Edition

Chapter 15. Gimme Shelter for My Media

In This Chapter

• Choosing the format and settings for burning a disc

• Burning an audio CD, an MP3 CD, or a data DVD

• Locating and backing up files in the iTunes library

• Backing up your entire iTunes library

You might think that your digital content is safe, stored as-is, on your iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, and hard drive. However, demons in the night are working overtime to render your hard drive useless — and at the same time, someone left your iPod out in the rain, your iPhone can't phone home, and your Apple TV is on the fritz.

Copyright law and common sense prohibit you from using copyrighted content and then selling it to someone else. However, with iTunes, you're allowed to make copies of music, videos, audio books, and podcasts that you own for personal use, including copies for backup purposes.

This chapter boils down everything you need to know about burning your own discs to make copies of your content. I burn audio CDs or MP3 CDs to make safety copies of songs I buy from the iTunes Store. I also like to custom-mix songs from different artists and albums onto an audio or MP3 CD.

I burn data DVDs to back up my video files — and I also copy my entire iTunes library to another hard drive as a backup, as I describe in this chapter. This operation is very important, especially if you've purchased items that don't exist anywhere else in your collection but on your computer. That way, even if your hard drive fails, you still have your iTunes library.