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How to manage a big itunes library?

I have had a mac mini running itunes for about 2 1/2 years now. The inevitable has happened, my first drive has failed, at least it's icon has stopped showing on the desktop and I can't access the files.

I had a feeling this would eventually happen. I have the files backed up, but this does create a headache to fix it. The files were originally ripped on 250GB drives and the backups are on 500s. I have 5 250GB drives and one 500GB drive, all pretty much full. I have a pretty big collection, about 5000 or so CDs.

I need advise on a solid solution for this type of setup. There are some pretty big drives comming out but I just don't know what would be the best option.

Also this might seem stupid, but I am wondering if there would be any loss in quality in a copy of the original rip vs the original???
128x128ejlif
ejlif's avatar
ejlif OP
1,243 posts
 
OK, so I am going to get the WD mybook, the one with the firewire connection. I will just keep all my Lacie drives for now as backup. I have ripped my collection and as each drive filled up have gone to the next one. I have a total of 5 250gb drives and one 500 now filled so I will have a little room to grow and will be backed up with all the Lacie drives I have now, besides they aren't worth crap anyway so I might just as well save them for my backup. If the WD drive is nice I'll get another one and use it for new rips and backing up new rips.

It has a 5 year warranty so they must be somewhat sure that it will last.
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drubin
3,240 posts
 
If you are running USB out of your Mac Mini to the Paradisea, you may hear an improvement if your storage is connected via Firewire rather than USB. At least that's what some people claim.
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jwynacht
20 posts
 
And speaking of storage, good articles to read here:

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/21/1716207

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/21/2126252
ejlif's avatar
ejlif OP
1,243 posts
 
Yeah I'm getting the firewire version.
thomasedison
34 posts
 
This sounds like a good solution, and I see good deals currently on that WD Mybook. If you are planning to upgrade your Mac in the next couple of years you may want to keep the following in mind about Firewire drives.

Apple just phased out Firewire in their new aluminum MacBooks. So far their other current models still have Firewire, but there is speculation that they are planning on eliminating FW from their other model upgrades. See this article:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/the-macbook-makeover/?em
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