Using TuneSpan to back up iTunes Files on More Than One External Drive
What I like most about Tunespan is that it frees up space on my iMac internal hard drive. I noticed this when I used Tunespan to transfer files of movies and TV programs to an external hard disk.
I always have an external hard disk connected to my iMac that is partitioned. One of these partitions is a duplicate of all the files on my iMac disk; the other is used by Time Machine to create a daily versioned disk of files that I can access past versions of.
The external disk if 1TB in size while my iMac disk is only 500 GB. So this arrangement works pretty well. I have two of these 1TB external drives and exchange them on a weekly basis so that at any given time one of them is in a remote location.
So you can see I like to keep my files backed up. What I would like to do, though I don't know if it's possible to do this, is to make 3 partitions on my external disks and use the third partition to store my TV and movie iTunes files and use TuneSpan to move them there.
After testing TuneSpan with yet another 500 GB external drive I have, I wondered whether it's feasible to use TuneSpan to put my iTunes TV and movie files on each of my 1TB external drives. That way I not only save space on my iMac internal disk, but I also back these files up onto two separate drives.
What worries me is that when I use TuneSpan the iTunes movies and TV files are no longer on my iMac disk. So it appears that I cannot use TuneSpan to move them a second time to a second external drive. So I'm not sure this strategy can really work.
Am I right about this? If not, is there a way to use TuneSpan to back up iTunes files on two separate hard drives? By markaw
The same question
Thanks for getting in touch... at this point, it isn't convenient to use TuneSpan to just backup media files. But I have thought about including a backup mode. It would be pretty straight forward, just copying the files and not updating the locations in iTunes. But, I have a few other things that I have been focusing on and more that I want to do in TuneSpan before I may get around to including this feature.
Theoretically, you could span your media to a second disk WITHOUT having TuneSpan trash original files, and then span back WITHOUT having it trash original files again. That would leave the originals on the second disk but while having iTunes know the location on the first disk. I know that it round-about. And it requires you adjust the file cleanup settings in TuneSpan, which is a setting you would want ON for normal spans. So, it is possible, not not straightforward or convenient. Let me know if that makes sense, or you want more info about this.
But, you can also have Time Machine backup external drives. It may be more convenient to just add your "span drive" to Time Machine and let it take care of it all.
Also, I will continue to think more about adding a backup mode to TuneSpan, but I cannot give any timeline or guarantees at this point.
Sorry it took my a while to get back to you. Again, thank you for your interest and for getting in touch.
Thanks for getting in touch... at this point, it isn't convenient to use TuneSpan to just backup media files. But I have thought about including a backup mode. It would be pretty straight forward, just copying the files and not updating the locations in iTunes. But, I have a few other things that I have been focusing on and more that I want to do in TuneSpan before I may get around to including this feature.
Theoretically, you could span your media to a second disk WITHOUT having TuneSpan trash original files, and then span back WITHOUT having it trash original files again. That would leave the originals on the second disk but while having iTunes know the location on the first disk. I know that it round-about. And it requires you adjust the file cleanup settings in TuneSpan, which is a setting you would want ON for normal spans. So, it is possible, not not straightforward or convenient. Let me know if that makes sense, or you want more info about this.
But, you can also have Time Machine backup external drives. It may be more convenient to just add your "span drive" to Time Machine and let it take care of it all.
Also, I will continue to think more about adding a backup mode to TuneSpan, but I cannot give any timeline or guarantees at this point.
Sorry it took my a while to get back to you. Again, thank you for your interest and for getting in touch.
Replies have been locked on this page!