External hard drive queries..

[Adamm.]

Right so I'm a complete computer r****d so have no idea whats good and whats not so just wanting a bit of advice..

Basicly the situation is I have 2 laptops both faulty but can be switched on and used a reasonable amount. Now I was thinking of selling them on as spares or repair but don't want to loose all my current music/photos etc. Can I just buy an external hard drive plug it into a usb and simply move everything I want to keep over? Is it as simple as dragging them over?

What about my itunes library? I have about 15GB of music which I'd like to try and keep (not crucial as most of its old s**t I don't listen to anymore would just be annoying as I'd have to restart my whole music collection)

With that said above what would people advise? It doesn't need to be fancy just needs to be able to store all my stuff ready for when I buy a PC or laptop in the future.

Any help is much appreciated, Thank you

 

[DrR]

Just plug it in, drag over, job done.

​no idea on iTunes though as it's the most over complicated thing ever.

 

[Thrill]

Wont your iTunes library be just local files on your pc? Copy those files over then re import them to iTunes.

 

[jonty172cup]

^^ this ^^

Use Windows explorer to literally drag and drop the files .. provided you have WinXP or later pretty much any USB device will install itself as soon as it's plugged in / turned on and will then appear in Windows explorer after a few seconds. When choosing the USB device just watch out for compatibility .. unless your laptop is less than two years old or more than 10 years old it will most likely have USB 2.0, the new standard though is USB 3.0 (denoted by blue USB ports) and lots of devices are USB 3.0 and backwards compatible with USB 2.0 (according to the standard all USB 3.0 devices are at least electrically forwards and backwards compatible .. but in reality I've read of issues so if you choose a USB 3.0 device probably safest if it states compatible with USB 2.0).

Depending on how much stuff you need to transfer ...
- external hard drives are cheap per GB (c.£40 for 500GB, c.£50 for twice that!?) store LOTS and are pretty quick (the bottle neck will likely be the speed of the USB on the laptops)
- USB thumb drives are smaller / more convenient / more reusable but generally slower and more expensive per GB (c.£25 for 64GB)

I think since iTunes removed DRM (Digital Rights Management .. the "encryption" that tied the songs to your device) a few years back you can just locate the files and copy them across same as everything else and then just use the add to library function on the new laptop once you get them there (a quick Google suggests you might need the new laptop to have the same apple account credentials in iTunes as the old ones) .... I'm not an apple user tho so anyone who is might want to correct me on that!

 

[LiamR172]

Ive got an external HD i could sell you if your interested

 

[Mikeyjp]

if u only have 15gig of music buy a usb stick

 

[Adamm.]

Cheers for the help chaps, I'll probably go for an actual external hard drive as they're not that much more expensive and I'd rather have too much space than not enough. Very helpful post that thanks Jonty.

Yeah I think I know where all the itunes stuff is stored in files, will probably take an age to reorganise it all though lol!

Ive got an external HD i could sell you if your interested

Could be mate, is it any good? And how much? Cheers all.

 

[Paprika123]

There's a guide on the Apple support site for moving your iTunes library whilst retaining your play count etc. It is very simple to do.

 

[LiamR172]

Could be mate, is it any good? And how much? Cheers all.

Couldnt tell you mate, its 250GB. I bought it from Gally a while back but ive never used it.

I paid 30 so you can take it for 30 posted?

Its a Maxtor OneTouch4.

Ill give you my usb lead for it aswell.

 

[zeta]

Sorry for hijack but if anyone else is after an ext hdd I have loads kicking about

 

[Adamm.]

Spot on Liam I'll fire you a PM just now thanks

Cheers for that too paprika I'll have a look for the guide.

 

[Blighty]

Some good brand new ones for £40, get 500-750gb for that

 

[Adamm.]

Hmmm, I'll look into. this computer blocks a load of sites so I'll have a look on another one at 20:00.

Have just read some bad reviews though about them not working after a couple weeks etc. I'd imagine cheap ones will be prone to breaking too.

 

[Blighty]

What's your price range mate?

 

[Adamm.]

Wouldn't really want to spend more than I need to.. Anywhere between £30-£50 I guess.

As long as its reliable that's all that matters tbh.

 

[zeta]

Will do £25 delivered for 500gb and £35 delivered for 1tb. They have been used a few times but work perfect. Can get model numbers etc when I'm home

 

[Blighty]

You can get a new 1tb for £50-55, 500gb for £40. Up to you if you want to buy new or used I guess.