[roloru]

My iTunes folder contains iTunes Library, Music, Music Library.xml, Temp, Temp 1, Temp 2, Temp 3, Temp 4, Temp 5, Temp 6, and Previous iTunes Libraries. What are all these? If I wish to archive my collection onto a CD or DVD, which of these do I burn, or is it all of them?

[ftaok]

If the file sizes are small, why not just burn the entire folder? As long as your iTunes folder is smaller than 4.3GBs, you're golden.

[Rcovell]

I recently finished loading my music CD's onto my iMac HD. Took hours of course, so I wanted a backup. I ended up choosing to make a Data CD. They hold more than audio CD's and I was able to get all of my 650 songs on 2 CD's. These CD's will not play on a regular CD player, but, I'm just interested in being able to load them into my Mac and recover them if iTunes or the computer itself has a problem. If you want to try it, look at iTunes preferences>burning and check Data CD. Then, you select the tunes you want to backup, maybe even 'select all' and click on Burn. Bob.

[sereluna]

In reply to:

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As long as your iTunes folder is smaller than 4.3GBs, you're golden

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Why 4.3GB?

[ftaok]

That's the max capacity of a DVD+/-R.

[sereluna]

4.7GB in SI speak and ~4.3GB in actual byte capacity?

[ftaok]

Exactly. Just like hard drive, the DVD manufacturers use the 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. So a blank DVD really has about 4.3 to 4.4 GB.

[Argent]

In reply to:

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If I wish to archive my collection onto a CD or DVD, which of these do I burn, or is it all of them?

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The only ones you need are the iTunes Library file, the iTunes Music Library.xml file, and the iTunes Music folder. The first two are for your iTunes playlists. If you don't care about saving those, then you only need to burn the music folder to a disk.
Alternatively, as Rcovell posted, you can simply create 4.3GB playlists of the songs/albums you want to archive and burn your disk directly from within iTunes. Under Preferences > Burning, make sure that the disk format is set to Data CD or DVD.