Music Library Manager > Backup Music Files

It can take many hours, or even years, to digitize your CDs and LPs. So you should always keep a backup of all your tracks in case your computer explodes, gets nicked, or your children re-format the hard drive to make space for the latest "Teddybears of Death" or "Vampire Guineapigs" games (currently under development at MattLabs).

The 'Backup Music Files' feature makes an incremental backup of your music files onto an external hard drive. It also makes a backup copy of the open database file in the destination directory, with the date/time appended to the file name, e.g. "libraryname_yymmddhhmmss.muman2". Keep this backup drive in a safe place, but don't do what I did and forget where you hid the damned thing.

'Incremental backup' means that only the files which have been added or changed are updated.

The Source Directory should be your music files root directory.

Enter the drive letter and directory name of your backup drive as the Destination Directory. Use something like "d:\Music Backup" (where d: is the backup drive letter), so you don't confuse it with your main music directory "d:\Music Files", or with the "Music" directory on your main Windows drive. Use the '+' browse button for this because the drive letter may change for removable drives.

Now press the Start Compare button. This will compare all the files in the Source Directory with the files in the Destination Directory. This creates a list of all the new and changed files.

All new or modified files will be backed up. You can uncheck the checkboxes to the left of any files which you don't want to backup, but normally you will backup everything. Press the Start Backup button to copy the checked files to the backup directory.

To restore your backed-up files, you can do an Import from the backup directory.

Tip: Use a USB 3 or faster connection. It makes a big difference to the speed.

Source Directory

This is normally your music files directory root, "d:\Music Files", so you don't need to change it.

Destination Directory

The backup directory is normally on an external hard drive. The drive letter can change for removable drives, so you should always verify it by using the '+' browse button. The recommended directory name is "d:\Music Backup" (where d: is the drive letter), so you don't confuse it with your main music directory "d:\Music Files", or with the Window's "Music" directory.

Start Compare button

This starts comparing the music files in the Source Directory with the files in the Destination Directory. This creates a list of all the new and changed files.

Start/Stop Backup button

Starts the backup to copy the checked music files from your music files directory to the destination directory. The directory structure is also created on the destination drive. This button changes into the Stop Backup button during the backup. If it changes into anything else then you are probably hallucinating.