Jazz Odyssey

There have been a number of posts and blog entries over the last few days describing some installation issues with iTunes 5.0. While some people were able to upgrade without any problems, a number of people are reporting that their libraries have disappeared, or in some rare cases, the installation has has trashed Windows entirely.

Some of these issues are to be expected with any “dot zero” software release. I generally wait until a piece of software is in .1 or .2 revisions before installing. In other cases, the nature of the Windows operating system is as much to blame. Over time, as you install more and more programs the operating system itself becomes cluttered and less stable. A $30 Windows registry cleaner and the occasional disk defragment are quick, easy and can help things remain fairly stable. But the thing that can save the day that most folks don’t do is *BACK UP*. There’s really no excuse for not doing it at this point–a big external hard drive (250 gig) can be found for under $150 and most of them include backup software in the package. Once you’ve set it up, you can just leave the drive attached and have the software back up your files overnight. With a drive that size, you can easily back up an entire digital music collection, along with digital photos and important documents. A drive that size could back up your entire PC, allowing you to restore things to where they were in the event of a crash or virus.

The upsides to a digital music collection are many, but the reality is that hard drives fail. Software upgrades crash. Operating systems get flaky. The only way to prevent you from having to re-rip or reaquire your digital music collection is to back it up.