Vinyl records. Eight-track tapes. Cassette tapes. Compact discs. Media storage has always evolved in terms of storing and playing our music. Now that the digital age has dawned, our music libraries can reach thousands of songs yet be stored in a few-inches-long memory stick, also referred to as a flash or USB drive. The interconnectivity of being able to store iTunes media, or iTunes itself, on our computers and transferring it to our iPods or memory sticks allows us to have a mobile music library.
Ensure that your memory stick has enough storage. As a general rule, one minute of music occupies one megabyte of space. Most songs are between three and four minutes. So for each gigabyte of storage you will be able to hold about 250 songs. Memory sticks range from two to 32 gigabytes. One way to determine exactly how much space you will need is to right-click on your "Music" folder or iTunes icon, and select "Properties." This will tell you the size of that folder.
Plug your memory stick into your computer's USB port.
Locate the folder where you store your music files. Windows automatically places music files into your "Music" folder. Right-click on the folder and select "Send To" and click on "Removable Drive." This will automatically download your entire iTunes music library to your memory stick. Using the "Send To" feature works well because it copies only the music to the memory stick, leaving the original files on your computer's hard drive.
Plug the memory stick into one of your computer's USB ports. Almost any memory stick will be sufficient if you are just downloading the iTunes program because the file is about 80 megabytes, depending on the version.
Locate the "iTunesSetup.exe" file on your computer. When you downloaded iTunes from the Internet it was most likely stored in your "Downloads" folder. If you do not see the file in the "Downloads" folder you can search for the file by opening the Windows icon in the bottom left of your screen and using the "Search programs and files" box. You can also download a fresh copy of iTunes and then notate where your computer is saving the file (see Resources).
Right-click "iTunesSetup.exe." Select "Send To" and click on the appropriate "Removable Drive." This will automatically download the iTunes set-up program to your memory stick.
- If you do not have a USB port, you can buy a connector at an electronics store.
- Copying the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file will save all your library and playlist information.