I have a large collection of music files and want to organize them properly on an external hard drive. What folder structure and backup method do you recommend for keeping music files organized and protecting them from accidental data loss?
What type of external drive do you have? I have two WDMYCLOUDS, a 1st and a 2nd generation. My music is saved on them the same way they are on my computer. Both have Twonky too.
Double click on images to enlarge them.
Example image from my 2nd generation WDMYCLOUD.
Example image of Twonky, 2nd generation WDMYCLOUD.
You can keep the external drive simple with folders like Artist > Album > Year and use consistent file names such as 01 Song Title. For protection, you can keep the main library on the external drive and maintain a second copy on another drive rather than relying on one backup. You can also enable Windows File History for the computer if the music is stored locally. One extra thing you can do is periodically check the backup by opening a few files from it, since a backup is only useful if the files can actually be restored. Stellar Data Recovery is only worth considering if you accidentally delete the music or the drive becomes inaccessible and you need to recover files.
