Another Computer Question

[RUBigDog05]

Lately I have been putting old music onto my laptop to organize it by the type of music it is. I recently downloaded iTunes which is great for organizing it by artist name and great for the "party shuffle" feature. The problem I am having now is that I don't want to keep all the music on my computer but I also don't want to have it on multiple CD's because I might be doing some amateur DJing at a relatives b-day party and my own graduation party. This laptop that I'm using has a DVD burner so I was thinking since DVD's can hold like 4.6GB I could put my entire music collection on a DVD so it won't be on my computer all the time. Is this possible? When it came time to "DJ", could I put in the DVD and then open iTunes to play all the music from the "party shuffle"? I was going to look into an external hard drive by that is a little more than I wanted to spend. My other option is to buy a 1GB flash drive to store my music on but to get ALL of my music off my computer I would need a few of them which is just as much or even more as an external hard drive. Anyone have any suggestions for me? Could the music files be compressed somehow on my computer so they won't take up so much room? help me out, I know you all can like all the other times! Thanks

 

[betterdan]

As far as I know you could use a dvd full of mp3s. Make a main folder on the dvd then just dump all the mp3s in there. After opening ITunes click file then click add folder to library then browse and select the folder on the dvd and voila there you have it.

 

[JaredPointer]

What about an iPod mini? I think they are 4 or 5 gig. You could connect it via USB and play from it. Is that an option?

 

[cwcad]

here is another option. i have a 40 gig external hard drive at the house with power cord, usb connection chord and internal fan which my wife let me know she would part with for fifty dollars plus shipping costs. this is a setup that my wife made. she wanted to use a hard drive that she had setting around so she put it in a housing and it is ready to go. it is cheap and would suit your purposes.

just an option. do what you want.

 

[pappy]

i bought a 140 gig external hard drive for like 100 bucks after rebates... but i think its like 160 normally so i got a good deal on it...i just bought it at radio shak....i needed one fast so i just went there and it turned out great. just connects to usb port and u dont need any software or anything. i would just do the dvd cuz it would probally be ur easiest way of doin it. cuz u just have to select the cd when ur in ur program and it will pick it up and use it just like it was when it was sitting on ur puter.

 

[C_Rock77]

The only problem with using the DVD for the DJing gig is that it will take more time to access the data on the DVD than on the Hard Drive. I've noticed this when I've put any kind of data (Video, audio, etc) on an optical disc (CD or DVD) and try to play them in Windows Media Player....it just takes a while to access the files....takes a little longer than on the hard drive. I noticed this with some video files I had on my puter. It annoyed me to the point that I just bought a larger HD to slave to my primary drive. Now, I don't have to worry ANY about how much data I store on my HD.

An external USB 2.0 Hard drive would be an AWESOME solution to this. That 40 GB external HD would be great! Have you ever thought about how many MP3s you can fit on a 40 GB HD?