And yet another stupid computer question because, dammit, sometimes I fear the delete button

jonahpwlljonahpwll
edited July 2010 in General
Once I import Amie St. songs into my iTunes library, is there any reason I shouldn't delete the files out of my Downloads folder? No, right? I should delete them. I mean, there's a copy in my iTunes Library folder, yeah?

Emusic and Amazon aren't an issue because they go straight onto iTunes. Amie, otoh, seem to hit the Download folder weigh station until I use the iTunes "Add to Library" function.
I didn't realize all these files were accumulating on my hard drive.

Comments

  • cafreemacafreema
    I delete the zip files, but have left the unzipped versions. Not sure if I'm required to or not.

    Craig
  • amclark2amclark2
    There's, I think, a setting in ITunes, which determines whether it copies everything to the ITunes folder or not. On my computer Amie Street stuff is all only in the Amie Street folder. (and emusic stuff is in the emusic folder and Amazon stuff in the Amazon folder etc.) So before you delete from your Download folder, make sure they are actually in your ITunes folder.
  • jonahpwlljonahpwll
    Yes, I've confirmed they're in an "additional" folder (ie, iTunes, Amie, etc).
    Logically, those files that first landed in my Downloads folder were only meant to be there until a desktop application came around and scooped them up and placed a copy in a program folder, thus making the files remaining in the Downloads folder obsolete. But I got bit by the paranoia bug just before hitting the delete button, and figured that an embarrassingly simple public discussion thread was a small price to pay for peace of mind.
  • KatrinaKatrina
    Yes, I've confirmed they're in an "additional" folder (ie, iTunes, Amie, etc).


    If you've confirmed that, then you can delete the originals. A double-check is to right-click in itunes > Show in Windows Explorer. That will tell you if itunes is using the "itunes" folder location of the file, or the "downloads" folder location.

    After I delete a bunch of files from my hard drive, I run a defrag.

    You know what I say? Your question isn't embarrassing. An embarrassing question would be "how can I get back a bunch files I deleted by mistake without having backups"?
  • jonahpwlljonahpwll
    You know what I say? Your question isn't embarrassing. An embarrassing question would be "how can I get back a bunch files I deleted by mistake without having backups"?

    Excellent point. That's a really good "teacher" comment.
    And thanks.
  • elwoodiciouselwoodicious
    "how can I get back a bunch files I deleted by mistake without having backups"?
    Always backup and always backup the backups. /speaking-from-experience-both-professionally-and-personally
  • jonahpwlljonahpwll
    And going through this heretofore ignored Downloads folder, I've just found a whole bunch of Amie albums that I downloaded but never imported into iTunes. I recognize almost none of it. Likely originated during the golden days of Amie when new drops of unexpectedly exciting music had me refreshing the screen every couple of minutes, taking chances on anything cheap based just on the song sample of the first track in the rush to get it as cheap as possible. Those were the days.
  • KatrinaKatrina
    edited July 2010
    How about,

    always backup and test your restore plan before you really need it?


    I just got a new shiny Win 7 laptop. It kinda freaks me out they are shipping PCs without the OS discs anymore. So....I burned a backup DVD of the machine in its brand-spanking-new state, installed a few thigns htat are easily replaceable, and then tested the backup DVD.
  • KatrinaKatrina
    And going through this heretofore ignored Downloads folder, I've just found a whole bunch of Amie albums that I downloaded but never imported into iTunes. I recognize almost none of it.


    Sounds fun! I find random stuff like that too, when I do my PC maintenance.
  • elwoodiciouselwoodicious
    @Katrina, for certain always test your disaster recovery plans on a regular basis. Live for success but plan for failure. :-)
  • thomnottomthomnottom
    There's part of me that wishes I had kept all of the zip files and then burned them off onto DVDs just in case I screwed up something and couldn't re-download. But the reality is that they are redundant. I unzip them to one folder, delete the zips, do all of my tag correcting/replaygaining, and then move them all into the real music folder. That is then synced between my desktop and an external HD and later on Mozy will grab them for offsite backed-uppedness.

    This was all much easier when I had about 20k mp3s. Now that my library is over 56k it's getting annoying.
  • KatrinaKatrina
    I suffer the same sense of chagrin when I hit the delete button on the zip files, too. Good point. Maybe I should just backup the original zip files. But herein lies the madness, I am already backing up too much. On the other hand, you can never have too many escape plans.
Sign In or Register to comment.