Hi, needing to reload Windows on my son’s machine and he is worried about losing all his music in the iTunes folder – some he has bought others ripped from CD etc. Can I just copy the itunes folder off onto an external drive and copy it back afterwards or is it not that simple – I know iTunes has a backup facility to copy the library onto CD or DVD, but the folder is way too big for that. Thanks

Yes you can, when you reload the files (by copying them to the hard disk and then “adding folder” to itunes) onto the PC itunes will see this as a ‘new pc’ and you will have to authorize the pc as ok to play the songs (itunes will ask this automatically when you try to play the tracks in question), You have a maximum number of pc’s you can authorize so once you copy the tracks and they are safe I would deauthorize your current PC as once you reload windows you cannot do this.

Thanks, that is very helpful