Best way to back up an iTunes library?

Hi, I just purchased a 640GB harddrive to replace my Macbook's 160gb harddrive which is essentially running out of space.

Now my iTunes library is perfectly tagged, everything has album artwork, ect... and is around 115GB worth of music and is all automatically managed by iTunes

I'll be backing this up on my Dad's Windows XP desktop.

What is the best way to go about doing this in such a way that when I move everything back I won't have lost any tagging data, and everything will be back to the way it was before...?

Why not just use Carbon Copy Cloner to first clone the old drive to the new driver and take your dads PC out of the mix ? You will just need CCC and a enclosure for the drive which will then allow you to keep using the old drive once you replace it . Find CCC here Carbon Copy Cloner - Home

Clay

And without the expense of an enclosure - grab yourself a kit like this. You'll be able to connect any 2.5" or 3.5" IDE or SATA drive via USB to your computer. A great tool to have around.

CCC or SuperDuper! is the easiest way. They'll create a bootable backup. Then just switch out the drives and turn your Mac back on to keep trucking. Make sure you try booting from the backup you created prior to switching the drives...just in case.

Once done, use that adapter to wipe the old drive and then copy your iTunes library onto it from the new drive for your backup.

Move files from Snow Leopard MacBook to Windows 7 PC via Ethernet

Hi -

My new 640GB harddrive is on the way to replace my MacBook's 160GB harddrive. Being the genius I am, I realized I have this big brand new harddrive, an ethernet cord, no money, and a friend who is willing to let me back up my music/pics ect... on his Windows 7 laptop.

1.How do I go about connecting these two computers in order to back up around 120gb worth of data (mostly music)

2. Could I wipe my 160GB iPod and somehow use it as an external harddrive for this process? (all the music that is on my iPod currently, is also on my MacBook which i'd be backing up onto my ipod...)

This is what I would recommend you do:

Purchase an external enclosure for the old drive. Something like this should do.

Remove the old drive, install the new one in its place. Install the old drive in the enclosure. Attach the enclosure to your Mac and turn it on, holding down the Option key. You should then be able to boot from the external drive.

Once you've booted up, use Disk Utility to format the new drive as "Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)". Use SuperDuper to clone the old drive to the new drive.

Once you're done, shut down and remove the external. Your machine should boot up exactly as it was before, but with the new drive and its capacity.

Then you may format the old drive, which is now external and use it for whatever you like.

Note: Merged duplicate threads.

You'll also notice - two threads - multiple respondents - basically same answer.
This really is the best way to do it.