How to update an external hard drive?

I have most of my iTunes on my external hard drive, but I need to update it because I've gone crazy buying cds as of late. My question is if there is a way that I can only add the new items to the external without having to replace every single item. I've clicked on the "Keep Newer" option but it still copies all of the file's contents. Is there a way that I can just update it?

I'd highly recommend using Time Machine for all of your Backups: Mac 101: Time Machine

It will do what you want, and much more.

+1 for Time Machine, it's simple to use, and it does do just what you want, and as MacDude says "much more"

- Simon

Ok, thanks for the replies. I'll look into Time Machine and when I get the money for it I'll get one. Is there a way to do it on the external that I already have though? I'm using a SeaGate.

Hexen said:

Ok, thanks for the replies. I'll look into Time Machine and when I get the money for it I'll get one. Is there a way to do it on the external that I already have though? I'm using a SeaGate.

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There's no reason to buy Time Machine, it comes standard on any mac running OS X 10.5 or later. You can use any external hard drive with it, including your SeaGate.

Oops...silly me. I got confused with Time Machine and Time Capsule. I'm going to back up all of my stuff with Time Machine right now. Thanks again

Hexen said:

Oops...silly me. I got confused with Time Machine and Time Capsule. I'm going to back up all of my stuff with Time Machine right now. Thanks again

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No problem, happy to help.

I backed up my computer as it was using Time Machine...it took a while but I got it. To test to see if it would do what I want it to do I went ahead and installed both VirtualBox and Ubuntu. Time Machine backed it up just like I wanted it to. Thanks for everything!

Hexen said:

I backed up my computer as it was using Time Machine...it took a while but I got it. To test to see if it would do what I want it to do I went ahead and installed both VirtualBox and Ubuntu. Time Machine backed it up just like I wanted it to. Thanks for everything!

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The first backup with T.M. always takes the longest. If you do regular (daily or weekly) backups, it won't take very long to do each one. The more frequently you backup, the shorter the backup takes. You can even set it to do hourly backups if you keep it plugged in.
Glad you found a backup solution.

I think once a week will be good. I don't put that many things on my computer within a week. But if I ever put a lot of things on it in a day or so I'll back it up. The first back up took about an hour and half...I don't think that's too bad for the convenience of it.