Itunes Won't Burn Cd's

I was going to do a clean install on a friends laptop, so i went to back up his iTunes. When we go to burn a backup CD or even a data CD we get this message "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The disk is locked and cannot be written to." I searched Google and people seem to get this error message when their opening iTunes or when syncing their iPods, but not when burning a CD so i think its a different problem. Anybody ever seen this before?

Thanks

 

You are trying to burn a CD from within iTunes?

 

There's an error if you try to burn a playllist within itunes, and there is the same error if you try to backup your library to a dvd within itunes

 

If you have the same error when using something like Nero to burn a disc, then you probably have either a hardware problem or a driver issue. If that's the case, then you can remove the drive and slave it into your system, then back up the files via your burner, or you can connect both machines to a LAN and transfer the files that way.

 

its an itunes error only. I'm not worried about getting the mp3's off manually thats easy. I wanted to do an itunes backup because it creates a mirror images of your itunes on a disk, so when you have a fresh itunes you pop it in and it remembers everything from your old itunes, like playlists, times played, stars etc. Its just alot easier than adding all the songs manually again.

 

You can do the same thing if you just copy the entire iTunes directory in the My Music directory, then put it back after the reinstall. As long as the location of the music matches the original location, iTunes will not have any problems. To keep things simple, I have my music and library on a separate partition. When I have to reinstall, it's just a matter of making sure I have the library files (just in case iTunes put it back in the default directory), then doing the reinstall and finally putting iTunes back on the computer. Point it where the library files and music reside and everything is back to normal.

 

ahh ok thats great. So all i have to do is copy the entire music folder off. redo the pc install itunes then replace the new music folder with the old one? and as long as i name the laptop the same name everything should import back in automatically? and when i open itunes all the music will be back or do i have to do anything else.

 

If you have your music and the library in the My Music directory:

Copy the My Music folder to another drive.
Reformat.
Install iTunes.
Copy the My Music folder back.
Run iTunes.

Everything should be as you left it.

If you have the library in a different directory:

Copy the library to another drive.
Copy the music files to another drive.
Reformat.
Install iTunes.
Copy the library back to where you had it.
Copy the music files back to where you had them.
Run iTunes, then quit.
Hold the shift button down and click the iTunes button.
Choose the library - browse to the library, then click ok.
As long as everything is back where it was, iTunes will be as you left it.

 

awsome thanks man appreciate it. plus rep