iTunes Backup on a Windows computer - how?

[giradman]

Now own an iPod & new iPad2 - sync to my Dell Vista laptop - now I'm assuming iTunes is backing up my 'stuff' to the laptop - my first concern was all of the music I have on the iPod - but I have an external HD that I often will do a further backup of these files, so not a concern.

However, I'm now starting to use & enjoy Bento on the iPad (don't own a Mac) - wife & I are entering recipes into the iPad program and I'll sync w/ the laptop, but I'm not certain 'where' these files are stored on the HD of my laptop?

I perused the various menus of iTunes and could not find an apparent option to 'backup' the data to some other site - can anyone advise on whether this is an option? Thanks for any help, advise, & opinions -

 

[twerppoet]

The database will be backed up in iTunes, but there are a couple of things to consider.

One: It is an all or nothing restore. You can not restore data to a single app. When you use restore from backup in iTunes it is the whole shebang.

Two: iTunes only keeps the last backup. There is no history of backups. Each time you sync it overwrites your last backup, so if you accidently sync after the data is lost there goes the data. (it is a good idea to go into iTunes Preferences, the Devices tab, and turn off autosync. This helps prevent unwanted backups and syncs).

If you do scheduled backups on your computer, you can probably get around the last problem by restoring an older backup file before using iTunes to restore the iPad.

Here is more information than you probably wanted about backups, including what is saved and where the file is stored. iPad: About backups

Bento's inability to export or sync to anything except it's Mac OSX version is one of the reasons I don't recommend it as a stand alone app.

 

[giradman]

TP - thanks for your usual sage advice & experience -

I'll take a look at that link, but the options appear disappointing - wife & I spent several hours today entering recipes in Bento - they look fine and will be easy to follow in the kitchen (once I receive my acrylic under the cabinet mount) - however, we might want to put in several hundred items into this Bento database.

If a definite backup option is not available (except for those you clarified), then I'm not sure that this program is the one I want to use? Unfortunate, because there are many other templates that we could use.

Believe that I will contact Filemaker about this issue since they have put out Bento - it's ridiculous that they (w/ all of years they have been in the database industry) cannot offer a number of export options!

Thanks again for you response & time -

 

[twerppoet]

No problem. I believe Filemaker originally thought the iPad (and iPhone) apps were just extensions of the Mac OS X program.

They have been slowly improving it since the first release, and I believe the are going to be releasing a new update soon. However the only feature I've heard mentioned was the possibility of syncing with DropBox. If that were a csv sync, it would be an good backup, but I doubt it would be. Not because they don't want you to be able to do csv files (you can in the OSX version), but because it would probably make for slow, complicated syncing.

I also hope they up their game with Bento for iPad. Even half crippled it's one of the better database programs for the iPad. If they went the extra yard to make it a good stand alone option they would all but own the personal database app market on the iPad. Of course, with all the specialized online syncing database apps out there, it's not a huge market.

Let me know if they give you any good news.

 

[giradman]

I'd like to recommend iPad Max to you. I always use it to backup iPad files, it's easy to use and the quality is awesome, you can backup iPad music/movies/photos/books/ringtones to computer or iTunes with it easily. It also can rip DVD movie to play on iPad, that's pretty cool. It worth a try.

Thanks - that looks like an awesome product for the Windows platform, but at a hefty price, i.e. $70 - ouch! I'm use to paying for Windows programs but will need to think that one over a while; in the meantime, I'll spend some perusing of its features!

P.S. I do have a support question pending on the Bento site, but not expecting much of an answer - will report back if useful or not!