Deleting and Adding songs to iPod? Is that a good idea?

[Vikram]

Mine is 40gig, I'm about 27Gig full but the rate at which I've been d/l-ing offlate I've got tons of new albums.

So my questions were -

A) how often do you delete songs from your iPod?

B ) Is it really a good idea?

What I'm thinking is, if it's not such a good idea, then choose 2-3 albums of certain acts that I've rediscovered offlate (Duran, Depeche Mode) and not all the X no. of albums I downloaded.

[Phil]

A) When I feel like it. (Never actually, I don't have enough music to fill 40GB.)

B) If you want to, that's what the iPod was made for - to sync music to your liking!

[Vikram]

Thanks for the reply Phil!

Why I asked is, seeing as I work closely with data recovery and all, I know that constant fragmentation/defragmentation isn't a good thing for any hard drive. I'm not trying to imply that I'm going to be deleting stuff every week. But I just realised I've got a lot of stuff there that I really don't need, and might as well fill it up with some stuff that I am into at the moment....

[iPulse]

The only thing i change and delete about my iPod is my top 40 list....

[Vikram]

By Top 40 list, you mean just songs?

[iPulse]

no, like top 40 songs on the radio

[Vikram]

oh ok. So you do delete songs after all then!

[zapod]

Vikram, file fragmentation doesn't physically 'harm' the HD - it just makes the job of gathering all the file fragments that bit harder and longer for the HD mechanism to accomplish. Barely noticable on the iPod.

I guess for major add/delete operations like the one you're considering, yes, the HD will become fragmented quicker than with regular use, but even at that, the effect would be tiny in comparison to the HD in your PC, which basically gets a thrashing every time it's switched on. Don't get hung up on it.

[Vikram]

Thanks for that. So what you're saying is that it's ok then? I don't plan on doing this that often. TBH, when I got my 40Gig iPod, I thuought "oh wow, I'll never run out of space" and ended up putting a lot of stuff that I know I'd never hear. Stuff that I bought only because I like that artist and I need it to complete my collection, but I know I won't bother listening to AT ALL (like say, a cheesy PWL Kylie Minogue remix album). I'm now thinking of doing some pruning on my iPod and doing away with some albums. Ideally, I'm hoping to get rid of around 20% of what's already there on my iPod now as I know for a fact I won't be hearing it. (and yes, I have backups on my new external 250Gig HD ) and replacing it with some new stuff that I know I WILL be hearing.