iPods have become the center of many people’s portable media library, but not everyone realizes that their iPods can also be used for storing and backing up important files or digital photographs. Most iPods, with exception to the iPhone and iPod touch, can be easily enabled for use in disk mode right inside iTunes. Enabling disk mode essentially turns your iPod into an external storage device to which you can drag any file type of your choosing.
If you are traveling and want to leave the external hard drive at home, as long as you have access to a computer at your destination, an iPod would be an ideal way of bringing important files with you. Larger capacity iPods are also a great way to backup your digital photographs while on the road. Additionally, if you have an older larger capacity iPod lying around, it makes a great external storage device for getting important files backed up and offsite. Simply remove the music or other media you may currently have stored on the iPod (doing so gives you the most capacity for file storage), enable disk mode, and copy the files you want backed up onto the iPod. Afterwards, take the iPod to work or a family member’s home and you have an offsite backup of your important files or photographs.
To enable target disk mode, plug your iPod into your computer and wait for iTunes to open. If you have your settings configured to not automatically open iTunes when you connect an iPod, open iTunes manually by clicking the iTunes icon found on your dock or in your applications folder. When iTunes opens, select the iPod icon on the source pane on the left side of iTunes.
Choose the Summary tab and locate the “Manually manage music and videos” and “Enable disk use” check boxes in the Options section. Checking either of these check boxes will allow you to use your iPod as an external storage device. However, if you check “Manually manage music and videos”, iTunes will no longer automatically update your iPod with content from your iTunes library. If you would like iTunes to continue updating the content on your iPod, check “Enable disk use”.
For iPod shuffle users, the “Enable disk use” check box is located in the Settings tab. Select the check box and set the Storage Allocation slider to indicate how much of the your iPods shuffle’s storage capacity you want to use for storing music and for file storage. Once this is complete, an iPod disk icon will appear on your desktop and in Finder windows for Macintosh users and in My Computer/Computer for Windows users.
To copy files to or from your iPod, double click the iPod disk icon and drag files to or from iPod’s window. Afterwards, before unplugging your iPod from your computer, be sure to eject your iPod by clicking the eject icon located next to the iPod icon on the source pane within iTunes. For additional information about using your iPod as a storage device or for troubleshooting, see the support document provided by Apple here.