Step 1: Buy an external HDD or USB Flash stick large enough to hold your music library (plus a few years ahead). Things like a 16 GB USB Flash sticks are relatively inexpensive nowadays. The ext. HDD drives come in two versions: 2.5" (mobile/laptop) and 3.5" (desktop). The quality is the same, the main difference is the physical size and that the 2.5" does not require a separate power supply (gets its power from the USB). On the other hand, the 3.5" can offer additional connection standards, such as the new eSATA (which will be replacing USB2.0 within the next five years). Most HDDs come with backup software. You could also consider using a "Skydrive" (I think it's called), which is a service from Microshaft where you can upload 25 GB of data on their servers (or something like that).... that is, if you trust uncle Bill enough with you valuable data.... I think Google offers something similar.

Step 2: Plug the HDD/Flash in your laptop. Note: If you have a wireless router and it has a USB port (some of the new ones have), then you can plug the HDD directly in the router and before you can say, "Map my network drive" in Windows you can simply drag/drop files to the HDD. The ext. HDD will then be "in a safe place" with the router (nobody steals routers) and since it gets its power from the USB port, the HDD will always be available on your WLAN whenever it's on. Actually, I've just done this today and it works wonderfully (doesn't work well with a USB flash stick, though - it's gotta be a 2.5" HDD).

Step 3: Open Windows MP and select Help (F1). Search for words like "libraries", "playlists" and "export". There is TONS of information in the Help files.

Step 4a: If you can, then export the music and settings to the ext HDD. I'm not sure about the playlists, but the most important thing must be to save the music files.

Step 4b: In Windows Explorer, drag and drop the files to your ext HDD or use the backup software, which came with the ext HDD. Some versions of Windows Vista and 7 also provide automatic and scheduled (such as every Sunday) backup of your files and folders. In Windows, select Help & Support (F1) and search for "backup" and "restore".

On the media player side, I use iTunes (free) and it works fine. http://www.apple.com/itunes/ There are tons of free players on the internet. Go to http://www.downloads.com and fine one.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Yours, Don P.