iPod, itunes and computer question - help!

A couple of questions for those in the know...if I copy a CD to my computer so it is physically stored there...can I, at a later time, load this onto an iPod via iTunes?

Or do I have to save it straight into iTunes, which I understand is online storage rather than stored on my personal computer...?

And...can you back up an iPod onto a hard drive as a just in case (again, I know that you would have the stuff in iTunes, but this is not a physical copy that you have control over)

Help! Luddite listener...[]

iTunes is not online storage, the iTunes Store is an online shop

iTunes stores your music on your hard drive, so using it to import your music from a CD is one of it's best features. Later this music can be burned to CD, copied to other hard drives, sent to musoc players.

Haven't got an ipod, but I believe it is possible to retrieve music from them

Your iPod can dock with your computer via a USB port, you can download and upload tunes to it from your hard drive the same way you would with any external storage device. I think you'd be better off copying a CD using the application iTunes, because I think (OH not here to ask and he's the expert) that the CD doesn't store the music as .mpg files, but iTunes will convert them for you. I think J uses shareware to do the same thing as he doesn't like iTunes the app. I can PM you the details if you like. Hope that helps!

You can set itunes to import the music as mp3, aac, aiff or wav file. It can then burn them as these files for use in other players, or as music again for stereos.

What if I save them directly onto an external harddrive just through Windows MediaPlayer? I can then later on transfer the ones I want to on to an iPod through iTunes, or onto CDs?

Saves it as a WMA file (windows media audio).

You can use itunes to save them directly to any drive. It gives you a choice as to which of the above formats you wish to use.
Does WMP give you any choices like that?

Note - itunes likes to use the apple format files - AAC.
Windows media player likes to use Microsoft format files - WMA
Both can handle the more common MP3, and is more widely spread.

If you drop a WMA file onto itunes, it treats it like an import, and will convert it to your selected fave format.