Best Way To Organize iTunes?

[AbSoluTc]

Was hoping to get some seasoned advice here. I just wiped out my xp machine and installed win7. I back everything up and iTunes was put back on and I dumped all my data back on for it. No issues.

Here is what I want to know. I have a mix of music from cd's and music from iTunes (purchased). I have my music all in the music folder but it's all mixed up and I can't tell which songs are actually being used in iTunes if that makes sense. So to help things, I told iTunes to copy the file into it's own folders. Then I told it to do the new folder structure, music, movies, ringtones, etc. Anyways, it seems all is well, however I can't tell which files are purchased and which are not.

If I drag a music file into iTunes, will it copy that file into iTunes and organize it? What happens if a copy already exists, will there be duplicates now?

What is the best way to organize all this so I don't go insane and can clean up the mess. I am thinking of copying my backup back over to undo the recent "organization" and go from there. What do you all think?

It's all kinda confusing.

 

[ChrisA]

Don't worry about folder structure. Just let iTunes keep it all it it's own place. If this were on a Mac you'd not even be able to see inside the iTunes library. there is no reason to look. Just let iTubne move them inside and never look at it.

But how to organize? from inside iTunes make any number of smart albums and put these into folders. Songs can be in dozens of folders and not take up any additional space. When you need to find something either use iTune's search feature or just change the sort criteria.

Just don't mess with the folder structure. Let iTunes do it's thing.