Could someone help with external hard drive problem?

[gromartin]

I have a problem I was hoping someone could help me with. I've tried migrating my Itunes music to an external hard drive (Seagate FreeAgentGoFlex 500GB). I'm running Itunes 10 on a PC. I followed the instructions at ILounge. When I tried to move my Media folder to the recycle bin, I found I had no Itunes Media folder -- I had a folder called "Itunes Music". So I tried moving that to the recycle bin, and my computer said the recycle bin wasn't large enough. So I moved it and renamed it.

I started Itunes again, and had no music. I saw a message in the window that said Itunes will look for music in my "home" folder and selected it. Now Itunes is populated by all the music originally on C again, and can't find anything on the external hard drive. It would take about 8 hours to recreate them. Using Windows Explorer I found and played a file on the external hard drive using Itunes, so the music is on the external hard drive.

To top it off, the damn thing deleted all my playlists and custom EQ settings. Can someone tell me how to untangle this situation? I don't want my music on my C drive, I want it on the external hard drive. Could I just delete Itunes from C, download it and reinstall it on the external hard drive? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[dot.ducky]

in itunes, go to preferences, advanced, change media folder location...

as for playlists, right click the ones you want to migrate, export to your external drive, then import after changing your media location

for eq settings, I have no idea...

 

[gromartin]

Thanks, but the playlists have vanished from Itunes so I can't click on them. I changed the file preference setting before posting. Even though it's set to F drive, I can still only see music that's on the C drive (I'm checking it using Get Info). How can I tell Itunes that the music it should be interested in is on the external drive, not the C drive?

 

[dot.ducky]

remove all the music from your c drive library in iTunes, then add to library under file, I believe, from the external

 

[gromartin]

Thanks, I renamed the C music folder and moved it so Itunes couldn't find it. Then I told it to add the folder on F to the library and it seems to be working. Do you know any way I could get my playlists back? They're not showing up anywhere. They're on my Ipod Classic, still. But I wouldn't want to try and recreate them. Appreciate all your help.

 

[harmayanigrenge]

I started Itunes again, and had no music. I saw a message in the window that said Itunes will look for music in my "home" folder and selected it. Now Itunes is populated by all the music originally on C again, and can't find anything on the external hard drive. It would take about 8 hours to recreate them. Using Windows Explorer I found and played a file on the external hard drive using Itunes, so the music is on the external hard drive.
To top it off, the damn thing deleted all my playlists and custom EQ settings. Can someone tell me how to untangle this situation? I don't want my music on my C drive, I want it on the external hard drive. Could I just delete Itunes from C, download it and reinstall it on the external hard drive? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[dot.ducky]

Thanks, I renamed the C music folder and moved it so Itunes couldn't find it. Then I told it to add the folder on F to the library and it seems to be working. Do you know any way I could get my playlists back? They're not showing up anywhere. They're on my Ipod Classic, still. But I wouldn't want to try and recreate them. Appreciate all your help.

Uhm, I don't think there is any way to drag the playlists off the iPod. You should try a google search to make sure I'm wrong. You MIGHT be able to revert to your old library, and in turn your old playlists, by starting up iTunes while holding the shift key. You'll be able to select a library, so move to where you just threw the old folder.

If that works and you find them, right click on them and export to desktop. Start back up holding your shift key and select your library on the F drive, then import from the file menu.

If all else fails, I could always do a teamviewer session if you'd like. PM me to let me know.

I started Itunes again, and had no music. I saw a message in the window that said Itunes will look for music in my "home" folder and selected it. Now Itunes is populated by all the music originally on C again, and can't find anything on the external hard drive. It would take about 8 hours to recreate them. Using Windows Explorer I found and played a file on the external hard drive using Itunes, so the music is on the external hard drive.
To top it off, the damn thing deleted all my playlists and custom EQ settings. Can someone tell me how to untangle this situation? I don't want my music on my C drive, I want it on the external hard drive. Could I just delete Itunes from C, download it and reinstall it on the external hard drive? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

wat

 

[LaWally]

Thanks, I renamed the C music folder and moved it so Itunes couldn't find it. Then I told it to add the folder on F to the library and it seems to be working. Do you know any way I could get my playlists back? They're not showing up anywhere. They're on my Ipod Classic, still. But I wouldn't want to try and recreate them. Appreciate all your help.

There are several tools that let you muck around with iPods independent of iTunes. However I have no familiarity with any of them. You might want to try a web search for your specific problem.

 

[LaWally]

I started Itunes again, and had no music. I saw a message in the window that said Itunes will look for music in my "home" folder and selected it. Now Itunes is populated by all the music originally on C again, and can't find anything on the external hard drive. It would take about 8 hours to recreate them. Using Windows Explorer I found and played a file on the external hard drive using Itunes, so the music is on the external hard drive.
To top it off, the damn thing deleted all my playlists and custom EQ settings. Can someone tell me how to untangle this situation? I don't want my music on my C drive, I want it on the external hard drive. Could I just delete Itunes from C, download it and reinstall it on the external hard drive? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

For future reference I have used the official Apple procedure for moving iTunes media from my primary to secondary drive several times for myself and friends without incident and highly recommend them:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/inside-...our-itunes-library-to-another-hard-drive.html

If, as you state, you still have your iTunes media on your C drive, then I'd suggest following the Apple procedures to complete your task.

You do not have to reinstall iTunes to a different drive to accomplish what you want. Keep the iTunes installation on the C drive. Just move your content to your external drive as per the Apple procedures. And follow the procedures precisely.

 

[gromartin]

Thanks, but I'm so in the weeds now I don't know what to do. I tried syncing from the external (F) and got 1,800 "unknown errors" and "unknown error -124) and Owner's Ipod does not have access rights. Now there's 14 songs on the Ipod.

I'm trying to move the files back to C and start over, but I have a windowful of filenames that Itunes says "cannot be found" because they're on local host, whatever that is.

If anyone could take a minute and help me out again, I'd appreciate it. Right now I'm ready to throw the Ipod out!

Should I rename the music folder and move it, then uninstall Itunes, reinstall Itunes, and rebuild the library from scratch?

 

[gromartin]

OK, this is where I am so far. To backup a bit, my setup is a computer capable of running Itunes. It has only 1 USB port, however, so I bought a hub, connected it to the port, and then connected a Seaget GoFlex 500Gb external drive and my Ipod Classic to the hub. Due to the problems above I decided to start over. I took the following steps:

1) Moved and renamed the previous library on the Seagate. Then I created an empty "Itunes" folder the Seagate, and an "Itunes Media" folder inside the "Itunes" folder. Then I created a library for Itunes in C by restoring the previous library on C (I had renamed that file and moved it after my first migration attempt).

2) In iTunes Edit->Prefs->Advanced, I set the "iTunes Media folder location" to the "iTunes Media" folder on the Seagate. I set the "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder…" preferences to "on."

3) I selected iTunes File->Library->Organize library->Consolidate files. This copied the music files from the ITunes C folder to the Seagate. Copy was successful, and I can listen to the music on the Seagate through Itunes as though nothing had happened.

4) I connected my Ipod to the hub and tried to sync playlists. When Itunes told me the Ipod was synced to another library, I selected change to present library.

When I synced, things went haywire. I had a message saying two songs could not be found. Then another message said there were 120 files with unknown error 124. A third message said could not sync to Owners IPO because an unknown error occurred. Meanwhile the Ipod is dinging on and off like church bells.

So I tried syncing the entire music library. A message said that 100 files could not be found, but they're right there in the master music list. No other error message. I ejected the Ipod and it now says "No Music."

Can you help me understand this problem?