Exteral HardDrive - How Does it Work with iTunes

[HelixOmnimedia]

Hello,

As the title suggests, how does an external hard drive work with iTunes?

The reason I'm asking is, I've got a 93.04gb hard drive. and my iTunes i taking up a lot of space.
Music - 3.60gb
Movies - 13.09gb - more are being added
TV Shows - 5.21gb (excluding Supernatural, Veronica Mars - which I'm downloading tonight, and 24 Season 5 - I've backed-up on cd).

I recently reinstalled my computer to clear a lot of unneeded files. And I haven't put any of my document on yet. Before i reinstalled I got a message saying i was running out of space (or something to that effect).

So... i'd like to know how a external hard drive works with iTunes, so i can move the movies and tv shows onto it.

THANKS for any help/advice.

 

[xyian]

Not that hard, really. If I can do it.....

Go to >iTunes on the menu bar->Preferences->Advanced
and change your iTunes Music folder location using the->Change...
button and direct it to where your files reside on the spare drive.

Keep in mind that the drive needs to be turned on in order to
access the files. Also, now when you rip any files using iTunes
it will go into that folder as well.

 

[bergmef]

With the external drive, can more than one account access the itunes folder at a time? I'd prefer a NAS with itunes server but cannot make it work (meaning I cannot add directly and organize easily).

I ask because I'd like my neighbors to access my itunes music and movies.

Any help appriciated!

Frank

 

[HelixOmnimedia]

Go to >iTunes on the menu bar->Preferences->Advanced
and change your iTunes Music folder location using the->Change...
button and direct it to where your files reside on the spare drive.

Keep in mind that the drive needs to be turned on in order to
access the files. Also, now when you rip any files using iTunes
it will go into that folder as well.

Hi,

Sorry I'm a little confused about how this works.
I've found a 250GB External HardDrive for £79 - I'll get it tomorrow, if i understand how this works.

I've got Movies, Music and TV Shows in my iTunes the now.
If I connect an external harddrive, do these need to be moved here?
OR
When I connected an external drive, it'll just store the movie and tv shows, while my music remains on my laptop.

Ideally, I'd like to move TV Season which I've watched, like 24, and short movies and the bulk of music which i don't listen to on a regular occasions to the external drive, but still have them available on my ipod? - can this be done?

Sorry is these are stupid questions.
THANKS

 

[GreeneGirl7]

Hi,

Sorry I'm a little confused about how this works.
I've found a 250GB External HardDrive for £79 - I'll get it tomorrow, if i understand how this works.

I've got Movies, Music and TV Shows in my iTunes the now.
If I connect an external harddrive, do these need to be moved here?
OR
When I connected an external drive, it'll just store the movie and tv shows, while my music remains on my laptop.

Ideally, I'd like to move TV Season which I've watched, like 24, and short movies and the bulk of music which i don't listen to on a regular occasions to the external drive, but still have them available on my ipod? - can this be done?

Sorry is these are stupid questions.
THANKS

Yep, this is totally workable, and in fact it's what I've done. You'll find it a bit fiddly at first but good after you've set it up.

What I did was move all my video onto the external hard drive. I unchecked "Copy to iTunes Music Folder when adding to Library" under iTunes preferences, advanced, general. Then, after making sure all my video was safely on the external drive, I deleted it from the internal drive. The easiest way is to find it in the iTunes library, delete it and select "move to trash" when prompted.

Then go to iTunes and select, File - Import. Import all your video from the external hard drive. It will be in your iTunes library but not transferred to your internal drive. You can safely empty the trash now.

Whenever you update your iPod, all your video will update as well as long as you have the external drive connected and haven't changed anything, like the name of the folder where it's located on the external drive.

That was a bit long winded, but I hope the detail helps. I wouldn't do this with anything you didn't already own on DVD or didn't care about losing.

 

[theBB]

I have an easier method:

1) Create a new folder on the external, name it let's say, External_Media.

2) Start iTunes, open Preferences -> Advanced. Change the location to be "External_Media", make sure the options to "Keep iTunes folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes folder whan adding to library". Hit OK.

3) iTunes should ask you whether you want your files to be moved to the new location. Say yes.

Now all your files should be moved to the new location without any manual steps. You need to make sure your external is connected whenever you start iTunes.

 

[HelixOmnimedia]

> theBB & GreeneGirl7

THANK YOU SO MUCH
It's settled I'm buying an external hard drive tomorrow morning.