got a g4 and I need some help with itunes

[steve knight]

I bought my blind wife a g4 that was just enough to run leopard. 1 gh cpux2 1.5 gigs of ram a 80 gig drive. for the most part is is fast enough for what she does. but the problem started with I imported all of her songs and my audiobooks. there re about 30,00 tracks and about 300 gigs. I used the network to import the tracks but not copy them as she does not have the hard drive space. the problem started when I tried to deleted the unwanted audiobook tracks. I got some of them deleted and itunes would lock up after a few tines now if I click on the music folder it locks up.
I want to delete all of the music and use another hard drive I found. but I can't remove it as itunes keeps locking up. how can I get rid of the music? but even if I get it cleaned up will it do it again? or could it be because of the network?

 

[DoFoT9]

i think the slow down is being caused by the network and the fact that each time you want to delete something it has to talk to the other computer to read the files or what have you. what connection method are you using for this? (airport? ethernet? etc).

if you navigate to the hard drive->users->music->iTunes and delete the "iTunes Library" file then that will delete all 'ties' to your files. ALL OF THEM! when you open iTunes it will look like you are starting again, so just be careful

 

[steve knight]

I am using Ethernet but it is only 100 unless I buy a new router.
that's what I was thinking too. someone offered me a g5 so I was going to wait till it got here before I used a stata drive for her itunes but I don't know when it would ship and I found a ata drive that will work.
She has only had it two days so redoing the library is not a big deal. poor woman it is far more work of her to learn to get around then sited person. voiceover has a lot of commands. but she can use mail and itunes pretty well. safari is a pain still. plus found out spaces does not work with voiceover.

one note At first I used shard library and that worked ok but I could not sync files to her ipod with that setup. but that was only the music.

 

[DoFoT9]

I am using Ethernet but it is only 100 unless I buy a new router.
that's what I was thinking too. someone offered me a g5 so I was going to wait till it got here before I used a stata drive for her itunes but I don't know when it would ship and I found a ata drive that will work.
She has only had it two days so redoing the library is not a big deal. poor woman it is far more work of her to learn to get around then sited person. voiceover has a lot of commands. but she can use mail and itunes pretty well. safari is a pain still. plus found out spaces does not work with voiceover.

one note At first I used shard library and that worked ok but I could not sync files to her ipod with that setup. but that was only the music.

ethernet 100 should not cause that many slow downs over the network, i guess its just the age of the computer showing.

its unfortunate that shared libraries cannot sync to ipod, but there are many copyright infringements that would make this impossible im afraid - hard drives are cheap these days. you can buy 1TB for under $100, so they are very affordable, however i am not certain if the G4 has a hard drive size limitation - you would have to make sure of that first.

if it is the G4 that ran from 2002/2003 (Mirrored drive doors) code name P57 then it does support any size of current IDE HDD, and supports 2GB Max RAM.

 

[steve knight]

I found a 320 gig ata drive. but all my other drives are sata.

 

[DoFoT9]

I found a 320 gig ata drive. but all my other drives are sata.
I did it on my mini but I forgot how to show system files.

maybe an external FW enclosure is in order?

you dont need to show system files to delete the iTunes library database file.

 

[steve knight]

if it is the G4 that ran from 2002/2003 (Mirrored drive doors) code name P57 then it does support any size of current IDE HDD, and supports 2GB Max RAM.

yep that is. but I don't want to have to buy a drive to get it internal. here only two years ago I had not heard of a stata drive. now that's about all I have.

I took a wrong turn got it cleared out way too many itunes folders. . copying the music to the external. but when it is done I will pop it out of the case and install it. might as well to keep the speed up.
now one question is that a speaker on front the plastic dome with holes in it? never heard anything from it and it makes the front look a bit dorky.

 

[DoFoT9]

I took a wrong turn got it cleared out way too many itunes folders. . copying the music to the external. but when it is done I will pop it out of the case and install it. might as well to keep the speed up.
now one question is that a speaker on front the plastic dome with holes in it? never heard anything from it and it makes the front look a bit dorky.

a quick google reveals that it is a speaker, maybe its damaged and doesnt work? sound should come out of it upon bootup.

 

[steve knight]

It could be sounding off and I thought it was the main speakers. the sucker is built like a tank and weighs about as much.
I had to use a usb 2 card in but it works as long as I don't hook the keyboard to it or I can't wake it up.
the monitor is as old as the computer. had to drag that clunky vga pos out to use it. not that my wife notices it

 

[IronFixXxeR]

a quick google reveals that it is a speaker, maybe its damaged and doesnt work? sound should come out of it upon bootup.

If you have other speakers hooked up to the computer then that speaker on the front wont make a sound. At least that's how my Quicksilver was.

 

[DoFoT9]

It could be sounding off and I thought it was the main speakers. the sucker is built like a tank and weighs about as much.
I had to use a usb 2 card in but it works as long as I don't hook the keyboard to it or I can't wake it up.
the monitor is as old as the computer. had to drag that clunky vga pos out to use it. not that my wife notices it

they are heavy machines, strong and an ox but!

If you have other speakers hooked up to the computer then that speaker on the front wont make a sound. At least that's how my Quicksilver was.

fair call, never had one so i was just judging by the sound my macs make. it all depends on the model they keep changing what they want it to do! lol

 

[steve knight]

I think that's it. got the ata drive in and no go. found out the cable was not plugged into the mb. well that would make it not work
I don't like itunes library on an external if it gets unplugged then ituens goes back to the default library and it is a pain. it does not give a warning till it can't find your music.

 

[DoFoT9]

I think that's it. got the ata drive in and no go. found out the cable was not plugged into the mb. well that would make it not work
I don't like itunes library on an external if it gets unplugged then ituens goes back to the default library and it is a pain. it does not give a warning till it can't find your music.

ahh i understand with iTunes, you are storing JUST the music onto the HD, but not the actual library database. to have a much more pleasant experience, hold down the ption: button when you open iTunes, and create a new library on the HD of your choice. that way, if the HD is not detected it will display a warning AS SOON AS you open iTunes. it will prompt you to either find the library, or pick another library to open. neat

 

[steve knight]

ahh i understand with iTunes, you are storing JUST the music onto the HD, but not the actual library database. to have a much more pleasant experience, hold down the ption: button when you open iTunes, and create a new library on the HD of your choice. that way, if the HD is not detected it will display a warning AS SOON AS you open iTunes. it will prompt you to either find the library, or pick another library to open. neat

now that is good to know. even if you change itunes default dir it only stores music in it not any settings. but would your method work when you import cds? would it put the music in that dir? or the default one?

 

[DoFoT9]

now that is good to know. even if you change itunes default dir it only stores music in it not any settings. but would your method work when you import cds? would it put the music in that dir? or the default one?

it would put it in the directory that you set (i.e. on the external HD).