iPod I need help.. I fear I have lost my library!!!

[Williw122773]

OK, I need some expert advice here. First off.. let me start by saying that this is for my pc (insert all jokes and hate now)... Anyway. I had an alieware pc with itunes on it. I recently sold the computer but before I did, I got an external harddrive. I put all of my folders on to the external harddrive. Now fast forward a few weeks, and I have a new laptop. I wanted to keep using the external hard drive to buy and store my music too, so that I would not eat up all of the storage space on my notebook. THe issue is.. last night I installed itunes on to the new lap top, and had the harddrive plugged in. But my library did not show up. I can go into the external hard drive and see my music (not in the same library format), but its there.. and I can click it and it pops over to the library for itunes that I downloaded to my new lap top.. butI am guessing .. .that is incorrect... because.. if i unplug the external hard drive.. .the song is still there.... and that means that i used memory...
So my question is...
Is there a way.. i can use that external hard drive to house my music... and if so do i download itunes to my new laptop? ( i uninstalled it last night)... thanks for any help...

 

[mkrishnan]

I've really never used iTunes on Windows, so someone will have to back me up on this, but I know that the answer on MacOS is yes -- what you do is hold the shift key while double clicking the iTunes icon (i.e. when iTunes is not running, you launch it while holding shift). You should get a requester asking you to locate the iTunes library. Then you point iTunes to the external disk's "iTunes Music" folder.

 

[Sesshi]

Set the folder on the external drive as your iTunes Music Folder location. Don't select Keep iTunes Music folder organized at first, and don't select Copy files to iTunes Music folder at first either.

I suspect that you've got the second option on, in which case if you double-clicked on a file from your external drive then it would copy it to your default iTunes folder.

Then import the folder on the external drive (File > Add Folder to Library). After that, enable the abovementioned two options. Now further rips you add will be added to that folder, and any new tunes you add via dragging, importing, etc will also be copied to that folder.

You sure you're not better off with a Mac?

 

[Williw122773]

so your saying.. got to itunes.com and download it to my laptop. Then when the box comes up to organize it.. i dont choose that.. then copy that folder to the external hard drive? Sounds easy enough..