iTunes and External Hard Drive Nightmare....

[MissCluless]

First I am really sorry if this has been brought up a lot but I am seriousply stuck and have no idea what to do and I know this is Mac stuff but I thought it would be better then anywhere else. I have looked on Apple.com and nothing has been able to help.

Well here it is I am having trouble trying to get my music from my external Hard Drive.

So my old laptop took a crap on me. I took it in and they told me it would cost more to fix it then to just by a whole new one so I did just that. Well before the company gave me back my old laptop they asked if I wanted all my files backed up onto a external Hard Drive that way I don't have to fuss with it later. So I went out that day and bought a "My Book" External Hard Drive. They did it and well now I am trying to get my iTunes music from that and there isn't any folders of music when I open up the iTunes folder all I have is

-Album Artwork (File Folder)
-Mobile Applications (File Folder)
-Previous iTunes Libraries (File Folder)
-iTunes Library (iTunes Database File
-iTunes Music Library (XML Document)

I have tried dragging them in (When I do that a "UB" is under the iTunes symbol) , I have tried adding File, Adding Folder and nothing happens... it shows nothing in there. Then when I click on them to open all it does is open iTunes and nothing happens. I have tried downloading a couple of programs to get the music off my iPod but they all said there is no iPod connected when it was. I have also tried to unistall iTunes and try and go into the iPod and see if I can get it that way and there wasn't anything in there beside the folders for contacts, photos etc. (Still nothing even in those folders) Please I don't know what else to do and I can't just go onto that old laptop and do an easy transfer since the motherboard went out on it. Is there any hope at all or am I stuck with an unusable iTunes and iPod?

 

[HBOC]

I have not had to import music to iTunes via an external HD, BUT this might help, if you haven't done so yet.

If you go to iTunes, and then go to file/add to library/ (chose the external HD)/. that should import all the songs, if in fact they did back up to the external HD correctly. Did they go into iTunes and then go to file/library/export library? I have only saved my iTunes library to DVD-RLs at the moment, until i buy another external HD just for this and for pictures...

saw this in another thread. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451

 

[pkorisa]

First I am really sorry if this has been brought up a lot but I am seriousply stuck and have no idea what to do and I know this is Mac stuff but I thought it would be better then anywhere else. I have looked on Apple.com and nothing has been able to help.

Well here it is I am having trouble trying to get my music from my external Hard Drive.

So my old laptop took a crap on me. I took it in and they told me it would cost more to fix it then to just by a whole new one so I did just that. Well before the company gave me back my old laptop they asked if I wanted all my files backed up onto a external Hard Drive that way I don't have to fuss with it later. So I went out that day and bought a "My Book" External Hard Drive. They did it and well now I am trying to get my iTunes music from that and there isn't any folders of music when I open up the iTunes folder all I have is

-Album Artwork (File Folder)
-Mobile Applications (File Folder)
-Previous iTunes Libraries (File Folder)
-iTunes Library (iTunes Database File
-iTunes Music Library (XML Document)

I have tried dragging them in (When I do that a "UB" is under the iTunes symbol) , I have tried adding File, Adding Folder and nothing happens... it shows nothing in there. Then when I click on them to open all it does is open iTunes and nothing happens. I have tried downloading a couple of programs to get the music off my iPod but they all said there is no iPod connected when it was. I have also tried to unistall iTunes and try and go into the iPod and see if I can get it that way and there wasn't anything in there beside the folders for contacts, photos etc. (Still nothing even in those folders) Please I don't know what else to do and I can't just go onto that old laptop and do an easy transfer since the motherboard went out on it. Is there any hope at all or am I stuck with an unusable iTunes and iPod?

I use my external hard drive all the time to backup my muisc files and iTunes Library files, restore them when I need them, and have absolutely no problem with my Classic 80GB iPod or Itunes. But you have to pay attention to a couple of things, else nothing good will happen.
1) the iTunes LIBRARY files are kept at Music/iTunes folder (and its subfolders). This is what keeps all the pertinent data in a coded fashion, and you got to copy these files to your new PC -- to EXACTLY the same folder name and location.
2) the Muisc files themselves are kept in a folder that you decided in iTunes menu Edit/ Preferences/ Advanced tab in iTUnes Media Folder Location field. And, hopefully you had the "Keep iTunes Media Folders Organized" checked.
So, you just copy these to your new PC, again, to the exactly same folder name and location.

Now you should be able to see them all and use your iPod. If some of these folders do not show any files, then I am afraid, the fellows did not copy things properly, and if you still have the laptop, try to copy them again.

Good luck to you.

PKM