iTunes off External Hard Drive Help

[JW008]

I know this is a repeat thread, but I've been using the search function for about half an hour and haven't found an exact answer to my question. I would appreciate any help that anyone has to offer.

My iMac G4's 80GB hard drive has about 1GB left before it fills up, so I ordered the LaCie 160GB external firewire drive (the one designed by Porsche) to house my 46.35GB worth of music/videos.

How do I change iTunes to recognize my music/videos off of the External HDD ? Basically I would like everything that I put in iTunes to go to the External HDD. Is it as simple as going to iTunes>>Preferences>>Advanced>>General and then changing the iTunes music folder to the one I copied to the External HDD? I would like to keep my song ratings, playlists, play counts and everything else intact.

Again, I know this is a repeat question and I apologize, but this is one thing that I really don't want to screw up. THANKS!!!!!

 

[JW008]

Sorry...

Sorry for the post. I think I've found the thread I was looking for!

 

[gallagb]

it is a repeat question

but i don't have the other threads bookmarked
nor do i have the apple page bookmarked

and it is an easy fix-

the short answer

itunes functions like the old school card catalogues @ libraries

you had the lil drawers w/ the cards in them
and seperate the books on shelves

the itunes window is like the drawers w/ cards (w/ ratings..etc)
the shelves are different- where the acctual music files are

so the short answer-
you go to itunes
preferences>>advanced>>
change the music folder location
(to a folder on ur external drive)

THEN
hit OK

then under ADVANCED>>Consolidate library

itunes will say "are u crazy?"
to which you say "yes- i know what i'm doing"

and basically it will then COPY all of the files onto ur external
(so it is re-shelving ur books in a new room)

meanwhile the card cataloge will go "hmm- moved the book- ok let's change the call #"

you check this by hitting "get info" on any song file
it will say the location is in the new place

then u can play it all like normal
(depending on how large the library is- it could take quite some time to transfer it over)

that's the long & the short of it