Itunes over 2 Hard Drives?

[mac2thefuture]

Hello
When I was on OS Tiger I had all my iTunes content on an external drive to free space on my iMac, content being 224gig on a 300g external HD. I'm now on Snow Leopard and would like to use the Time Machine facility but it says I don't have enough room to carry out.I still have 224g of iTunes on ext and I have 198g available on a 300g Mac HD.
Can I split the iTunes content over the two drives i.e music on one and movies on another? If yes, how?
Or, to use Time machine effectively should I look at other options?
Regards

 

[jodelli]

Hello
When I was on OS Tiger I had all my iTunes content on an external drive to free space on my iMac, content being 224gig on a 300g external HD. I'm now on Snow Leopard and would like to use the Time Machine facility but it says I don't have enough room to carry out.I still have 224g of iTunes on ext and I have 198g available on a 300g Mac HD.
Can I split the iTunes content over the two drives i.e music on one and movies on another? If yes, how?
Or, to use Time machine effectively should I look at other options?
Regards

To use TM effectively you should use another HDD. There won't be enough room otherwise.

 

[mac2thefuture]

To use it effectively, should I put all of my 300g of data on my iMac hard drive (this would max it out) and use the external (would initially be free of content) as a time machine drive?
I'm confused....

 

[windowpain]

To use it effectively, should I put all of my 300g of data on my iMac hard drive (this would max it out) and use the external (would initially be free of content) as a time machine drive?
I'm confused....

(I think) Jodelli is saying that you should have a dedicated external drive solely for the time machine backup. (not that you 'need' to do this, just that it is a good idea.)

You can split your itunes library over two or more drives, but it is easier to have it all in one place. (imho) It makes keeping track of what is backed up and what isn't simpler.

However if this would completely fill your internal drive it is probably not the best option.

What I would do would be to buy another external hard drive and use this to back up (using time machine) everything else.including your itunes library (which is on the other external.)

You shouldn't keep your itunes library and the back up on the same disk. As if(or when) the disk fails you lose everything.

To keep the just the movies on your external, make a folder just for them on the external and keep them all there. When you 'add' them to itunes drag and drop them into the itunes icon while holding 'option'. This will add them without copying the files to the itunes library. alternatively just make sure the 'copy files to itunes media folder when adding to library' is unchecked in the itunes preferences.

If they are already in your library, you may have to drag them out (into the new folder on the external) and reimport them..not too sure. Probably best to have them separate from the beginning..

Hope that helps.