Macbook and External Itunes Library

[SOXJC]

Completelty ignorant to Macs so bear with me...

I have just got the below Macbook for work and would like to use it to put my music collection on. However, its a work machine so I don't want to store it on the laptop and was thinking about buying an external hard drive to go along with my Ipod as a backup. Eventually when I get more cash I will purchase an Imac but the external will always be useful for backups etc.

Firstly is this a viable solution or will transfers between the external and the laptop be too slow as it doesn't have firewire 800 (?).

Is it difficult to configure Itunes to store the library on an external hard drive.

Lastly, I was thinking 250 GB so any recommendations welcome.

Machine Name: MacBook
Machine Model: MacBook1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MB11.005F.B00
SMC Version: 1.4f10
Serial Number: 4H6246U2U9E

 

[interlaced]

I actually do this. It's a good idea. It's really easy to configure it so that your library is on an external. I only have about 100+GB of music and movies, but I have them stored on a 200GB external so depending on how big your library is, or how big you anticipate it to eventually become, that'll determine what size external hard drive to get.

Once you have all your songs transferred to your external, just go into iTunes Preferences, go to the Advanced tab, and under General change the iTunes Music folder location to your external HD. I also have it set to "Copy Music to iTunes Library" for backup. That way, if you happen to download through another source besides iTunes Music Store and import it into your iTunes, it'll make a copy of it in your library on your external.

I have not had any issues in data playing off the external and I'm using the FW400 port. Hope this helped you out.

 

[SOXJC]

Great, thanks for the info. I was thinking of one of the mybook drives but checking them out I might go for the 500GB which is $290 (250 is $180) on Amazon but any input welcome.

 

[Guy Incognito]

I do the same thing with my Macbook and an external 160GB Seagate USB hard drive. It works fine.

 

[whawhat]

I actually do this. It's a good idea. It's really easy to configure it so that your library is on an external. I only have about 100+GB of music and movies, but I have them stored on a 200GB external so depending on how big your library is, or how big you anticipate it to eventually become, that'll determine what size external hard drive to get.

Once you have all your songs transferred to your external, just go into iTunes Preferences, go to the Advanced tab, and under General change the iTunes Music folder location to your external HD. I also have it set to "Copy Music to iTunes Library" for backup. That way, if you happen to download through another source besides iTunes Music Store and import it into your iTunes, it'll make a copy of it in your library on your external.

I have not had any issues in data playing off the external and I'm using the FW400 port. Hope this helped you out.

when you disconnect and then reconnect to your external HD, does itunes have a problem locating the files again? my computer always has a problem locating my music files. thanks!

 

[crees!]

when you disconnect and then reconnect to your external HD, does itunes have a problem locating the files again? my computer always has a problem locating my music files. thanks!

Nope, and what's cool is when your external is not connected it defaults to your local iTunes folder. So what you can do is keep a copy of the music you're currently listening to on your laptop. This way when it's disconnected you'll still have those select songs to listen to. Don't worry about connecting your iPod to your laptop when the external isn't mounted, it won't delete the songs it can't find. You'll just see an exclamation point in iTunes next to those songs.

EDIT: If you have the external connected and iTunes launched, then eject the drive, I think iTunes will default to your local drive. But mounting the drive while iTunes is already launched will not relink to the external, so you'll have to restart iTunes. I *think* this is how it currently works. Might be wrong though.

 

[whawhat]

Nope, and what's cool is when your external is not connected it defaults to your local iTunes folder. So what you can do is keep a copy of the music you're currently listening to on your laptop. This way when it's disconnected you'll still have those select songs to listen to. Don't worry about connecting your iPod to your laptop when the external isn't mounted, it won't delete the songs it can't find. You'll just see an exclamation point in iTunes next to those songs.

EDIT: If you have the external connected and iTunes launched, then eject the drive, I think iTunes will default to your local drive. But mounting the drive while iTunes is already launched will not relink to the external, so you'll have to restart iTunes. I *think* this is how it currently works. Might be wrong though.

thanks for the info