Question about iTunes/External Hard Drives

[BengalDuck]

I have an external HD that is filled with music. I recently purchased a 500 GB HD, and I'd like to move all of my music over to it. Normally I would simply drag the iTunes music folder from Ext1 to Ext2. Then I would delete all of my iTunes songs and then import all of the files from Ext2.

Unfortunately, there are a few hundred songs that I have deleted from my iTunes library but not from my iTunes folder on Ext1. Is there any way to just transfer the files from iTunes onto Ext2 (I tried dragging all the files from the iTunes library, but I want them in folder configurations and not just 19k individual music files).

Can I just drag the iTunes music folder, but not import Ext2 files... is there any way that iTunes will find the tracks themselves?

 

[mad jew]

Is iTunes set to manage your files? If so, change the location of the library to the new drive in iTunes Preferences and then select Consolidate Library from the Advanced Menu. This should copy across all your tracks that show up in the iTunes library but not those that are inadvertently still in your old library's folder.

 

[Mal]

Just a warning about mad jew's suggestion (which is a good one), if you have multiple user accounts using one music library folder, it causes problems, and a lot of music would have to be reimported. If only one user account, or if the others are using different music folders, then you're good to go.

jW

 

[irregardless]

If you give the new drive the exact same name and folder structure, you should be able to just copy the music files.

Change the name of the old drive if you're going to keep it mounted.

When you access a song via, iTunes the program should find the same path to the song file: /Volumes/Ext1/Music/Artist/Album/Song.mp3

You shouldn't have any interruption in your iTunes operation that way. It's been a while, but I think that's what I did I moved mine from a 100GB to a 180GB drive.

Hope it works for you.

 

[mad jew]

Just a warning about mad jew's suggestion (which is a good one), if you have multiple user accounts using one music library folder, it causes problems, and a lot of music would have to be reimported. If only one user account, or if the others are using different music folders, then you're good to go.

jW

That shouldn't be a problem in iTunes 7.0 because you can start the app whilst holding OPTION and re-select your library on the new external drive in the other accounts.