Network drives and iTunes

Question

Hi,
Is iTunes able to read music off a Network Hard Drive if it does not have a drive letter?
alternatively, i'm also thinking of buying a network hard drive, installing windows and iTunes on it as well as putting my entire music collection on it. the idea is to then stream it to a wireless music device connected to my stereo in another part of my house. any ideas on what limitations i'm likely to come up against?? more importantly, will it work?
Thanks again
Jai K

Answer 1

Hello!
"Is iTunes able to read music off a Network Hard Drive?"
Sure! I've had it set up on an NAS drive for quite sometime. I've also been in the situation where I had music on a PC where my iBook was using it as a library. You just need to make sure that the drive/folder/whatever is shared and then point iTunes at it. Sounds like you might be using multiple platforms from the "no drive letter" comment. Is that right?
"i'm also thinking of buying a network hard drive, installing windows and iTunes on it as well as putting my entire music collection on it."
Well, like I said, my whole library is on an NAS as we speak. The part about installing iTunes on it is a bit tricky, though. iTunes stores info on the primary drive of the computer no mater where you put the library. I would think that even in this set up, you would end up with files in c:\...\[username]\My Music\iTunes. And this would be the file that contains all the actual library info such as playlists, what songs exist, etc. So it might just be easier to install iTunes on each machine and then make a habit of updating the library on a regular basis for each. This is easy, and I'd gladly help you there.
"the idea is to then stream it to a wireless music device connected to my stereo in another part of my house. any ideas on what limitations i'm likely to come up against?? more importantly, will it work?"
Limitations listed above. Depending on the device, purchased music (from the iTMS) might not work as many of these devices can't decode the songs. I know there are folks around here using (I believe) the ROKU soundbridge device. You might want to see if any are listening by starting a thread with either that or the name of the device you are looking at in the title. Another option that DOES support purchased music and is integrated with iTunes is the Airport Express, which lets you stream music to it then feed it to speakers or a stereo. Of course, it doesn't have any controls directly on it, but is easily controlled through the PC with iTunes.
Hope this helps point you in the right direction.