Transferring my iTunes library from a pc compatible hard drive...?

Question

I want to run my itunes library from my external hard drive because I don't want all my media and itunes stuff taking space in my SSD drive for my retina MBP...
However, the problem is that since this is my first mac, and I had been using itunes from my pc all this time, the drives are in different formats...
So how do i transfer my itunes libary from my pc's external hard drive...to a hard drive that I will use for my mac? I don't want the library taking up any space on my internal SSD ...
Problem is I can't seem to just drag and drop my library from my pc's external drive to my mac drive because they are a different format and thus incompatible :/
So what should I do? What is the easiest way to transfer my libraries and media to my mac's external hard drive between mac and pc?
If there is a way to store my media and itunes library on an cloud storage system like Copy or Google Drive so that I dont have to keep plugging in my external drive that would be ideal also..

Answer 1

First there's the drive problem.  It shouldn't be much of a problem.  PCs typically use drives formatted to NTFS.  Macs can read but not write to NTFS, but all you want to do is read anyway, to copy the files to your Mac formatted drive.  Plug both drives into your Mac and copy from the NTFS to the Mac formattted drive.  If that isn't working there's a different issue.  Check your Mac drive is formatted to Mac because new drives are often formatted for PC use.
Another thing to consider is FAT32 format is a PC format but Macs can read and write to it too.  It has certain disadvantages for use with Macs but the main advantage that you could use one drive with both your PC and your Mac.  The main disadvantage some find is if they store huge files (video editing files) since FAT 42 has a 4GB limit for any one file.
After this will come the question of what to copy and to where.  Do you keep only media on the external drive, or do you keep the whole library there?
As for Cloud storage, I can't really help you.  I get the impression it isn't the same as having a local drive since what you would want is streaming, not file transfer. 
There are are a host of other issues.  I see this 'have a Mac and PC and want to use the same library with both' question here once a week.  You either end up with having two independent libraries that you try to keep synchronized with teach other, or you have one library that you have to carry back and forth, or at best on a networked drive but you can only have open by one computer at a time.