Use of an external drive for itunes library - backup options?

Hi,
I have a dell laptop with 60GB of memory and I just purchased an 80GB ipod classic. I cannot upgrade the storage in this laptop. Originally I was thinking I would just buy a new laptop. But given that all laptops now come with Windows Vista and reading about all the issues that users have had with Vista and Itunes I do not think that would be a good idea. Do you agree that I should just stick with my Windows XP Machine?
So I was thinking I would change my music library so it resides on an external drive. My only concern with this - is how do I keep a backup of this external drive? From reading all the forum posts if this external drive failed it can be done moving the information from an ipod back to another drive using third party software but it sounds risky.
Any thoughts on how others are handling this would be appreciated.
Thank you!
Karen

Karen, most 3rd party software is pretty easy to use. The one thing I need to point out that relying on the iPod can be pretty risky, too. What if iPod is lost or stolen? What if you have an iPod problem that requires a restore? I would suggest that as a secondary backup for the EHD, you either burn data discs or possibly consider a 2nd EHD, since you can buy them pretty cheap these days. Right now, I backup to 2 different EHD's, then burn data discs as needed of my iTunes library, just in case I would be unlucky enough to lose everything.

Similar Messages

Using external drive for iTunes Library

There's about 80G of music on my external hard drive. I'd like to use this music as the library when the external is connected to the laptop. I don't know how to make this work. I know it's possible to duplicate the music on the Powerbook and create another library on the HD. But what I'm looking to do is have the laptop library separate from the HD and to manually choose which is being used. The problem is getting the mac to create a library of the 80G of music stored on the HD.
Any replies greatly appreciated.
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

It's no different than creating any new iTunes library. Since you already have an iTunes Library file that you want to keep, rename that file...something like iTunes Laptop Library. Then hold down the Option key while opening iTunes and choose "Create Library" when presented with the option. iTunes will create a new iTunes Library file in the iTunes folder, and it will be empty. Use the Add command or drag-and-drop the external HD music folder to populate this new library. When you close iTunes, you might want to rename this new library file also, so the two library files, which can coexist peacefully side by side, are easy to distinguish from each other.
Whenever you want to switch from using one library to the other, just hold down the Option key when opening iTunes, select Choose Library, and select the other library file.
iMac G4 17; iBook G4 1.33 Mhz 14; iPod 3G 20GB Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Using an external drive for Itunes library

I find Itunes a poor program and I am being discouraged from using it to get music which is a shame
The albums are often more expensive than the CDs and it is difficult to back up the downloads. You need to rip them to disc straight away.
I would like to have a external drive ripnas where all my music is stored and it can be accessed by my three computers when and I want to listen to my music and I can download tracks from which ever computer I want.
Finally when I use my ipad, or Ipod it can be linked to the Music drive rather than a computer this means I can play tracks downloaded from any source with out the ipods etc being linked to a particular computer and having to be wiped clean if you want a track from the wrong computer you downloaded the track from.
Any ideas sorry about the rave but seem to have lost tracks I have brought ( back up with time machine but thats no longer working only a year old the power supply blown so lost whole lot of music I had thought i had carefully backup)
Any thoughts about who to resolve this mess would be gratefully received
If I download Flac files I dont have any of these problems and easy to back up)

Neale Watson wrote:
The albums are often more expensive than the CDs and it is difficult to back up the downloads. You need to rip them to disc straight away.
Buy the CDs. there's your backup-the original CD.
I would like to have a external drive ripnas where all my music is stored and it can be accessed by my three computers when and I want to listen to my music and I can download tracks from which ever computer I want.
This works. I do it this way.
Any thoughts about who to resolve this mess would be gratefully received
If I download Flac files I dont have any of these problems and easy to back up)
iTunes music files should be backed up on CDs or DVDs (not hard drives) as a data disc.
Tracy

Dlink router + external drive for itunes library?

I have a MBP who is slowly running out of space... I have a dlink router 826L with a 2TB external hard drive that is plugged in by usb into the router. dlink has settings to set it up as storage, but it wants to use a sharepoint software thing. I want to know if I can put all my music on it and then have itunes look for my music there. I have to admit, when it comes to networking, etc. i become so so so dumb.

Well did you let iTunes import all your music into its folder structure or just let it create a database of the songs?
More then likely it copied your music into itself because that is the default behavior of iTunes unless you first turn that off. So all your music is in the iTunes Library. Go to your Home folder, Your User Name folder, then Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music and all your music is in there.
But you can just copy the complete iTunes folder, ~/Music/iTunes, to your external drive then open iTunes and go to Preferences and the the advanced section and click the Change button
then browse to your external drive and select the iTunes folder that you copied over to the external.
Once you do that you can Delete, move to trash, the iTunes folder in your username music folder.

External Drive for itunes library.

Hello,
I was just hoping that someone could answer what is probably a very silly question.
I currently use my ibook as a working computer and itunes library. This is causing problems now as i'm running out of disk space. Is it possible to buy an external drive, move my itunes library file onto it, and then carry on as normal - obviously whenever the external drive is attached?
It would certainly help me out, stop me having to use my PC and therefore losing the Contacts, and Calendar features that my Mac gives me.
Thanks
Martyn

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
You could have searched Apple support for the terms "move iTunes folder" and saved yourself the wait, and you can also search here too as this is asked repeatedly.
Follow every instruction, step by step, no short-cuts and such and it works perfectly.

External drive for iTunes library and backing up via time machine

Hi, I currently have an 320gb external drive plugged into usb port of my imac for time machine back up, but my itunes library is 500gb and currently excluded from time machine back up, I would like to buy a 2 or 3tb external drive and then move my itunes library to that to free space on my imac.
I'd really like to know the best way to set up and what to buy, ie, if i move the library to an external drive am I able to back up the external drive via time machine, plus I assume if I do this i need a second external drive or time capsule to back up the library
Also the external drive is plugged directly into imac but I have an airport extreme is there any benefit plugging the drive into this, would this mean you access file from network (should you do this if its used for time machine), should I get rid of the extreme and buy a time capsule
Thanks in advance

Hi, I'd recommend one of these...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
FW400 will be faster than USB2, & FW8000 even better.
I see no advantage to plugging it into Your Extreme.

Using a Second External Drive For Time Machine Backup

I have been using Time Machine for almost a year and the external drive I'm using is almost full. Can I switch to a second external drive? If I decide to keep using the same drive is there a way to keep my original backup? Is there information that I need from that first backup that I did?
Thank you!!!

bvasel900 wrote:
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
I have been using Time Machine for almost a year and the external drive I'm using is almost full. Can I switch to a second external drive?
Yes, if that's what you want to do (see below). If you start "fresh" on a new drive, your first backup will be a full one; everything on your system. Or, you can copy your current backups to it via the procedure in item #18 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum. TM will then continue making it's usual "incremental" backups, and you can erase the old disk and use it for other things.
If I decide to keep using the same drive is there a way to keep my original backup? Is there information that I need from that first backup that I did?
Probably not. As Mr. Peck noted, TM will automatically delete your oldest backups when it needs room for new ones (unless you have the +*Warn when old backups are deleted+* box checked in TM Preferences > Options).
But unless you've been deleting things from your internal HD, counting on TM to keep it's backup copies indefinitely, you won't lose anything you need.
That's because of the "magic" of Time Machine. Each backup is an "incremental" backup, copying only the items that have been added or changed since the last backup. But by using "multi-links" to the backups of items that did not change, each backup is, in effect, a full, complete copy of your entire system!
So when TM deletes your oldest backup, all it will be deleting are it's copies of things you changed or deleted long ago.

Case Sensitive External Drive for iTunes

My iTunes Library is currently stored on a case sensitive external drive. I am moving it to another drive that I found out is formatted as a non-case sensitive (both areJournaled). When I tried to move my iTunes Library, it would not copy because there are apparently some duplications that are different in case and this causes a problem when duplication to a non-case sensitive drive.
I figure I have two options:
1) Reformat the new drive to be Journaled and Case Sensitive
2) Go through the tedious process of identifying which files in the iTunes Library would be duplicates in a non-case sensitive drive. There could be just a few or hundreds (or even thousands).
What is the disadvantage of using a Case Sensitive drive for iTunes (option #1)? I may also store some other files on this drive.
I noticed that all my other drives, on both my desktops and external are formatted as non-case sensitive.

If you can get to the two metadata files that iTunes keeps on the old PC, then you have several options. See: What are the iTunes Library files?
1) Use the 'iTunes Library.itl' file on the old PC to completely recreate your Library. You will have to place all the music files/folders in the exact same location on the new PC as they were on the old PC. That drive letter and directory path. Then copy the older ITL file over the current one on the new PC. Open iTunes and you'll have a clone of the old PC's Library. As you have been using an ExHD to store the music, this would be my preferred choice. It's easy to remap the drive letter of an ExHD, if needed.
2) The other way is to 'File=>Import' the XML file and recover the Playlists from there. They will not be in any folder structure as they were in the previous iTunes. Also, any playlists that depended on ratings, play counts and last played will be changed, as those attributes have not been carried over using this method.
Post back if you have questions.

Should I create a partition on external drive for iTunes music?

...or will it create it's own space outwith my backup stuff?
(Secondary question: would moving my iTunes music from internal to external drive noticably improve performance of my Mac? I'm using about 135GB of a 250GB drive, 60GB of which is in iTunes Music folder)

Should I create a partition on external drive for iTunes music? or will it create it's own space outwith my backup stuff?
I see no good reason to create a separate partition unless you're backing up with Time Machine. TM prefers to have it's own volume, so in that case partitioning would probably be a good idea.
would moving my iTunes music from internal to external drive noticably improve performance of my Mac? I'm using about 135GB of a 250GB drive, 60GB of which is in iTunes Music folder.
No, probably not. As long as you're not getting the drive too full - opinions vary but about 20GB remaining should be plenty for most uses - you probably won't see any overall change in performance just from moving the iTunes content.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

Using both internal and external drives for iTunes

Hi
I know this is a basic question . I did a few searches and my head started spinning .
I've been using an external drive for my music but it only has 3GB left .
My internal drive has 12GB so I would like to start to use it for storage of music along with the external . (I'll be getting a new mac soon)
In Importing I have >Create file names with track number
Advanced>Keep iTunes Music folder organized
This is on my Panther eMac with iTunes 4.7.1
thanks in advance for any help
----------bob
Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.6) Panther eMac

The only thing you have to do is to click the 'Reset' button in Preferences>Advanced>General.
Your 'iTunes Music folder location' will be reset to the default location on the internal disk.
All new imported music will be stored there.
New added music will be stored there if you have the checked 'copy files to iTunes Music folder location when adding to library' in Preferences>Advanced>General.
When your new Mac arrives and you want to transfer the library, first copy the entire 'iTunes' folder (in ./Users/YourUsername/Music) from your eMac to the exact same location on the new Mac.
To transfer the iTunes folder, you can burn it on CD or DVD, but a lot easier is to put the eMac in Firewire target mode.
This article tells you how to do that:
How to use FireWire target disk mode
After the transfer of the iTunes folder is completed, connect your external drive and run iTunes.
The new Mac will have a newer iTunes version and it will take some time to convert the old library format to the new format.
Once all works OK and If you want all your music on your new Mac, use the 'Consolidate Library...' command from the Advanced menu in the menubar.
All music from the external disk will be copied to the internal disk.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

How do i use an external drive for iphoto library

I am looking to use an external drive to store my photo library.
Tips

Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
LN

Use external drive for Time Capsule backups AND file storage?

I have an external drive formatted by my MBP. I'm using it to store my iTunes music library and iPhoto pics. Can I use the drive for Time Capsule backups as well?

Yes, but that is not recommended. Storage and backup should be kept separate to reduce the chances of a disk failure. This is especially important because you cannot even partition a Time Capsule drive. Go get a separate drive for your storage needs. Get another drive for a second backup and use a different method of backup than Time Machine

External Drive for iTunes new MacBook Air

I recently upgraded from a MBP (2009) to a new MBA. I have always had my iTunes directory on an external drive. (For the last 3 MacBooks I have had...) so I know how to properly map iTunes to the drive, etc...
When I finished setting up the new MBA - I attempted to access the External Drive hooked up to my new TimeCapsule. However iTunes would not recognize the database. (I set the new location as directed)
I then disconnected the External Drive, and connected directly to the MBA - and attempted the same - with no luck.
The only way I seem to be able to access anything on my iTunes is via iTunes Match.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you in advance..

Choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu, provide ~/Music/ as the folder's path, and drag the entire iTunes library, including the database files, to it.
Alternatively, you can drag the entire library to any location on the internal drive, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, and choose it.
If you only put the songs and not the database files on the external drive, drag it to the internal drive and from there to the library in the open iTunes application window.
(114452)

Auto mount/eject external drive for time machine backup/restore

I have an Iomega ultramax drive connected via firewire 800 for my Time machine backups.
This drive will automatically spin down after a period of non-use. I like this as it means lower power usage and lower risk of data loss (head crashes etc..).
My problem is, when the drive spins down like this, some file open operations pause until the drive spins up again. I cannot remember exactly which applications I have had the problem with, but I assumed that this was part of the OS. This delay can be up to 5 seconds or so and is really annoying.
Assuming this is not just a specific third party application thing. My suggestion to Apple is to do one or both of the following:
1) Multi thread the file open dialog (process?) so that is comes up instantly, and then adds the drive when it has spun up.
2) Modify time machine so that it can automatically mount/eject the external drive just when doing backups and restores.
Currently I have a bit of a messy work around to this problem where I have a loadd scheduled shell script that runs every hour that mounts the drive, runs time machine to backup and the ejects the drive. It works, but is not perhaps as nice a solution as it could be.
Does anybody else suffer from this problem?

Yes that is correct, the drive spins down and remains mounted.
To be perhaps clearer. The problem is not essentially a time machine problem, it is to do with whatever implements the file open capability that other apps use. In the above sitation, there is always a delay for the drive to spin up when I go to open a file (perhaps five seconds) in other applications. I assume this delay is caused by the file open process waiting until some data is retrieved from the external drive before giving me the option of choosing a file. This delay is annoying, as I do not ever want to open a file from my external drive (this is dedicated to time machine backups) when I am using pages, or any other application other than a time machine restore.
This particular issue is similar (but I suspect nowhere near as bad) as one of my pet hates about windows XP. In windows it appears that the explorer will wait for a response on all its connected drives (hard disks, mounted cds, network drives), so any sort of network connectivity or hardware delay will cause explorer to freeze. As explorer seems to be embedded in most things you do with the OS, this can cause anything or everything to freeze (web browsing, you name it).
In my setup, as I have the external drive totally dedicated to time machine backups, another thing that would fix the problem for me is the suggestion number 2 I suggested where time machine auto mounts for the backup and then ejects after the backup. With the feature, then the external drrive will only ever be mounted for short periods of time (the above problem does not ocurr if the external drive is not mounted), and when it is mounted it will be spinning, so I will never have my file open delay. I would however have a short delay when doing a time machine restore for the mount of the drive, but this is a much rarer event the using file open in all my other apps.
Thanks for the info on the feedback link, I will post this to that.

Use same external drive for itunes in mac and windows?

Hi,
I have a Macbook Air that has bootcamp and I use 99% of my time under Windows 7.
All of my music and movies are on an external hard drive and I have a problem using
it for iTunes under Windows and the Mac at the same time.
Is it possible to have both versions point to the same external drive?
I tried almost everything but it fails as the file paths are stored once and for all in
the iTunes library file.
When booting under OS/X and opening iTunes, it loads the .itl file and shows all music
but of course it doesn't see anything since the path under OS/X has nothing to do with
the one under Windows.
My iTunes lib was created under Windows and all files are stored in a variation of:
J:\Private\My Music\iTunes[Rock | Classical | Soundtracks]
Under OS/X of course the path is totally different:
/Volumes/DRIVE_J/Private/My Music/iTunes/[Rock | Classical | Soundtracks]
Now if I reimport everything in iTunes for OS/X it will change all the paths and then
Windows will not be able to fetch the files.
Isn't there a way to have relative paths so both the OS/X and Windows versions
of iTunes work flawlessly without caring at all about which OS is running?
This is driving me nuts.
I'm not talking about Sharing an iTunes library over a network. I want to share the
same physical folder between Windows and OS/X
Thanks for any help.
Steve

Anyone?

Use of an external drive for itunes library - backup options?

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