Access iTunes songs from external drive of old computer

Hi,
My old laptop’s video chip died and it made more sense to buy a new computer. The hard drive was fine, so I had it put into an external case. Unfortunately, there was music from CDs in that iTunes that I didn’t have in my iPod. I installed iTunes on my new computer that’s also running XP and it now has music on it from CDs as well, so if possible, I don’t want to simply replace the new iTunes music folder with the old one. I’d appreciate any thoughts on this.
Thanks,
Robert

I just copied the iTunes .itl, .xml(not sure if I needed this one) files from the old HD onto the new C: drive, and it made a copy so now there are files named "iTunes library (2) Extras; (2) Genuius; ITunes Library (2), etc. I told it not to replace the existing ones as I didn't want to cause any other issues. Am I safe to delete the original files and just take the (2) off the file names or am I better off to leave as is? I did another shift-open and directed it to that library (2) file and it opened my library. Thanks again for the help, I really appreciate it.

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Hello there FunkyMuzak,
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Steps to create or choose a different iTunes Library file
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From: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1589
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Cheers,
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Hello there FunkyMuzak,
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To have iTunes open the alternate library on the drive use this option:
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If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
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You should see one of the following screens:
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den.thed wrote:
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Importing iTunes library from external drive

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Simply highlight and delete
But doing so it will also trash all playlists, data added, ratings, etc. Something the OP said about having to rename lots of files during a previous library rebuild suggests to me they may even be stored in WAV format. If the OP deletes them from the library all the labels will be lost, they will get added back with only file names as track information and they will have to be renamed again.
This will delete not only the reference to the file, but the library.itl file that Limnos refers to.
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Now you should have an empty iTunes.
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In iTunes, go to >> Preferences >> Advanced -- Select the location of your files on the external drive. Tick OK and iTunes should re-add all the files. Depending on how many, it may take some time as it organises everything. But your files will remain on the ext drive. Any new songs you get will get added to your external drive by default now.
Changing this preference setting will not get iTunes to inventory the files in the media folder, nor add them. It simply tells iTunes to put any new media added in the location selected.
Or, select the files on your ext drive, hold down OPTION and drag the files into iTunes. It will add them to your library, but leave the files on your external drive. Note that any new files you add directly to iTunes (like from the store) will be added to your default iTunes folder, not the external drive.
Well, yes, it will do it, essentially creating a brand new library that the OP will have to organize again vs. using the existing organization. My reservations about the need to rebuild the library from scratch still exist.
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Hopefully you can point me in the right direction.

+I was able to salvage my iTunes library from the old hard drive and put it on an external drive.+
Were you able to get the entire itunes folder? Does it have a file named iTunes Library.itl in it?
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Access iTunes songs from external drive of old computer

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