External Disc Drive for iTunes

I now have a 120Gig iomega external hard drive connected to my iBook G4 via FireWire. This drive was purchased to store my classical music albums. The internal hard drive is nearly filled with pictures.
In iTunes, all music is stored in the folder "Music". This folder, by default, is on the internal hard drive. I want "Music" to be on the external drive only and have iTunes look only to the external drive.
I'm stumped! Help please!

Copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes Music folder you find inside the iTunes folder) to your external drive. Once copied open that library from that location using these instructions...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
Assuming that works correctly, you can now delete the iTunes folder from your internal drive to free up space.
Patrick
p.s. Note that if you ever start up iTunes and forgot to turn on the external drive, iTunes will default back to the internal drive. So you will have to exit, then restart with those instructions and point it back to the external drive again.

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Using external hard drive for itunes from mac to windows

Hello, I have an external hard drive for my itunes music connected to a G4. I just bought a laptop (windows) and would like to connect the external drive to it so it will read my music from the external hard drive. How can i do that?
Thanks,
M

You will lose all data when you reformat so you must copy it elsewhere temporarily, as for the format go to: Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility>Erase, in the format dropdown select MSDOS (FAT) and in the name dropdown, type a name.
Copy your data back to it and it will be accessible to windows and osx

External disc drive for 11-e010nr notebook

What external disc drive will work for this HP 11-e010nr notebook. Need it to install my Office 2010

Hi,
Actually any external Optical Disc Drive (ODD) can do, such as:
http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/products/Technology/Computer-Accessories/CD-DVD-Drives
http://www.ebay.com.au/bhp/external-cd-drive
Regards.
BH
**Click the KUDOS thumb up on the left to say 'Thanks'**
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Time Capsule or AirPort Extreme + External Hard Drive for iTunes Library

Hi, I currently have an Airport Extreme (Gigabit) and am planning on getting a MacBook Pro. What I want to do is keep my iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive and attach it to my AirPort so I can access it anywhere in the house (and world). Now I have been reading various reviews that perhaps a Time Capsule would be better for my needs. I don't plan on using it for Time Machine backups right now, just as a NAS Drive. If anyone has any experience with this I would appreciate the advice.
Thanks!
Message was edited by: Mr. Macintosh693

Hi,
I have something like that working at the moment. My setup is based on a Mac Mini Core Duo [ OS 10.5.6 ] connected to a Time Capsule. I have configured iTunes to store all archived music on the Time Capsule. I use the Apple Lossless format for my CDs and approx 420 titles have taken approx 130Gb from my 1Tb Capsule. In general this setup works well [ especially the optical out of the Mac ] but be aware of the following potential pitfalls:-
1. The Time Capsule is a little on the noisy side and depending on the quality of your playback equipment, your choice of music, ambient noise and your values of "satisfactory" you may want to put your Capsule or HDD in another room. This seems OK for generic playback, but in my experience wireless is not a good way to go for streaming content.
2. iTunes v8.0.2 has a preferences capability to allow you to redirect it's archive to the Time Capsule. However, even if you leave the Capsule switched on it goes into a "sleep" mode. Rip a new CD and iTunes won't tell you this; instead it will silently reconfigure itself to store on your local hard drive and then you're left with the challenge of moving your collection piecemeal if you want it in one location, followed by manually updating iTunes to "point" it to the new location of the music.
One nice thing about the Capsule is that it does allow other connection types. I have mine networked to a PC running Ubuntu Linux and a music player called Amarok and I am able to stream the Mac-Ripped lossless files and play them over Linux perfectly... Works very well. Apparently you can do this with a Windows client and iTunes for Windows, but I don't run Windows as a matter of principle and can't validate that.
My 1Tb Time Capsule runs hot, too. Not dangerously so, but hot to the touch. There are no cooling fans, but you might want to think about placement; it needs plenty of fresh air circulating around it.
For what it's worth [ and I appreciate this is going beyond your question ] I also wanted my setup to be able to store and retrieve recorded TV. I have Elgato EyeTV and a USB Freeview decoder. I quickly learned that despite claims to the contrary the performance of the wireless connection just isn't up to streaming video content. So I went out and purchased a pair of Ethernet-over-mains adapters from Zyxel that are absolutely perfect for the job.
Yes, the Capsule is a little pricey for what is little more than a Hard Drive in a box, but it does work very well.
Beware the timeout disconnections and the silently re-configuring iTunes thought...

Using an external hard drive for iTunes

My laptop is running out of space. I have an external hard drive that I've loaded a bunch of my CD's into but I'm not sure how to get those into my iPod without having them take up more space on my laptop hard drive. Any thoughts? thanks

just add them to your library. Change the setting in preferences so that iTunes does not make a copy of the file on your laptop.
Note that if you do not have your XHD attached you will get an ! next to teh songs in the libary.

Create a link to movies stores on external hard drive for itunes

I seem to have an issue with creating a link to movies stored on my external top be played on itunes. Im NOT trying to move my itunes music library. I had to resetablish my links. Previously I had all of my movies stored on an external, would just highlight and drag to Itunes movies, an icon and a shortcut would quickly copy ans all was good. Now when I drag the movie icon to itunes it begins a "copying" process that takes a very long time.
??

What I do is this:
I keep the 'Keep iTunes folder Organised' option check (on). So that When I buy music or rip a CD, the music goes into my iTunes folder on my iMac's internal drive (in my home folder - default location).
However, I have elected to keep all my movies on an external drive, effectively meaning that I only want iTunes to partially organise my folder.
How do I get around this?
Simple. To add a movie to iTunes from my external drive, I simply OPTION-DRAG the file into iTunes. ie. select the file in the Finder, hold down the option key and drag it onto iTunes' open window. It will add the movie to the library, but WILL NOT copy it to the iTunes folder - the file will be referenced from its original location.
Simples.

Using Time Capsule as an external media drive for iTunes..

Hi guys,
I have a Mac Mini (as a media server) and an Apple TV to watch all my Media on.
I've heard that TC can be used as a wireless external HDD, if this is true is there any reason why I cant use it to back up my entire iTunes library as my Mac Mini is getting short on space?

i envy you. i'd love one of 'em suckers, too - as a back up tool...
however, i don't think i'd want to do what you're gonna do seemingly.
have a look at this thread and decide then
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10402498#10402498
good computing

Can I use my old Macbook Pro as an external disc drive while installing Windows 7 through boot camp?

I want to install the Windows 7 CD on the newest version of the 2013 Macbook pro 10.9.2 running OSX Mavericks, through Boot Camp. It does not have a disc port, nor do I have an external disc drive....but I do have an older macbook that does have a disc drive and I know you can supplement it for an external disc drive.
My question is can I use my old Macbook pro's as an external disc drive for the installation of Windows 7 in Boot camp? Will this be a problem? Or do I have to buy an external disc drive separately.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5287

External Hard Drive for large itune library

Every time I click a song I have to "locate." Is there any way to have resolve that in one step without having to do it on each song?
TRacy

How do I do it?
My external hard drive is connected to one computer. It gets turned on first. Then the other two. They are connected by a LAN. I have the external hard drive set to mount on the other two at startup. Now the external hard drive is connected to all three at the same time. iTunes on all three point to it, but the Library.xml file for each computer is on it's own startup disc. Only the music files are shared.
If you are happy with the location of your files and you don't care about playlists and play count etc., open iTunes WITH THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE DISCONNECTED and delete everything in the library and close iTunes. Them turn on and mount the external hard drive, open iTunes and do File/Add To Library and point to the external hard drive.
Moving the files by hand instead of letting iTunes do it in the first place is one reason iTunes can't locate them now.

How do i use an external hard drive for all my itunes music?

how do i use an external hard drive for all my itunes music?

Hi valleydave,
Here are two good links for you to check out:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
The first one goes over, in-depth, what you're looking for in regards to "off site" iTunes.

Can anyone make a recommendation on the purchase of an external hard drive for my Macbook Pro? I am currently using OS 10.6.8 because I can't upgrade until I clean out my start up disc space. I have a ton of pictures to transfer. Thanks!

Can anyone make a recommendation on the purchase of an external hard drive for my Macbook Pro? I am currently using OS 10.6.8 because I can't upgrade until I clean out my start up disc space. I have a ton of pictures to transfer.Thanks!

best options for the price, and high quality HD:
Quality 1TB drives are $50 per TB on 3.5" or $65 per TB on 2.5"
Perfect 1TB for $68
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B005J7YA3W/ref=sr_1_ 1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379452568&sr=8-1&keywords=1tb+toshiba
Nice 500gig for $50. ultraslim perfect for use with a notebook
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B009F1CXI2/ref=s r_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1377642728&sr=1-1&keywords=toshiba+slim+500gb
2.5" USB portable High quality BEST FOR THE COST, Toshiba "tiny giant" 2TB drive (have several of them, LOT of storage in a SMALL package) $117
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Connect-Portable-HDTC720XK3C1/dp/B00CGUMS48 /ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1379182740&sr=1-4&keywords=2tb+toshiba
*This one is the BEST portable external HD available that money can buy:
HGST Touro Mobile 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive $88
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Mobile-Portable-External-0S03559/dp/B009GE6JI8/ref=sr _1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383238934&sr=8-1&keywords=HGST+Touro+Mobile+Pro+1TB+USB+3.0+7 2 00+RPM
Most storage experts agree on the Hitachi 2.5"
Hitachi is the winner in hard drive reliability survey:
Hitachi manufacturers the safest and most reliable hard drives, according to the Storelab study. Of the hundreds of Hitachi hard drives received, not a single one had failed due to manufacturing or design errors. Adding the highest average lifespans and the best relationship between failures and market share, Hitachi can be regarded as the winner.

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

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.

I found information on how to transfer my library to a new computer. I am going to use an external hard drive for this and transfer my itunes folder to the new computer. I will then download and install a new version of itunes on my new computer. My q

I found information on how to transfer my itunes library to a new computer. I am going to use an external hard drive for this to transfer my itunes folder to the new computer.
I will then download and install a new version of itunes on my new computer.
My question is this. When I do this, will itunes have all my album artwork for all my library? My library has a lot of my own music and I have spent quite a bit of time copying album artwork that itunes did not add. I am really hoping I don't have to do this again!
Thanks for your help!

If you follow the directions in this Link...
Copy iTunes to an External Drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Everything should be carried across...

Can the apple external disc drive that I just got for my air also work with my late 2007 macbook pro? The internal disc drive broke after apple care expired, natch.

Can the apple external disc drive that I just got for my air also work with my late 2007 macbook pro? The internal disc drive broke after apple care expired, natch.

No, sorry. it won't work with the 2007 MBP. You can replace the optical drive yourself - just go shopping at OWC.
Good luck,
Clinton

External Disc Drive for iTunes

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