Favorite External HD for iTunes

Hello, I want to buy a 1TB ext hd and move my iTunes & iPhoto libraries. I have read little bits here and there about sleep issues, unmounting issues, etc.
Are there any favorites out there? Are there any features that are absolutely "must have"?
Thanks.
GW

Drag the music to the hard disk, and then into the open iTunes window. If you want to move all the music, choose Consolidate Library from the Library section of the File menu instead.
(39224)

Similar Messages

  • 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

  • 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?

  • External Drive for ITunes and IPhoto

    I'm out of space on hard drive and would like to use an external hd for all Itunes and Iphotos.  Can someone help me in moving these to the external and to make this external the default drive for all things new to both ITunes and IPhoto?  I'm a novice!

    You post in a workstation forum, Mac Pro has 4 internal drive bays and easy to expand and upgrade.
    But yes you can have any media library and folder on add'l drives.
    How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
    Transferring iTunes Library
    Moving your iTunes Music folder
    Transferring your iTunes Library iLounge

  • 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.

  • Using Time Capsule as External Drive for iTunes Music Folder in iTunes 9

    First, prior to upgrading to Snow Leopard and iTunes 9, I had my 210 GB of music on a 1TB Time Capsule which I accessed wirelessly through my Macbook Black and I set my path to the "iTunes Music (External) Folder" I created on the Time Capsule as the default path for iTunes to access the iTunes Music (External) Folder. My iTunes Library and Album Art reside on the Macbook hard drive. Unless I opened iTunes when the Macbook was disconnected from the Time Capsule (e.g., not at home), it always remembered the drive path the next time it was opened and would play music fine. If I had to reset the drive path, iTunes would remember it (again, unless I was disconnected from my Time Capsule). Now, under iTunes 9.0.1 and Snow Leopard, iTunes always defaults back to the iTunes Media Folder on the Macbook each time I open iTunes even if I set the path to the Time Capsule. The TC is also used as my airport connection to the cable modem and Home Sharing is enabled. Oddly, iTunes seems to play music just fine even though the drive path to the iTunes Music (External) Folder is not being utilized, which it would not do under the old version of iTunes. A screenshot is below. Anyone know what is going on here?
    /Users/seanrichardson/Desktop/Screenshot_1.png

    Make sure the Time Capsule is ready and mounted before launching iTunes.
    You can add it (the Time Capsule) to your Login items in System prefs -> Accounts.

  • Same external drive for iTunes and Zune?

    Hi all,
    I have an external drive that holds all of my music, which is for iTunes and my iPods. I used to have Zune players, and recently found them in a box. I tried to set up Zune on my brothers PC, but it doesn't read my external drive. I just saw that my external is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Is there a format I can use that would work on both a Mac an a PC?
    If not, I can format another drive I have so it would work on the PC. I would then like to transfer my music from my Mac OS Extended (Journaled ) to the other drive. Will it work, or will the music files also still be M OE E (Journaled)?
    Thanks for any help...

    Figured it out. I just formated a seperate external drive to DOS Fat and copied the music from the Mac OS Extened external drive. I was able to put the music on my Zunes and it worked, even as MP4's.

  • 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)

  • External drive for iTunes serving?

    We have an intel Xserve 10.6 server with a 1 TB Apple Drive Module. We need some more space for iTunes media for serving out audio to a small audience (perhaps 10 simultaneous users). Would it be OK to use an external drive (USB2) for this?
    Thoughts?

    Hi Gil,
    how are you planning on distributing the music to your users machines? iTunes has it's 5 user per day limit so if you have 10 users you wouldn't be able to use the sharing function. QTSS is an option or something like nicecast which is about $40 (free trial available). Once you are in the realm of streaming it's your network that is sending the information around as you'd be playing the same content to everyone.
    If you have the xserve you could always use the 2nd network card to separate the other traffic going to the server if needed.
    So yes a USB2.0 external disk should do the trick. In our office we have 2 older macs that are used as jukeboxes. So people logon to the jukebox and play their shared iTunes music over the speaker system we have. That's another possible option for you.
    Hope that helps
    Beatle

  • What's your external drive for iTunes storage?

    I have a portable SmartDisc 60gig FireLight .
    It's firewire powered so it goes to sleep with the eMac . It works great but I need something bigger and I guess the desktop drives that cost less are AC powered ?
    I didn't like the Maxtor OneTouch III and returned it . The backup software that I guess I didn't need is uninstallable .
    this was on an archived thread ;
    Most external hard drives come with fans. I suggest anything from LaCie, SmartDisk, or Western Digital
    I suggest LaCie D2 Hard Drive Extreme w/ Triple Interface, SmartDisk CrossFire, or the WD Dual Option.
    I use a SmartDisk CrossFire for both my iTunes library as well as my iPhoto library. If you need help moving your iTunes library you might want to look at Knowledge Base Document #301748 explains How to Move Your iTunes Library.
    Powerbook   Mac OS X (10.4.6)   Panther eMac

    I have a LaCie D2 extreme triple interface and am happy with it. it is well built in a metal casing and came ready formatted for mac so really was just a case of plugging in and going. It also runs off the mains. It has not caused any problems so far. I bought the 160G version because at the time it was all I needed but I would recommend getting the biggest you can afford as it it is more cost effective than having to buy yet another one when you run out of space as I almost have. You never actually get the ammount of free space as the description lets you believe you are getting. eg my 160G actually gave me 147G of free space straight from the box. The only other thing i would have liked is a minimum of two firewire 400 ports as the one gets used up connecting to my macbook leaving nothing with which to daisy chain any other devices.

  • 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.

  • Getting files bigger than 4GB onto external drive for itunes

       Im woundering if anyone can help me ?
        I have recently purchased a 2012 mini mac and wanted to transfer my itunes from my pc to the new mac.
       After several attempts at doing this i found it easier to start afresh due to my external hdd that i was using on the pc not being large enough.
        I have now reached one small problem ,after puchasing a 2Tb hdd then being told to re-formatt it to fat32 i cannot download any hd movies
    as they are larger than 4GB.
       I am now lead to believe it needs to be formatted to Mac OS Extended(journaled).
       So i have now copied my itunes complete folder to the mac temporary so i can wipe the hdd
       Only problem now is when i try to re-formatt the hdd it gives me an error message saying it carnt do this .
       Can anyone please help me or do i noe hae to buy a new hdd
    its a seagate expansion if that helps.
    thanks for any help
    Mark

    If this drive is only ever going to be used with a Mac,
    you should actually repartition the drive to be a GUID
    partition table with Mac OSX extended journaled format.
    It probably will not let you format OSX because because its
    partitioning table is MBR (Master Boot Record) which is
    used with PCs.
    If you want to use with both Macs and PCs, recreate the
    partition table as MBR with the file format as ExFAT instead
    of FAT32.

  • Problem with Shift to New External Drive for iTunes

    Hi,
    I hope I can explain this clearly. I currently have all my music files on an external drive however the iTunes Library files, xml, etc are on my laptop. The external drive is running out of space so I simply got another external put the same exact music files on there but am having trouble getting iTunes to read from this new location. Is there a way to simply get the computer to read from this new file WITHOUT copying all the files over via changing the Media Folder Location and using the Library>Organize Library>Consolidate function? That seems ridiculous when I already have the files on the external drive and I'm worried that they will somehow be altered in the copying process.
    I also like to have my iTunes Library files on my hard drive but is it better to have them with the music on the external drive?
    I hope that makes sense and thanks in advance for the help, I simply couldn't find anything on here that quite describes that problem.
    JP

    OK, not having a Mac I keep forgeting details. See this support document for how to use Option to open an alternate library.
    Can I just confirm that you've already copied your existing media from External/Music/iTunes to
    New?External/Music/iTunes without changing the layout of any of the subfolders inside. If so then we should be good to go. While there are quite a few steps the aim is to avoid recopying any files that are already where they need to be and make sure that your playlists, playcounts and other meta-data remains intact.
    1. Copy the *Album Artwork* folder and the files *iTunes Library, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb & sentinel* from <User>/Music/iTunes/ to External/Music/. Ignore the XML file, it would get a new name in this location and will be recreated automatically.
    2. Start iTunes, pressing Option until prompted to choose or create a libray. Chose the library at External/Music/.
    3. Check that the media plays. Check under *Edit > Preferences > Advanced* that the location of the media folder reads as External/Music/iTunes.
    4. Close iTunes.
    5. Copy the *Album Artwork* folder and the files *iTunes Library, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb & sentinel* from External/Music/ to New?External/Music/. Again, ignore the XML file.
    6. Use Option-Start iTunes to open the new library at New?External/Music/.
    7. Check that the media plays and that under *Edit > Preferences > Advanced* that the location of the media folder now reads as New?External/Music/iTunes/.
    8. Close iTunes, rename the folder New?External/Music/iTunes/ as *New?External/Music/iTunes Media/*.
    9. Start iTunes. Check that the media plays and that under *Edit > Preferences > Advanced* that the location of the media folder now reads as *New?External/Music/iTunes Media*.
    10. Close iTunes, rename the folder New?External/Music/ as New?External/iTunes/.
    11. Use Option-Start iTunes to open the library at New?External/iTunes/.
    12. Check that the media plays and that under *Edit > Preferences > Advanced* that the location of the media folder now reads as *New?External/iTunes/iTunes Media/*.
    13. You should now be able to use *File > Library > Organize Library... > Consolidate files* to consolidate any files left behind in *<User>/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/* that you weren't able to consolidate to your old external drive.
    14. If you haven't already done so then you should also select the option *File > Library > Organize Library... > Re-organize files in the folder "iTunes Media"*. If the option is greyed out then you have already upgraded to "iTunes Media Organization".
    15. Rename the folder <User>/Music/iTunes/ as *<User>/Music/Old iTunes/*. Now if you ever start iTunes without connecting the external first iTunes will complain that it can't find the library instead of silently switching to the old internal one. This is likely to lead to less confusion in the long run.
    16. Backup... You should get another drive big enough to hold everything so you have a backup copy for disaster recovery. Now that everything is organisized sensibly you just need to copy the iTunes folder from one external drive to another to back it up or better yet locate a folder syncing tool so that only new & changed files need to be copied across when you back up.
    tt2

  • I am using external drive for iTunes why does it put art on internal

    I have my itunes library on an external drive which works quite well for the most part. However it keeps recreating an itunes folder and subfolders on my internal drive mainly artwork and .itdb, .itl and  .xml files in user/music/itunes. this is quite annoying because I am trying to keep as much data as possible off my internal drive for space considerations. I have tried deleting these files but itunes  just recreates them. Does anyone have any ideas?

    pharmercist wrote:
    Solved the problem. When I initially moved itunes to the external drive I copied the entire iTunes folder and seleted the appropriate library drive in preferences
    This is not the correct way to do it.
    This still uses the iTunes folder on the internal for the iTunes library file, artwork etc.
    Holding Option and Choose library... tells iTunes to use everything in the iTunes folder you select.
    Holding Option and Choose library... you do not need to change the Tunes prefs > Advance - iTunes media folder location.

  • 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.

Maybe you are looking for