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.

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

I want to format my hard drive so i can have files bigger than 4GB what format should I use?

I have a new hard drive that I want to format so it will work with both mac and PC (windows) but I have files that are bigger than 4GB, what format should I use?
It needs to work with both PC and mac because I need to go between two computers etc

If both of these computers are connect to the same router, both are in your home or place of work (Both are in the same location), it is very easy to Network them so you don't have to use DropBox or the external drive to share files between them.
MickAUS2012 wrote:
yea thanks for that, i have drop box so i use that for some of my smaller files. Im just new to the mac so this is all a learning experince thanks for all your help everyone!

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 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)

Getting old PC-produced videos onto external drive - a longshot

Hi all,
I have a particular problem and can't get very far on my own.
I have 11-12 years of "home movies" stored on DVDs. I still have the original DV tapes of many of them, but many more of the original electrons are long gone. That's OK. I don't mind.
What I want to do is get the content of those DVDs onto an external drive (probably as mp4's) so that I can convert them into the next-generation technology when there is a next-generation technology.
The problem is that the earliest of these 50 DVD were made on a Sony VAIO laptop with Sony software called Click-to-DVD. I don't really know how to use handbrake, and I don't really know what to do. And it looks like all my Macs don't want to read the files created by the Sony laptop and software (which are now long gone).
Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I just pay some 14-year-old to figure this out??
Thank you for any and all suggestions that an only moderately-computer-literate person can understand. Thanks!

Good!
You need to convert the VOB files in the TS-Folder of the DVD back to DV which iMovie is designed to handle. For that you need mpegStreamclip:
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
which is free, but you must also have the Apple mpeg2 plugin :
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
(unless you are running Lion in which case see below))
which is a mere $20.
Another possibility is to use DVDxDV:
http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm
which costs $25.
For the benefit of others who may read this thread:
Obviously the foregoing only applies to DVDs you have made yourself, or other home-made DVDs that have been given to you. It will NOT work on copy-protected commercial DVDs, which in any case would be illegal.
And from the TOU of these forums:
Keep within the Law
No material may be submitted that is intended to promote or commit an illegal act.
Do not submit software or descriptions of processes that break or otherwise ‘work around’ digital rights management software or hardware. This includes conversations about ‘ripping’ DVDs or working around FairPlay software used on the iTunes Store.
If you are running Lion:
From the MPEG Streamclip homepage
The installer of the MPEG-2 Playback Component may refuse to install the component in Lion. Apple states the component is unnecessary in Lion, however MPEG Streamclip still needs it.
To install the component in Lion, please download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 beta above; inside the disk image you will find the Utility MPEG2 Component Lion: use it to install the MPEG-2 Playback Component in Lion. The original installer's disk image (QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg) is required.
The current versions of MPEG Streamclip cannot take advantage of the built-in MPEG-2 functionality of Lion. For MPEG-2 files you still need to install the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which is not preinstalled in Lion. You don't have to install QuickTime 7.

Get files from PowerMac G3 to External Drive

My uncle has an old G3 with a lot of photos and most of a book he has written. We need to get that information off the old G3 and onto an external drive. The G3 is running 8.5 and has two firewire ports, but when I connect my external LaCie Rugged drive, it doesn't seem to recognize it. I can't remember much about getting around in 8.5, so I'm not sure where to start to move the files. It has a CD/ROM drive, but it's not a writable drive and the USB ports are only 1.1, so none of my external USB devices work either. I also tried connecting with ethernet, but no joy there because my MB Pro doesn't see it and it doesn't see my MB Pro. I turned on file sharing on both machines, but I'm sure I'm missing something with the old Mac. Target disk mode isn't an option since it's not supported pre OS 9. Any suggestions?
Oh, and while I'm at it, how high can I upgrade the OS? The machine runs perfectly, but it's way out of date. It's got 10 gb's of free space on the hard drive and is a PPC 2.33 ghz processor.

You could temporarily remove the G3's hard drive from the computer and use an adapter like this one, for connection to your MacBook via USB 2.0. Assuming that you have adequate hard drive capacity for transferring the files to the MacBook, you could then burn them to CDs/DVDs or to a USB flash drive. I upgraded my beige G3s with larger hard drives, more memory, CD burners, FireWire, and USB 1.1 ports, and a better graphics card, but I wouldn't recommend doing that today with a 11 year-old computer. If your uncle wants to keep using it, I'd suggest downloading/running the OS 8.6 Update (updates OS 8.5/8.5.1 to 8.6). If a beige G3 has adequate installed memory and hard drive space, it's officially supported up to Jaguar (OS 10.2.x), or to Panther (10.3.x) with the assistance of the downloadable "XPostFacto".

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

Using external drive for itunes

Hope someone can help with this: I am going travelling and want to take my music library, at present in itunes on my desktop G4. I have copied this library onto a 100GB portable hard drive, and would now like to get itunes on my macbook to refer to this library on my hard drive. I tried going to preferences and changing the itunes music folder location to
Lacie Drive:music:itunes:itunes music:
but after I okay this, nothing happens, the itunes on my macbook is still full of the few songs I have put there, and no sign of the 2.99GB of music that I copied off the G4.
Ideally I want to keep the hard drive of the macbook as empty as possible, so would like to use itunes just from the external drive, plugging it in whenever I want to use itunes.
Many thanks,
Hugh
G5, macbook pro, G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

By changing the location, you only told iTunes where to store the next ripped CD or purchased music. iTunes doesn't know where your music is.
The song locations are stored in the 'iTunes Library' file.
If you're using iTunes 7, there could be an easy fix.
First, copy the entire iTunes folder from the G4 to the external drive (not just the iTunes Music folder inside it).
Then connect the drive to the MacBook and hold the Option button down when you run iTunes. Keep holding it down until a window pops up that lets you choose a library (or create a new one).
Choose the iTunes folder on the external.
iTunes now should recognize it.
Hope this helps.
M

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Getting files bigger than 4GB onto external drive for itunes

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