Hard drive says 103 gigs and itunes (and ipod) says 55 gigs. what gives?

Question

we thought our hard drive (internal 250, new imac) was more full than it should be. itunes says i've got 55 gigs, and it all fits on my ipod. the hard drive says i've got 103 gigs when i click on music and get the info on it. why is it doubled?
david

Answer 1

When you 'Get Info' or 'Show Song File' (command-R), iTunes will only show the file it is linked to. It will not show the possible duplicate.
It all depends on where you had put your music files before adding it to the Library.
The default location of your music is ~/Users/YourUsername/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music.
If you put the files in the 'iTunes Music' folder and then add it to the Library, there are no copies made, even if you had ticked 'Copy.......'
iTunes obviously 'thinks': "Alright, they're already there, don't have to make copies"
If you put the files at another location and then add them to the library, copies are made.
So, if you have the checkbox 'Copy....' ticked, you could safely delete the music at any other location than the 'iTunes Music' folder.
But beware! If you had that (Copy....) option not ticked at any other time, there could be some music outside the 'iTunes Music' folder.
The best thing to do is to 'Consolidate Library...' (Advanced menu in the menubar). This will copy any music file, that at this moment is located outside the 'iTunes Music' folder, to the 'iTunes Music' folder.
After iTunes has finished 'Consolidating', you can delete the music from other locations.
Hope this helps.
M