How do I move my library from a mac to a PC using an external drive?

Question

I have a Mac and have a large library of music (+120GB) which is stored on an external hard drive. I have a windows PC in my basement and I have purchased a 2nd external drive (200GB drive) and copied my music library (music files and iTunes Library.itl file) onto it. I want to attach the 2nd drive to the windows PC and use it to run my music library on that machine.
I recognize that I could use the the sharing feature in iTunes to share the music over a network w/o the 2nd drive but for a number of reasons assume that this will not work for the sake of this question.
What is the best way to add this drive/library to the PC? (the PC has iTunes installed, but no music in the library)
Can I just hold the shift key down while launching iTunes and then select the library on the external drive? Will this be a problem given that the iTunes Library.itl file was created in OS X (file location format differences, etc)?
If the above is a problem, should I just add the music folder (and all sub folders) to the library on the windows machine using File-> Add Folder to Library ...butI do not want to make a duplicate copy of the music given that the library is so large (it is larger than the HD on the PC machine)..so I would have to make sure that the "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" is unchecked, but then after the initial import I would want iTunes to keep any subsequent new additions to the library in the same place as the rest of the music and also keep the files/folders organized, etc. Can this be accomplished by changing the itunes music folder location? If I go the "add music folder" route, what are the steps and the right sequencing to add the music properly (w/o copying ) and then leaving iTunes set up to store/organize new music additions properly?
Way too many words I know...any help very much appreciated.

Answer 1

It sounds like you mostly have everything down on how to do it. The one thing I don't know about is how to transfer the database file from Mac to Windows (or the other way around). I have not tried it nor seen reports from anyone who has tried it, so I am not sure if it will work or not.
As to your last question, plug the external into the Windows machine, open iTunes. Change preferences to use the iTunes Music folder on the external drive. Now add your files. Since they are already in that location and in the order iTunes would put them in, they should be added and not moved or copied again. Since you changes the storage location preference to that location, future additions will go into the same folder on the external.
If you can, please let us know how the Mac to Windows database transfer worked out. Most people either are going from Mac to Mac or Windows to Windows or simply don't care about ratings, play counts, play lists, etc. so starting over with a new database file is no big deal. So I am curious about getting the database file to translate across systems. You might try the XML file first since that should be universal. The other one may be in a Mac specific format.
Patrick