How do you switch your library from one internal drive to another?

I have a computer with two 500GB internal drives. My C: drive is becoming very full with my programs and iTunes library. However, the E: drive is essentially empty. How can I transfer my whole iTunes library to the E: drive and still have iTunes know where to look for it when I open the program?
Any help would be appreciated.
Custom PC 4GB RAM/Dual Core 6400/Nvidia 7950GTX Graphics Windows XP Apple TV, 4GB Nano, 80GB Ipod Video, 30GB Ipod Video

If you have iTunes 7, then you can just drag the entire iTunes folder to your desired location (and I mean the entire iTunes folder, not just the iTunes Music folder). Then hold down the Shift key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location. Everything should then work just as it did before the move. Make sure you confirm this, though, before you delete the tracks from your first drive.

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How do I transfer itunes library from one hard drive to another.

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Moving iTunes library from one internal drive to another

tl;dr somewhat - cloned iTunes folder from one non-boot internal to another; changed Media Folder Location in Preferences, both boxes below checked; iTunes still plays music off old location. Help!
First off, I have a Mac Pro in which I have a 1TB drive separate from the boot drive simply to house my iTunes media folder. I have been running out of space on the drive, so I purchased a 2TB drive to move my iTunes media folder to. I had been allowing my iTunes Library files to stay on my boot drive in their default location, but after reading more about how the library files + media folder work, I decided to copy all of the library files to the 1TB drive iTunes folder, to mirror the boot drive's. I used Option + open iTunes and selected the copied library file and everything worked perfectly - I mention this in case this has created the problem I'm now having.
I used the Apple endorsed method of having iTunes do the copying/consolidating of files to the new location on the 2TB drive but it failed - and I know I followed the directions perfectly, I even tried it twice. It copied over ~100k of my 134k songs, and the missing songs weren't just albums that had strange symbols (which I've had issue with before) - it would simply not copy some artists; or copy six of an artist's seven albums. This was not going to be an option for me in terms of how to move my media.
I had wanted from the beginning to use Carbon Copy Cloner (which I use every day and trust) to simply clone the 1TB to the 2TB drive and then change the location in the iTunes preferences. I unchecked 'Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized' and 'Copy files...', then changed the location and clicked OK. I then went back in, checked those two boxes and iTunes started into "Updating iTunes Library", which lasted a few minutes. However, even though the new location is set to the 2TB drive, when I play a song (to make sure it works) and then click to see info, it's still reading it off the 1TB drive.
So I remembered the whole Option + open iTunes thing, did that and selected the iTunes Library.itl file on the 2TB drive - nothing changed. I read some more on various forums about it and thought that maybe I should Option + open iTunes and then select the iTunes folder itself - nothing changed.
So I'm stuck with the media in the right place on the 2TB drive but iTunes still trying to read it off the 1TB, even though the location in Preferences has been set to the 2TB. I feel like I'm just missing something simple here. WHAT DO I DO?! I'm guessing it's not as simple as removing the 1TB, renaming the 2TB and letting iTunes look where the 1TB used to be.

Thank you so much for replying! I'm not sure I quite understand, though. The media folder is in (2TB) /iTunes/iTunes Music/Music currently, cloned from (1TB) /iTunes/iTunes Music/Music. If I copied the /iTunes/ folder from 1TB to the 2TB, I'd be doing the exact same thing as when I cloned it, which I'm willing to do if I'm understanding you correctly.
Or are you asking me to copy all of the files (minus the /iTunes Music/ folder) in the (1TB) /iTunes/ folder and replace all of those files in the (2TB) /iTunes/ folder?

Move iPhoto '11 library from one internal drive to another internal drive?

Hi everyone!
My wife and I just received our lovely new 27" iMac, which we had custom-configured with both a 256GB SSD and a 2TB drive, both internal. I have created a fresh user account for myself, and used Migration Assistant to move her account over from our old MacBook Pro. Of course, Migration Asst. assumes you want everything stored on the boot drive (the SSD in our case), but we want to store the "big stuff" on the 2TB drive (for obvious reasons).
In my wife's account, I created a folder on the 2TB drive (we call that drive "Vault") for my wife's big files. Inside that folder, I made a "Pictures" folder, and dragged her (~110 gig) iPhoto library into that folder. After taking ages to copy, starting iPhoto with Option held will let us select that newly-copied library on the Vault, but it will be missing tons of images and thumbnails, even as the "original copy" on the SSD is working exactly as expected.
With the Vault copy selected, I've used iPhoto's built-in rebuild commands (thumbnails, permissions, etc.), but to no avail. I strongly suspect some sort of permissions weirdness is at play, but I can't for the life of me figure it out.
Any suggestions?
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PS For what it's worth, I tried simply copying the iPhoto library from the MacBook Pro directly to her folder on the Vault, which resulted in very obvious permission problems, including the dreaded "red minus symbol" on the icon in the Finder.
PPS The new iMac is running Lion and iLife '11, with all updates, while the MacBook Pro was running Snow Leopard and iLife '11 with all updates

If the Library works correctly on the SSD but the copy on the Vault is "missing tons of images and thumbnails" then that suggests that the copy has gone wrong, no? Try the copy again.
Other things to consider: is the Vault formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?
Set the Vault to ignore Ownership and Permissions - which you can do in the Get Info window
Regards
TD

What is the best way to move an iPhoto library from one internal drive to another internal drive?

the drive where my iPhoto library is store is just about full. I have a second internal SSD that I'd like to move (not copy) the library to. What is the best way to do that and still ensure that iPhoto will access the library in its new location?

Just drag the iPhoto Library package from the one drive to the second disk. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and select the library in it's new location on the second disk. Once you're satisfied that it is working satisfactorliy you can delete the copy on the first disk.
OT

How do I move an iTunes library from one external drive to another?

I need to move my iTunes library from one external disk to another, because the original disk is about to fail. So, I went into iTunes Perferences --> Advanced, and set the library to a new, empty folder on the new drive.
Nothing changed. I expected all my music to vanish from iTunes, so that I would have to re-import it. However, all the music remained, still on the old disk. At this point, if I were to recreate the library on the new disk, I would have all of my music twice.
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Paul Seymour1 wrote:
However, those are all dealing with old versions of iTunes that still contained the Advanced --> Consolidate Library command which is no longer part of the app. (I'm on iTunes 10.6.1.)
Consolidate is still part of iTunes.
It is in iTunes menu File > Library > Manage library > Consolidate.
The article you linked to is old and it is (and was) a hacky way of doing it.
Just copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to new location, hold Option (Mac) or Shift (Windows) when launching iTunes.

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I thought this would be a question easily answered on the WWW and easily found via search engines, but so far no luck, hence this question.
Prior to upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion I followed some very good instructions from Tom Nelson on ask.com (http://macs.about.com/od/backupsarchives/ss/diskbackup.htm) related to using Disk Utility to clone my internal Macintosh HD drive to an external hard drive, making it a bootable drive. I cloned to a very nice LaCie external FW drive that had far more room than that needed for the clone. This drive booted just fine as a startup disk, so mission accomplished:   I have now a bootable clone of my Lion system prior to upgrading to Mountain Lion.
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Good info Csound1, and thanks.
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I guess the summary question is:   how does one clone a startup disk clone? As I think about this, and recall the Disk Utility screens, couldn't I simply select the Lion clone on the LaCie FW external drive and do the same operation I did with the original internal Lion drive? Basically the same steps as before but this time the source is the LaCie FW external and the destination is a new external drive?
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mediamagnate03 wrote:
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How to switch Organizer catalog from one hard drive to another?

As far as a little background, i have just finished two high definition projects in Premiere Elements, the last one being 73 projects combined into 6 blu rays. It had completely filled up my 1TB hard drive, so i have purchased an additional 2TB internal hard drive, in hopes of being able to switch all my photoshop to the larger internal hard drive. I am also archiving the old stuff as i finish each project to an external hard drive to free up space.
But i am PETRIFIED at the possibility of trying to move my Elements Catalog because of all the stories i have heard about having the majority of the photos needed to 'reconnect' after switching it to an external hard drive and I assume the same thing will happen to me if i move it to another internal hard drive???????   I have had several computer smart gentleman who have often helped me out when i had a problem and one refused to even venture how to successfully move the catalog and other guy's suggestion is to backup the entire Catalog and then restore it on the new drive.   Steve Grisetti said this morning on his webpage that i should cut and paste the file from one drive to the other but not quite sure how easy that is going to be, because when i have searched out the "move' option, it does not allow me to do anything there. Could that be because i have files that need to be 'reconnected' first before i could accomplish that 'move.'    Steve suggested i come over to this Forum to get some opinions, which is what i have done. That sounds like being more complicated than just cutting and pasting one folder with 16,000 photos. What is the safest way to accomplish this without losing anything, and avoiding the need to 'reconnect' 16,000 files which i am not looking forward to.
So that is my first and foremost question about the Elements Organizer, but i do have some other related problems with the 'reconnect' problem, some of which i have figured out, but not completely. After finally completing these two big projects, my next goal was to clean up my files, get things organized better, and i seem to be finding more and more problems to address. The list of problems decreases with each project but i am still able to find new ones. I am not a computer whiz, and probably shouldn't be trying to accomplish what i am doing with the basic Photoshop programs, something i know the majority of you would be using other more advanced Photoshop programs and much more easily, but i am starting to get this program down, and i don't need more challenges right now.
So i have 3 additional concerns and questions if anyone can help me out to prevent future problems with the next high definition project for Premiere Elements to burn onto blu rays.
1. Because i ran out of space totally on my old internal hard drive, i set up a temporary file on the new drive for the blu ray projects, and I was able to finish the remaining mpeg2s for the final 2 blu rays from Premiere Elements. But when i finished, i started to clean up the files, and realized that the catalog was not recognizing any of the mpeg2 files that i had used to assemble the first 4 blu rays, which was the time i set up the new file on the new internal hard drive, and had copied and pasted my blu ray files. It all seemed to go well, and i was able to finish the final 20 something projects and 2 final mpeg2s for the final blu rays which i prepared and burned on Sony DVD Architect. . But when i went back and was looking at the final mpeg2 files for the previous 4 blu rays, they all needed to be 'reconnected', and i assume it was because the last 2 were on a different drive. And after some effort, i was able to reconnect everything i think successfully. And i am assuming that this will not continue to be a problem if i can get the entire Catalog on the same hard drive. So write that one off to experience.
2. But i hadn't taken the time before doing the blu ray project to label my pictures completely, so the next project i started was renaming the filenames, which quickly presented a new problem, and that made for more 'reconnect' problems again for every picture that i renamed that was used in any of the Premiere Elements Project, so i was back to where i started but even worse off; however, the good news is that my photos were the best organized they ever have been. So all the mpeg2's on the catalog once again asked for 'reconnect' and came to the conclusion that it must mean any name change in the 'filename' also makes it not recognizable. With my first big Premiere Elements project which ended up with 4 blu rays, i made the very big mistake of organizing and moving files in windows, and that is problem #3. So i have come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter, but lots of effort is not obtainable, but i guess i am wondering if it was really worth saving in working condition anyway?? The good news is that the individual photos are fine for the most part, but it is all the mpeg2 files that i combined the original photos into 73 projects, making a mpeg2 of each, then combining about 10-15 of the mpeg2s together and adding music to it, and forming the final mpeg2 which is what i then prepared to burn to blu ray in Sony Architect Studio. The finished product is still present in the Sony Architect software, and i even burned a copy of them again to make sure that was possible, So my gut feeling is just to delete all the mpeg2 files in my organizer, and forget they were ever there! Does that make sense?????    I am not sure that i would ever use them again anyway, but what i am asking is obviously that something as simple as change in the filename screws up the catalog once again????? Yes, i have learned my lesson, and they will all be finalized with the filename ever before i start the next project. Just like with the first project, i learned to stay out of windows all together, and now i only use albums which i found no problems using at all.
3. Last problem is the oldest one, but one i still cannot solve. It was from the first blu ray project when i was doing stupid things like moving folders, and photos from one folder to another to make it better organized. And that was super-organized, and there was absolutely no need to change filenames!!!!! I have two separate problems. Some of the 'reconnects' do not have a picture but the gray square and the ?. I have been able to find most of the files that i had 'displaced' and have recovered them, and knew where they were, and were able to change file names, and it looks like they are back in the catalog. There was also a big file of photos that i found in a file that was the original download file for a given date which is how i NOW download my photos into Photoshop in the first place. But i have not been able to reconnect any of them successfully. They are there and i have renamed them, but the catalog still does not recongize them as being in the Catalog. The other group are photos where the picture shows in the catalog, but there is a ? to reconnect, but i cannot find the photos anywhere. These are of a trip of a once in a life time variety, so i have refused to just press delete, and i thought i had perhaps somehow deleted them all, but i have either found them in another file or the photo is present but i can't rename, i can't reconnect, and for all practical purposes they don't seem to be there. Any suggestions at all? Do i have any other options other than just to delete those whole period of my trip?
I am longwinded, but i wanted to try and give enough background information. The problem seems simple, but i just want to confirm the problems i have run into are for the reason i think they are, and any help on how to successfully move the catalog to the second internal hard drive will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any comments and or suggestions.
Ron

Thanks for your suggestions, i knew i had overdone it when i wrote the entire story. Just a couple direct questions based on your response!!
Just a couple of questions, i am assuming all the reconnection problems have to be taken care of either by connecting or deleting before the catalog can be moved. Correct?
The reconnect problems i have were not renamed outside of Photoshop, and the renaming does not seem to be an issue except for mpeg2s that are in the catalog that were used to generate the blu rays but i think it was me screwing things up when i didn't know better and was moving folders and photos in folders (Window type) .   Since the blu rays are in the Sony software complete and ready to reburn easily, i assume it would be okay to delete all those that are in the catalog, that need to be reconnected for whatever reason. Plus the individual photos of most of them are just fine. I am talking 376 'reconnect problems' counting all those mpeg2 files which are at least the majority of the 376. Probably would be nice to have, but is there any reason i have to keep them since the photos are okay and the blu rays are burned and still in the Sony Architect program intact?
What i don't understand is the important photos that are worth trying to save seem to be in the proper folder, which is what is stated in properties, but the photo is in the catalog, but with the ? and cannot do anything with it at all, without just going to reconnection, and when i try to identify the folder, it says it is empty, which those are NOT.   If it takes 'forever', then albeit, at least for these few pictures. I really don't want to delete those!
And is it possible to do what my computer tech is telling me that it will all transfer accurately and completely if we backup the entire catalog and then restore it to the new drive?. It seems like after i complete the reconnects one way or another, it might be an easier process that can be completed totally within Element?    Since the catalog is on c drive, i guess i can't do what you suggested buy why?
I kept to those tips you gave me. It seems like an impossibility to save these pictures, but these were from my very first efforts with Premiere Elements and blu rays. Other than the renaming the changing and affecting the Premiere Elements projects in the second one, i have no other problems, and have no recconect problems. So i guess i am moving in the right direction. I just don't need to keep finding ways to make more problems for myself.
Ron

How do I move iTunes library from one user account to another?

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How to move a large iphoto library from one external drive to another

Hi all (my first ever post to a forum!)
I have a large iphoto library (379 GB) on an external drive (Lacie 1TB w/usb 2.0) and want to move it to a another ethernet connected external drive (LaCie Network Space 2) so I will be able to access it from other computers.
Moving it with drag and drop or copying is calculated to take 66 day's!
Wander if that could be explaned with the fact that these are around 70.000 individual pictures/files, and if it could be speed up by first compressing the library.
Wander if anyone can shere their experience on that? (what software to use or?)
I have an 21.5 inch, mid 2010 iMac (3.06 GHz Intel Core i3 with 12 GB 1067 MHz DDR3).
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iPhoto needs to be connected to the computer you are using it from via a sired connectin both for speed and also for data reliability
THe copy estimate is often way off - let it run and see - it will probably drop a lot quickly
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Transferring library from one external drive to another

I'm going a little bit crazy trying to figure this out to be honest.
If all you read is the next paragraph that's fine, it's what I want to do. The rest is an explanation of what I've tried already, thanks:
*Here is my situation. I want currently have ~90GB of music on an 3.5" external USB drive. I now have a larger capacity 2.5" portable hard drive that I want to keep my music on so I can carry it with me anywhere. I also want to maintain playlists and play counts, etc. Seems like it should be easy, not.. haha.*
What I did first, before reading a guide (http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/), was change my iTunes music directory under Advanced, then simply moved all music from one drive to the other. Discovered iTunes couldn't find anything. I tried manually changing the filepath within the iTunes Library.xml file, that worked for some songs, but not everything. Then I read the guide and realized (I thought) how iTunes works. So I moved everything back to the old hard drive and reverted to my original iTunes library xml file. All music was working again, on the old hard drive, ugh. Step 2:
I again switched the directory to where I wanted it on the new drive. I then clicked "consolidate library". Oh, keep in mind I have always had the "let itunes manage my files" and "copy files to music folder" boxes checked. iTunes did its thing for a while, yet it only copied about 18GB/90GB to the new drive!! The majority of my music was not there.
Please tell me how to do this properly. It takes 2 hours each time I copy 90GB of music and I'm tried of going back and forth. If it can't be done, fine... I'll simply move the music and re-add all of it to the library and lose my playlists and play counts, but this doesn't seem like it should be that difficult of an operation, seriously. Oh, one more thing, I don't want to rename my new drive the same as the old because I named them based on storage capacity. Help!

Yes, those instructions are essentially identical to the ones on the link I posted. When I follow those steps only 20% or so of my library is copied. I try clicking consolidate again and it doesn't move anything else. Oh, and not only that, but when going through the iTunes Music Library.xml file, I still find some references to the old drive, which should not exist when I have told iTunes to manage my files and clicked consolidate.

Moving library from one hard drive to another in same PC

Just to let you all know right from the top that I've been trying to work with Apple's own info on this before coming here, this is the page I've been consulting:
support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Okay, so here's the background: I just bought a new tower computer and I made sure that there was an empty bay available for a 2nd hard drive. What I wanted to do was move the hard drive from my old computer into this second bay and have it availble (in the near term, before I reformat it) to move data in the new computer from the old drive to the new one.
The second drive was installed, I can read from it and write to it, so there's no problem with that install..it's done and it works.
But I have not been able to find online exactly how to move as much of my previous data (music files, playlists, artwork) as possible from the old drive to the new drive (where I have a fresh install of the newest i-Tunes). On the page referenced above, everything "tracks" right down through Step 8. But at Step 9...I don't see any of that, When I open File > Library I don't see either Organize Library or Consolidate Library. In fact, the only two choices I see after File > Library are Tune On Home Sharing and Get Album Artwork.
So I'm stuck right there. What should I do next to move this info to the new hard drive *and* to a place where iTunes wants to find it? I should be clear here that I do not simply want to *point* iTunes to the old drive and current location of the library, since the goal is to ultimately get everything from that drive that I need and then reformat it.
Any suggestions?
P.S. BTW, the new computer is running Windows 7. My profile shows XP because that was the OS on the old computer.

Thanks so much for the information! I have started following your steps...but might be momentarily hung on one thing:
As I mentioned, I had already done a fresh install of iTunes on the new hard drive. As a result, under Users > Dave > My Music there was already a folder called "iTunes" there. And the folder on my old hard drive that you wanted me to copy -- the one that contained everything (music, artwork, games, etc) -- is also called "iTunes". So I realized I might get an error message with that, about how there's already a folder in that directory with that name, etc..
Since I had only installed the new copy of iTunes and hadn't downloaded anything new or done anything with it, I figured I should probably just uninstall it. Then, after doing that, I copied over all those files and folders...and those copies now reside on the new hard drive. Problem is, I now don't have an app to run.
So...should I have left the new install in place and just put the old "iTunes" folder (and contents) at, say, another level? Or...since I've now copied all those files into the place where I thought iTunes would expect to find them, what would happen if I installed iTunes all over again? Will it know what to do with the iTunes folder now already there?
Dave

How do you switch your library from one internal drive to another?

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