I want to transfer my iTunes files to a separate hard drive

I have iTunes stored on my desktop PC. It is the one that I have, so far, stored all iTunes music on. I wanted to transfer these songs to a separate hard drive to free up space on my computer's hard drive. I felt I needed to install iTunes on the separate hard drive which I did today. I then thought I could just find the same type of folder on the separate hard drive that was on the PC but that was not the case so I created a "regular" folder on the hard drive and copied all of the files over. It appears that the files successfully got copied but the screen display does not look the same as it does when I open my PC iTunes and open a music folder from there.
What is the best way for me to copy the files over so I can then delete them from my PC with the assurity that I will not have done something that I will later regret ... such as rendering these copied files as ones I cannot burn to a disc, etc.

Changing the setting as to where to store media will indeed put the media files (but not the rest of the iTunes library files) on the external drive as long as the user also selects to organize the media to the NAS.  If you don't do that, iTunes will only store new media there from that time on.
I would not recommend keeping only media on the NAS.  As I said, NAS can have issues with iTunes and some of the longest topics I have seen here are how to rebuild a library after for some reason the library file on the Mac computer has lost the link information to the media files stored on a NAS.  Some things such as date added, play count, and ratings are only stored in the library file and may be lost if you have to rebuild your library file.
I guess for me the only iTunes reason for having a NAS would be to do direct sharing of the library rather than having to use Home Sharing.  Direct sharing of the library intact requires placing all the iTunes files on the NAS. If you're going to do Home Sharing you might as well opt for a a cheaper, more stable, plain external hard drive.

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