ITunes has outgrown the internal drive

I have copied the entire iTunes folder to my external drive. If I use the Option Key @ iTunes startup, and direct the program to my iTunes folder on the external drive will all my media appear again?

If the external drive contains an entire iTunes library and not just the media files, yes.
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How can I use iTunes without connecting the external drive that has all my music on it?

I have all my music on an external drive. Sometimes I would like to access iTunes, for purchases and other, without having that drive plugged in. I used to be able to do this, but something has changed and I can no longer figure out how. There must be a way.
Thanks

Well, you can always ignore the fact it will automatically direct anything to a new blank library it will create on the internal drive. Just let it do it (as long as you keep track of any purchases that download, or maybe you can turn off automatic downloading ) The next time you need to use it with the external drive hold down the option/alt key while starting iTunes and select the library file on the external drive.
iTunes Store: How to enable Automatic Downloads - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4539

I am moving from PC to Mac. My PC has two internal drives and I have a 3Tb external. What is best way to move the data from the internal drives to Mac and the best way to make the external drive read write without losing data

I am moving from PC to Mac. My PC has two internal drives and I have a 3Tb external. What is best way to move the data from the internal drives to Mac and the best way to make the external drive read write without losing data

Paragon even has non-destriuctive conversion utility if you do want to change drive.
Hard to imagine using 3TB that isn't NTFS. Mac uses GPT for default partition type as well as HFS+
www.paragon-software.com
Some general Apple Help www.apple.com/support/
Also,
Mac OS X Help
http://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/
Isolating Issues in Mac OS
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1388
https://www.apple.com/support/osx/
https://www.apple.com/support/quickassist/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/tour/
Get Help with your Product
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304725
Apple Mac App Store
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_app_store/using_mac_apple_store
How to Buy Mac OS X Mountain Lion/Lion
http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/
TimeMachine 101
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine
Mac OS X Community
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os

The internal hard drive on my early 2009 24" iMac is nearly full. How do I add an external drive so that it functions just like the internal drive on the iMac?

The internal hard drive on my early 2009 24" iMac is nearly full. I have already worked to free as much space on the HD as possible. How do I add an external HD and have the iMac read it as though it was part of the internal HD. I know about external HD for additional storage and I do have an external HD, but, it is so much easier to search the drive when it is internal than having to perform a search on the internal drive and then a search on the external drives. And, it is easier to save files to an internal drive so that I don't have to decide which external drive to use to save files. In other words, I want to add an external HD and have it function as though I had purchased a larger internal HD.

That is simply not possible. Every drive is a separate device. It cannot be used to extend an internal drive as though you had a seamlessly larger drive.
What you can do is to create a striped RAID array using the internal drive and an external drive. However, doing this will erase the internal drive and you will lose everything on the internal drive. Furthermore, installing Lion or Mountain Lion becomes a bit of a problem because you cannot create a Recovery HD on a RAID and this tends to make the installer choke. However, you can clone an existing Lion or Mountain Lion system to the RAID and designate the RAID as a startup volume.
I would not recommend the RAID solution, personally, but there are many who do. I prefer the basic solution of spending the money on a larger internal hard drive instead of an external hard drive.
RAID Basics
For basic definitions and discussion of what a RAID is and the different types of RAIDs see RAIDs. Additional discussions plus advantages and disadvantages of RAIDs and different RAID arrays see:
RAID Tutorial;
RAID Array and Server: Hardware and Service Comparison.
Hardware or Software RAID?
RAID Hardware Vs RAID Software - What is your best option?
RAID is a method of combining multiple disk drives into a single entity in order to improve the overall performance and reliability of your system. The different options for combining the disks are referred to as RAID levels. There are several different levels of RAID available depending on the needs of your system. One of the options available to you is whether you should use a Hardware RAID solution or a Software RAID solution.
RAID Hardware is always a disk controller to which you can cable up the disk drives. RAID Software is a set of kernel modules coupled together with management utilities that implement RAID in Software and require no additional hardware.
Pros and cons. Software RAID is more flexible than Hardware RAID. Software RAID is also considerably less expensive. On the other hand, a Software RAID system requires more CPU cycles and power to run well than a comparable Hardware RAID System. Also, because Software RAID operates on a partition by partition basis where a number of individual disk partitions are grouped together as opposed to Hardware RAID systems which generally group together entire disk drives, Software RAID tends be slightly more complicated to run. This is because it has more available configurations and options. An added benefit to the slightly more expensive Hardware RAID solution is that many Hardware RAID systems incorporate features that are specialized for optimizing the performance of your system.
For more detailed information on the differences between Software RAID and Hardware RAID you may want to read: Hardware RAID vs. Software RAID: Which Implementation is Best for my Application?

Why does Mac force boot to the recovery partition even when an external recovery option is selected? This disables the option of reformatting the internal drive because it is in use running the recovery partition.I have yet to find a viable solution.

To make a very tedious story short, My Mac decided that it would crash and not reboot the OS. I decided to bite the bullet and just reformat, sacrificing my very important data. I have tried just about every trick in the book. There is one one major problem I am facing. When I try to reformat the internal HDD using Disk Utility. It fails to unmount. "Make sure that all applications and files are closed on this disk.", Suggesting that the computer is ignoring my command at startup to boot from my external recovery drive, and using the Recovery partition on the problem drive, making it impossible to reformat the drive. When the internal drive is removed and connected by another method it is not recognized.
I failed to read the fine print on the box that suggested I purchase another Mac to fix problems with my primary Mac because any utility with the potential to fix the problem can only be run on a functioning Mac.

Booting to any version of the Recovery system, the built in partition on the internal drive, a recovery partition on an external drive or from the Online internet system will not stop you from formatting the Macintosh HD partition on the internal drive. So your problem is not that you are booting from the internal Recovery HD partition. It is probably your internal hard drive has problems, failing.
You could try booting the system from the Online system. At startup hold down the Option/Alt + Command + r keys and keep them held down until you see a globe on the screen. That will boot the system from across the internet from the Apple servers completely removing the internal drive as a boot source. If you still can't erase and format or repartition and format the internal drive then your drive has problems and will need to be replaced.

How do you get Photos to recognize the "old" iPhoto Library on an external drive without it copying it to the internal drive on the computer which is low in HD space?

How do you get Photos to recognize the “old” iPhoto Library on an external drive without it copying it to the internal drive on the computer which is low in HD space?

Launch Photos while holding down the alt/options key.
This will show the Library Chooser panel. Select the library on the external drive. Photos will create a Photos Library on the same drive.
Photos may not be able to open the library, however, if your external drive has an incompatible file system. It needs to be formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled) and locally mounted, not a remotely mounted volume, as described here: Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture

HT1420 how do i Deauthorize a computer that has had the hard drive lock up and can not get it working

how do i deauthorize a computer that has had the hard drive lock up and can not get it working

You can only deauthorise individual computers directly on them. Otherwise if you've reached the 5 computer limit, then you should be able to log into your iTunes account and 'deauthorise all' (which you can only do once every 12 months) and you can then (re-)authorise up to 5 computers : authorising and deauthorising.

I have a new Windows tablet computer with limited hard drive space, and cannot transfer my itunes library to the hard drive. Can I run t media from an external hard drive? If so, how do I transfer my files?

I have a new Windows tablet computer with limited hard drive space (32 GB), and cannot transfer my itunes library to the hard drive. Can I run itunes from an external hard drive? I have tried to follow some of the directions on this site, but am having no success. Thanks.

iTunes will run fine with the media on an external drive.
However, I suggest that a tablet computer with a tiny hard drive is not ideal as the primary computer for managing an iTunes library, even a small one. If you have another machine, perhaps a big, boxy, inexpensive old desktop with a decent amount of storage, that might be a better choice.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364

I have been using LR5 on a Mac mini. The LR was installed on an external drive. Now I would like to use Smart Previews on my Internal drive to take advantage of the speed. When I make previews they go to originals. How can I put them on the internal drive

when started with LR 5 on my Mac I used advise from Adobe's LR5 book, I installed it on an external drive, processing originals was a little slow so I decided to make smart previews on my internal drive to get faster processing. However the smart previews hook up with the originals and so there is no advantage just a bigger file. Is there anyway when I make the previews stay on the internal drive or am I locked in with the current setup. I can find no LR5 folders on the internal drive.
Thanks,
John Sr.

Are you doing a lot of spot removal or brushing?
This doesn't sound like a disk drive issue at all. Once Lightroom reads the file from the disk, and you are editing, the disk plays no further role. Using a faster disk drive here will not make the slightest difference.
So, I would check your graphics drivers to see if they are up to date. I would also temporarily disable your virus checker and firewall.
How much memory does your computer have? What CPU do you have?
How big (in megapixels, not megabytes) are the photos you are editing?

HT1751 i bought a new, larger external hard drive. copied my itunes library from the old drive to the new one, changed the libarary location in Edit/Preferences/Advanced to the new drive. iTunes will not start or run unless old hard drive plugged in.??

I bought a new, larger external hard drive. I have my iTunes library on the external drive instead of C: drive, Using Windows 7.
I copied my itunes library from the old drive to the new one, changed the libarary location in Edit/Preferences/Advanced to the new drive.
iTunes will not start or run unless the old hard drive is plugged in.
If I disconnect the old drive iTunes shuts down.
Any ideas. ??

Hello kskip,
Thank you for providing so much information about what is going on. It sounds like you have setup iTunes to save new content to your new external hard drive in iTunes>Preferences, but it sounds like iTunes is not opening iTunes Library.itl file on the new external drive. You have one last step to take to have iTunes point to your new external hard drive rather than your old one:
Steps to create or choose a different iTunes Library file
If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
If you are using Windows, hold down the Shift key and from the Start menu and choose All Programs > iTunes > iTunes.
You should see the following screen:
Additional information
If you do not see the screen above, then you did not hold the correct key at the correct time. You may want to try again. Note that if you pinned iTunes to the Start menu programs, and open it that way, it may not work.
Once you select "Choose Library," you will need to navigate to the iTunes Library.itl file on your new external drive.
You can find the full article here:
iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1589
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

I need to move my catalogues off the internal drive

I need to move my catalogues off the internal drive to an external and I'm having difficulty. How do I relink LR 3,4, &5

You move the catalog file(s) (and the associated Previews.LRDATA folder) to a different drive using your operating system. Then double-click on the catalog file to open it.

Is it possible to boot windows solely from an external hard drive so that it does not affect the internal drive

Is it possible to boot windows solely from an external hard drive so that it does not affect the internal drive. I already know that you can partition the internal hard drive to do the very same. Idon't want to use any of the internal space to run windows so I'm asking if it is possible to use a flash drive or external drive through USB to run windows when it is plugged in.

Read https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5043762?start=0&tstart=0 to discover you can't do it.
Allan

How do I boot from an external hard drive if my MacBook Pro only recognizes the internal drive?

Hi there, I recently got the white screen of death (w/ circle slash) on my 13" 2009 MacBook Pro. Most people are saying that it is hard drive failure, so I am trying to boot it from an external hard drive to save some of my data before having it repaired. Unfortunately, every time I press "option" while it boots, it only shows the internal drive on the grey screen. I have my external drive connected, but it won't recognize it. What should I do?
Thanks!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
You can only start from an external drive if OS X is installed there. If not, it won't appear as a bootable volume because there isn't any operating system inside it.
As you have a Mid 2009 MacBook Pro, it's better to start from the Mac OS X disc that came with your Mac. Insert it and hold the C key while your Mac is starting. After starting, go to Utilities menu > Disk Utility, select "Macintosh HD" in the sidebar and repair it. If you can't get it repaired, take the computer to an Apple Store.
If the hard drive can't be repaired, the only option to recover your files is to use an application as DiskWarrior, but it's expensive and it's not sure that it will work, because it may fail

I was loading some CDs into my iTunes library when the disk drive refused to "suck in" the next CD. Does anyone have a suggest on how I might proceed?

I was loading some CDs into my iTunes library when the disk drive refused to "suck in" the next CD. Does anyone have a suggest on how I might proceed?

Yes, that is a Catch 22. If you have another Mac you can connect your Mac to it in the Target Disk Mode, Transferring files between two computers using FireWire, and use Disk Utility on the second Mac to try to run the Hardware Test from there. Not sure if it's possible to a connected Mac though.
You can try this several times in the Terminal app and then see if a disk can be fully inserted:
Enter the following command followed by the Enter or Return key:
drutil eject
Do it several times and then try another disk. (A long shot).

Can the internal drive be updated to larger capacity

can the internal drive be changed to a larger capacity,current drive is 160GB?

If you have a Unibody MacBook Pro, then, it is a simple exercise replacing the hard drive.
Youtube will have video instructions.
ifixit.com will have step-by-step photos to guide you.
Any 9.5mm height, sata II drive will work in your MBP from either Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, Fujitsu or Hitachi.
A 7200 rpm drive is recommended for extra speed.

ITunes has outgrown the internal drive

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