ITunes libraries are stored on a hard drive the PC doesn't recognize!

HELP! Our four iTunes libraries are "backed up" on an external hard drive that our PC (Dell desktop running Windows XP) no longer recognizes. Santa provided iPod Touches for kids but we're all afraid to hook them up to the PC because we don't what will happen if we create "new" iTunes accounts -- do we lose the money that's still locked up in our "old" iTunes accounts? Do we lose the 400+ songs and videos in the "old" iTunes accounts?

Don't make new accounts - you will forever need to remember the login credentials for all those accounts!
There is a Transfer Purchases feature so you can get your songs and videos off the ipods.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848

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HT1449 My iTunes files are on an external hard drive. how to access them

I have a new iMac with an SSD and a 1TB second drive. I backup the iMac 2nd hard drive to an portable external drive so I can carry my entire iMac file storage on an extended trip...5 months. What is the easy way of connecting my MBP iTunes app to the iTunes on the portable exernal hard drive so I can access stored movies, music etc.
Thanks
Steve

Start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the library on the external drive.

My photos are stored on ext. hard drive, and now I can't see them

I recently moved all of my photos over to an external hard drive, and have been quite happy with the freed up space on my ibook. I have been able to view them flawlessly until a few nights ago. Our power went out, and then came back on (yes, I know I should have a battery back up), so of course the ext. harddrive turned off with unmounting, and since then, I cannot view my photos in iphoto. There is still the correct picture count registering, however in place of all of my photo thumbnails in IPhoto, now I am only seeing grey boxes in the same shapes as the thumbnails. I have tried everything, including unmounting the ext. hard drive. I am at my wits end and have been working too much to go into the genius bar.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Jerrod

Hi Jerrod,
A couple of things for you to try:
-Launch iPhoto with the Option key depressed and choose to open another library. Navigate to the one on the external and choose it.
-Delete your iPhoto Preference file
Preference file
-rebuild your library
Try this:
Before doing a rebuild make sure iPhoto's trash bin is emptied. You can do this by control clicking on the trash bin, or from the menu bar under iPhoto.
Close iPhoto
Duplicate the iPhoto Library folder
Drag the duplicate to the desktop (hopefully you have enough room on your hard drive for the duplicate.)
Launch iPhoto holding down the Command and Option keys until you see the rebuild options screen.
Choose the first three options. If you were missing photos in your library, also choose the last option. Be advised that you will get a roll of orphaned photos and it might be quite huge. Most of them will already be in your iPhoto library, but use caution when deleting anything from this roll until you are sure the photos are still in your library in another place. It might be a good idea to share/export this roll of photos just in case you need to import them again.
Back to the rebuild, depending on the size of your library it might take some time. When it is done, hopefully your photos will be there.
You might see some unexpected results as I did when I did a rebuild. Photos had been moved to wrong dates, video clips had lost their duration info and some were even orphaned from the jpg pointer file. It took me some time to straighten it out again.
This is the reason to make a duplicate before you rebuild, in case you do not like the result. If you don't like the result, close iPhoto, then delete the rebuilt library and drag the duplicate back into the Pictures folder making sure the name is iPhoto Library. Launch iPhoto and it should open the library in the Pictures folder.
iPhoto 4 or later: Rebuilding the iPhoto Library
-Navigate through the iPhoto Library folder and make sure your images are still there and open when double clicked.
This is a view of how the iPhoto Library looks in the Finder.
It is organized by Year folders. Inside the Year folders are Month folders. Inside the Month folders are the days of the Month. Inside the day folders are the photos you took on that day. If you imported video clips and RAW files on that day they will be in an Originals folder. If you have edited any photo imported on that day, the original will be in that folder also.
Please get back with the steps you tried and the results.
If none of these suggestions work, you can create a new library and import from the old.
Close iPhoto
Rename your messed up iPhoto Library to "iPhoto Library_old"
Drag this library to your desktop
Hold down the Option key and launch iPhoto
This is the window you will get
Create a new library or choose a library to open
Choose to create a new library
Once this new empty library is open it is time to import the images from your old library
Go to File>add to library
Navigate to the old library on your desktop and choose it.
iPhoto will start importing the images from your old library
This is what to expect:
Your images will be imported in nice dated rolls. (make sure your view is set to sort by rolls to see it) There are a couple of caveats to this. You will get rolls named "Originals" These rolls will contain your video clips and your original images that you had edited. If you had RAW files they would be in those rolls too (I don't do RAW, so I don't know for sure) Delete what you don't want from those rolls. You will also get the jpeg pointer files to your video clips imported. They will just be jpegs and will not point to the video clips anymore as iPhoto made new ones when the clips were imported again. You can delete those. they should be in a roll right next to the newly imported video clips so they are not hard to find. The thumbnail files don't get imported as iPhoto makes new ones when the images are imported.
Once all you images have been imported, check through the library and make sure everything looks ok.
You can now start making your Albums, and do your keywords or any other organizational steps.
You can also delete the old library on the desktop.
It is also a good time to backup this new library to CD/DVD by burning the iPhoto LIbrary folder in the Finder, or copying the iPhoto Library folder to an external drive formatted for Macs, or copying the iPhoto LIbrary folder to an iPod.
Good luck!
Lori

Had to reformat my hard drive, now ipod doesn't recognize my computer

I was infected with numerous viruses and had to refomat the hard drive. When I connect the iPod, it doesn't recognize the computer as the same one, so I can't get the files that I already paid for off the iPod. Any ideas?

Yes, all you iTunes data are on the old drive. Get an external enclosure in which you may install the old drive in order to connect it to your computer and copy your iTunes data to your new drive.
Everything is on your old drive unless you copied it to the new drive.

Replaced internal hard drive, time machine doesn't recognize as same volume

Howdy,
The hard drive (call it drive "X") on my iMac (one of the 2005 models) was dying so I had it replaced. I rebuilt the new drive (drive "Y") from my most recent time machine backup (from external drive "A"). I am now having problems with one of my backup devices, in that time machine doesn't recognize that the new disk is conceptually the same thing that had been backed up before (same volume name).
More details... I rotate my backups monthly through three external drives (I store the most recent offsite). After the disk replacement and restore process, I continued to use that backup drive (drive "A") without noticing any problem. Then it came time to rotate my external drives, and time machine doesn't find enough space on the next backup drive (drive "B"). Presumably this is because it doesn't realize that the drive I am backing up ("Y") is a copy of the drive that had previously been backed up on "B" ("X").
Is there any way to convince it they are the same? Or am I in the same boat as this poster:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2770362&tstart=0
Basically I just want to verify that I am in that same boat before I remove old backup files on "B". If I do decide I need to remove those, are the instructions linked in thread 2770362 correct, or are there better ones?
Thanks for any help,
Bob H

Actually, the backup I deleted above was the backup for the new internal drive. Apparently TM had created the (incomplete) backup during the failed attempt that ran out of space on the backup device. Since the new internal drive had the same name as the old internal drive, I didn't initially realize that's what I was deleting. Not that deleting it causes any harm, but it didn't address the original problem of freeing up space on the backup device.
Not to worry though. I've figured out how to get at the backups for the old internal drive, and am in the process of deleting those. I was about to follow the instructions in your troubleshooting items E3 and E2, but upon attempting to enter time machine I stumbled into the right place. Since I had previously told TM to do no backups (because there was still not enough disk space), and since I'd left the backup device connected, when I pulled up the TM menu from the menu bar, the usual "Enter Time Machine" menu was replaced by "Browse Other Time Machine Disks" (or perhaps "Disks" was "Backups"). This then gave me a list of the machines that I'd backed up on this backup device (in my case machine names and internal drive names are the same). Of course one of those was for the old internal drive, and after choosing it I roughly followed the same course of action as I did a few days ago, to initiate deletion.
I also saw how I could delete each of those old backups individually, but decided against that as I did not expect it would free up enough space. My expectation is that nearly all the space is shared among all the backups for the same source drive, since relatively very little changes between backups.
Bob H

When loading windows 7 on a new hard drive the os does not recognize the drive

My hard drive has failed and I have installed a new one. It is being recognized in the bios but not by the os. Please help. There are no sata drivers on the website and no changes within the bios to solve this problem.

Hello,
To help you on this issue, please reply with the following information:
1.Product #
2.Model #
3.How did you tried installing the OS? (through HP Recovery Disk)
4.Have you made any other changes to the computer otherthan, HDD replacement.
I am an HP employee.
Regards,
Shi KAR

I have recently bought a new netbook. all my itunes songs are stored on an external drive, however when i downloaded itunes again for the new netbook, they no longer showed in itunes. how can i get my song and podcast library over to the new netbook?

can anyone help with this please? i feel its wrong to have to pay Apple £25 for something that should be more obvious and easier to do.

Go into the iTunes preferences and turn off the options that have you Copy Music To My Library.
Then, add the top folder which contains your music to iTunes - it will create links to your remote folder rather than copy all music to your netbook.
** Edit
You can set the location of your music here too.

HT201250 Can Time Machine backup files stored on external hard drive

Can Time Machine back up files that are stored on external hard drive and save them on a different external hard drive?
I have my pictures stored on an external hard drive connected to my iMac. I want to make an exact copy of the pictures folder on a separate external hard drive. Can Time Machine do that?
If yes, how?
If no, what's a good way to create a mirror of the folder on External Hard Drive #1 (the original) on External Hard Drive #2 (the backup)?
I am not opposed to manually copying every couple weeks or month, but (1) it's less convenient and (2) I got an error message the first time I tried this saying the files couldn't be copied because some of the files being copied had the same name as each other (not exactly that, I'm at work and don't have the message in front of me right now, but that was the gist of it).
Thanks!

1. Yes, if both drives are formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
2. Reformat the drives if needed, open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, and remove the drive with the pictures from the list of items set to be excluded.
(110331)

I have been storing my Aperture and IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive that recently died. Fortunately I've been using Time Machine to back up to a 2nd external drive. How do I restore my libraries to a new external hard drive?

I have been storing my Aperture and IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive that recently died. Fortunately I've been using Time Machine to back up to a 2nd external drive. How do I restore my libraries to a new external hard drive?

This is a tricky one.
Open up Time Machine and go back to a date using the timeline on the right side of the window when you know the drive was working and was backing up as part of Time Machine backups.
Click on the name of your Mac under the Devices heading on the left side of the window in Time Machine, and if things are working correctly you will see Macintosh HD (or whatever you have named it) and the name of the external hard drive that was backing up in the past.
Right-Click on the name of the external hard drive and then click on "Restore (name of drive) to....." You may be asked for your adminstrator password at this point.
It might be easier to restore the drive contents to your desktop if you have room on your Mac, and then copy things over to the new external drive where you want to store the Aperture and iMovie Libraries.
Once the libraries have been moved over the new external hard drive, you will likely need to "point" Aperture and iMovie to the location of the libraries on the new external hard drive.

HT201250 I had files stored on a hard drive that were not on my Mac. I used the hard drive for my first Time Machine back up, but it was not enough hard drive space to finish. Now those stored files are gone. Is there any way I can recover them?

I had files stored on a hard drive that were not on my Mac. I used the hard drive for my first Time Machine back up, but it was not enough hard drive space to finish. Now those stored files are gone. Is there any way I can recover them? No, they were not part of previous Time Machine backups, and I have checked both the hard drive the documents were lost on and the new one that I now use for backups. Any suggestions would be helpful, as the lost files are old pictures that are gone forever. :[ Thanks!

1. Yes, if both drives are formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
2. Reformat the drives if needed, open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, and remove the drive with the pictures from the list of items set to be excluded.
(110331)

My Mac crashed. I got a new hard drive. I reinstalled Lightroom. Fortunately ircats are stored on an external drive. How do I import all of the old catalogues from external drive into a new LR catalogue. I have done it before. It has just been many years

My Mac crashed. I got a new hard drive. I reinstalled Lightroom. Fortunately ircats are stored on an external drive. How do I import all of the old catalogues from external drive into a new LR catalogue. I have done it before. It has just been many years and I can't recall how.

If you had stored your catalog files on an external drive, then all you have to do is double-click on them to open them and use them.
Or you could move them to the internal drive and double-click on them once the move is completed.
To create a single catalog file from multiple ones, you could use File->Import from Another Catalog

After apple wiped my hard drive, my computer no longer recognizes my iphone 4. It will charge, but doesn't show up in my sidebar or in itunes. My computer says there are no software updates available. I'm running OSX 10.5.8 and itunes is 10.3.1.

After apple wiped my hard drive, my computer no longer recognizes my iphone 4. It will charge, but doesn't show up in my sidebar or in itunes. My computer says there are no software updates available. I'm running OSX 10.5.8 and itunes is 10.3.1.

After apple wiped my hard drive, my computer no longer recognizes my iphone 4. It will charge, but doesn't show up in my sidebar or in itunes. My computer says there are no software updates available. I'm running OSX 10.5.8 and itunes is 10.3.1.

How can I access iTunes; the songs are on an external hard drive?

I have had an iBookG4 for almost 4 years now, and I recently had to get it updated to Leopard because the operating system was so out of date. Now though, my computer has no spare memory because the hard-drive is full with Leopard. So I have to keep my iTunes files on an external hard -drive. The problem is that when I want to play songs though iTunes, the file copies itself to my hard-drive, which I have no space for. Either that, or iTunes tells me that the files can't be found. In store when I got the operating system updated, I was told to press 'alt' before opening iTunes, so that the songs would play through the hard-drive, but this doesn't seem to work. Is there any way of being able to play the music through iTunes and the external drive only? This is very annoying because I recently got an iPod, and I can't seem to put any music onto it.
Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks very much for that!
I have an extra question. While I was on the advanced settings, I changed the location of my iTunes folder from my computer harddisk to the external drive, so I could avoid having to go through my hard disk at all. Now when I have looked at my external hard drive, the folder with my music has disappeared, and I don't know where it is. Also, some song files aren't there any more because my computer only had room for the majority, but about 700 are still missing. However, all the songs seem to be playing through iTunes. What has happened?
Many thanks,
C

Where are passwords stored on my hard drive, can I access them, alter them

Where are passwords stored on my hard drive/ folder, can I access them and alter them. Can I add passwords to that file/ folder.

Using the Saved Password Editor may be overkill for most users. The quickest way to manipulate saved passwords in Firefox is on the menu bar go to:
Tools -> Options -> Security -> Saved Passwords -> Show Passwords

Itunes show duplicate, 1 with icloud and 1 without. are they both on hard drive?

itunes shows duplicates - 2 with icloud and 1 without.
are they both on hard drive?
which ones should i delete?

iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer
The should then show in your iTunes library. They are not anywhere else.

ITunes libraries are stored on a hard drive the PC doesn't recognize!

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