Itunes on external hard drive wont open in Win7

I have my itunes stored on an external hard drive using Windows XP. I have just changed my computer to a Win7 version, and now I cant access my library. I can see it there but cannot find the correct path to it. I have been able to access it on my old XP PC so it still works OK, but frustrated not being able to get it to work on a later OS/computer.

Do you have the itunes database file from XP also on the exHD?
iTunes Library.itl
Copy it from XP onto the exHD.
Then connect the exHD to Win 7, do a shift-start of itunes.
Which means, press *AND HOLD* the shift key while starting itunes, keep pressing until you get the prompt. Then browse to the exHD and choose the ITL file you copied over.

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External hard drive isnt opening on iMac

Hi everyone, I was advised to post a different discussion instead of having two questions in one, (good tip thank you)
So here is my second questions.
My other problem is that i want to get all my photos onto the imac. My hard drive wont open on my imac - (buffalo HD-PXT500U2/B) it recognises its there but wont aloow me to actually open it to view any file. (Also mac compatible.)
I called apple support again to see if there was anything i can do, the only thing they suggested was that i have to reformat my hard drive (which would mean loosing all the info on there). They suggested putting all my info on my PC, reformatting the EHD, then sucking up all the info again on my EHD, then giving it to my imac. Apart from the fact that i dont think my PC could handle 500 GB of info on it at this stage - this would take days. (currently to download 15GB of data takes an hour or so)
I asked about migration assistant or something similar which was at my start up (i didnt use it) which says it can transfer info from PC to mac - they said it wouldnt work, although i am still unsure as to why.
I have used google again to see what i can find as a fix, but its a mindfield out there and my brain is beginning to get fried - i have spent days trying to find out what fixes there are. I cant even find migration assistant anymore on the imac ( i dont know where it lives)
Please please please help me as I am just about ready to throw in the towel - it shouldnt be this hard or this much of a headache should it?
I am trying to start up my own photographic business which is why I was advised to make the switch, but I am already 2 weeks behind on editing as I am constantly waiting on the delivery, fix, help to get my imac up and running properly.
I do need simple step by step instructions as I am new to mac.
Thanks so much for reading
Faery
xxx

Reading between the lines, basically you have a drive that's Windows-formatted, that already has a lot of files on it, which you want to read with your Mac.
The usual drive format for Windows drives is NTFS, which in theory Macs can read, but not write to. An older format is FAT, which Macs can read and write to. Since you're not able to even read the drive, I'm a little puzzled.
When you attach the drive to the Mac, what happens? Do you see a drive icon appear on the desktop? If not, make sure that the Finder is set to display drives. Go to the Finder menu, click Preferences, General, and make sure external drives are set to show on the desktop.
If you still don't see it, open Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Do you see the drive there? If so, click on its partition/volume name (not the drive model line, there should be another line beneath it which displays the drive "name" that you've given it). The information at the bottom of the screen should tell you what format the volume is.
If it's NTFS, you could TRY installing Paragon NTFS. As I say, in theory with NTFS you certainly should be able to read the drive, but it might help. Worse case, you're out $20.
Failing that, does this hard drive have any kind of protection or encryption built into it? Some drives have proprietary encryption which relies on software that you install on your system. In that case, you would only be able to read it from your Windows system. If that's the case, maybe you can turn the encryption off on the WIndows side, then try again connecting to your Mac.
Matt

How do I copy iTunes from external hard drive to iMac?

How do I copy iTunes from external
Hard drive to iMac?

if your main library is on your external, then when not connected, you wont have access to it.
so first decide, where do you want to keep the files.
E.g. In my case, I keep my files on "C:\iTunes Music".
I have a backup on external "Z:\iTunes Backup". If I format my laptop, this is how I restore everything.
Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced.
The iTunes music folder in selects as "C:\iTunes Music"
I have checked Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized, and also Copy Files to iTunes Music folder when adding to ibrary". Click OK to save and close preferences.
My iTunes list is now empty. I go to file, and select "Add Folder to Library". From that window, I select "Z:\iTunes Backup". iTunes then copies everything from the backup to "C:\iTunes Music". For me, backup is backup, I dont need it to play music.
Now decide this. If you do not want to keep music on C:, but want to only connect the external to update music on your ipod, do this:
In preferences, set iTunes Music folder as "Z:\iTunes Backup", and uncheck Copy files to iTunes Music folder, since they are already there. Then in files, select Add folder to library again to build and update the list.

Restoring itunes from external hard drive

-I used WD backup program to store itunes on external hard drive
-hard drive on mac pro crashed, replaced hard drive
-trying to restore itunes songsa from external drive and when I copied songs from external hard drive to new internal hard drive which has itunes program, only song titles appear and track number for songs I ripped from CDs. All info is present for songs I purchased from itunes (why is there a difference in the way these two are restored???)
-Can I restore itunes from external drive so that artist and album are associated with each song title I ripped from CDs?
Much appreciate all assistance. Thanks.

I know MP3 and AAC save tag data, and I believe AIFF does as well (if you want to keep them in full-quality but space-greedy format). I don't think WAV supports tagging which is why they were lost. Read:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9558241&#9558241
This time make sure you have a complete backup of your itunes folder (which, in fact you may still have). That way you can recover your complete library and everything intact (as long as you keep your backups up to date).
Here is a related topic
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9267109&#9267109

My external hard drive wont show up in the "Save to:" menu when I try to import videos

My old external broke so I found my old one and plugged it in and went to import some videos on imove from an sd card but my external hard drive wont show up on the "save to:" drop down menu. I've been on utility disk to try and repair disk permission but I can't because the button isn't lit up. I can only click on verify disk or repair disk. I tried both of these but it still wont come on the drop down menu. It is showing up on the left in the event library but it has a little yellow triangle with a black exclamation mark in it.
Hope that all makes sense!
Any help would be very much appreciated!

Ok in disk utility it says Format : MS-DOS (FAT32)
Sorry Im not sure what you mean by can it connect via firewire? Sorry I'm a bit useless with technology haha

HT1660 How do I run itunes from external Hard drive?

How do I run itunes from external hard drive. I only have ssd on PC and media is too large to fit

You do not.
iTunes, like all programs is installed on the C drive.
You can store the media on another drive.
Assuming you are moving an existing library from another computer:
Move or Copy the ENTIRE iTunes folder from the old computer to the new computer and put it where you want it.
Install iTunes using the default options.
Hold <SHIFT> while launching iTunes. It will prompt to create a new library or locate an existing library.
Select the option to locate an existing library.
Point iTunes to the iTunesLibrary.itl file in the iTunes folder that was moved from the old computer.

How to open old itunes on external hard drive

Hi Guys
Basically my old laptop died and I have taken out the hard drive and plugged it in to my new laptop.
I have ITunes installed on my new laptop.
I want to be able to open my old iTunes library that is still on my old hard drive.
When I find the application in program files it says install iTunes. So I installed iTunes but whenever I press it again it just opens up the blank new library.
The iTunes library on my old hard drive is unconsolidated and unorganised.
I need to open it from the hard drive so I can move it to my new laptop.
Please help ASAP!

Press and hold down shift as you launch iTunes.
Keep holding until prompted to choose or create a library.
Click choose and browse to the iTunes folder on the drive.
Open the iTunes Library.itl file inside.
In some cases you may need to Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows in order for the library to work correctly on the new computer.
tt2

New external hard drive wont recognized in itunes

I have an external hard drive for storage, on itunes its recognized normally.
So, I bought a bigger hard drive, and copies aññ the previous stuff of the previous one, on Itunes settings I have changed the settings so the new hard drive would be recognized, but NO when I select a song it says that if I want to locate it , I have tons of songs, what can I do? so I tunes would recognize properly the new hard drive /library? without dragging and dropping again and have loads of duplicates aka a mess!
please help!
Ed

Can you set everything back the way it was, and use these directions to consolidate your library onto the bigger exHD? I assume everything is still on the smaller exHD.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
And for goodness sakes, assign a drive letter to the new exHD far down in the alphabet. Like, M: for music.
Windows has a nasty habit of changing drive letters by itself when you plug in different devices, if you don't assign one yourself.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844

Mp3 files wont import into itunes from external hard drive

I just switched from PC to Mac and have the new aluminium mac book.For my PC I had all my music stored on my external hard drive.I have begun transferring most of it to itunes,but some of the files since hooking my external hard drive to my Mac book have turned into 'Apple Files' which appear to be document files as opposed to music files.Is there a way that i can convert them into the itunes format?
Message was edited by: KatesM

WMA is not supported directly by iTunes. In iTunes for Windows, you can convert (but not play) these files, as long as they're not copy protected, to an iTunes-supported format.
Short of running Windows on your new Mac and handling this with iTunes for Windows, or using another (your old?) PC to convert the WMA files to another format (I would suggest using Apple Lossless, as otherwise you will lose some sound quality unnecessarily--unless the WMAs are WMA Lossless...), your only other option would be to play the files with software for OS X other than iTunes. In that case, you might consider VLC, which is handy for almost countless other audio and video files anyway.

Problems trying to store iTunes on external hard drive and back up iPhone to internal hard drive?

Hi
I have been tirelessly trying to relocate my entire iTunes function to an external hard drive to free space on my laptop. I have migrated the iTunes library (from the 'My Music' location on laptop) to ext hard drive and also reinstalled iTunes, asking to save all files during set up to the ext drive (not in default 'Program Files' on laptop). I have also pointed iTunes to the library's new location on the ext hard drive. I did this after reading a recommendation on here that it is better to have both my library and all other iTunes files in the same place.
One of the problems is when I have moved the library, it has for some reason created two iTunes folders on the ext drive with different music in each, but the library database file is only available in one of them, and I am not sure if all the music from both folders is available in iTunes.
Another huge issue is that when I have tried to back up my iPhone to the computer (as recommended to do after migrating the iTunes program to another location), it is not letting the process complete; I get an error message saying it cannot save to the computer. It seems the location of the back ups (C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup) isn't compatible with the new location of my library etc (on my ext drive)and from searching the internet for a solution, it seems you can't change the location of where back ups of an iPhone are stored.
So, does anyoine know if there is a fix-all solution to these dilemmas? Or should I just keep my library on one drive and the iTunes program on my int drive?
Thanks in advance
VR

Hmm.
I'm sure I'd successfully tested the command line version of the move instructions at one point, but I'm getting the same "access denied" error when I try. Maybe "Move" doesn't like working with folders when the path contains sections with hidden or system flags. Anyway herewith version 3 which I've just tested works as described...
Relocate iOS device backups
Assuming you're running Windows Vista or later you can use the following steps:
Using Windows Explorer move the current Mobile Sync Backup folder from C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup to your chosen location, e.g. as X:\Backup where <User> is your Windows user name and X: is your preferred drive.
To make iTunes look for the data in the new location open a command prompt by hitting the start button and typing CMD<Enter> in the search box that opens up, then type in this command and press <Enter>
MkLink /J "C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "X:\Backup"
If your external drive has a different letter or you already have a folder called "Backup" then edit "X:\Backup" accordingly.
If you're still running Windows XP you can use Junction (cmd line tool) or NTFSLink (shell ext). In both cases you move the existing folder to a new location, create an empty folder where the old one used to be, then use the tools to get the operating system to link the two together and silently redirect any file operation on the old location through to the new one.
Note that while this method works for iOS device backups it cannot be used to redirect sections of the media library. iTunes will break the connection the first time it tries to write a file to the target folder.
What happens when you want to sync the device? If you're getting a warning about erasing and reloading the device with media from the current library then something is wrong. If you moved the library files correctly and then reconnected them to iTunes this should still be the "home" library of the device and it should sync as if nothing had changed. If not then revist the make a split library portable post for advice. See also Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device if for some reason you accidentally erased the original library files and all backups thereof.
tt2

Problem with itunes and external hard drive

I've have recently downloaded the newest version of itunes, I also have an external hard drive with 40gbs of music on.
When I open itunes preferences and set library to an external one, none of my music copies to itunes.
I have tried to individually copy music folders to itunes, but my whole mac freeze's
Any advice please?

You might find this article useful: iLounge - Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive

How can I transfer Itunes from external hard drive to a new computer?

Hello,
I had a Dell laptop with Windows XP on it recently crash, but I have everything saved to a Seamagine external 1 terabyte hard drive. I have about 250 gigabytes of media on it, mostly CD's and audiobooks. The setup I had on the XP computer was my Itunes folder saved on the C drive, but I kept all the actual music and audiobooks on the external hard drive, which was labeled the F drive.
After the crash, a relative sold me their three year old Compaq laptop, with Windows 7 instead of XP as the OS. My relative already had Itunes downloaded on it, but when I opened the Itunes on the new (new to me) laptop, Itunes only recognized their (my relative's) account. So, I uninstalled their Itunes and then I re-downloaded Itunes for 64-bit Windows 7. I then opened the Windows Explorer folder so to drag and drop my backed up Itunes folder and library information from the old C drive to the new Itunes folder in the new C drive. But, it wouldn't do anything. It still wanted the password info from my relative's account. It wouldn't recognize my account, even though I had uninstalled and then reinstalled a newer version of Itunes. Dragging and dropping my backed-up Itunes folder from my external hard drive to the new C drive didn't work because it said it didn't have certain permissions or something like that. I think I might have downloaded a newer version of Itunes, different from what I had saved a couple of days ago, which might be one of the problems here, not to mention that I switched OS's from XP to Windows 7.
When I plugged the external hard drive USB into the new laptop no Seamagine manager came up for user-friendly accessibility. I didn't know what to do, so I installed Seagate Dashboard onto the new computer. It didn't do anything for me either. No problem, I thought, I'll just use Windows Explorer to move the Itunes library, and then once I transfer (i.e., drag and drop) the old Itunes folder to the one, all will be as it was. I could then direct my Itunes account to use my external hard drive as the media source folder. I was wrong. It won't let me do that either. It says I don't have permission to do it.
How c an I get my old Itunes library info onto the C drive of this new computer, but keep the 250GB of media files on the external hard drive, just like the setup I had on the old laptop before it crashed? If you can help me, then you will be my hero. I'm scared to death that I've lost my library info and afraid to mess with it too much more for fear of erasing it or, worse, losing the 250 GB of media that is on the external hard drive, which has taken me a tremendous amount of time and money to compile. It is, in effect, irreplaceable. I'm very worried and frustrated. I've been working on this for days, to no avail. You're my last hope. Thank you.

Hmm, I think we should start over...
Here are the typical layouts for the iTunes folders:
In the image above the red outline denotes the "media folder", that is the folder listed under Edit > Preferences > Advanced. In the standard layout where the "media folder" is inside the "library folder" the iTunes library has the advantage of being self-contained and portable. Since you've lost the "library folder" from your old computer you're going to have to start over so you might as well get organized properly.
If the folder curently holding your media files is called G:\iTunes then rename it as G:\Media.
The support doc How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one explains how to create a new iTunes library where you want it. In short click the icon to start iTunes and immediately press and hold down the shift key. Keep holding until asked to choose or create a library, click Create and browse to G:\, make sure the folder is going to be called iTunes and click save.
Move the folder that actually holds the media inside the folder G:\iTunes\iTunes Media. We're going to let iTunes reorganize everything (unless you have a collection of .wav files in which case stop and tell me because they require a different approach).
Use File > Add folder to library and select the folder G:\iTunes\iTunes Media. iTunes will search through the whole series of subfolders adding all media files into the library and reorganizing them into the correct artist & album folders.
Again, for data security, you really ought to obtain a second external drive at some point and backup your library to it. Only having one copy, as you have found, leaves you vulnerable to failure. External drives are no less prone to it.
A) Windows uses \ as a folder separator in path descriptions, Mac uses /.
B) Do you have a backup of the iTunes folder that was on drive C:\ or are you simply referring to the location of your media as a "backup" when it really the only copy? If you have a backup copy of your "original" iTunes library you could move/copy that to G:\iTunes shift-start-iTunes to open it, and then I can offer tools or techniques for fixing the links that will be broken becuase the drive letter has changed.
C) Use Store > Sign out and then Store > Sign in to sign into your iTunes account. You will also need to use Store > Authorize the computer to allow playback and transfer of any protected content. If your new library contains protected content from any other accounts then you will have to authorize the computer for those too.
tt2

IMovie Project from External Hard Drive not Opening?

Please help!!
Fairly new to MACs, iMovie and iDVD, I didn't have a clear understanding of how saving iMovie projects worked. Reading various tutorials, I thought I had a clear understanding of how they work. Apparently not with my recent frustration with iMovie.
I created several iMovie Projects but needed more space in order to make more projects for my internship thus I did what I thought was common sense -- get an external hard drive.
I exported iMovie projects into my user account and from there, dragged the saved projects into an external hard drive and then deleted the iMovie projects from my user account.
However, when I needed to retrieve these projects, I simply turned on my hard drive and clicked on them to open. However, whenever I tried opening them, they wouldn't open. Is it because I didn't export them to the hard drive in the first place?
What I don't understand is why iMovie is not opening or recognizing the saved iMovie projects from the external hard drive when the size and kind clearly indicate that it should open with iMovie automatically.
What is the proper way of saving my iMovie projects and events so that I can always have access to whenever I need to open up an old project or simply edit?

Freeing up space on your Mac hard drive in iMovies ’08.
The application iMovie ‘08 has two main libraries displayed in the iMovie window: Events and Projects. Events are the main imports from your video camera, say. These files are big and you have the option to save them on an external hard drive and so iMovie knows to find them there. Projects are your editing instructions like what clips you want and where. The files are small and you save them on your Mac hard drive. They are NOT the clips only signposts where to find them (in Events on your external hard drive). You can move Projects to your external hard drive as back-up but iMovie will not find them there. If you then delete Projects from your Mac, iMovie can no longer make use of them unless you manually export them back into iMovie from your external hard drive. See Apple Article HT1026 iMovie '08: Moving iMovie footage to another drive (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1026). Here the external hard disk is used for moving Projects from one computer to another and, by implication, back to the source computer.
Sharing the projects to iTunes for syncing with Apple TV creates (publishes) movies that take up the same amount of space on your Mac as the source Projects. You can still burn DVDs in iDVD using the iTunes Movies as your Media so provided you have iMovie Projects backed up on your external hard drive you can delete them from your Mac and just use the iTunes Movies (for Apple TV and iDVD). In addition, publishing iMovie Projects in iTunes for syncing to Apple TV results in these files being duplicated in both Movies/iMovies Sharing/iTunes AND in iTunes/iTunes Music/Movies so delete them from here and get even more GBs back! Tell iTunes in Advanced not to save these iTunes published movies anymore in order to stop further duplication ocurring.

Moved Itunes to External hard drive and Itunes can't find them

I went to the Apple Store at the Grove on Friday. An employee there printed out these instructions:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
I followed the instructions. All my music is on my external hard drive now (My Book). When I open Itunes all the songs in the entire library have a circle with ! in them.
It says the song could not be used because the file could not be found. When I search My Book the song plays and the ! is removed. I have several thousand songs. Do I have to do this with each and every one?
Also, I can't import new cd's now.
Can anyone help?
Thanks, Vicki

Try this -> iTunes Track CPR v1.3

Is it really possible to operate iTunes from external hard drive?

The internal hard drive on my Mac Book Pro is full and most of it is music for iTunes. I have been told that it is possible to operate iTunes from a library on an external drive but it hasn't worked for me. I have moved the iTunes folder on to my external hard drive. Then I did two things...First, I opened iTunes while pressing the "alt" key. Then I clicked on "choose library" and directed it to the iTunes folder on the external hard drive. Second, I opened Preferences>Advanced>iTunes Media Folder Location and then clicked on "Change" and directed that to the iTunes folder on my external hard drive. It should work right? Well, it worked the day that I did it but the next day I had "!" beside every song in my library of nearly 10,000 songs. It says that it can't find the location of the song file and asks if I would like to find it. When I show it where the file is it works but it will take me forever to do that with each individual song. Can this really be done successfully?

One question. What is NAS?
Here is a link http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751 . I did it exactly this way the first time I tried, including consolidating and the organize library part but it made a mess of my iTunes folder. Luckily I had it backed up on another partition of my hard drive using Time Machine. So, I deleted the iTunes folder and started over.
I dragged the iTunes folder over last night to the partition on my hard drive that I want to operate iTunes from. It took about an hour or so to copy the files over but the iTunes folder looks organized the way it should be again. Then I Alt>Clicked on iTunes in the dock and picked create library. Then I directed it to the new iTunes folder. Next I chose preferences>Advanced>Change media folder location and directed that to the new Itunes folder. Then it asked me if I would like iTunes to organize the folder(or something to that effect). I can't remember exactly but I chose "No" or "Cancel" this time, I didn't the first time. It has been working ever since but I am waiting for something to go wrong. Because, it worked last time for a day and then stopped.

Itunes on external hard drive wont open in Win7

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