Man do I need help. Please....I'm begging.

Question

Ok, I've created a mess and I need help cleaning it up. In the process of trying to create, sync, and god know what else I've ended up with multiple copies multiple libraries located in various locations on my PCs external HD. The good news is that the library I want to keep is the one is iTunes is currently synced to. I was fairly certain what files I could remove and what not to but then I noticed something weird. When I open the advanced settings tap under preferences and look at the file path it was different that I thought it was. Instead this (what I normally see) "C:\Documents and Settings\elombardi\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music" I have this: "C:\Documents and Settings\elombardi\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\iTunes1\iTunes Music". When I open the files to look at it the file "iTunes1" is located in the "iTunes Music" folder along with all the folders with the different artists listed. When I open "iTunes1" it appears to have all the same files as the normal "iTunes" folder with one exception, all the folders appear to be empty. The thing I find so strange is that why does iTunes seem to be working fine if it is pointed at this empty file folder? When I say empty, I mean if I open the folder "iTunes Music" in the "iTunes1" folder it has nothing in it. I'm afraid to delete it and point it to another directory as I don't want to lose my files. The ironic part is that I created this mess trying to do something relatively simple, move my files onto a new drive. Now that I know how to do it I can't figure out what files I need to move.

Answer 1

Oh dear, a bit of a mess, you appear to haev created a new instance of itunes inside the music folder of your original iTunes folder.
Just to be clear about your current state:
The location of your iTunes Music folder as set in Preferences>advanced>general is:
My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\iTunes1\iTunes Music
Do you know the location of the library file you are currently using? It is likely to be in iTunes1 from your preference setting, but you can check by starting iTunes with the shift key held down and then choosing iTunes library.itl in either iTunes or iTunes1 to see which is right.
The location of your music files: If I understand you correctly, all the actual files are in My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music and the my Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\iTunes1\iTunes Music folder is empty.
I wouldn't add any music to your collection at the moment as it will only complicate things.
If you are happy that everything is working OK, the simplest way of dealing with this if you want to move immediately to an external drive is not to sort it out. Use the method in the following link to transfer your music to a new iTunes Music folder on the external drive. The current library file (itunes Library.itl) will remain where it is on the internal drive.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305451
Normally I would suggest a different method but it would result in exactly the same scrambled set up on the external drive.
If you want to sort things out on your internal drive before the transfer, you need to confirm exactly how things are set up.