Problem storing music on external hard drive and iTunes recognising the music.

Hi hope someone is able to help.
I've set up iTunes on my parents windows Laptop to store all the music on an external hardrive. In preferences and in advanced I altered where the music was located. But unfortunately when they removed the external and went to use it a few days later, iTunes did not recognise where the music was stored.
There is no music in the iTunes folder on the laptop only on the external.
I deleted all the music that could not be located...all had exclamation mark.
Added folder to library, which was from the external hardrive.
Music re added and they were able to put music on their ipod. However the same has happened again when they removed and reinserted their external. Should I just cut my losses and reput all the music back on the Laptop (makes it very slow, quite alot of it) or am I missing checking or deselecting something in itunes, with it being on an external hard drive.
Hope to hear back from someone to help.

If you've split the media folder out to an external drive and then start iTunes while the drive is disconnected iTunes gets out of sorts. It will reset the media folder to the default internal path. Depending on what other devices have been connected the external drive letter may also change from time to time which also confuses iTunes. What works best is to create your iTunes library at the root of the external drive, with the media folder inside. In this confuration if the drive isn't connected or has changed letter, iTunes will stop with an error. You can either cancel, connec the drive, and restart, or in the case of a changed drive letter, simply browse to X:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl to open it, where X:: is the current letter for the external drive.
See make a split library portable for details of how to rearrange your library if you've got it working. Alternatively press and hold down shift as you start iTunes, keep holding until asked to choose or create a library, then click create and make the library at X:\iTunes. Move all the media inside X:\iTunes\iTunes Media, then use File Add Folder to Library to import it.
tt2

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dividedbyzach wrote:
How is that possible? The itunes music folder is now called itunes media folder and that's what was dragged to the trash and deleted:
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gusaphit wrote:
so because you have kept your itunes folder and library on an EHD, I take it you have also deleted the actual Itunes program folder from your computer's C drive?
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I'm asking because you responded and you're cute.
Very happy to help but really, I'm not that cute.

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5) With the Mac reformat the old drive to Mac extended.
6) With the Mac copy the entire iTunes folder from the new drive to the old one which is now in the Mac friendly format. Start iTunes with the option key held down as described earlier.
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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:
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Problem storing music on external hard drive and iTunes recognising the music.

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