Problems saving iTunes library to external LaCie drive

Not sure if this is posted in the correct place, but I am having problems backing up my iTunes library to an external drive. I have a MacBook Pro running OS 10.4.11, and a LaCie 250GB external drive. I have saved all other files (PDF, text, picures, etc) by dragging and dropping onto the LaCie desktop icon, but when I try to transfer my iTunes music files they won't copy to the hard drive. Dragging and dropping the files doesn't seem to work, and I tried backing up my library in iTunes, but it only prompts me to burn them to a disk (not the hard drive). The LaCie drive is the "rugged" model/ USB 2.0.
Can anybody help with this?
-Thanks

I would check to see what type of file system your external drives are formatted for.
Use the Disk Utility in OSX to see what it is. If its a Lacie Drive, I'm guessing its already pre-formatted to work with MAC.
Make sure its HPFS and not something like FAT or FAT32 or NTFS which are all Windows based file systems.
If you find your drive is formatted with FAT, FAT32 or NTFS, you should format your drive, but that will mean erasing any data is on it. So you will need to move the data off before you format the drive. Format it using the Disk Utility in OSX.
There are limitations as well with the file format, I would search Wikipedia to see a comparison of the different file formats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparisonof_filesystems

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Backup and restoring itunes library from external hard drive?

is there a way to backup and restore my itunes library to external hard drive and not through the internal itunes backup utility cos i have over 20gbs of music and i want to keep my album art and renamed songs etc. because i will be reformating my pc and dont want to go through painful task of manually adding stuff again.

Try this...
*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
Grab SyncToy 2.0, a free tool from MS. Use it to create a backup copy of your iTunes library & any other media folders onto another hard drive or network share. After making the initial backup copy use SyncToy to periodically synchronise the backup copy with your library and only the changed files will be copied saving lots of time.
When the time comes to reformat your PC, do a final sync, then open iTunes & deauthorise the PC, reformat & rebuild Windows, copy the backup folders back to the same location as they were previously, install iTunes and it should all work perfectly.
tt2

Problem copying iTunes to a external hard drive

I have been trying to move my very large iTunes library from my Macbook Pro to a external HD to free up space.
I have upgraded to iTunes 9 and upgraded the iTunes media organization.
I have consolidated my library on my Macbook Pro.
I have gone to advanced preferences and changed this to provide a pathway to my brand new external hard drive and then tried to consolidate to this to copy all my music, video, apps etc over.
This is where my problems start, when most of the files have been copied over I get the error message "copying files failed. The disk could not be read from or written to"
I have tried to do this several times and get the same response. I have been able to copy other things (non iTunes) to this external HD and all works well. I believe that I have read write permission as I have checked this for itunes and the external HD.
Note that the External HD and my laptop are also formatted the same (Mac OS extended journaled).
Whats the problem, any help would be appreciated
Thanks

Drag your iTunes folder with all its subfolders to your external drive. Restart iTunes with the option key held down, then navigate to the new library on the external drive.
[Discussion: Moving itunes library to external hard drive|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9127522] - link to article on moving your library to an external drive and warning tips about having drive switched on when you start up itunes.
[ilounge.com: Transferring your iTunes Library|http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-l ibrary-to-a-new-hard-drive/48] - Good background but for the simplified version read: [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2362775]
[How to redirect your iPhoto and ITunes files to an external harddrive|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6058202]

ITunes Library to External Hard Drive...and iTunes Match???

So, my iTunes library is getting too large for my computer's storage capacity. I'm thinking of moving some of my library to an external, USB hard drive. However, I've never done iTunes through an external hard drive before and I have some questions.
Can I copy new discs (import) straight onto the external hard drive? Or do they need to go onto my computer first then get transferred to the hard drive?
Can I still use iTunes Match and pull songs from the library on my hard drive and from the main computer?
To partition a library between a computer and an external hard drive, do I need to activate sharing or anything special? Or will the computer/main iTunes library just consider the external drive to be a different location for some of the tracks?
How would I backup the external hard drive? Would Time Machine (running off a separate hard drive) back up another external hard drive if they were both plugged in?
Can you burn the entire library to data discs anymore? Or do you need to make a playlist of your entire library? If the latter, is there a way to turn off the message about iTunes in the Cloud playlists only accepting songs matched or uploaded? I have some songs that erroneously did not get matched or uploaded. If I try to put them in a playlist and burn it to a data disc for backup, iTunes won't do it.
Please help!

I recommend you keep everything inside the iTunes folder.
Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder from internal to external.
Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder you copied to the external.
This is all you need to do. Everything will work normally.
You can delete now /Music/iTunes/ folder on the internal.

Can't import entire iTunes library from external hard drive

I recently had to reset my IBM ThinkPad T40 (Windows XP) to factory settings. Of course, I backuped up my iTunes library on an external hard drive, and there didn't seem to be any problems doing so. (I've had to do the same thing before) But I can't re-import the entire library now! It only imports about a thousand songs (I had about 5,000), and I get an error message saying "The file iTunes Library.itl~ cannot be imported becuase it does not appear to be a valid exported file.") I also tried to import a previous back-up (stored in a different folder, and it wouldn't import all of those files, either -- no more than in the more recent backup files) either. I've tried re-downloading the iTunes software several times. Help!!!!
Thanks!!!
PS: Is there a way to sync my iPod to import songs from that BACK into itunes?
IBM ThinkPad T40 Windows XP

This seems to have deleted ALL of my iTunes. The folder (and all iTunes files) is still there on my backup, but now the newly-installed iTunes won't import ANYTHING (It at least imported about 1,000 (out of 5,000) songs before. But now it says all files are invalid, regardless of where I attempt to import them from. (although the names of some playlists import -- but they're empty files) It appears that SOME of the music files are located on the backup copy, but simply won't import. Perhaps they're corrupted?

Migrating iTunes library from external hard drive to new laptop

Hi there, I am wondering if anyone can help me please? I am a complete newbie to this forum thing, I am just getting into this cosmic sharing world but find myself utterly frustrated with iTunes and my new laptop - with little help on the Support pages, so i am venturing into the unkown and seeking help from anyone out there.........slightly scary for me, this really is my first post on a forum - so be gentle with me :0)
On my old steam driven laptop I had to move my iTunes library to an external hard drive, my 250MB hard drive just wasn't enough (I know pathetic wasn't it). All ok there and I have been using it no problem. I have now upgraded (finally!!) to a new wonderful laptop (with webcam and all sorts!)but I am at the end of my tether trying to get my iTunes library from my external hard drive to appear in the Library on the laptop. boo hoo.
I have tried changing the file location in the Advance section of preferences, i have tried choosing the library after holding down the shift key on start up (you see not a complete numpty). They all appear to work as i don't get any error messages, but the songs just don't appear in the library. Am i being a complete numb nuts here? what am i missing?
If anyone can help i would be really grateful as this is spoiling the euphoric feeling i have of my lovely new laptop!
cheers Latte

tonybassplayer wrote:
Thank Chris I have just done that. How do I now get them in to Itunes ?
If you simply copy the iTUnes folder to /Music/ and launch iTUnes, everythign will be there. No need to import anything.
This will work the same with iPhoto.
Simply copy the Photo library to /Pictures/ folder and launch iPhoto.

ITunes Library on External Hard Drive via Time Capsule and plugged in directly to laptop when away from home

To save space on my macbook pro I would like to export my iTunes library onto an external usb hard drive. So that I don't have to have the hard drive plugged in to my laptop all the time when I am at home I would like to plug it into a Time Capsule and access it over my wireless network. This is the simple part that I am confident about setting up.
The tricky part is as follows. When I take my laptop out of the house when I am traveling I would like to still be able to access my iTunes library by plugging the external usb hard drive directly into my laptop as I will not be able to access my home network anymore.
I know this will potentially break all of the tracks in my iTunes library as the file paths will change as it will be plugged directly into my laptop rathern than via the Time Capsule. Does anybody know of a way to quickly fix all of the broken tracks in the library or a way I could achieve the above?
I hope someone can help me

I have nothing wireless in the house and no experience with Time Capsules. However, as long as the drive appears on the desktop in both scenarios there should be no problem. If there is, hold down the option key while starting iTunes and guide it to the library.itl file on the external drive.
Do not confuse moving your library with moving your media, as many people do. Your library is your whole iTunes folder. You move it by copying the whole folder to the other drive and starting iTunes with the option key as above. If you want to move only media you do so through preferences settings in iTunes,making sure you organize (consolidate) your media so it actually copies it to the other drive. There are advantages and disadvantages to either situation, but generally unless you are going to have media on one several drives, or you plan on sharing media but not library listings with other users, you are best off moving teh whole library. Moving the whole library also has less potential for resulting in broken links since your library is all in one package and not split across drives.

How to get ITunes library from external hard drive to new PC

have ITunes folder from dying PC saved on external hard drive. PC now dead. New PC has Windows7, and have loaded ITunes.
Now need to know exactly what to do to get all that lovely music from the external hard drive onto the new Windows7 PC. The ITunes folder has the following inside it:
ITunesMusic folder in it, which looks like all the music is in there.
Album Artwork folder
ITunesLibrary.itl
ITunesMusicLibrary.xml
ITunesLibraryGenius.itdb
ITunesLibraryExtras.itdb
What do I do, and in what order? I'm thinking I should NOT need to plug in the ipod, since everything is saved on the external drive. (I don't want to accidentally wipe the Ipod, since I'm pretty sure it is set to automatically sync.....)
the whole point of doing frequent backups was to not lose anything. Note: did NOT use apple for backups, just regular backup program. Can see the files and folders, just need to knkow what to do.
Thanks in advance for the help!

Drag and drop the whole folder into the iTunes application.
The iTunes application meaning your library once iTunes is open

Backing Up iTunes Library On External Hard Drive

Iv'e just bought and installed a LaCie Hard Drive for my mac.
As I have a library of 62gig I want to make a back-up just in case something went wrong and I lost the lot!
Does anyone know if there is an easy way to transfer the files to the hard drive, I have tried to highlight and drag the files to the hard drive folder but this will take forever, if you highlight too many items the computer just freezes.
Any help would be great, Brian.

The link William provided is about Windows computers. It will tell you the principles and the importance of backing up specific files.
If all your music is on your internal HD in the 'iTunes Music' folder (default setting), just drag the iTunes folder (in ~/Users/YourUsername/Music to the external HD.
This way, also your 'iTunes Library' file is copied.
If your ext. HD has a Firewire connection, it will copy about 1GB/min.
To make regular incremental backups, you have to use a 3rd party backup application.
M

ITunes library on external hard drive that nots always connected.....

Can anyone help please?
I have a laptop running Win XP and i have the latest version of itunes. I want to keep all my music on an external hard drive because i can't fit it on the laptop. This in itself isnt a problem - i have all the files on the external HDD and have set iTunes up and everything is fine HOWEVER because i have a laptop, i'm not going to lug my external drive with me everywhere. So i am getting problems where when i do plug the external drive in and run iTunes - it comes up with question marks against EVERYTHING and i have to effectively add the library file again. Surely there is some other way round this?! can i not keep all my music on the external drive then just connect when i need to? why is itunes not happy with this? i dont use itunes unless i am connected to the external drive.
Many thanks for any help!

As long as you don't launch iTunes until after the external hard drive is mounted, you shouldn't have a problem. I've been using such a set up for years.

Problems with itunes 10 and external hard drive

Hi
I was recently forced to change the internal hard drive on my G5 Tower, and the external hard drive where I keep my music library.
The new external drive had all my music files copied to it. I reloaded my itunes library files (that I had backed up from old computer) into my music folder and I named the new external drive as the media folder in Itunes preferences. The first time I used itunes it asked me if I wanted it to locate all files to which I pressed OK. itunes quickly found the majority of files and I cleaned up / organized the small mess left behind.
Trouble is a few problems have occurred. Firstly, itunes seems slow – there’s a sluggish pause flicking between tracks – where as before it used to snap into response. Occasionally I’m asked to locate files which I thought was a task it had already done - and every now and again when I check the external hard drive music library I find files have been moved from there album locations to ‘untitled’ folders, etc. I can only assume itunes is doing this. I’ve also noticed I can’t remove the external hard drive from the desktop without closing itunes first which never happened before.
This is getting somewhat frustrating. Can anybody advise?
Much appreciated.
K

Hi Nick,
Avoid the WD files completely, not needed & often a problem.
You need to erase the Drive, & to use it on both Format it MS-DOS/FAT32, on the Mac or PC, but will have a 4 GB filesize limit, as well as other limitations.
One option not mentioned yet is MacDrive for your PCs... allows them to Read/Write & Format HFS+, so no need to reformat it...
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

ITunes Library on external hard drive used on both Mac & PC?

I currently have my entire iTunes library on an external hard drive as the library took up too much space on my MacBook Pro. This works out fine, except for when I travel for work (almost weekly). I use a Windows machine for my development work and would like to know if I could simply plug in that external drive and use that on the PC laptop?
My biggest reason for wanting to do this is to be able to sync my iPhone while traveling, but not having to sync, consolidate or copy my music & movie files every weekend between the two machines is another reason.

christopher rigby1 wrote:
You must maintain the actual library files separately on the Mac and PC as they are different formats, and use different file paths for each song.
That is what I was hoping to avoid. That means I would not be able to sync my iPhone on both machines. It also means I would have to sync my libraries on a regular basis.
My primary goal was to be able to put a movie or two and/or a couple of training videos on the iPhone and when I get through them, be able to update the iPhone with new ones to use on the flight back home.
What about keeping the library files for both machines on the external drive, in addition to the actual library. Would that solve my problem?

ITunes library on external USB drive connected to Netgear R7000 router

I have my iTunes Library on an external USB hard drive. When the drive is connected directly to my iMac, I access the library by Option-Launching iTunes at which point I am asked to choose or create an iTunes Library. I choose the library on the external HD and everything is fine,
However when I connect the same HD to the USB3 port on my R7000, I am not able to choose the library successfully. When I Option-launch iTunes and select the iTunes library I get an error that says, "The iTunes application could not be opened. An unknown error occurred (13008)"
Curiously I am able to navigate to the Readyshare iTunes library. For example I can get too this file...
Jazz>iTunes Media>Music>Acoustic Alchemy>The New Edge> 01 Oceans Apart.m4a
and when I do a "quick look" on my iMac by pressing the space bar on that file, it plays. However when I double-click on that file, I get the same error that "The iTunes application could not be opened. An unknown error occurred (13008)"
Anyone have any idea what the problem is?

Oh groan, not another conspiracy theory. No, it's a lot more likely Apple and Netgear and the dozens of other manufacturers haven't gotten together with the thousands users who have come up with hundreds of thousands of ways of rigging things up and tested each and every one of them. I am confident if Apple were out to mess things up for you they could have come up with something a lot more devious.
Did you do a web search for this? With a Google search specifying Netgear with this error I found:
ReadySHARE USB Hard drive access issue from a Mac Computer (Time Machine or iTunes not working properly)
- Able to see USB hard drive content but unable to write to USB hard drive connected to router's Readyshare port from Mac computer.
- Error that says "The iTunes application could not be opened. Unknown error 13008"
http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/22763/~/readyshare-usb-hard-drive- access-issue-from-a-mac-computer-%28time-machine-or
In fact it is almost certain that it is an issue of that particular model router and the drive formats it can use.

Problem saving .dv file to external hard drive

Hello -
I'm trying to copy an old VHS tape to DVD. VCR to camcorder to iMovie 4.0.1 and edits all went smoothly. To create the .dv file I did File > Share > QuickTime tab > compress for Full Quality DV and created a 5.68 GB file movie1.dv - all OK.
I don't have a DVD burner on my Mac, so I'm trying to copy the file to an external USB hard drive (Maxtor, FAT32 format) for transfer to my PC. The drive seems to work fine, and I can copy other files to it. But when I try to copy the .dv file to the HD it goes almost all the way through with the save and then I get an error: The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in the "movie1.dv" could not be read or written. (Error code -36).
Error -36 seems to be a "bad disk" thing, or maybe a "corrupt file" - hard to tell for sure. I don't see how it could be the disk, since other files copy onto it just fine. If it's a corrupt file, what did I do wrong making the .dv file?
Many thanks for help. - G

I have been using a Lacie 120 gig drive for file saving. I just bought another external HD, it is a Maxtor. I installed the OS X version of drive format, but it WILL NOT work with I-Movie--as soon as you try and import video, it freezes and quits. I can copy files to it, but have not tried seeing if they play back or burn properly (I don't want to waste that much time copying huge files). Does anyone know about external hard drives that do NOT work well with IMovie? This model has a USB A-B connection and it operates at 9600 rpm.
Thanks for any tips

Using same iTunes library with external hard drive (EHD) on different PCs

I know some of the issues related to this question have been touched on in different discussions but I don't think I have seen a clear yes/no and if yes, here's how, answer to my queries, so here goes.
Like another member, I would like to take my iTunes library with me when I'm away on holiday so that I can (for example) use an Apple TV with Home Sharing to watch movies in my library or pay albums in my music library while on holiday, in the same way as I am able to at home. I have a Samsung NC 10 notebook running Windows XP (which I would take with me with a Samsing Story EHD) and a Dell desktop. My iTunes media folders are now on the EHD and I think I have iTunes library files on the Dell and on the Samsung. Of course, if iTunes Match covered movies as well as music, I would use that and just take my Apple TV with me ... but it doesn't and seems not likely to.
By messing around and not properly understanding some of the discussions about this topic, I think my iTunes library looks as I expect it to be, on my Dell - though I have yet to test this by doing a synch with my iPad or iPod Touch. However, when I plug the EHD into the Samsung and open my library, I am missing at least one movie and I don't have any artwork showing for any of the movies. This is inspite of clicking Get Album Artwork, Consolidate Files and clicking to add, as a file (or folder) to the library, the missing movie which is on the EHD in the Movies folder of the iTunes Media. In iTunes on the Samsung "Preferences>Advanced", the iTunes media location (on my EHD) is correct.
I have obviously messed something up trying to replicate my Dell desktop iTunes library on the Samsung. So:
can/should I start again (if that is the best thing to do) with getting my iTunes library properly on to my Samsung notebook? And, if yes, how do I do that?
is it really possible to have all that you need to run and use iTunes on an EHD (i.e. both media folders and the various iTunes library files (.itl, .itdb, .xml etc.)) so that whenever I plug the EHD into my Dell or Samsung I can access my iTunes library in the same way and via the same files? Or, do you always have to have the library files (at least) located on the PC you are connecting your EHD to (showing my ignorance here! )?
if you can have all the library files as well as media on the EHD (i.e. all of your iTunes library), I assume there is more to moving these from the C drive in my Dell to the EHD, than just cutting and pasting them into the EHD and then deleting similarly named files in C drive in the Samsung?
if all of my iTunes library can be located in the EHD, would I just access that (i.e. open my iTunes library) - whether on my Dell or the Samsung - by pressing the Shift key when clicking on iTunes as a programme on my Dell or Samsung, or - and I appreciate this is more basic computer knowledge than iTunes query - does the fact that I would need to access iTunes via some form of link on the relevant PC indicate why some iTunes library files would always have to reside on the PC rather than the EHD?
if the iTunes library files have to stay on the relevant PC, how can they be kept in synch - i.e. the more portable Samsung offering the same access and picture of my iTunes library as the Dell does - or is iTunes just not set up to do this, in which case I might as well ignore trying to replicate my iTunes library on the Samsung?.
Apologies for this long list of questions. Any pointers to where the answers lie or even better specific answers themselves would be very much appreciated.
Many thanks.

I think that's yes, yes, yes, yes, and not necessary...
Make a split library portable
Here are the typical layouts for the iTunes folders:
In the layout above right, with the media folder (everything in the red box) inside the library folder, the library is considered to be portable. A portable library can be moved from one path to another without breaking the links from the library to the media, and being self-contained it is much easier to backup and restore. (You do backup, don't you?).
You can rearrange things to make a split library portable by taking a number of small steps which don't break the library.
Before you start any media files that are outside of the media folder will need to be consolidated. If the library is in the old style layout then it should be upgraded to iTunes Media Organization (Library > Organize Library > Rearrange files in the folder <Media Folder>) to ensure that iPod Games, Mobile Applications etc. are brought inside the media folder, otherwise the links to these won't survive changes in the path of the library.
The basic non-fatal manipulations are:
You can create or connect to an alternate set of library files by holding down Shift (Win) or Option (Mac) when starting iTunes. (Note iTunes will continue to use this library until you use the same method again.)
You can move the library files to a new location and connect to it there as long as the media stays put.
You can move the library files and the media together if the media folder is a direct subfolder of the library folder.
If you have already moved/copied the media content from a subfolder of the library folder to a different location then you only need to copy the library files for it to appear as if you have moved the entire library in the way allowed above. I.e. just copy the library files into the parent folder of the media folder.
You can rename the media folder to iTunes Media (if it isn't already) if the media folder is inside the library folder.
iTunes uses the name of the folder holding the library files as the window title. Having made a library "portable" you may need to take a final step of renaming the library folder to iTunes or, if the library files have ended up at the root of a drive, moving all of the library files and content folders into a new folder called iTunes.
IMPORTANT: After each change you need to open, test and close the relevant library before attempting another change. If a change broke the library, undo it or revert to using the previous set of library files.
In essence all you need to do to join up a split library and make it portable is copy the library files into the parent folder of the media folder on the external/secondary drive and use the hold-down-shift/option-when-starting-iTunes method to connect to it. Other manipulations may be required to normalize the library so that the library and media folders have standard names.
tt2

Problems saving iTunes library to external LaCie drive

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