Reinstalling mac os x, don't want to loose song information

Question

Dear Apple Forum,
First of all, you guys are great, you helped me already a great deal by just reading some questions posted and those solved all my problems. today i have to ask a question personally though cause can't really find a detailed answer although I'm sure its there already.
anyway, I'm formating my computer and upgrading to tiger.
I've got lots and lots of music + photos that are both carefully organized.
to start with a iTunes library of 14.000 song, each rated. I've got the music already on an external hard drive, so i just just need to find out how to keep al song ratings and information when i reinstall mac os. can anyone help on that. I'm sure there's an easy way to keep my library exactly how it is now with ratings and play lists.
my iPhoto is also nicely organised with all photos named in iPhoto and many albums with names and stuff. all photos are still on internal hard drive.
again, how can i reinstall and format hard drive by keeping all photos organized and named?
thanks a lot for anyone able to help me out.
greetings from Belgium
iBook G4   Mac OS X (10.3.9)  

Answer 1

Sebbe3825,
Welcome to Discussions.
Did you move the music to the external using these instructions:?
iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
If you did not delete the iTunes Music folder yet (instruction 13), verify that your songs play from the external. Then trash the iTunes Music folder. Be careful not to delete the iTunes folder, but only the 'iTunes Music' folder inside it.
Then copy the 'iTunes Library' file to the external drive. This file contains all song locations, playlists, ratings and comment. You might as well copy the 'iTunes Music library.xml' file. This one is not really needed but can be used by iTunes in case there is a problem with the 'iTunes Library' file.
After formatting and upgrading to Tiger, put the 'iTunes Library' file at the original location.
Then connect the external drive and run iTunes. It should recognize the library at once.
You can find more info about the library files here:
What are the iTunes library files?
I'm not very familiar with iPhoto, but as far as I know you can just copy the entire 'iPhoto Library' folder (in Users/Username/Pictures) to the external.
After upgrading your system, put the folder back to it's original location.
My advice is to verify this in the iPhoto forum.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac 800 MHz, 768 MB RAM, 200 GB HD, DL burner   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   iTunes 7.0.2