Running out of hard drive space---can I use my external hard drive-??

I have a 16GB iPod nano. I hope I can explain my problem well enough.
My laptop computer has the iTunes that I use for syncing my iPod. It has over 25gb of songs in it, but my problem is that it has completely run out of hard drive space, and I don't think I can delete anything else.
I have a 250 GB external hard drive that also has all my songs backed up on it, that has hard drive space left on it.
Is there a way to load new music into the external hard drive, that will sync up to the iPod when I connect it to the laptop, WITHOUT putting a copy of it into the laptop, and taking up space-?
The way it appears to me, and I may be wrong, is that there are 2 copies of eaxh song on my laptop---the one in my music folder, and then the one in the iTunes folder. Is that correct-?
OR, is there a way to remove some of the songs from the laptop, and put them into the external hard drive, but will still sync up to the iPod-?
Thanks for any help that anyone can offer, I'm desperate ~!
I'm not sure if this can be done, but I'd hate to think that I cannot put new music onto my iPod.
Thanks~!

Hello melbernai,
I think your best move would be to the move the entire iTunes library including of all of its file to your external hard drive and running your iTunes from there. You can even have it so that all newly imported music is saved to the external drive as well.
For more help on how to do this, I would check out this article on how to move and run your iTunes library from an external hard drive.
http://lifehacker.com/238296/ultranewb--how-to-move-your-itunes-library-to-an-ex ternal-drive
Hope this helps.
B-rock

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Message was edited by: joell109

Has using information on 'resolving kernel panics' helped to
define or troubleshoot the list of potential causes of these;
or has the process been partly a guess?
resolving kernel panics - troubleshooting the issue:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
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in a later system than a computer was first shipped with,
can lead to kernel panic issues. So can a combination of
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hard disk drive, it may be putting corrupted data on the HD.
{And the logic board or hardware data flow controller (ATA)
may be defective in such a way as to cause kernel panics..}
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of the drive in such a manner (due to over-writing content
and the system being cannibalized) as to cause failures.
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An external hard disk drive within a FireWire enclosure, one
that is self-powered so it is on before the computer (and you
have to consider carefully how you detach or attach it to the
Mac, since these have to be unmounted a certain way, etc)
and perhaps large enough in capacity to have it partitioned
so as to give you a backup location for items or utilities that
can run from the computer to help you maintain it, etc.
The externally enclosed FireWire hard disk drive, with AC
power adapter, and cables, should be able to boot the Mac.
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known as 'oxford chipsets' can do this. That is the first test
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externally enclosed HDD, a bootable one, & self-powered.
Mine are full-computer clones; not just the OS, and not
just the file changes such as a simple backup may provide.
Carbon Copy Cloner by Bombich is a good tool to have.
And there are others.
If your computer is essentially eating hard disk drives and
there are kernel panics within a relatively short period of
operational time, there may be something else involved.
A vintage Disk Warrior may be helpful, if you can find one
that will work with the current OS on the computer and
also on the hardware you have, to look into the HDD.
And the original Mac OS software set included with that
computer shipped with an Apple Hardware Test... also,
system logs should indicate the chain of failure; but those
are often cryptic and few people grasp their messages.
Good luck & happy computing!

Running out of hard drive space---can I use my external hard drive-??

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