Transferring Itunes Library to External HD  - BUT not so straighforward

Oh dear, here I am again asking q's about this thing again. Wish it was more straightforward and I really appreciate any help. Yes, I've been searching for a solution but all the advice i find online doesnt seem to specifically fit my situation - and I'm worried if I do the wrong thing, itunes won't be able to find the new locations - (i'll have to locate each individual file for Itunes) - and/or I'm going to end up with lots of duplicates.
Right then - so my Internal HD is nearly full and need to transfer all my podcasts to an external HD. I also wish for any updates/downloads to the podcasts are located at this new location.
All my Music, is already NOT on this Internal Hard-drive, however the External Hard that all these files are on has, just today, given real cause for concern that there is a problem with the drive.
Itunes recognises that all my Music files are on this external harddrive
So, I've just got a new external hard-drive and wish therefore to transfer all the Music files and podcasts from where they are all located as detailed about.
At present, I'm transferring ALL the music files from the old Ext HD to the NEW external HD.
All my podcasts remain on my Internal HD.
So what to do?
Many thanks

So move (which since this is between drives is actually copy and then delete):
USERS/cjb/Music/Itunes/itunesMusic/Podcasts/ArtsandIdeas
to:
/Volumes>WDPassport/AUDIO/MyMusic/INDPAKPOP/ARRAHMAN/Taal
I don't usually move files between drives after I have added them to iTunes. What you many need to do is delete the concerned items from iTunes, then add them again from thir new location. With your settings (which I use) iTunes is good about keeping track of files when moved about inside a drive but not between drives. I suspect that once you delete them from your internal drive (as part of the moving) iTunes will say it cannot find them anymore. So you'll need to add them again.
One other thing you could try (might work) is one of [Dougscripts|http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scriptcount.php?sortBy=Name& op=y] called "Move files to Folder" Again, I haven't tried this between drives (use it frequently inside my main drive) but it may preclude you having to delete the item from iTunes. It's possible you may just end up with a copy on the external and internal (and you can just delete the internal), or it might even be smart enough to handle that and it will do it all for you. I'd try it on maybe one file first, then use command+r on the file in iTunes to reveal where the referenced file is located. After that check if there is still one on your podcasts folder on the original drive.

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