Unexpected exclamation mark comes up....

Question

I just recently "backed-up" my Itunes music folder to my external hard drive to free up some space on my laptop. Now, when I complete a download it automatically goes to my (D) drive or hard drive. Once I play that downloaded track it shows up on my Itunes library and I see the exclamation marks on other songs in my library. When I relocate the songs with the exclamation marks I see more and more come up. Anybody knows or has any ideas to what may the problem be?
Just to give a little more info. I also dragged and dropped my "Shared" folder from Limewire to my hard drive.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Answer 1

The exlaimation marks are there because the music is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. There are a number of possible approaches to resolve this.
The first option is to put the music back where it came from, then follow the recommended iTunes way for relocating your library – see Moving your iTunes Music folder (Windows) - and ask it to "consolidate" your library onto your new drive, letting it rename your files in the process. Fine if you've still got enough room on your internal drive, have time to drag all the music backwards & forwards and don't mind putting iTunes in total control of the layout of your files.
Another approach would be to delete the contents of the library & re-import from the new location. The downside is that you will lose any related metadata such as downloaded artwork, play counts, last played, date added, playlist membership etc.
Another approach is given here: HOWTO: Move your iTunes music while preserving library data (when you don’t let iTunes manage your music library). With this approach you would need to perform some global search & replace edits on the XML version of the library to create the correct paths to each file, then "damage" the iTunes .itl database and hope that iTunes rebuilds it the way you want it to from the XML version. Tricky, but feasible if you're happy manipulating XML data.
There is an easier way... use symbolic links or junction points. These are little known features of the NTFS & HPFS filing systems that let you take an empty folder and instead of filling it with content you make it point to existing content in another location such as an external drive. Although Mac OS X, Windows XP & Vista all support symbolic links none appear to come with any tools to help you create them so you'll have to grab something from the net. For Windows XP I've plumped for Junction Link Magic but you should explore the concept a little before diving in so you might find another tool that suits you better.
Since you've already moved your library it should just be a matter of creating an empty folder back in the original location, i.e. if you moved the default *iTunes Music* folder from it's parent, *C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\My Documents\My Music\iTunes*, then creae a new empty *iTunes Music* folder in that location. When you've done that, fire up your linking tool to connect the empty folder to the new destination. Once done, as far as iTunes or any other applications are concerned your music is back where it always was despite the fact that you know it's now on the external drive.
A final word of caution. The symbolic link lets one physical file/folder structure appear in a number of different locations within your filing system. Don't forget what you've done and start deleting what might appear to be duplicate files.
tt2