Upgrading computer and temporary moving music to hard drive

I am about to upgrade my computer and everything on it will be erased completely.
I wish to move my music from the computer's D drive to an external hard drive. Once the computer is operational again I wish to move the music back onto the computer. Please can you tell me the best way to achieve this.
I presume I change the music location in preferences and then consolidate the library to move the music for the move there and then back again. Is anything else required? Do I need to deactivate anything?
I will be upgrading to windows xp professional, currently xp home.
Thanks in advance.

If you have any iTunes purchases in your library don't forget to deauthorise your current installation before you upgrade then authorise your new OS when you are done. Otherwise you'll use up one of your permitted 5 authorisations and won't be able to deauthorise it until all 5 are used up: About iTunes Music Store Authorisation and Deauthorisation

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