Using iTunes with an EXTERNAL HARDDRIVE

In order for iTunes to work properly (no skipping, seemless playback, quick loading to the ipod) with a external harddrive, what specifications does the HD need to have? For example, is a 7200rpm harddrive necessary, or will a 5400rpm harddrive work sufficiently?
What about transfer rates? What connection must be present between the harddrive and iTunes, usb 2.0 or firewire 800?
thanks -
Chris

5400rpm should work. That is a common laptop hard drive speed. USB2 very helpful, much faster than USB1. Firewire 400 will work, 800 not needed.
My setup is currently a 7200rpm PATA 250GB drive in an external enclosure using Ethernet to my network. Most often I sync using wireless 802.11g but plug in to wire when downloading from store.

Similar Messages

Using iTunes from an external harddrive?

I would like to know if it is possible to download and run itunes from an external harddrive.
I have a lot of music and would not like it to be on my macbook's harddrive.

The iTunes application needs to be on the boot drive, but you can put your media anywhere you wish. The easiest way is to just drag the entire iTunes folder (the entire folder, not just the iTunes Music folder) to your desired location. Then hold down the Option key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location.
Note that this procedure assumes that all of your tracks are contained in the iTunes Music folder. If they're scattered around your drive, moving them becomes much more complex. And don't launch iTunes with the external drive not mounted or iTunes will default back to the internal drive. If it does, though, just mount the external drive and launch iTunes with the Option key again.
Don't delete the tracks from the old location until you've confirmed that they're working correctly from the external drive.
Regards.

Using Itunes with an external hard drive

I have an old powerbook which has become full with all my music. I have bought an external ION hardrive. All i want to do is transfer my entire music collection to the ION drive, whilst keeping all the titles and artist info within itunes, so that it acts as a frontline database that points to the external harddrive. I do not feel the need to have any music on my internal harddrive and am happy to only ever be able to access my music with the external hard drive attached.
I have played around with it, but have now managed to have a few bits on the ION, and a few bits in the powerbook and nothing seems to be able to find the other. This creates problems when i then connect my ishuffle, which seems to find nothing.
I hope i've done nothing terminal. Any help?
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Thanks for the help. I should point out that there is only one powerbook involved, not 2. Anyway, I have done that and indeed my ION external hardrive shows all the music files, but they are no longer featured in itunes at all. i thought i would see th titles of my library there, but the actual files would be on my external hard drive.
It a mystery! how do i get the titles and artists info back into itunes whilst the actual music stays on the external hard drive?

How to use iTunes with an external hard drive?

Hi-
I'm pretty new to iTunes, so forgive me if this is a stupid question. I have about 15GB worth of music saved onto my laptop now and taking up a ton of space. So I got an 80GB external hard drive to move everything onto. What I don't understand, though, is what happens after I save my music onto the external hard drive and remove from my laptop hard drive. How do I play music in iTunes from the files stored on the external hard drive?
Thanks in advance!!
HP Compaq NC6000 notebook Windows 2000

Welcome to discussions! Even though this is the "using iTunes music store" forum, for questions & issues using the store, I can go ahead & offer a little advice. This link from MacMuse will explain about moving iTunes to a new drive. The most important point being is you must tell iTunes the location of the iTunes music folder on the EHD. Please post back if you have any questions.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121879

Is there a way to comunicate files on itunes with a external harddrive?

I have a a large music library. I use itunes. All the files sit on my external drive. Is there a way (when I delete files on itunes) to have the files automatically deleted on the external drive? Also, I have heard about the duplicate file option, but is there an easier way to delete duplicated files?

richrock
When you go to delete a file in the iTunes Library, apple-delete will give you the option to keep or delete the file. Note this only applies in the Library not in a playlist.
As to the duplicates: two options:
http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts01.php?page=1#corralitunesdupes
or
http://www.hyperbolicsoftware.com/iTunesDupesBarrier.html
Regards
TD

Help, please! Any advice on how I link my new iMac and my new itunes software with existing external harddrive containing my entire itunes library?

Help, please! Any advice on how I link my new iMac and my new itunes software with existing external harddrive containing my entire itunes library?

Hello!
It should be a matter of
Quiting iTunes first if it's running
Connecting your external harddrive to your Mac, use the Finder to browse to it
Find your iTunes folder on the ext HDD and double-click on iTunes Library.itl
If you have any trouble with this, please let us know.

How do i use itunes through an external hard drive?

i have about 10G left on my laptop's harddrive. i've been told placing itunes on an external harddrive would free up space.
i put everything on the harddrive, did the whole advanced stuff by changing the location, etc. etc. but ater all that there's still no difference on my hard drive....
what the heck?

Hi... Looks like things have got a little confused over there. Can we get a few facts straight before suggesting things that might make matters worse?
Where exactly is your active library file? If you hold down shift as you start iTunes and click the option to Choose a library, then drop down the list box at the top of the search box it should reveal the current path. E.g. mine here is at D:\iTunes and the library file is called iTunes Library.itl so my active library is D:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl
BTW if you didn't get asked to choose or create a library you didn't do it right.
What is the current setting under Edit > Preferences > Advanced tab for the location of the iTunes Media folder? Mine is D:\iTunes\iTunes Media.
Where is the media that you've moved around? Are there copies on the internal drive and the external drive? Select a file in your library that currently plays, press CTRL-I to get info, and copy down the location of the file from the Summary tab. Repeat the process for a file with a broken link. Its path should begin file://localhost...
With all these bits of information we should have a better picture of where things currently stand. I have scripts that can be used to repair broken links, and iTunes has got better at doing it by itself, but things need to be in a sensible layout before that is worth trying.
tt2

ITunes 10 how can I have iTunes recognise an external harddrive

iTunes 10 how can I have iTunes recognise an external harddrive, where all my music is already. I did the option, selecting extenal HD but some reason the iTunes does not alow me to select the .xml file (grayed out)

Use Migration Assistant in the Utitiies folder to return the deleted user account back to the machine, I don't know exactly how to go about this as I don't use TimeMachine as it's so limiting, but Pondini can help
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
You might have to create the account with the same name, but I don't know if it will access the user files on the TM drive or not.
Once the account is back onto the machine you can log into it and transfer files between accounts on the same machine using the Finder > Go to Computer > Macintosh HD > Users > other account > Public > DropBox and drop files/folders in there, the permissions will change to the other user and the files/folders will be there when you log into the other user account.
Next time consider bootable clones, you can access them directly and even boot directly from them, update them when your ready and make as many as you need, create clones from clones even.
Most commonly used backup methods

I'm trying to download iTunes to an external harddrive but it wont let me change to this drive. WHY?

I'm trying to download iTunes to an external harddrive but it wont let me change to this drive. WHY?
There isn't enough room on my laptop and I have deleted all traces of previous iTunes

I think you've misunderstood.
iTunes ONLY works on the C drive. There is no moving it. End of discussion.
The MEDIA can be house on any other drive (internal or external).
Install iTunes correctly using the default options.
Once it is installed and working correctly with everything on the C drive, close iTunes.
Follow the instructions here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364 to move the iTunes media folder.

I can't access my itunes from my external harddrive anymore

I hope someone can provide some guidance and insight regarding the following problem: I have an imac g5 osx 10.3.9 and I used to access my itunes library from my external harddrive (maxtor). While living overseas last year I bought a Mac Book osx 10.6.8 and initally was successful in accessing my itunes library from my maxtor external harddrive. After two weeks my Mac Book started ejecting the harddrive and I wasn't able to use it again (maybe something to do with it needing too much power. I have found many similar discussions on this). Now I am back home and using my imac g5 again but am having problems accessing my itunes library on the external harddrive. The imac recognises the external harddrive but if I try and play a song on itunes it says it cannot be found and I have to manually direct it to the song on the external harddrive. It may play or it may freeze. I have tried to reset everything through itunes preferences but nothing changes or else everything freezes.
when I got the Mac Book I tried to set up the Time Machine and I think that is when things started going wrong with my external harddrive. I am not too computer savvy so I'm not too sure.
Thanks in advance for any help.

I hope someone can provide some guidance and insight regarding the following problem: I have an imac g5 osx 10.3.9 and I used to access my itunes library from my external harddrive (maxtor). While living overseas last year I bought a Mac Book osx 10.6.8 and initally was successful in accessing my itunes library from my maxtor external harddrive. After two weeks my Mac Book started ejecting the harddrive and I wasn't able to use it again (maybe something to do with it needing too much power. I have found many similar discussions on this). Now I am back home and using my imac g5 again but am having problems accessing my itunes library on the external harddrive. The imac recognises the external harddrive but if I try and play a song on itunes it says it cannot be found and I have to manually direct it to the song on the external harddrive. It may play or it may freeze. I have tried to reset everything through itunes preferences but nothing changes or else everything freezes.
when I got the Mac Book I tried to set up the Time Machine and I think that is when things started going wrong with my external harddrive. I am not too computer savvy so I'm not too sure.
Thanks in advance for any help.

I'm trying to download itunes onto an external harddrive, but it keeps defaulting to my computers drive which does not have the room. How do I sort this please?

I'm trying to download itunes onto an external harddrive (named as D) which has loads of space, but it keeps defaulting to my computers (C) drive which does not have the required space. How do I sort this please?
I've tried selecting the D drive but, it still defaults to my computers drive and wont let me change it.
Heeeeellllllllpppppp!

I think you've misunderstood.
iTunes ONLY works on the C drive. There is no moving it. End of discussion.
The MEDIA can be house on any other drive (internal or external).
Install iTunes correctly using the default options.
Once it is installed and working correctly with everything on the C drive, close iTunes.
Follow the instructions here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364 to move the iTunes media folder.

I dropped my macbook pro and the screen is broken can i still use it with an external monitor? Or can I or how do I transfer hard drive files to my mac mini?

I dropped my 17" macbook pro and the screen is broken. Can I still use it with an external monitor? When I plugged it into a monitor I had used it with before, I'm not able to see anything on the macbook screen to control it. It came on but I just got the blue screen with nothing else after typing in my password. (Didn't see the password form just assumed it was there somewhere and it did go from space to blue screen but no desktop icons, files, dock strip at top or anything else, just blank blue screen) so I can't access the system preferences.
Or can I / or how do I, transfer hard drive files to my mac mini? If not salvageable as is can I pull out the hard drive and make it an external harddrive? In otherwords is anything salvageable? It seems it's coming on I just can't access anything. BTW I was told it would cost aprox $1000 to replace the screen! I paid almost $4000 for this thing and it was running great - makes me sick to lose it!

I'd like to promise you that everything will be fine if you just get the monitor going - but it's hard to know what the hardware damage might be. It might be the monitor, or the damage might be greater.
Your best solution would be visit your local Apple Store and let them know what your situation is. They have access to diagnostics you don't, and they might be able to the best way to save your data and keep you computing. It's still not covered, but they can tell you what your current options are.
Um, you might consider investing in a backup drive.
And there other repair options, too. Powerbook Medic http://www.powerbookmedic.com/xcart1/pages.php?pageid=67 offers reliable repairs, and quotes prices well under Apple's.

HT1751 when I click and drag itunes into a external harddrive all I get is a icon in the harddrive not the files

when I click and drag itunes to an external harddrive all I get is a shortcut an icon to itunes not the files the music to itunes
I am running windows xp home edition

I had this problem once and in my case it happenned with music I had not purchased through itunes and also to music that stored in icloud. Once I brought that music off icloud and into my laptop it resolved most of the issue.

HT201210 I'm trying to update my iOS to 6.0, using iTunes (with my 4s connected via USB and WiFi is on also). I get a message that 'there are purchased items on my iPhone that have not been transferred to my iTunes library. Yet, I can't find those items!

I'm trying to update my iOS to 6.0, using iTunes (with my 4s connected via USB and WiFi is on also). I get a message that 'there are purchased items on my iPhone that have not been transferred to my iTunes library. Yet, I can't find those items! Help! There is not error message number just the text message. I've searched for an answer but have found nothing on "transfering items purchased to your iTunes library".

Right click on your device icon on the left pane of iTunes and click on transfer pur....

I purchased songs from 2 different computers using itunes with the same apple id. I had 1 iPod I used for these but I just recently got an iPhone and I was wondering why it wasn't letting me put my purchased songs on my iPhone?

I purchased songs from 2 different computers using itunes with the same apple id. I had 1 iPod I used for these but I just recently got an iPhone and I was wondering why it wasn't letting me put my purchased songs on my iPhone?

You can transfer iTunes content from an iTunes library on a single computer only.
Since these songs were purchased with the same iTunes account, you can download the song that is not in your iTunes library on the computer you will be syncing your iPhone with. Or you can download the song or songs direct on your iPhone.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Using iTunes with an EXTERNAL HARDDRIVE

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for