External Hard Drive Recommendations and Tech Advice for an XP Neophyte...

GO TO ADMIN PANEL > ADD-ONS AND INSTALL VERTIFORO SIDEBAR TO SEE FORUMS AND SIDEBAR

atomx

New member
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
165
Points
0
Location
Los Angeles
I know this topic has shown up before, but I have some specific questions I haven't seen in other posts...

I am quickly running out of room to store music, but I do not want to disable synching iTunes and my iPod (because it's easy--see below). So, I want to get an external hard drive.

Here's the thing. I am the kind of person who just wants my computer to run--I do not want to spend much time screwing around with settings, allocations, problems, etc.

So, I want to get an external hard drive, but I want it to be EASY! Here are my questions:

I have a Toshiba laptop that runs XP Pro. Is is easy to attach an external hard drive to XP without screwing up my music library?

What problems have people had in using an external hard drive to store iTunes and the music library? Are these problems easy to fix?

What are the specific steps to move iTunes and my library from my computer to an external hard drive?

Do you have any recommendations for specific hard drives? I only need a 40gb one, and I'm interested in the best combination of price and product.

Please note, that while I'm fairly proficient in operating the machine when it's running correctly, I am pretty much helpless when it comes to dealing with problems :rolleyes:

Thanks in advance for your comments, and sorry for being such a newb. :)
 
Last edited:

Nickster

GODZILLA!!!111oneone
Joined
May 13, 2005
Messages
2,090
Points
0
Age
36
Location
New Mexico
Website
thenickster.net
atomx said:

I know this topic has shown up before, but I have some specific questions I haven't seen in other posts...

I am quickly running out of room to store music, but I do not want to disable synching iTunes and my iPod (because it's easy--see below). So, I want to get an external hard drive.

Here's the thing. I am the kind of person who just wants my computer to run--I do not want to spend much time screwing around with settings, allocations, problems, etc.

So, I want to get an external hard drive, but I want it to be EASY! Here are my questions:

I have a Toshiba laptop that runs XP Pro. Is is easy to attach an external hard drive to XP without screwing up my music library?

It is really easy like connecting your ipod to your computer it is automatically detected

What problems have people had in using an external hard drive to store iTunes and the music library? Are these problems easy to fix?

You won't have any problems with iTunes.

What are the specific steps to move iTunes and my library from my computer to an external hard drive?

What I would do is create a folder on your external hard drive called "music". Then drag all of your music to that. I would use the windows search tool and search for *.AAC, *.M4B, *.Mp3 and whatever else your music files extensions are. Then from the search window drag and drop them into your external Hard Drive folder called music. And then when you oped itunes it will give you errors like it cannot find your music, so What you do is just clear all of the music that has the X next to it then goto file and click add folder to library, and it will bring all of your music. I might be able to show you with a video instructions on this one if you want.

Do you have any recommendations for specific hard drives? I only need a 40gb one, and I'm interested in the best combination of price and product.

I recommend that you get a 40GB hard drive, and buy an external hard drive enclousure with that.

Enclousure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=GO&Range=1&description=Hard+Drive+Enclosure&InnerCata=92

HD:
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Category.asp?Category=15

That will be the cheapest. $56.99 USD + Shippiing


Please note, that while I'm fairly proficient in operating the machine when it's running correctly, I am pretty much helpless when it comes to dealing with problems :rolleyes:

Thanks in advance for your comments, and sorry for being such a newb. :)
If you have any more problems I would be glad to help
 
Last edited:

atomx

New member
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
165
Points
0
Location
Los Angeles
One question: do I need to physically move iTunes from the computer to the hard drive? If so, how?

Thank you so much for your post--I'll probably do all this in the next couple of weeks, and will most certainly PM you with any problems! Take care.
 
Last edited:

Nickster

GODZILLA!!!111oneone
Joined
May 13, 2005
Messages
2,090
Points
0
Age
36
Location
New Mexico
Website
thenickster.net
No you don't move iTunes you just move the Music.

Yeah especially the price I wish I knew about the enclousures when I bought my external HD.
 

atomx

New member
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
165
Points
0
Location
Los Angeles
Hey Nickster:

OK, I got the HD. I'm running into a couple of issues, though.

1. I have several tracks w/o titles from mixes and compilations--they are titled "track 1," "track 2," etc. Because several tracks have the same title, Windows asks me OVER AND OVER AGAIN if I want to replace the older one with the new one. While there is a "Yes to all" button, there is not a "No to all" button. So I have to sit there and push "no" over and over again. It is seriously annoying. IS there a way to disable this, so I can copy what I want?

2. I think all this is gumming up the transfer. I have over 6500 songs. I tried twice to copy the library, but ran into the same problem twice: after pressing "no" about twenty times for a series of songs, the transfer quits with about 200 songs to go. As it takes a long time to transfer this stuff, it gets really frustrating to have the thing crap out on me when it says I have less than a minute to complete the damn transfer. So, you have any idea what the problem might be? Is there an easy way to compare the original file to the copied one to see which songs did not get transferred so I don't have to figure it all out with a damn pencil and paper?

Meanwhile, my damn computer keeps telling me I'm running out of HD space. No duh.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Edit: I renamed the tracks in question with different titles--didn't work--the damn computer still sees the tracks as having the same title.

p.s. I'm feeling a little like Holden Caulfield, here, damn it. Time for a drink. :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Last edited:

atomx

New member
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
165
Points
0
Location
Los Angeles
Found this on Apple's discussion boards. Hope it works...

Today's theme is - let iTunes do the work

If your hard drive is nearly full after loading all your music into iTunes or if you just want to move all those music files to another hard drive on your system, here's the way to make the change and save all your playlists, ratings, and play history.


iTunes Preferences -> Advanced tab; Keep Music Folder organized ... should be enabled.
iTunes Preferences -> Advanced tab, set the library location to some folder on the new drive; preferably a new empty folder
iTunes Advanced menu -> Consolidate Library... This step copies all the files in iTunes' library to the new location. It also maintains your ratings and playlists.
if it finishes properly, manually delete the original files through Windows Explorer. iTunes won't Move the files, only copy them to the new location.
If you see a file called iTunes 4 Music Library.itl in the old area - leave it alone. It continues to live in that location despite the change to the Library location.
 

Nickster

GODZILLA!!!111oneone
Joined
May 13, 2005
Messages
2,090
Points
0
Age
36
Location
New Mexico
Website
thenickster.net
Wow that is cool in iTunes I didn't know it did that hopefully it works. I did it the way I explained it to you, had the same problems but I renamed everything, which got me to propery tag them but it was a pain to do. Hope the itunes thing works.
 

atomx

New member
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
165
Points
0
Location
Los Angeles
It worked perfectly! Definitely worth the effort and time, as my computer actually runs efficiently now.

Thanks again for your help!

Best.
 
Top