Running out of Hard drive space in i tunes

[RickO 59]

Hello folks:

I have a question about data storage. My laptop only has a 15 GB hard drive but I have a 40 GB Ipod. I am running out of space on my laptop so I purchased an external 80 GB external hard drive. Can I still access this thru i tunes with all of its functions with the songs in a different location? Thanks for your help

Rick

[skyfilled]

I have the same question that Rick has (I think) and I've been all over the forums trying to find an answer.

How does iTunes handle a removable library?

Specifically, I run iTunes on my laptop, but would like to use an external drive to house the majority of my music. When I'm away from home, I would like to unplug my external drive and play the tunes that are on my computer. When I'm at home, I would like to plug the external drive in and play/transfer any of the files on the external drive.

Potential solution 1) Could I drag music from the external drive into the library (keeping the files located on the external drive), but keep the local drive as the primary drive? Would things show up as 'not found' when the external drive is disconnected, but not crash and local tracks should play anyway. Downside is that I would have to sort through

Potential solution 2) Only use iTunes to manage my library when the external drive is connected. Use ephpod to move files to my local drive and play with another player (or separate installation of iTunes??!).

Am I making this more complicated than it should be? Any thoughts before I screw everything up with trial and error.

HELP!