How to move iTunes from my laptop unto a portable hard drive??

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musicfan

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Can anyone tell me (simply!) what is the best way to move my iTunes unto a portable hard drive?

My iTunes is currently on my laptop but is almost full so I need to free up some space - I have purchased a portable hard drive and want to transfer my iTunes and music onto this to free up space in my laptop.

What is the easiest simplest way and how does it work next time I burn a CD unto my iTunes or sync my iPod? How does it know to sync from what is on the hard drive?

I have googled this but everything is very complicated! I want to know the fools way of doing it!!!

Thanks
 
1. Copy your itunes folder from your laptop to the harddrive.
(This could be; C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes)

2. In itunes menu, Edit>Preferences>advanced tab.
Change the iTunes Music Folder location to your hard drive, click ok

That's it.
Note that you can check where your current music folder is by checking the Edit>Preferences>advanced tab
 
Ok the current location is c/users/username/music/itunes/itunes music. Do I just copy the itunes music folder over to the external hard drive? Does this leave the original i tunes where it is? If I just copy, will all the music not still be left on the c drive?

what happens next time I burn a cd? does this go unto the external hard drive or CD? When I want to purchase something from Itunes, will this be on my hard drive or C drive?

Thanks
 
interesting article Askalot
A very common mistake made by most users is to simply try and move their entire iTunes Music folder to a new location and update the iTunes Music folder path in iTunes’ preferences. In some cases this may work, but in reality you will risk iTunes losing track of some or all of your music files in the process.
Click to expand...
Looks like I got lucky! I did exactly this a couple of weeks ago, and it worked fine.
Maybe people running Vista will also have problems.

Musicfan - I said 'copy' in case itunes had a problem opening with a 'missing' library. I deleted the original once I'd changed the path in iTunes. You might be better off following the article Askalot has provided.
 
leghorn said:
1. Copy your itunes folder from your laptop to the harddrive.
(This could be; C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes)

2. In itunes menu, Edit>Preferences>advanced tab.
Change the iTunes Music Folder location to your hard drive, click ok

That's it.
Note that you can check where your current music folder is by checking the Edit>Preferences>advanced tab
Click to expand...

Always works fine for me, too. Vista or XP. That said I don't use iTunes that often, I prefer MediaMonkey.
 
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