External HDD and iTunes question

[ab@]

I have about 700gb of music/movies on my iMac which i won't be taking with me to my flat for use during the week.

I have a Macbook with 160gb HDD and a 160gb iPod so theoretically i could never fill the iPod up. Nor do i want even 50gb of music on my Macbook.

I have a Macbook dock which will live on the computer desk with speakers/printer etc. all plugged in so that when i need to use it i just slide it in, usual standard laptop equipment.

Is there any way of having the external HDD plugged in via USB and the music showing in iTunes to allow synchronisation without having the music physically on the laptop?

i.e. the music would only show when the laptop was docked?

Cheers

Alex

[rfn]

Pretty sure you can just store the stuff on the External HDD and point the iTunes library at the drive.

[theboyfold]

It should work, the external HDD 'should' always get the same drive letter, I'm not sure how you set it in the Mac so it does though...

[PJ S]

As 1st reply, move all music onto the external drive, and open iTunes Prefs. Under Advanced tab, General already displayed by default, select Change... button. Point iTunes to the drive, and then OK. Select the OK at the bottom right of Prefs, and that's it.

[ab@]

Thanks guys.

[marshalla]

theboyfold said:

It should work, the external HDD 'should' always get the same drive letter, I'm not sure how you set it in the Mac so it does though...

Macs don't use drive letters (bl**dy CPM "heritage" cr*p) - they use volume names and mountpoints correctly. As long as the volume name doesn't change it should always mount to the same place.

[JustinP1]

My iTunes runs exclusively from an external drive.

Runs like a dream, and is easy to back-up.

[molineux1980]

Hi, sorry to drag up an old thread. I bought an external hd, and i've consolidated my music to it (PC), and pointed itunes to it.(It took all night! - 5000+ songs) Now, what do I delete? My itunes folder is organised by artist, but within the 'my music folder, there are folders such as 'alternative, rock, blues' etc. Do I copy these across too, or will itunes organise these the 1st time I run it?

As for the games etc (I have an ipod classic), do I copy these to the external HD too? Thanks.

[PJ S]

molineux1980 said:

Hi, sorry to drag up an old thread. I bought an external hd, and i've consolidated my music to it (PC), and pointed itunes to it.(It took all night! - 5000+ songs) Now, what do I delete? My itunes folder is organised by artist, but within the 'my music folder, there are folders such as 'alternative, rock, blues' etc. Do I copy these across too, or will itunes organise these the 1st time I run it?

As for the games etc (I have an ipod classic), do I copy these to the external HD too? Thanks.

If you've done as was indicated above, then nothing needs deleting - all you've done is store the music files on another volume, and told iTunes the pathway to their location.
Everything else remains the same.
As for Games - probably best leave it where it is, but you can always test it by moving it to the external drive, and if iTunes can't see them upon relaunch, quit it , move them back to the previous location, and relaunch once more. Not having bothered with games, I'm not au fait with how that's handled.

[molineux1980]

Do the songs still remian on my internal drive now, or are they solely on the external drive?

[PJ S]

molineux1980 said:

Do the songs still remian on my internal drive now, or are they solely on the external drive?

That'll depend on whether you've moved them or copied them to the external drive. If the former, then job done, if the latter, then you need to delete them from the internal one, and make sure iTunes is pointed to the external drive's iTunes/Music/whatever you've named it folder.
Relaunch iTunes if the latter needs doing, and it'll read the contents of the folder, and you should be good to go.

[molineux1980]

Cheers!