External Hard Drive Help

[360stimo]

My ex bought me a Phillips External Hard drive about 6 months ago, but i have never used it. Its been in a sealed box in the garage for quite a while. Now my laptop is getting a big slow and i keep getting messages saying low disk space. So i've got it out of the garage and trying to moved items, such as itunes over onto the hard drive.

However i am next to useless with computers and have misplaced the instructions. Could anyone help me with the below questions.

1) Do i need to install anything to get it working (if so can i download it from somewhere)
2) How do you move or save things onto the hard drive (especially itunes as this will be taking up a lot of my memory).

Thanks in advance guys

[stevieb]

Is it a USB drive?

If so you should just connect all up USB cable between laptop and extenal HD and in theory Windows (If you are using windows) should find this as an external storage device and automatically allocate this a drive letter.

But i would allow the HD to reach room conditions before you turn it on

Then once connected you can just cut and paste your files between the locations.

Steve

[360stimo]

stevieb said:

Is it a USB drive?

If so you should just connect all up USB cable between laptop and extenal HD and in theory Windows (If you are using windows) should find this as an external storage device and automatically allocate this a drive letter.

But i would allow the HD to reach room conditions before you turn it on

Then once connected you can just cut and paste your files between the locations.

Steve

Thanks Steve. It is a USB and Windows has found it. Thanks

How would i cut and paste itunes onto the hard drive therefore removing it from my laptops memory. Sorry if im being totally dumb, but i have no idea

[stevieb]

I have not got a clue about itunes to be honest as i dont know where it stores the license for the music, and if file location is specific for itunes stuff.

But all other files you can have 2 explorer windows one with the laptop file location and one with the external HD locations and just cut and paste between the 2.

PS nice car in Profile.... Just need to blag a passenger ride now

Edited by stevieb on Thursday 22 February 11:51

[360stimo]

stevieb said:

I have not got a clue about itunes to be honest as i dont know where it stores the license for the music, and if file location is specific for itunes stuff.

But all other files you can have 2 explorer windows one with the laptop file location and one with the external HD locations and just cut and paste between the 2.

PS nice car in Profile.... Just need to blag a passenger ride now

Edited by stevieb on Thursday 22 February 11:51

Thanks Steve, managed to sort it i think. I seemed to have started pasting the itunes folder onto the hard drive. Thanks

ps - where are you based, if im in your neck of the woods then a passanger ride is no problem

[Philbes]

In general you cannot just 'cut and paste' software from one drive to another, you can only do that with data. On installation software makes enters into Window's registery file and the software will not work if moved to another drive. Software will have to be un-installed and then re-installed on the other drive.

[stevieb]

Philbes said:

In general you cannot just 'cut and paste' software from one drive to another, you can only do that with data. On installation software makes enters into Window's registery file and the software will not work if moved to another drive. Software will have to be un-installed and then re-installed on the other drive.

The itunes stuff was relating to stored MP3's not the actual software itself.

PS - i am based in SW London/surrey. Live 5 miles from Virginia Water!

Edited by stevieb on Thursday 22 February 12:07

[360stimo]

stevieb said:

Philbes said:

In general you cannot just 'cut and paste' software from one drive to another, you can only do that with data. On installation software makes enters into Window's registery file and the software will not work if moved to another drive. Software will have to be un-installed and then re-installed on the other drive.

The itunes stuff was relating to stored MP3's not the actual software itself.

PS - i am based in SW London/surrey. Live 5 miles from Virginia Water!

Edited by stevieb on Thursday 22 February 12:07

Im based in Wandsworth, so not far away. However my car is currently in Yorkshire, due to crap weather and my garage which is full of box's and crap. When the weather gets better i will let you know when i get it back to London.

[spitfire-ian]

You should just be able to move the itunes folder found in My Music over to your new hard drive and then change the folder location in itunes preferences.

or

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.ht

Edited by spitfire-ian on Thursday 22 February 12:33

[chris.mapey]

I Tunes is OK,

the easiest way (well the way I did it) is:

Open iTunes & check where it stores it's music (usually in your My Documents > My Music > iTunes folder) but you can check in iTunes by clicking

Close iTunes

Open My Computer.

Open up your new external drive by clicking on its letter. Choose or create a suitable folder for your music. (Such as a folder called Music perhaps!)

Open up another new window from My Computer, and this time go to the folder that iTunes stores its music in. (Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General > iTunes Music folder Location)

Select all the folders (Easiest way is either CTRL + A or edit, Select All)

Drag (click & hold on any selected folders, and drag them to the new folder window you opened earlier)

Your computer will then copy all the files to the new folder.

Then, open iTunes and go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General > iTunes Music folder Location as you did earlier, and change that to your new place you put the music.

Then in iTunes go to the File > Add folder to library option, choose the new folder where the music is, and voila

Done.

Hope that helps

Chris