switching iTunes folders

[buckuxc]

hey all,

Ok, so right now my set up is a PC running WinXP Pro, etc. w/ a 80GB external hard drive (internal is only 20GB). I have the majority of music collection on the external, but when I started ripping my CD's, they collected in My Docs/.../iTunes Music. Now this is where the Temp file and library files are. I don't want to lose the data on my songs (i.e. Last Played, Play Count). So how should I got about moving those songs from that folder to my external drive and then changing the iTunes setting without losing that data?

Also, the plan is to get a powerbook really soon, so if the move to the external hard drive goes well, should I have any problem when I attach it to a new computer? Thanks

sps

 

[joeyjojoe]

you need to move the location of your music folder to your external drive (its done within iTunes).

switching is a bit harder than you thing, be careful what you format the external drive as. now os x supports (albeit not well) FAT, but not NTFS. and of course xp doesn't support HFS+.

you have a couple of options. one, you format to FAT and hope everything goes well between FAT and your new powerbook. two, you download macdrive (search for it in google, i'm too lazy to link) and install that on the pc and format to HFS+ and have xp interface with HFS+ for the time being. three, you try ntfs and hope NTFS for mac program works (check versiontracker). four, you wait until the powerbook comes to start transferring.

i chose the last option because i've read in multiple places that os x doesn't play nicely with fat/fat32. also, i wasn't about to pay for macdrive when i shelled out 2.5K for my laptop, and the ntfs for mac seems a little hokey to depend on at this stage.

 

[buckuxc]

wait, i'm confused

When I do get a new mac powerbook, I can't just plug my USB 2.0 external hard drive (it's a maxtor internal drive inside a generic casing that I bought on Ebay) into the pb's USB 2 input and have it show up? I have to format my whole drive? How in the world am I supposed to do that when all of my personal files saved from my PC will be on it?!?!?!?