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Need help with ITUNES. New computer can't find music on my external hard drive.

Discussion in 'Questions and Answers' started by MonstBlitz, Nov 18, 2010.

  1. MonstBlitz

    MonstBlitz Nobody's Fart Catcher

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    I know there's a lot of technically savvy people on this board so I'm hoping one of you guys can help me out.

    I just bought a new computer. The hard drive failed on my old Macbook. I bought a Macbook pro. I had all my Itunes music stored on an external hard drive. I figured it would be as easy as plugging the external HD into the new laptop and Itunes would magically find the music but no such luck. The music is all still there on the hard drive, Itunes just can't find it. I tried a couple tricks I found from googling, but nothing seemed to work. I'm hoping I don't have to copy all of the music from the external HD onto the new laptop. It's a huge collection of music and that would be a huge *** pain.

    Anybody have any ideas?

    Thanks in advance!
     
  2. Desides

    Desides Well-Known Member

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    Backing up an iTunes library involves more than just having the music backed up. You needed to back up the library files in your ~/user/Music/iTunes folder on the old hard drive as well.

    If you can still load up the old hard drive, go to ~/user/Music/iTunes and look for iTunes Music Library.xml. Drag that to the same folder on your new hard drive. Voila.

    If you can’t start up the old hard drive, well, you’re screwed. Start from scratch. And start using Time Machine to back up your system so this won’t happen again.
     
  3. MonstBlitz

    MonstBlitz Nobody's Fart Catcher

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    The old hard drive is fried; but, The music wasn't housed on the old hard drive, it was stored on the external hard drive.
     
  4. Desides

    Desides Well-Known Member

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    Right, I get that. What I’m saying is that the file iTunes uses to index your music, regardless of where the actual music files are stored, was in ~/user/Music/iTunes. If you don’t have that file, then you can’t recreate your library exactly as it was, ratings and play counts and playlists and all. Because you’re missing that iTunes Library.xml file, your only option at this point is to re-import everything to your new, empty iTunes library via File → Add to Library.

    And use Time Machine or some other form of automated backups (Carbonite, Mozy) from now on.
     
  5. Boik14

    Boik14 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Speaking of which.....Im still learning some of the stuff on my Mac. Whenever you or anyone else intricately familiar with Time Machine's setup gets a chance, you can do me a solid and walk me through it. Thanks :)
     
  6. Desides

    Desides Well-Known Member

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    Step 1. Activate Time Machine in the System Preferences pane by dragging the slider widget to On.
    Step 2. Plug in external hard drive. Step 2 can be bypassed if you use a Time Capsule.
    Step 3. Time Machine will ask if you wish to use the external drive as a Time Machine drive. Respond in the affirmative.
    Step 4. There is no step 4. :up:

    Optional but recommended: Set up a good exclusions list to extend free space on the Time Machine drive.
     

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