[iREZ]

k i just got a 200gb HD and finally have breathing room when it comes to HD space, my 40gb just wasn't cutting it. anyway, my issue is this...i have a ton of music files (have a few mb free on my 20gb iPod) and i want to have all this music on my external drive so that it's all backed up, but i dont want all the music files on my PB because it takes up lots n lots of space on my measly 40gb drive. what is the best way to manage an iTunes library so that, when im home and using my pb as a desktop with my hard drive, i could access my favorite songs on iTunes in their respective playlists (i name all my playlists by artist-album name) and then have a separate smaller collection of songs on my PB's HD (say 5 gigs) that'll i'll update every so often and for it to have it's own respective playlists? basically i want all my songs when im home to be in my external drive, and a few songs stored on my pb so that when im on the go i still have a few tunes to listen to...all with having their own respective playlists...is this even possible?

also any practical tips on how i could use this external drive, or should i just treat it as a big folder that i have to leave at home. any thoughts would be appreciated.

ohh and the drive i got is the Lacie Porsche USB drive.

[bimmerphile]

Well, I think you'll need to do it like this:

In iTunes, change the iTunes Music Folder location in iTunes preferences>advanced to whatever folder you want on your 200gb.

Next, go Advanced>Consolidate iTunes Library. This will pull all those music files over to the 200GB external. You can then delete them off your powerbook.

Then, go back to the itunes preferences>advanced, and deselect the "copy songs to itunes music folder when adding to library" option

You can then copy whatever music you want back over to your powerbook hard drive, and from there drag them into itunes, so that the iTunes library will recognize where they are.

Perhaps changing the comment tag on the music files you keep with you would be advantageous so you can distinguish them from the rest of your library whenever you decide to update them. That way putting them in their own respective playlists is no problem either.

Hope that helps and is somewhat coherent to read. I'm going on hour 54 right now...