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SimeyTheLimey · Oct 29, 2003, 11:00 AM

This is OT since it relates to Windows XP. But it does deal with Apple software, so maybe someone can help.

My partner uses a Sony PC with XP (I know, I know, I wasn't able to convince him to get a mac). He downloaded iTunes and likes it a lot. Apparenly, however, his PC was set up with a partitioned drive. iTunes was installed on the C drive, but now that he has loaded his music, he has run out of space. The bulk of the drive is designated the D drive and there is plenty of space there. I have no idea why Sony set the computer up this way.

He wants to move the music library to the D drive. If he does, will iTunes still find the folder? I don't know much about XP, but I suspect it won't find it. Am I right?

If I am right, does iTunes need to be moved over to the D drive? Can you even do that with XP once iTunes is installed? Or will we have to delete iTunes (saving the music folder) and reinstall on the D drive, then substitute the music folder?

Sorry for the dumb questions. I switched to Mac precisely to avoid XP.

Developer · Oct 29, 2003, 11:27 AM

In the iTunes advanced preferences you can specify the location of the iTunes music folder. So he can move his music to the D: drive and point iTunes to the new location.

SimeyTheLimey · Oct 29, 2003, 11:36 AM

Originally posted by Developer:
In the iTunes advanced preferences you can specify the location of the iTunes music folder. So he can move his music to the D: drive and point iTunes to the new location.

Great! I'll try it tonight.

Thanks.

SimeyTheLimey · Oct 29, 2003, 11:37 PM

Well, we tried it. We repointed the music library after copying the files. It wouldn't repoint. Even though it said in the advanced preferences that the library was now in the D drive, it wouldn't behave as if it was.

I guess unless there are other suggestions, we'll just save the music folder, uninstall iTunes, then reinstall it in the larger partition. But I would be happy to hear other suggestions!

What I still don't understand is why Sony set the drive up with a partition in the first place. Dumb!

DVD Plaza · Oct 30, 2003, 02:54 AM

In the past it was because NT4 couldn't boot from a partition larger than 4GB - but that hasn't applied since W2K...

Cellery · Oct 30, 2003, 03:38 AM

Sony says the partitioning is so you can have the D drive to store files that won't get fragmented as much as on the boot drive. Sounds weird, but that's what it says in my manual. In any case, I used Partition Magic to merge the C and D drives together and have one big hard drive again. Probably not the answer you were looking for, but it's what worked for me.

Goldie · Oct 30, 2003, 11:45 AM

I had a similar problem with my daughters machine. What I had to do, even though iTunes was pointed to the directory in the separate partition, was drag the music files from the partition into iTunes. iTunes then configured itself to point to all the music. I just selected all music files and dragged them over from win exp to iTunes.

SimeyTheLimey · Oct 30, 2003, 03:28 PM

Originally posted by Goldie:
I had a similar problem with my daughters machine. What I had to do, even though iTunes was pointed to the directory in the separate partition, was drag the music files from the partition into iTunes. iTunes then configured itself to point to all the music. I just selected all music files and dragged them over from win exp to iTunes.

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

SimeyTheLimey · Oct 30, 2003, 10:38 PM

Thanks, Goldie, your fix worked.

One variation: I had to physically break the link to the old folder before dragging the music. I just temporarily renamed the folder in the C drive. For some reason iTunes refused to repoint otherwise.

What a pain. But at least it is fixed now. You have no idea what was riding on this. I convinced an Apple skeptic to load Apple software on his PC and then it broke. My credibility was on the line. That it wasn't Apple's fault is not the point.

But all better now.

garyj · Oct 30, 2003, 10:49 PM

Originally posted by DVD Plaza:
In the past it was because NT4 couldn't boot from a partition larger than 4GB - but that hasn't applied since W2K...

Actually, the NT4 boot partition was limited to 7.8 GB if you used the NTFS file system and installed NT using an unattended install and specified the EXTEND_OEM_PARTITION option in the unattend.txt file. I believe it was 4GB if you installed manually from the CD.
Technically you could make it bigger after the install by using Partition Magic but you could still run into problems if any of the boot files ever got moved past the 7.8 GB point (for example, you defragged the drive.).
So it was always best to leave it less than 7.5 or so and partition the rest as D:.

Under Windows XP, the iTunes music folder defaults into the Documents folder under your user profile directory (usually c

documents and settings\username\Documents\Music\iTunes Library... or something like that.)
It might be hard to move the default to another location.
I could try, but that would mean putting my Powerbook down, walking across the room and opening my laptop case for my work PC laptop. Sorry, I have to deal with PC's all day long, I'm not going to do it now.