[abbaZaba]

I am contemplating upgrading the internal drove of my mini to 320GB. currently, all my music resides on an external USB drive connected to the mini. once the new internal HDD is installed, I'd like to move the music onto the internal HDD.

once I do this, I assume iTunes will lose track of where each file is located. how can I go about updating this information? I have ~16,000 tracks so changing each one individually would suck mondo balls.

could I use a script or something of such a nature?

[skybolt]

If you follow the instructions here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449?viewlocale=en_US you should be good to go!

[abbaZaba]

that article says I need to have the option "Keep iTunes Music folder organized". I do not do this and refuse to use this garbage feature. if this option is not checked will the rest of the article still apply?

[OreoCookie]

Well, if you don't like it, you can uncheck this after your Mac has finished copying the files … 

[abbaZaba]

checking the option would have my files reorganized into the iTunes format, right? so how I don't think unchecking the option would make it go back to the way I previously had it...

[OreoCookie]

Nope, it won't. Just out of curiosity, why don't you like that feature? What type of advantages does it give you?

Nevertheless, you can follow these instructions here. They're for Windows, but they should work on a Mac just as well. Make backup copies of your iTunes library files just in case!

[abbaZaba]

I have all my music setup in this way:

a folder named Full Albums then in this folder each album is it's own folder so:

Full Albums

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

Big L - The Picture

Elliott Smith - XO

Elliott Smith - Either Or

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Wu-Tang Clan - The W

then each album is organized as such: Track# - Artist - Title

and so on. I have 880 albums organized this way. it is much faster to navigate this way rather than going clicking Artist, Album, then having a tracklist. i've been doing this since Lord knows when and this is the way I'd like to keep them organized.

now, in my mind, when I check that option, iTunes is going to take my current organization and start reordering them in Artist->Album->Track listing, which I do not want it to do. am I wrong in thinking that this is what will happen when I check that box?

[OreoCookie]

This will indeed happen if you use the first instructions. I've given you another link with instructions that keeps everything ordered your way. The only thing you will probably lose is the `Date Added' information.

[abbaZaba]

after reading through your article, I realize that since I am going to lose the Date Added information, 21 playlists are going to get messed up since they used Date Added information.

I usually add new music to my library in bulk, maybe about 10-20 albums at a time (because they need to be tagged correctly and have album art applied to the actual file) and I create a smart playlist and give it a date range. when I reach the point where I feel the smart playlist is getting too long, I end the date on that smart playlist and create a new one. I have 21 of these playlists and I use them to somewhat keep track of when I added new music and what I still need to listen to. moving my library is going to totally screw these up if I am going to lose Date Added info.

damn you iTunes. damn you to hell.

[OreoCookie]

Well, it's I think the best anyone can offer short of doing everything by hand. I'd just let iTunes do the work. You could replace your way of navigation by iTunes' `Eye mode' (well, there is no eye anymore, but Apple + B will give you an overview by kind, artist and album. Navigate away

[Hal Itosis]

I'm going to offer a solution (at great personal risk to myself):

I suggest you partition this new 320GB HD and carve out a slice devoted exclusively to media.
If you choose only 2 partitions, one would be your boot volume and the other for music, (etc).
Name your boot volume "MacHD" or whatever you like, and name partition 2 the same as your
external USB. [you can rename the USB since the music will be moved.] Now, copy the music
off the USB onto partition 2 in such a way that partition 2 will appear to iTunes as the exact
USB volume hierarchy which has been the designated 'Music' folder all along.

A side benefit of all this (besides smoothing out your music storage transition) will be that
all those music files will be off the boot volume (only written to and read from when iTunes
is using them).

I await the flames of the anti-partitioning community.