Using iTunes with an external hard drive
And it has always been the same problem, basically I have an external 500GB hard drive because I dont want to use up all the memory on my Laptop with my music/video/etc...
The way it seems like I have it set up, is that the external hard drive has all of the music on it (plus all of the itunes files) but im sure my actual itunes library is reading from the itunes folder on my actual laptop's hard drive. I hope this makes sense so far.
So as you would expect, I unplug my external hard drive often, but I always put it in the same USB slot, because otherwise im sure itunes would get confused. But for some reason every now and then it decides to just load up itunes and not display any of my music/playlists!
This has always happened when I have just recently unplugged then re-plugged my hard drive. So then, all of my files and playlists are deleted and I have no idea where they go.
Ive tried a few things to fix this, like trying to move the library files (xml and stuff) to my hard drive so tha everything is together...but for some reason whenever I open itunes again, it just creates a new iTunes folder somewhere on my laptops hard drive instead.
Its so frustrating because its annoying to re-create all of those playlists I made.
I have a feeling that the reason why it messed up again just now, is because when my laptop loaded up (after having it unplugged from the ext. HDD), I plugged in some devices to the USB ports and the HD was the last one I plugged in...so maybe that confused things...I dont know..
Can someone advise or help me on what to do with this problem. I could backup my library, but that would mean having to do it on a regular basis which would get tiresome.
Thanks
Im sure alot of people use external hard drives with itunes, so someone must be able to help!
Toshiba, Windows Vista