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User profile for user: banjomike
banjomike Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

How to stop iTunes from using C: drive

I hadn't updated my iTunes/iPod Touch setup for years. iTunes WAS 9.0.2.25 (now 11.0.2.26) and iPod Touch is on 3.1.2. My library is on J: and iTunes is installed to J:


The upgrade of iTunes on J: from 9 to 11 went without incident. When I first started iTunes 11 I started a backup. While it was runnng the free space on C: dropped to 200MB during the backup and even though the final backup file seemed to end up on the correct iTunes partition the space on C: was not released. When iTunes asked me if I wanted to upgrade the iPod to 5.1.1 (from 3.1.2) I clicked 'Yes' and it stopped, saying it needed 4GB and only had 200MB free space.


The PC has a dedicated partition for temporary data to which the TEMP and TMP environment variables point. There is a dedicated iTunes partition. Both these partitions have 10GB+ free space. It is an old, small, PC, I want to upgrade my Apple kit on the machine that originally had iTunes and THEN move the library to new hardware.


Question 1:

Is there a way to prevent iTunes using C: for backups, iPod software downloads, and temporary space?


Question 2:

The iPod software upgrade was downloaded to C:, can the destination be changed?


PC is running Windows XP. If there are no alternatives, I could repartition the machine to increase C: but that is going to be complicated because there are 11 partitions and 3 OS's.


Hope there is a workaround. Thanks.

iPod touch, iOS 3.1.2

Posted on Apr 12, 2013 7:35 AM

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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
276,277 points

Posted on Apr 12, 2013 8:24 AM

Moving the iOS device backup location


Open a command prompt by hitting the start button and typing CMD<Enter> in the search box that opens up, or with Start > Run on older Windows.


To move the current backup folder from C: to D: (for example) type in this command and press <Enter>


Move "C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Backup"


Where <User> is your Windows user name.


To make iTunes look for the data in the new location type in this command and press <Enter>


MkLink /J "C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Backup"


If your preferred drive has a different letter or you already have a folder called "Backup" then edit "D:\Backup" accordingly in both commands.


If you have Windows XP then you'll need a third-party tool such as Junction to link the two locations together instead of the MkLink command. The source folder is C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup





I'm pretty sure the same technique will work with the iPod software download folder, although it is worth noting that it does not work inside the iTunes Media folder. At last time of testing if you attempt to redirect sections of the media folder and iTunes writes to a redirected location it will erase the link and replace it with a regular folder.


tt2

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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
276,277 points

Apr 12, 2013 8:24 AM in response to banjomike

Moving the iOS device backup location


Open a command prompt by hitting the start button and typing CMD<Enter> in the search box that opens up, or with Start > Run on older Windows.


To move the current backup folder from C: to D: (for example) type in this command and press <Enter>


Move "C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Backup"


Where <User> is your Windows user name.


To make iTunes look for the data in the new location type in this command and press <Enter>


MkLink /J "C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Backup"


If your preferred drive has a different letter or you already have a folder called "Backup" then edit "D:\Backup" accordingly in both commands.


If you have Windows XP then you'll need a third-party tool such as Junction to link the two locations together instead of the MkLink command. The source folder is C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup





I'm pretty sure the same technique will work with the iPod software download folder, although it is worth noting that it does not work inside the iTunes Media folder. At last time of testing if you attempt to redirect sections of the media folder and iTunes writes to a redirected location it will erase the link and replace it with a regular folder.


tt2

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User profile for user: banjomike
banjomike Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Apr 14, 2013 12:44 PM in response to turingtest2

An update!


Since I was using XP I had to configure the points with the Junction utility. That worked fine. Started iTunes, downloaded the iPod software update and it correctly went to the J: partition without any (obvious) use of C:. Great. Tried to do the upgrade on the iPod and iTunes STILL checked C: for free space and refused to run because of lack of space (or rather gave me the option to have a useless iPod after running without a backup).


So, I resized C: to make it big enough which involved moving and resizing several other partitions. Pain in the bum but worked OK. Tried to do the upgrade again. The backup ran for over an hour while the free space on J: dropped and C: stayed more-or-less the same. Then it failed with error -5000. Second time it failed with error 1303. These seem to be related to using junctions (no anti-virus loaded) so I deleted the junctions and tried again. This time it worked. iPod upgraded to 5.1.1.


The only problems I have spotted so far are the disappearance of ALL artwork for ALL audiobooks and about half of the music tracks no longer have artwork. Is there a fix for that?


Thanks for your help. I think the iTunes plan of dropping 4GB of workfiles and backups on the boot partition is just plain dumb. It ignores all the standard variable for specifying TEMP locations and doesn't provide any way to specify where these big archives should be stored. Not impressed.


Thanks again.

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How to stop iTunes from using C: drive

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