External drive for CD library

Question

External drive for CD library

I have MB Air with Cinema Screen, Time Capsule, Super Drive, on OSX Mavericks. I want to add a La Cie 1 TB Mac formatted drive to my system to hold my 500 piece CD collection so I can put CDs away. I would like to pull selections from the drive for my iPod, iPhone as needed so I can change selections occasionally in portable devices. What is the best procedure with regard to where iTunes should be and where is the best hook up spot for the La Cie ... the powered USB port behind the monitor or the Time Capsule USB port? Guidance welcome for best approach and caveats.

Posted on Jul 13, 2014 1:00 PM

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Answer 1

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Limnos

Level 10

411,223 points

Jul 13, 2014 8:20 PM in response to paulfromkingwood

No firsthand experience here but since the Time Capsule is wireless that could be a potential slowdown point, though I am sure many do that. It's adding another link in the chain vs plugging directly into the computer which is also a hard-wired point.

I recommend transferring your entire iTunes library to the external drive and running iTunes from there. Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder..

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Answer 2

Jul 22, 2014 4:30 PM in response to Limnos

Limnos, thanks for the clear reply. I have done some more reading and I think your approach looks right on. I will go ahead a work it the way you suggest.

Thanks.

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

411,223 points

Jul 22, 2014 8:36 PM in response to paulfromkingwood

You're welcome.

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