Question with iTunes

Ok so ive recently upgraded to Windows 7 due to Vista crashing the MBR and File Structure all because i wanted to defrag my drive. SWEET. Well luckily i was able to get my data back and since then i have added another hard drive to my computer, 1 for the OS and the other for my data. Well the hard drive i have now for C is a Western Digital Raptor 80 gig and obviously is not that big but is very fast and thats really all the OS drive needs.

The problem is i dont want to put all of my music files back on C drive because of the size restrictions. Ive read about how to move the iTunes folder through changing the location and consolidating the library. Problem with doing that is that i have songs that have been added over the past couple of years that i never put into the iTunes folder. They just went into random folders in My Music. So by doing the consolidate with iTunes it wont move the other songs with it.

Ive also read the older post on here (here is the link http://www.windowsbbs.com/other-software/73572-moving-itunes-folder-my-music-folder.html ). Well i tried what it said and and told my music folder to change the location to E:\Music. Well iTunes found everything and thats great and all but it didnt actually locate the files. When i tried to play a song it asked to me locate the file.

I could tell iTunes just to re-add all the songs that i have but thats over 3000 songs and i have playlists that i dont want to have to rebuild by hand. Ive tried to edit the library files and my playlists files and change everything that had C:\....\My Music\ to E:\Music. Yea good plan but with those %20 missing yea it just didnt work out so well.

So other than those to methods, with having new songs not part of the actually iTunes music folder and wanting to have iTunes read from the E:\Music folder instead of C: how can i do this without having to re-add the songs and remake the 20 something playlists that i have by hand?

 

It may depend if the files are protected or not, i.e. m4p. In such case, you may have to have iTunes installed in the E drive to play the files. iTunes files are not randomly in My Music, but, rather in the iTunes folder of My Music. I have the iTunes, along with all My Music files backed up in an external drive, so, in theory, all iTunes files should be available.
Space is a question for me, but I have not done anything about iTunes music, unless it is in the .mp3 format.

 

TonyT and Westside,

Thank you for replying to my post.

TonyT: Yes i have already tried what your suggesting a few times. What happenes is when iTunes starts up i see all my music and playlists but when i double click a song to play it it asks me to locate it. Im starting to think the songs only show up because they were there before and windows didnt tell it the new location. Im not sure. Both times i have tried this i went to my E:\ drive and created a new folder call My Music. When i told it to move it had the right path i just dont know why iTunes couldnt see it. What i did find that was a bit strange is that whenever i had tried this the original My Music Folder on C: disappears. i dont know if this is supposed to happen or not but it does.



Westside: I wouldnt think that it would matter where iTunes was installed however i will give it a shot and post how it works. Also your correct in saying "iTunes files are not randomly in My Music, but, rather in the iTunes folder of My Music ". While that maybe true, when i have gotten new songs i created a new folder in My Music and dropped the songs in there. When i added them i went iTunes > File > Add File To Library. iTunes adds it and plays the song, at that point i can right click on the song and get info and the location of the song will be something along the lines of: C:\....My Music\random songs\.... . It wont actually be put into the iTunes folder, but played from the same location in which i had first saved it. Perhaps this is a difference of my iTunes settings vs yours.