January 17, 2006, 3:44

Here is a tip if you want to make a iTunes playlist using your external hard drive on your home/laptop computer and simply want to transfer the same information to your SSL computer when you use the external hard drive as the source for the music. I will explain at the end how you could use your internal hard drives to do the same.

What this will allow you to do is create playlists, edit information on one computer and transfer the same information to all your other computers just by copying the two iTunes database files mentioned below and placing them into your C:\Documents and Settings\**INSERT USER NAME HERE** \My Documents\My Music\iTunes folder (make sure you choose "Yes to All" when overwriting the two database files in the folder using the current/updated/newer ones you just made).

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The iTunes library is located in your C:\Documents and Settings\**INSERT USER NAME HERE** \MyDocuments\My Music\iTunes
--or just click on "My Documents", "My Music", "iTunes" and go from there. SSL uses the iTunes XML Document for information. I usually copy both files whenever I edit the iTunes playlists just to keep everything matching for iTunes and SSL on my home computer and laptops. iTunes saves all of the music information (playlists, titles, artists, BPM, etc.) with the drive letter the music is located on in these database files. The two files are:


iTunes Library.itl

and

iTunes Music Library.xml


If you are going to try the following, I would STRONGLY recommend that you backup the two iTunes files somewhere else on your hard drive, then delete the two original files so you will have a fresh new iTunes database to start with.


The following explains what I do when I work with music and playlists at home and then transfer the two files mentioned above to my laptops so all the computers will match without having to enter the same information on each computer. The steps are not for the type of person who is computer shy when it comes to altering info in the registry --- but it's very easy and safe if you follow directions. Heck, maybe there's an easier way someone else knows =) ---- and there is!! Thank you nobspangle for pointing it out!!! (See "EASY METHOD")



What it involves:

-- Renaming your external hard drives assigned letter. Example: if your external drive appears as drive F: in "My Computer", I would rename the drive letter to something later in the alphabet like the letter M (of course if you already have a drive M: in your computer you need to rename it to something else =))

Most laptops will contain only two drive letters (C: and D:) and home computers maybe 3-5 drive letters. Renaming the drive to M: (or whatever letter you choose) allows you to spot the drive quick and keeps it unique among your computers.

How To Rename Your Drive: --- TECHNICAL METHOD

* Hook up your external hard drive
* Take note of its drive letter
* Click "Start"
* Choose "Run"
* Type (without quotes) "regedit" and press "OK"
* Expand the folder titled "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE"
* Expand the folder titled "SYSTEM"
* Open the folder titled "MountedDevices"

In the right hand box at the bottom you will see a list of your mounted drives with letters ---
"\DosDevices\C:"

* Locate the external hard drives letter from the list and
right-click on it
* Choose "Rename" from the pop up list
* Using your right arrow key on your keyboard, press the right arrow key once to unselect the box (remove the blue highlight).
* Using your "Backspace" key, press the Backspace key twice
to remove the colon and the drive letter
* Type in your new drive letter and include a colon at the end
Example -- M:
* Press the "Enter" key on your keyboard
* Restart your computer

There you go! You've just changed your external hard drives letter.
Now guess what you need to do on your laptops?? ---- RIGHT! Hook up you external to your laptop and follow the directions above----- Do this after your computer reboots and you can verify that your external drive has the new assigned drive letter----- make every attempt to use the same USB port on each computer when you hook up your external drive because (sometimes this happens) you may have to repeat the above if your computers assigns a different drive letter to your external because you used a different USB port.



If you don't feel comfortable editing your registry --- EASY METHOD

In Windows XP Pro:

*Click "Start"
*--one of two ways here depending how you set up your Start Menu--
1)Click "Control Panel" <or> 2)Hover your cursor over "Control Panel" to expand the menu


--If You clicked on "Control Panel":::::
*Click "Performance and Maintenance"
*Click "Administrative Tools"

--If You hovered the coursor over "Control Panel":::::
*Choose "Administrative Tools" to expand menu
*Choose "Computer Management" by clicking it


*Double-Click "Storage"
*Double-Click "Disk Management(Local)"
*Right-Click on your externals drive letter from the list and choose "Change Drive Letters and Paths..."
*Press the option "Change"
*Choose your drive letter from the drop down box on the right
*Press "OK" and press "Yes" when the "Confirm" pop-up box appears


All done, no rebooting necessary. Go do the same on your laptops. =)


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If you do not see your "Control Panel" option try this:

*Right-Click on an empty spot on the taskbar (it's the bar at the bottom of your screen with "Start" on it =))
*Choose "Properties"
*Choose the "Start Menu" tab at the top
*Click "Customize..." button
*Choose "Advanced" tab
*Choose an option in the "Start menu items:" scroll box under "Control Panel"---you have (3)choices

1)Display as a link -- this will require you to click on "Control Panel" to lauch a window
2)Display as a menu -- this will allow you to hover your cursor over "Control Panel" and automatically expand the menu choices.
3)Don't display this item -- Duh!! =)

*Choose "OK" in the next two screens


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Using your internal hard drives:


This assumes that you will have the same music library on all of your computers and it assumes that you have experience with partitioning your hard drives (which will add a drive letter) and have that space just for your music. It's very important that the drive letters match when doing this (see below), I don't care how you end up doing it =).


If your partitioning software did not give you the option to assign a drive letter of your choice to the partition

*Follow the above to rename the partition to a different letter that will be common amoung all of the computers you will be transferring iTunes libraries between. You may need to transfer your music collection to this newly partitioned section of your hard drive. -----REMEMBER----- it is very important that your music locations are exactly the same.

Example 1:

If 50Cent - Candy Shop is located in M:\Music\HipHop\50Cent on your home computer, it needs to be in the same location on whatever computer you have your SSL on so when you transfer your iTunes playlist it will find it.


Example/Comment:

Now, if your home computer's drive/partition is M: and has your 50,000 song library on it and you made an iTunes playlist for a wedding event that contains about 1,000 songs, just make certain those 1,000 songs are on your SSL hard drive and in the same drive/partition M: in the same locations as your home computer and it should work.




Have FUN!