Michael_D

Thanks again for your detailed advice. I really appreciate your taking the time to do this. I just have a fewfollow up questions: 1. In Step 7, will this create duplicate files, since the two libraries being consolidated are identical, or will itunes know to throw out duplicates? Does this physically copy the Seagate files onto the Drobo? 2. In Step 11, I am not sure I understand what this means: "Change your preferences so that the location for files points to new library". Do you mean that I should make the Seagate music folder the music folder location for this library? I thought in a prior post you told me that this only affects newly added files, not already existing files. How do I make sure that this library only looks to the Seagate files and not the consolidaetd files on the Drobo? Obviously, this is an important point to me because when I compress the files in this library, I only want to compress the Seagate files, not the Drobo files. 3. As to backing up on a third external hard drive, I am disinclined to do this. Part of the reason for putting the ALAC library on a separate hard drive rather than also on the Drobo was that it could do double duty as a backup copy. I plan to keep it in a separate room and only attach it to the computer to sych my ipod or update it with new files. Do you think this is a bad idea and that I should really create a third copy of the library? Thanks again.

Eloise and Silverlight, thank you for your helpful posts. Eloise, your explanation makes sense to me - I get now that I can't change the location for existing files simply by resetting within itunes preferences. To answer your question, I created the backup by dragging dropping the itunes library and music folder files from Finder to the Seagate drive. The reason I copied my itunes library as well as my music folder was an attempt to copy my playlists into the Seagate ipod library -- I have each CD organized as a separate playlist, which I know is a little unusual, but I find it an easy way to navigate through my CDs and in particular, works really well for ipod management. If you don't mind indulging me, I am only semi-computer literate, so let me make sure I understand step by step how I would implement what you are suggesting. 1. Delete the music folder and itunes library currently residing on my Drobo. [Question: there are several itunes folders/files that appear to be associated with the library. Which ones should I delete?] 2. Create a new library on the Drobo using Library Manager. 3. Drag the music folder from the Seagate to the new itunes library. Luckily, I have not yet converted these files from AIFF to ALAC. [Question: I don't care about losing play count, last played, etc. info, but I do care about losing any manual tagging or my playlists. I am particularly worried that this method would lose the playlists, right? Or could they somehow be separately copied into this library?] 4. Delete the itunes library from the Seagate and create a new itunes library on Seagate using Library Manager. [same question regarding preserving playlists, which is even more essential for this library since I manage my ipod through the use of playlists. Also, how do I make sure this library sees the Seagate music folder?] 5. In itunes, convert files in Seagate music folder from AIFF to ALAC.

Yes, that is what I do. Even when I open the right library, itunes still doesn't recognize the right music folder.

I think I may have done something wrong and I am hoping to get the advice of people more computer-knowledgeable than I. My system is a Mac Mini using itunes for storage, ripping and playback. My files are stored in AIFF on a Drobo external hard drive system and played through an external DAC. In order to (1) backup the music files stored on the Drobo and (2) have a separate itunes library for compressing to ALAC for use with my ipod, I bought a Seagate external hard drive and copied my itunes library and music folder from the Drobo to the Seagate. So I now have two copies of my itunes library and music folder. To avoid user error and have safer backup of my files, my plan is to keep the Seagate separate from my computer system and connect it only when I need to synch my ipod or backup my files. After I copied the itunes library onto the Seagate, I went into itunes preferences to make sure that itunes was still pointed at my Drobo music folder. Sure enough, the folder location was now listed as the Seagate. I reset it to the Drobo and ejected the Seagate drive, but for some reason, that does not seem to be working. When I try to play a file in itunes, I get a dialog box with the message "The song xxx could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" If I click on yes, I can manually go into the song's location in the Drobo music folder in Finder and "locate" the file. Once I do that, itunes works fine for that song. I have 1400 CDs (16,000 songs) ripped and doing this manually song by song will take forever. Is there an easier way to fix this problem? Once I do, will I have a problem using the second library on the Seagate? Thanks for any help you can offer.

Thanks to both of you for your responses. Two follow up questions: 1. I'm not sure I know the difference between the library location and the music folder location. Is there a preference for the music folder to be located on the external hard drive vs. the computer? 2. I assume (but don't yet know whether this is the case) that when I do the initial setup of the Drobo, I will need to set it up for my wife's computer and the older version of OSX that she has. Is it easy to then reset it for my computer and operating system?

Hello. I am a new member who is just starting out in computer audio. I have purchased a Mac Mini and Drobo unit for storage. My plan is to use iTunes and send the signal from the Mac to an Empirical Audio Pace Car reclocker and then out to my Audiologic DAC. I am only computer semi-literate and all of my prior experience is with PCs, not MACs, so I am trying to keep the "computer" part of the system as simple as possible. Here is my question: I had to send my new Mac Mini to Steve at Empirical Audio so he can synchronize it with the Pace Car. Due to the high demand for his products, Steve is currently running about a 12 week turnaround time. Ideally, I would like to get started on ripping my CD collection to the Drobo and not wait the 12 weeks to do that. My wife has a Mac laptop with an older operating system. How hard would it be to configure the Drobo for the laptop and older version of OSX and use the laptop to begin ripping my CDs, and then once I get the Mac Mini back from Steve, reconfigure the Drobo to work with my new computer. Is there any risk of data loss or glitches? Keep in mind that I am not great with computers and want to keep things simple. If it is too complicated or risky, I would rather just wait. Thanks for the advice and for your great site.