MacBook Pro and an External HD help...

[advancetoguru]

Hello everyone! Hoping to get some help/feedback. I have a MacBook Pro Mid 2010, 500gb HD and 8gb RAM. I have a LaCie 500GB external HD that I have all my music in. I am using this HD for all my music that I use to spin DJ gigs. Have 30,000+ songs on it. Want to keep my MacBook's HD clean. I used this on another MacBook Pro, and now am just trying to get it to talk to my new computer thru iTunes. I can't seem to get it to work. Thoughts? Help?! I have a show coming up soon, and really need it to work. Please help me! Thanks in advance.

Jeremy.

 

[treekram]

Does your LaCie work when you plug it in to your 2010 MBP?

If so, if you don't have a backup, the first thing you should do is go to a store as soon as you can, buy another external HDD and backup your LaCie. You should also consider having more than one backup. Doing a full backup of your LaCie should be able to be done by simply copying all the files. Future backups which would easier if done incrementally, can be done with cloning software, such as Carbon Copy Cloner.
https://bombich.com/

Questions:
- Are you having problems with iTunes (the LaCie appears on the "new computer" and appears to be fine)? If so, what version of macOS/OSX and iTunes do you have on your two computers?

If your LaCie doesn't appear at all when connected to the new computer, answer the following questions:
- Again, does the LaCie work with the 2010 MBP?
- How do you connect the LaCie to the 2010 MBP? USB? Firewire?
- What year/model is the new computer and how are you connecting the LaCie to it?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Is your new computer a mac? If not you'll have to transfer all the music over into a windows configured iTunes.

 

[Fishrrman]

If that external drive with 30,000 songs is THE ONLY COPY YOU HAVE (of those songs), then you had better get yourself a backup drive (or TWO backups) FAST.

What happens if that drive fails on you?

 

[advancetoguru]

If that external drive with 30,000 songs is THE ONLY COPY YOU HAVE (of those songs), then you had better get yourself a backup drive (or TWO backups) FAST.

What happens if that drive fails on you?

Does your LaCie work when you plug it in to your 2010 MBP?

If so, if you don't have a backup, the first thing you should do is go to a store as soon as you can, buy another external HDD and backup your LaCie. You should also consider having more than one backup. Doing a full backup of your LaCie should be able to be done by simply copying all the files. Future backups which would easier if done incrementally, can be done with cloning software, such as Carbon Copy Cloner.
https://bombich.com/

Questions:
- Are you having problems with iTunes (the LaCie appears on the "new computer" and appears to be fine)? If so, what version of macOS/OSX and iTunes do you have on your two computers?

If your LaCie doesn't appear at all when connected to the new computer, answer the following questions:
- Again, does the LaCie work with the 2010 MBP?
- How do you connect the LaCie to the 2010 MBP? USB? Firewire?
- What year/model is the new computer and how are you connecting the LaCie to it?

Thanks everyone for the responses! Just to clarify...

I DO have two backups.
The new computer is a MacBook Pro 15" 500gb HD and 8gb RAM.

So the OS that I was using on the old MBP was Snow Leopard. The new computer has Yosemite. The HD does show up on the home screen, and is only USB powered, so I can't get an external AC plug.

When i plug the LaCie into the new MBP, it shows up, but won't show up in my iTunes as the place that I keep my music. When I do OPTION and then sign on iTunes to open my library on the HD on the 'Choose Library" menu, iTunes says "An iTunes library file could not be found in the folder 'LaCie 500GB'. Please choose a different folder."

So I guess my question is: How do I set up an iTunes folder with the LaCie providing the music library? This is the only place that I'm stuck... Again, thanks so much for all the help thus far.

MBP 15"
2.66 GHz Intel Core i7
8GB RAM
500 GB SATA drive

 

[treekram]

The reason why the iTunes library isn't read by the new computer is likely that the iTunes versions are different on the two computers. This is based on the OS's you have on the two computers (the latest supported iTunes version for Snow Leopard is 11.4, the earliest supported iTunes version for Yosemite is 12.0.1) it appears that the format of the library is different between the two versions. But it would've be easier if you did supply the iTunes versions as asked.

I'm also looking at the specs at the end of your last post and the only 2.66 Ghz i7 that I see in a MBP was in the mid-2010 model. So is that your new computer or were you giving the specs for your old computer? Again, it would be easier for people to give advice if you were more clear as to what year/model your old and your new computer is.

Apple has information which may help. In this article, I think you would use the "Use your iTunes backup" with your LaCie being the backup. You should really get a new disk to migrate the iTunes library to (unless you have a >500GB disc on the new computer in which case you can migrate to the new computer and if it's correct, then copy back the files to the LaCie).
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204318

If your new computer is a mid-2010 MacBook Pro, then you can run Snow Leopard on it and thus use your current iTunes library at least until you have more time to do a migration. If you want to go this route - ask. There are some issues involved and specific steps to take but it doesn't make sense to go over that unless it's clear that your new computer is the mid-2010 MBP and you want to do this. (It looks like the last MBP that can officially run Snow Leopard is the early 2011 MBP.)

Because it's likely that you have an iTunes migration issue, if you want get more advice, you might want to look/post in the Mac apps forum or a forum that specifically addresses iTunes. The title of your post won't catch the eyes of people who are knowledgeable about iTunes library migration issues.