How Do I Point iTunes to use my backup ext drive?

Yes, I do have multiple libraries and it works quite well. However, I believe you are still a bit confused about how iTunes works. Think about it for a second and let me know if my logic is incorrect......

The reason he can't use his old library is that it is pointing to a crashed drive that is no longer accessible.

The old library expects to find the files on the crashed disc and when it can't it displays a !

The library file on his backup disc is not a different library that points to a different disc; it is a backup copy of the one he can't use i.e. it is exactly the same.

The backup library expects to find the files on the same crashed disc as the original.

If the original won't work there is no way an exact copy of it will work.

For it to work as you described iTunes would have to somehow change all of its pointers as it was being copied to the backup disc. That doesn't happen.

I agree that an update would be nice.

Take care

This is a very simple task and I don't understand why people are trying to make it so complex. You've done everything correctly -- two separate drives with one serving as a backup. If each drive had the exact same info organized in the same file hierarchy, then all you have to do is rename the backup drive whatever name you gave the drive that died. You do not have to do anything within iTunes. iTunes won't know and won't care that it's not the original drive as long as the path to the data and music files is exactly the same. Of course, you would then need to get another drive as a backup.

Onhwy61
Thank you. I'm kinda new to PC audio but not new to PCs. I was beginning to think that Itunes was a lot more complicated than it first seemed.

BTW, I'm using a Vista machine as a music player/server and am backing it up to a 3.5" hard drive. Should the internal HD in the player/server fail, I have several options including physically replacing the HD in the player/server with the HD in the backup drive.

JPO

Sorry Rel and Herman for not replying sooner. I'm not sure what I did to access my backup but soon after the hard disk crash I was able to use my backup and access my playlists and music files without much difficulty.

The fun began a few days later when my replacement hard drive arrived. I wanted to make the new drive my primary drive so I copied (drag & drop method) the files and subfolders starting from the MUSIC folder from my backup to my new primary drive. No problem as all folders and files were copied and I verified total file counts to confirm everythng copied over.

So now I have 2 hard drives with exactly the same folder hierarchy and files. The only difference is the name of the hard drive. As Herman points out this is probably the reason that iTunes can't locate the files.

I tried Rel's suggestion to hold down the Option key while starting iTunes and choose the location of the iTunes folder and that didn't work as no music was listed in the iTunes Music area.

I'm not overly concerned as I can still see all of my music files on the backup drive. It's probaby as Herman mentioned a matter of iTunes still looking for the iTunes folder/file hierarchy with the name of the old primary hard drive.

I'll await further suggestions from you guys as you're more knowledgeable than I am on Macs and iTunes.

Thanks,
Brian ...

I think I've figured out a way that works for me. Again thanks for everyone's great responses to this question. I also believe there are multiple ways that can be used so many of you although you had different recommendations are probably correct with your responses. Here's what ultimately worked for me.

First I copy my iTunes environment from a primary hard drive to a backup hard drive every month or so depending on the amount of CD ripping I do. I use the drag & drop method to copy the files as backup programs all put their various naming conventions on the files which gets in the way of iTunes.

I discovered that using the File, Add to Library feature of iTunes I was able to direct iTunes to the backup drive and it recognized my songs & playlists on the backup drive without any problem. I did de-select the Copy files to iTunes Music folder option on the Advanced tab before I used the Add to Library feature as I believe it may have duplicated the songs. Afterwards I selected this option and changed the iTunes music library location to the new primary drive so that when I rip new CDs they'll go to the correct location.

Again, thanks for everyone's assistance as I couldn't have got it done without all of you.

Brian ...