Last Saturday my computer was running slow. Mr Anthroyogini (aka Gadgetman and computer geek) asked me: How much space is left on your C drive?
Me: Ohh.. I don’t know. I don’t check it much.
Mr Anthro checks C drive. To his disgust, there’s only about 6MB. That’ll do it, he says. You shouldn’t store your music and photos in C:, store them in D: instead.
Fair enough, so I transferred the contents of My Music, My Photos, and the ridiculous number of PDF docs I’ll probably never have time to read from my computer’s C drive to its D drive. Overnight, I ran a defrag on C. Yep, all fine and dandy. C had a lot more space free and there was still 75% of D vacant, despite my PDF breeding program (because you never know when you might need an article on the relationship between conservation and poverty in developing nations!).
On Sunday morning, despite the constant war I am engaged in with the McAfee Virus software –oh how I despise thee, McAfee!! You are enough to make me buy a Mac!- the computer was flying.
Great… until Monday night, when it was time to hook up the iTouch and download my latest stash of podcasts and…
…iTunes was empty! Blank, desert-bleached bone WHITE. Not a single dot, semitone or pixel. No music, audiobook or podcast was to be seen.
OK, I thought, I just have to tell iTunes where to look. Which I did.
It didn’t work. I tried again. Still nothing. Then, I transferred the entire music folder back to its original place in C: and still nothing! (All this whilst setting up the design for Desert Book Chick). By 9:30pm, an hour and a half later, I was frustrated and confused. How hard could it be? I was doing everything right – telling iTunes exactly where everything was on the hard drive. Mr Anthro called me up on Skype (he was out at Watarrka). I was super grumpy by then.
My iTunes is pucked! I said. There’s no files, no music… I want to download all my new podcasts to the iTouch.
Mr Anthroyogini reassures me that it can’t be that hard. I just need to tell iTunes where to look.
Increasingly angry that: a) changing the file location iTunes just wasn’t working and b) Mr Anthroyogini wasn’t here to sort it out, I said goodbye and turned to Google.
As it turns out, you can’t just up and move the latest version of iTunes from one location on your computer to another, or from one computer to another. There is a very specific process for doing so, with some very precise files needing to be moved and some equally precision relocation to be done. For anyone who’s contemplating moving your iTunes folders, Jesse Hollington of iLounge has written an article that explains the iTunes file structure and sets out the way to move your iTunes folders to another location.
So, my task tonight: follow Jesse’s instructions to the letter.
And my lesson: as it’s an Apple product, I should have known it was never going to be simple!
AnthroYogini 
Rule #1 of storing stuff on a computer: NEVER ever store on C drive! C is for your Operating System files & program files etc. Any data you have (be it photos, videos, music, PDFs etc) should be stored on another drive (for most people that means just storing it on D, but if you have the capacity, have your computer divided into C, D & E drives, more if space allows.)
Why are you using McAfee for anti-virus when AVG or Avast are so much better (& they’re free!)
As for iTunes, I have been caught myself. It’s a bizarre system to sync your iPod/iPhone & iTunes is so fussy. So thank you for the link. I have found I rarely need to update my iPod & when I do I just ignore all those errors it tells me I have. 🙂
@desertgirl: You know, you sound just like Gary!
Strongly recommend you take a look at Rhapsody as an alternative or addition to iTunes. For $10 per month unlimited listening to the vast majority of all recorded music in all genres. If I paid a dollar for every cut I’ve listened to on Rhapsody I’d be completely broke by now. Why would anyone prefer iTunes to this, except it’s the only way to listen to music on an iPod, I guess. But that kind if forced purchase monopoly really rubs me the wrong way. Take a look at Rhapsody.
Bob Weisenberg
http://YogaDemystified.com