Yet another extternal hard drive question

Is there a way to burn music straight to an external hard drive(like drag and drop from the desktop), or do I have to import each cd through iTunes and then move them to the new hd? I'd like to burn all my cds to the hd, but keep the music I listen to on my iMac.
TIA!

I take it you want to keep your music on the external

Keeping your iTunes collection on an external

The following assumes you want to keep all your iTunes music and movies on an external disk and ensure new music is always stored on the external drive.

First, you need to consolidate your iTunes Library to a folder you have chosen on the external drive.

Set the new iTunes folder location to the external in iTunes preferences > Advanced

Select the command consolidate library from the Advanced Menu. This will copy all your iTunes media to the external folder and link the iTunes library file to it

The files will now be on the external while the library.xml file (the index as it were) will still be in the Users > Me > Music folder of your mac.

If you want this file on the external as well as well, copy it to external iTunes folder, start itunes with the alt key pressed and you will have the option to select the library file now on the external

Select the library file you just copied and now both your music and the library are on the external

You can now delete the old iTunes folder off your mac

You can also use the choose library dialogue to switch between a large music collection on the external and a smaller music folder on the mac if you wish

Thanks, but this doesn't answer my question- I do still want to keep the music I listen to (say 3-4 songs from each CD) on my mac, but store the entire CD on the HD- and is there a way to burn the CDs to the HD without using iTunes. I've tried copying, dragging and dropping from the desktop, but its only moving the title, not the contents.

If what you want is just to store the CD (in the original audio codec) Just copy the files on the CD to the folder where you want to put them on the external HD.

There are any number of programs out there that will rip a CD for you. If you do not need the tracks to be a part of your iTunes library, that is your best bet.

Any storage of playable tracks on a computer needs to be converted from the original CD into a file a computer can manipulate.

you can copy anthing from your itunes library that you've ripped to an external and then delete the stuff from your itunes library that you don't want permanently there.

there is also an app that does a way better job of ripping called max that rips a better sounding audio file - in many peoples' opinions. it will also embed album art into the audio tracks instead of keeping the art in a separate file. you can set the prefs in max to change the directory you download to.
i have a folder i keep in my music folder for this process. then i just move everything off when i attach my external. once i sort through things and see what i want in my itunes (home) or wmp (work) lists i can just make copies of those ripped files.

What exactly is the purpose of the external HD in the first place? Archives? DJing?

Knowing why you need the HD storage will probably give you more concise answers.