Using the back up as the main source

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Hi,
I have backed up everything using time machine on to an external hard drive. My internal hard drive is nearly maxed out, mainly with music so I want to delete all the music on my internal drive and only have it on the external.
First problem, I cannot get itunes to automatically use the external drive even after prompting it in the Advanced area of preferences. Any ideas?
Second problem, every back up update is logged on the hard drive seperately, how can I consolidate the various areas, e.g. itunes music, iphoto pictures? Its a Seagate 500GB USB drive.
Thanks.
 

chscag

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Did you follow the procedure for moving your iTunes library as given by Apple in this KB article?

As for the Time Machine backups... You can't consolidate them by folder as they are created separately by date\time and kept in different files. If you no longer have a need for older backups, you can delete them to save space.

Regards.
 
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I think that once you designate an externanal drive as your "time machine" drive, it's really only practical to use that drive and it's backups through the time machine GUI. It's a very smooth system, once your used to it, for restoring individual files and folders, or even your entire system, but it's not really meant to be used like an ordinary external drive where you store data you use (as opposed to backup). My music collection is over 100 GB, so I also have it on an external drive. If I were you, I'd buy an addition external drive just for your music ( or a larger one for more disc hungry media files), copy your itunes folder to it, and then redirect itunes to that folder on the new drive. Then you can delete the old folder from your internal drive.

Also, if you're smart, you'll buy TWO new external drives, one for your media files, and one for regular backups of your media files. Time machine can only be used for one drive on a system, I think, so I use Chronosync to back up my media files, flash drives, etc.
 

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