Nervous Please Help

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post. I've been lurking around the forum for months and have finally decided to post. I will be ordering a new iMac on the day that Leopard is released. This will be my first mac. I'm really worried about transfering my iTunes library from my windows machine to my new mac. I have copied my entire iTunes library folder to my external hard drive. This folder contained 5 files iTunes Music Library, iTunes Library, Previous iTunes Library, iTunes Music, and Album Artwork. In total it came to around 6 GB. Will I be able to plug my external hd into my new mac and transfer my library over? Will i need to copy all 5 files over? Also will I need to deauthorize my old computer? I tried using the Back-up to disk option in iTunes and all it did was lock up my computer. Thanks so much for your help.

Provided its not protected music - I am not sure in that case:-

A direct hard drive to Mac copy should work - I did a direct copy over WiFi from my windows laptop and everything copied fine - including playlists.

Hi AccordV6, Welcome to Mac Forums!

What you are proposing will work just fine. It is pretty much exactly what I did when I got my Mac a year and a bit ago. Worked like a champ.

Read, bookmark, study, and pay close attention to these links:

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

They hold a wealth of information for new Mac users.
And, become familiar with the Search Tool on these forums. I guarantee you that any question you can think to ask has been asked and answered here several times already. You will learn much from taking a few moments to search before posting and you will get your answer a lot quicker.

You won't need to deauthorize. Just copy the itunes music folder to your new computer and click add to library in the file(?) menu. I just did this with my wife's computer. I moved from pc to macbook pro with no hassle. If you go into the Apple store, they will print out a document that guides you thru the entire process. That's what I did. What I would do after that is restore your ipod after all songs are over and erase it. Then authorize the computer and you should be good to go...

T

Deauthorizing is a good idea. You can only have 5 machines authorized and if you dont deauthorize they can add up fast. You can just take your Itunes folder from your My Music folder on your PC and copy it over then use the add to library option in itunes on your Mac. You will loose your playlists but everything else will transfer and you can then authorize that account.

I followed the instructions that the guy at the Apple store printed out and I didn't lose the playlists.

T

I used the 'backup to DVD' feature, and while I didn't lose my playlists on restore, I did lose play dates (but oddly enough, not play counts.) Perhaps this has been fixed since we've been through a number of iTunes updates since I did my thing.

It's a good idea to backup to CD/DVD anyway periodically as you acquire music.

It's also a good idea to either re-record DRM'ed music to some other non-DRM format, but you didn't hear that from me. That was the Glenlevet.