IMac Memory is filling up - Questions

Check your duplicates. The artwork shouldn't double the amount of space. iTunes likely copied your music folder to the external, which already held the backup files.

Epilogue: The process is underway - the complete iTunes library has been transferred to the Ext. HD and, as I write, I am emptying the "Trash" that now contains the old iTunes Music folder. Everything seems to be working OK. One unexpected outcome was that the "old" music folder held 344 GBs of data but when I copied it into the External HD INCLUDING ARTWORK, the Gigs jumped to 649 GB. I can only presume that the artwork is responsible for that jump in memory usage. For those that need explicit instructions on how to make this happen - I found an article on-line Titled "Moving your iTunes Music Folder" - it gave me step by step instructions.

Thanks again Theraiguy - I may take you up on the email offer if there is a hitch.

Be patient. You may end up with duplicates, but you'll have everything in one place. It's good to have a second drive for backup. I've got about 750GB of music in my computer library and thoroughly enjoy the convenience. Feel free to shoot me an email if you come across issues.

Got it - Thanks Theraiguy. I'm going to empty the current iTunes data in the back-up Ext. HD then move the computer based iTunes into that HD. Eventually this will require a second external HD as mentioned by JB8312. It's a bit scary!!

You'll have the same functionality as you do with your current setup, so you can listen to complete albums, etc. Through iTunes. Just make certain to let it update your library and select the appropriate option for "keep files organized" or something to that effect.

OK - but can you pull up complete albums for playback or do you have to pull up one song at a time? Right now I can access all of the music in the external HD but only as one track at a time. Does your External HD act just the same as iTunes in your computer did with all the various options? Maybe I'm missing a mental step here.

Agreed. Just use your ext hd as the library storage. I have a 180gb hd in my MacBook, so one of the first things I did was an external hd (Lacie 1TB) and that is where all my music sits.

Soon thereafter, I got another one to back up the first. storage is pretty cheap these days.

good luck. john

You could always point iTunes to recognize your external HD as the library source. If you change it within the settings, it will take a little while to update your library. Most of the metadata will transfer over, but you might lose some artwork that you had to manually put in.
I did that when my MacBook started to fill up, and I now use the external as the source and leave my internal hard drive specifically for running programs.