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EXTERNAL HD / iTUNES / ISSUES ADVICE

CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
edited April 2008 in Strut Central
Hey all. I've been working on this for the past two days and, as soon as I thought I had it, it's not working quite right. Hopefully someone can give me some advice and help me figure this out.I have all my MP3s on my desktop computer running through iTunes, with an external HD hooked up to the tower serving as the iTunes Library. In essence all the MP3s are stored off the computer but I can can play then using iTunes.So the external HD that I had all the music on it got filled up, so I had to get a new bigger external HD. I got one and last night and today ended up dragging and dropping all the files of music to the new drive (it took over 10 hours or some shit like that.) I had to completely erase my library in order to reimport all the music running off the new drive (as you can see here, which was a pain in the ass.)So everything should be working well, but the problem is that every couple of minutes whenever the music is playing there's about a 5 second pause of the music. It's like a lag or latency or something like that.So my question is this: what can be done about this? There's plenty of free space on the new external HD. I was thinking that maybe it's because the external HD is connected to the tower by a USB 2.0 but I'm not sure that's the case. My old external HD was connected using Firewire.I could really use some advice so I don't have to go out and buy a new damn terabyte HD! Let me know if you need any more information about my system. Thanks!

  Comments

  • drewnicedrewnice 5,465 Posts
    I think the USB 2.0 v. Firewire difference might be the issue. My iTunes library is on a USB 2.0 external and there is a lag every now and then, usually when I'm clicking on a new song.


    Here's something I found about the difference between the two:

    Is it really better to have an external firewire 400 drive rather than an external USB 2.0 one? Isn't USB 2.0 theoretically faster?

    "Well, in terms of maximum possible speed yes, USB is spec'd slightly higher but the difference is that Firewire offers a steady 400Mb/sec throughput while USB 2 fluctuates depending on what you're doing so i believe that for real-world use (especially using it as a system drive) you'd probably see better results from Firewire. But you could potentially get faster speeds from USB 2 when doing stuff like copying a single large file. Also, you can't boot from USB drives, only Firewire.

    From: http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-194677.html
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    Now I'm noticing that it's DEFINITELY a lot slower when I'm trying to edit the information of multiple files.
  • white_teawhite_tea 3,262 Posts
    Having the same issue myself. Also my iPod has been updating painfully slow all of the sudden. I almost feel like it's an issue of the sheer size of the library, like it's too much for iTunes to handle.

    I can't say for sure, but I think I have a Firewire cable plugged into my USB 2.0 drive on a PC.
  • captainplanetcaptainplanet 626 Posts
    also cosmo, in the future, you can just name your new hardrive the exact same thing as the old one, and "trick" your computer into finding all the mp3's in the same place. That way you keep all your playlists.

    but also, I definitely think firewire is the way to go.
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    I almost feel like it's an issue of the sheer size of the library, like it's too much for iTunes to handle.

    I am hoping this is not the case.

    I need to fix this as soon as possible because I cannot listen to music this way.

    While we're on it, anyone have a recommendation for a good 1TB external HD with 2 firewire ports on it, to be used on a Mac?
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    also cosmo, in the future, you can just name your new hardrive the exact same thing as the old one, and "trick" your computer into finding all the mp3's in the same place. That way you keep all your playlists.

    but also, I definitely think firewire is the way to go.

    Doh! That would have saved me hours and all my playlists...
  • SwayzeSwayze 14,705 Posts
    also cosmo, in the future, you can just name your new hardrive the exact same thing as the old one, and "trick" your computer into finding all the mp3's in the same place. That way you keep all your playlists.

    but also, I definitely think firewire is the way to go.

    Doh! That would have saved me hours and all my playlists...

    You can rename a harddrive at any time.
  • drewnicedrewnice 5,465 Posts
    I can't say for sure, but I think I have a Firewire cable plugged into my USB 2.0 drive on a PC.

    That doesn't sound right...
  • prof_rockwellprof_rockwell 2,867 Posts
    I almost feel like it's an issue of the sheer size of the library, like it's too much for iTunes to handle.

    I am hoping this is not the case.

    I need to fix this as soon as possible because I cannot listen to music this way.

    While we're on it, anyone have a recommendation for a good 1TB external HD with 2 firewire ports on it, to be used on a Mac?

    although I haven't noticed a lag in playback, I have noticed that in general iTunes has slowed down the larger my library has gotten.

    Did you check your playback settings?
  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,903 Posts
    Hey Cosmo!

    I was thinking of picking up one of these when I was in Japan. I've seen them over here. But none with all these ports.

    Pretty awesome! Just pop in any drive (Including laptop drives!!)

    Tho, it was kinda expensive at around $100 bucks.

    http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-15629-HDD+Rack+Super+Combo%2C+the+Very+First+ALL+IN+ONE%21.html








    I almost bought this one lastnight. But I haven't seen any with firewire ports here in North America yet sorry.

    http://www.jumbocomputers.ca/index.php?do=Product&cmd=pd&pid=002459&cid=710.428.537

    Which would kick ass cause of the esata port (3Gb per second transfer rate!!)

    But I hate white for computer products.
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    What part of "Playback Settings" would you suggest?
  • white_teawhite_tea 3,262 Posts
    I can't say for sure, but I think I have a Firewire cable plugged into my USB 2.0 drive on a PC.

    That doesn't sound right...

    The card has about four USB jacks and two Firewires. My external came with both cables, so I used that one.
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    i doubt it's a usb problem unless you have other things reading/writing to that drive at the same time. i've read that turning journaling off helps things like this
  • The-gafflerThe-gaffler 2,190 Posts
    cypher's playback settings be whylin.
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    cypher's playback settings be whylin.

    Wha-happpen?


  • The-gafflerThe-gaffler 2,190 Posts
    throwback na'meeen. you know the deal.
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    Hahah I know EXACTLY what you mean...
  • The-gafflerThe-gaffler 2,190 Posts
    lol, we def got some close friends, yet we've never formally met.
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    For sure, I don't doubt it at all. I haven't been called that in a long time, bro...
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