replacing external hard drive

[TimH]

Greetings,

I have my music files on an external hard drive and it is exhibiting worrisome signs of age (it's seven years old, getting close to capacity, getting unable to find songs, slow response time, etc) so I am going to replace it with a new, larger one (going from 1TB to 2TB, I have around 800gb of music).  I thought about just trying to rebuild the .itl file but I think it's probably best just to replace the thing.  My music set-up is:  Macbook Pro (2015, Sierra 10.12.5) running latest iTunes (12.6.1.25), the iTunes library files like .itl and .xml are located on this Macbook ~~wifi ~~Airport Extreme (also 2015) __USB__external hard drive with music files.  (The Macbook Pro connects to my home theater/stereo receiver for playback via HDMI and optical).  I have a backup of the external drive and will soon make an additional copy when I get the new drive.  So...I would welcome any guidance, ahead of time, on how to do the swap.  I have read things like "just point iTunes at the new drive and you're good to go".  Being paranoid and not that confident with concepts like "pointing iTunes", I could use some more detailed hand-holding.  Do I leave the itl and xml files where they are, as they are?  Do I need to make sure the folder/file path to the music on the new drive is exactly the same as on the old one?  Any assistance here is truly appreciated.  I've seen too many stories of either lost music or duplicated music.  (Oh yeah, I don't use the Cloud or Apple Music.)

 

Tim 

[TimH]

OK, thanks wwaldman, I'll give it a try.

 

[TimH]

OK, wwaldman, advice noted, thanks.

 

Thanks Kirk for the link to the procedure.  It is clear and easy to follow and I like the logic of it.  My situation is a bit different, but you probably knew that.  I could still use a little more guidance.  Since I'm not moving my music from an internal hard drive to an external hard drive, rather, swapping an old external drive with a new one (in the same location), and since the darn Airport Extreme only has one USB port, I'm not sure how to have both EHD's simultaneously connected in order to do the big "copy".  Any suggestions?  Thanks again.  

[TimH]

So, I bought a powered USB hub and connected the old and new HD to it and the Airport Extreme and followed Kirk's "best practices" method of copying the music using the "Organize Library" function in iTunes. It seems to be working but it is absurdly slow.  I knew it would take awhile with 800GB but we are now in Day Two. I'll post here if and when it finishes. In the meantime I was wondering, what's the difference between using the "Organize Library" method and just doing the more typically used "Add to Library" method?  

[TimH]

Yeah wwaldman, see my original post for the setup. So, yes, I'm assuming that between the wifi and at least one place in the chain being USB 2.0 rather than 3 the speed is way slow. Stuck with it for now but would probably do it differently in the future. Just hope one of the drives doesn't give out before it's done. Thanks for following up. 

[TimH]

Yes, foodfiend, music files are on an external hard drive connected to an Airport Extreme via USB. And yes, it's still copying.  Day Three now. 

[TimH]

Foodfiend and Kuma, the drive is in fact in an enclosure, from OWC/Macsales, a Mercury Elite Pro drive. Used them in the past and very happy. Wwald, yes indeed I considered a more "direct" method but I wanted to try to adhere to Kirk's "Best practices" approach that he linked above by keeping the folder/file path consistent with the desired end result and using the iTunes "Organize library" function to do the copying. 

[TimH]

Foodfiend, yeah, I've realized that in hindsight. I was trying to keep the final file/path of the drive unchanged, as opposed to relocating it to the Airport and re-pointing iTunes to it after the copy was done. Oh well. Kuma, ha, yes, let's hope so. I guess the positive thing here is maybe this thread will help someone in the future with my particular situation. Other than here it was surprisingly difficult to find advice for my specific situation.