How do I move IPOD itunes data and library to an external hard drive smoothly?

My entire itunes library including actual music files are stored on my ipod rather than my computer, is there a way to seamlessly transfer my ipod data to my new external had drive?





*I'm PC*|||Heh, that's dangerous - you can lose everything on your iPod that way...





Connect your iPod to your PC in Hard Drive mode, then copy the files to any directory on the external hard drive. Fire up iTunes and tell it to change the location of the stored files, and put in the external drive's directory. iTunes will pick up everything there and re-create your library from scratch. Use the iPod in manual mode so iTunes does not automatically strip the iPod of files.|||I think it’s crazy that Apple don’t allow this to happen in iTunes with a simple drag and drop, it’s probably down to DRM and legal stuff. But there is a work around which is useful particularly if the only copy of your library you have is on your iPod!





1. Open iTunes and click Edit %26gt; Preferences… then select the “Advanced” tab, within the Advanced tab select the “General” tab.





The location path under “iTunes Music folder location” is where all your music will be kept, this will need to be pointed to your external hard-drive.





Typically it is something like this C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Music though it can be changed to whatever you like, so plug in your hard-drive and specify it accordingly.





Put a check in the “Keep iTunes Music folder organized” box.





2. Connect your iPod, once it appears under DEVICES in iTunes click on it to access the controls, on the Summary tab ensure there is a check in the “Enable disk use” box.





IMPORTANT: Make sure your iPod is "manually managed"! DO NOT SYNC!





3. Click on “My Computer” and locate the iPod device, double click to see its contents.





Typically you’ll see folders for “Calendars”, “Contacts” and “Notes” and nothing else as the music is hidden.





To locate the music we need to make it visible. In the explorer window click on Tools %26gt; Folder Options… then click on the View tab, under Files and Folders / Hidden files and folders make sure there is a check next to “Show hidden files and folders”.





You should now see a folder called “iPod_Control” within the folder is another directory called “Music” which contains all of the music files on your iPod, however these files are randomly named and randomly placed into directories called F00, F01, F02 etc. so there is no way of easily identifying specific songs or albums





Highlight all of the F## folders and right click selecting “Copy”. Now browse to the iTunes music folder we identified in step 1. Right click New %26gt; Folder and name it “_IPOD” open the directory and right click within it selecting “Paste”.





N.B The files will now start copying across, before doing this it might be worth checking you have sufficient space!





Once the files have copied into your new “_IPOD” folder, select them all and right click selecting “Properties” remove checks from both the “Read-only” and “Hidden” boxes and apply the changes to all files and folders.





Now go to iTunes, select File %26gt; Add Folder to Library… browse to the iPod music folder, as previously identified and select the folder we created called “_IPOD” and click “OK”. iTunes will now begin to add the files to it’s library whilst simultaneously renaming and filing them.





Done.|||If your Ipod plugs into your pc , then you can do it, if you have the cord and cd that came with you Ipod, have you enough USB ports? If not put themon you hard drive them to your external