iTunes is using too much space on my hard drive

equivariant

I want to upgrade my iPhone to iOS 5.1 but the is only 3gb left in the system partition and iTunes says there is not enough space to backup my phone. Any one got a suggestion? I have plenty of space in my data partition but iTunes doesn't see that.

TBi

Move your itunes folder to your 'data' partition. There are tonnes of guides for this online.

Google is your friend.

equivariant

TBi wrote: »

Move your itunes folder to your 'data' partition. There are tonnes of guides for this online.

Google is your friend.

iTunes folder is already in the data partition. That has nothing to do with my question

TBi

equivariant wrote: »

iTunes folder is already in the data partition. That has nothing to do with my question

Well thanks for the extra information...

If you are on windows use mklink.

Close iTunes, find the iTunes preferences folder on your hard disk, move it to your data disk, and make a directory junction linking the folder on system partition to the one on the data partition.

Everything will be on data but iTunes will still think it's on system.

Now i'm waiting for that lovely extra tidbit of information:
"I'm using OSX. What you said won't work"

equivariant

TBi wrote: »

Well thanks for the extra information...

If you are on windows use mklink.

Close iTunes, find the iTunes preferences folder on your hard disk, move it to your data disk, and make a directory junction linking the folder on system partition to the one on the data partition.

Everything will be on data but iTunes will still think it's on system.

Now i'm waiting for that lovely extra tidbit of information:
"I'm using OSX. What you said won't work"

Thanks. Yes, sorry I didn't give more info in the OP. I should have said that I am using windows 7 with the OS installed in a different partition to my itunes folder and that I am using itunes 10.6. The problem is that I only have 3GB left in my windows system partition and when I try to backup my phone, itunes complains that it doesn't have enough memory.

On a vaguely related note, iTunes is a truly awful piece of software. I say this even though I love my iPhone and iPad. However, iTunes is making me seriously think about changing to android. I wish that apple were as good at software design as they are at hardware design.

TBi

iTunes is terrible in some ways but in other ways it's fantastic. Much better than Zune (IMO) for organising music. I've created dynamic playlists for 5*, 4*, 3* music. When i like a song i just give it a rating and it automatically goes to the correct playlist and syncs with my iPod (or my iPhone when i had it).

I also love the iTunes remote, playing music on my stereo or TV through my PC and controlling with my phone. Brilliant for parties!

Anyway your best bet is to use mklink. This allows you to move the iTunes directory (probably in your user account/appdata/roaming) to the second partition and then 'fool' it into thinking it's still on your OS partition.

I do this all the time with my SSD drive, keeping all the stuff that needs speed on the SSD and offloading the 'bulky' stuff to a normal drive but keeping all the standard links.

Ur[s]uS

equivariant wrote: »

Thanks. Yes, sorry I didn't give more info in the OP. I should have said that I am using windows 7 with the OS installed in a different partition to my itunes folder and that I am using itunes 10.6. The problem is that I only have 3GB left in my windows system partition and when I try to backup my phone, itunes complains that it doesn't have enough memory.

Have you deleted old backups of former devices to make space in iTunes folder?

Alternatively, backup your device to iCloud instead. If the backup is too big for your iCloud storage, then adjust the data that is backed up - Settings - iClould - Storage & Backup - Manage Storage etc. For example, there should be no need for the backup to include data from apps that can be used to download content to the device like Pressdisplay, AVPlayerHD, VLC, BBC iPlayer (Global), Spotify, Napster, Rhapsody etc. This can inflate/deflate your backup size significantly.

FWIW, I use iCloud backup without difficulty.