Mac laptops forum: Need help pls- locating iTunes/iPhoto with 2 external drives

it just worked.
Mounted on the desktop and everything. Great stuff.

Seems to be only one problem, you cannot write to the new drive. When we see this happen, it is usually because the drive is formatted as NTFS (Windows format). While the Mac can read an NTFS formatted drive, it cannot write to it without the use of third party software.
If you are planning on using this drive only on a Mac, then use Disk Utility to reformat it to Mac OS X Extended(journaled).
CAUTION: EVERYTHING on the drive will be destroyed during this process.

Now to the Libraries.
iTunes: The best place to have your library stored is on the internal drive, however, if you do not have enough room on there, then a larger external becomes the place for it.
To make the move easier, you need to do some housework first. With iTunes running, choose File, Library, Organize Library and then Consolidate Library.
This moves all your tracks INTO the iTunes library.
Now open iTunes preferences, Advanced and put a check mark in both of the top boxes. Keep media folder organized and Copy file to media folder.
From the sounds of things, it would appear that you have been digging around inside the iTunes library, probably to organize things in there. DON'T. Leave it all alone. Just ignore the inside of that Library Folder.
No need to move songs around, just let iTunes manage the whole lot.

Once you have everything inside iTunes, it is a simple matter to drag the entire iTunes folder to an external drive.
All the tracks will move with it, as long as you have Consolidated the Library, then go back to iTunes preferences, Advanced and choose the new location of the iTunes Library. At next launch, that is where iTunes will look for the library.

iPhoto: Drag the Entire iPhoto Folder to the External. No Consolidation with this one. Once moved, launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and iPhoto will ask you for the location of the Library. Show it and it will continue to go there.

Backups: Let Time Machine take care of all that too. It makes only one folder, usually the name of your Mac, and makes the first FULL backup inside that folder. All subsequent, INCREMENTAL, backups are placed inside their own folders inside the main one.
No need to go messing in there either. Digging in there is NOT the way to restore missing files. There is a Time Machine App in the dock, just designed for that very purpose.

I would suggest that you leave Time Machine on the drive it is on and use the new drive for the two libraries.
Remember to configure Time Machine to back up the drive with the libraries on.

Hope that helps

P