Mac; iTunes; getting my new Mac to use my external drive's iTunes Media

Recently got a new Mac.  I wanted to be able to access my music library without needing to leave my older MacBook on all the time.  My external drive already has all my resources (the iTunes Media folder location) and my older MacBook had already upgraded to the latest iTunes, so it seemed the process would be easy enough.

First try:

1. hook up external drive to new Mac
2. change iTunes Media folder location to point to external hard drive

Many of you may note a problem already.  It's fundamental to understand the distinction between the resources and the library database.  Hence, the reason why I opened iTunes only to find an empty music library.  Ack!  Where are my files?!

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/

Specifically, the following sections of the above reference were important for me to understand.

• "iTunes: The Database versus the Content"
• "Moving the Library Database"

And those sections make perfect sense.

Second try:

1. hook up external drive to new Mac
2. change iTunes Media folder location to point to external hard drive
3. close iTunes on new Mac
4. on old Mac, zip up old iTunes library and supporting files (not the iTunes Media folder that was already on my external hard drive) and transfer to new Mac.  Back up new Mac's iTunes library (just in case), remove and unzip previous iTunes library database and supporting resources to new Mac location.
5. start iTunes again

There's a little waiting time while iTunes does something, but now I'm up and running on my new Mac.  And with not much time wasted.