Imovie on an external drive

I would like to make an external drive the default drive for my imovie folder to save space on my laptop. Is it possible to do this?
bob
Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I just connected an external hard drive on a 2005 G4 iBook, running OS 10.4.9, to work with iMovie and iDVD. I connect the video camera to the iBook using the Firewire port and connect the external drive to the iBook using USB, it all works. The video downloads to the external drive, I edit it, and burn a dvd. But first, I had to partition the external drive as Mac OS Extended "Journaled" using the Disk Utility.
Open Disk Utility
Select the Partition tab
Select the partition scheme
Enter a name for your drive in the Name field.
Select the "Mac OS Extended Journaled" from the Volume Format drop-down list
Note: You will have the option, with Panther and Tiger, to select Mac OS Extended "Journaled".
*At the bottom of the screen, click on the "Options" button.
*Change the selected option to "Apple Partition Scheme" if connected to a PowerPC or "GUID Partition Table" if connected to a Intel-based Mac then click "OK".
*Select the check box next to Install Mac OS 9 Drivers. This will allow your disk to be recognized if you start your system with Mac OS 9.
Click Partition to continue. An alert dialog appears
Partitioning/Formatting process.
Click Partition to start the Partitioning/Formatting
When complete, the drive will Mount to the Desktop.

Similar Messages

Can't move my iMovie file to external drive

I just finished creating an iMovie file. When I try to move it to an external drive, I get an "unexpected error file (Error code 0).
When I try to "save as" to my external, I get the message: "A Project File is Missing. The file "Clip 05.dv could not be opened and is being skipped." I rebooted, tried again and got the same result. This has never happened to me before - and I need to move it to another machine that has double layer DVD capabilities. Any suggestions?

Possible work-arounds:
1. Share (export) the iMovie back to your camcorder and either use that DV tape to import it into another computer, or re-import it into a new iMovie. You can open the new iMovie on your external drive by selecting that when the opening box appears.
2. Share the iMovie as QuickTime Full quality and then put that quicktime movie into a new iMovie on the external drive. This one requires that you have sufficient drive space to create the quicktime movie.
Either method, you need to be finished with your editing because the edits will be incorporated into the movie. The quicktime movie will be one long clip.
And, as recommended, be sure the external is formatted correctly.

Can you work on iMovie from an external drive?

I am working on a iMovie with iPhoto pictures and footage from my Sony HD DVD video camera. My internal drive does not have enough space to complete the movie. I have a Lacie external drive which does have enough space. I have opened an iMovie project from the external drive but I cannot get any pictures or movie clips added to the timeline. iMovie acts like it is applying my pictures or importing my video footage but then when I press play or preview to watch what I have so far there is nothing. Also the importing video does not turn into clips on the right side of the main iMovie screen. Everything works fine on my internal. I guess to get right to the point I need to know how to bring in media to the external drive. Thanks

I have that problem with my LaCie with a Canon camera. Are you trying to import your film directly from iMovie to the LaCie right? Use disk utlities and partion it so it is in Mac format.
If that doesnt work then that means your camera and your hard drive are using the same bus. They are fighting over which port sends and recieves data. You might need a separate bus for the LaCie to work, even though all my sony cameras have never had a problem with it.

Move iPhoto/iMovie libraries to external drive

I would like to move my iphoto library to an external drive and not have all the pictures on my iMac (drive is filling up).
I would like to do the same with iMovie if anyone knows how to do it.

iPhoto:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
It's also possible to do this with your iMovie projects, but best ask on the iMovie forum for specific help with that.
Regards
TD

How to store iMovie files on external drive?

I'd like to store large video files on an external drive, but iMovie seems to automatically import everything onto my internal hard drive.
1) Can I set it to automatically import to an eternal drive?
2) If not, which files can I safely move to an external to free up space on the internal drive?
3) Should I move the raw files to an external before I edit them, or after?
4) In any case, my general question is how to conserve space on my internal drive by using an external drive for iMovie files?

Get an external drive and make sure it is formatted as HFS+ (journalled) or MacOS Extended (journaled) (two ways of saying the same thing. If the external drive is formatted as FAT32, iMovie will not recognize it.
You can reformat if necessary using the Disk Utility.
When you import from your videcamera, you can select your External Drive as the target of the import.
If you have Event Files that are already on your internal drive, you can move them to the external drive, but you must do this from within iMovie. If you move the events using the Finder, your projects that link to these events will be broken.
To move the Events from within iMovie, select VIEW/EVENTS BY VOLUME.
In your Events Source Pane, you should see all your Events and also an icon for your external drive. Drag an Event icon to the hard drive icon, and it will move the Event to the hard drive, and automatically place it into the proper folder on the external drive so that iMovie can recognize it.
Leave Projects on your internal drive. If you upgrade to iMovie 09, it allows projects to be on the external drive, too. Project files are generally pretty small, though. Your video footage is in the events.

Move imovie library to external drive

Hello, how do I move my imovie library and projects to an external drive without getting a gray screen?
After a hard drive failed one year ago, I brought back the projects from an external drive (using finder) and the screen was grey because it said it could not find the underlying video content. Please note that I did not have a time machine and used the finder to copy from a backup drive.
So there was audio but no video.

I was planning on manually backing up my external to the time capsule - but is there a way to set it up to back up automatically instead?
Time Machine will backup up automatically - you can not have your iPhoto library on the same volume as the TM backup (it will not work and it would not be a backup)
Dragging the iPhoto library to any external drive will backup it us also
I was also thinking about having the library copied to another external (I mean we're talking about irreplaceable photos here) - would i just drag a copy of the library to that drive as well?
Yes - that is a good idea - I run TM giving me hourly backups and a daily clone of my entire system giving me a bootable backup - plus do an occasional TM backup at our second home so I have one off site
is it possible to deal with my imovie library in the same way? so all my movies and photos are on my external?
Probably - but I use iMovie very little - better question for the iMovie forum
LN

Pointing iMovie to an External Drive

Hello,
The hard drive on my iMac is almost full, so I want to move my iMovie files from the Mac to my 2TB external hard drive and then delete them from the iMac.
I've copied the files but want to know how to point iMovie to this drive, so that I can continue using the application without a problem.
How do I do this? Once I've confirmed that the files were copied, is it OK to delete them from the iMac? (I also have Time Capsule as a backup.)
One potential issue is that I have several movie folders on the external hard drive (from earlier migrations), so my movie files are not all in one place there.
Thank you!

First, do not delete anything if you have made any iMovie Projects that you would still like to be able to edit.
An iMovie Project is just a hexadecimal file that contains references to the video that is contained in the event files. If you move the Event files in the Finder, the Project will not know where they are, and your projects will be useless.
You will need an external drive that is formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled). If your drive is not formatted this way, you can reformat it using Disk Utility.
In iMovie, click VIEW/EVENTS BY DISK. This should let you see your external drive in the Project List and in the Event List.
Select any Project, and hold the Command Key down as you drag and drop the small icon for the project to the small icon for the external drive in the Project Library List.
Now, select the Project on the external drive, and click FILE/CONSOLIDATE MEDIA. This will enable you to move any Events referenced in the Project, and also move copies of any photos or music you have used.
Repeat for all projects.
If there are any Events that have not been used in Projects, you can move them now by holding down the Command Key while dragging and dropping the small icon for the Event to the small icon for the external drive in the Event Library List. Repeat for all remaining events.
You should now have all your projects and events on the external drive.
Now you can edit your movies from the external drive.

How do I back up my iMovie to an external drive?

I am trying to copy my movies from my Sony Camcorder through iMovie to save on to an external drive.
When I have a Passport drive connected to my iMac 7 (24 inch) - iMovie 11 will not recognize it. Does it have to be a specific Apple drive?
Using Lion with 6gb memory
Thank you

First thing, Make sure your external hard drive is formatted as a Mac OS Extended hard drive. To find out, go to the desktop hold down the Control Key and click on the Hard drive icon. Choose > Get Info
If it isn't already formatted that way you will want to erase the hard drive using Disk Utility which is in the Applications > Utilities folder on your Macintosh's hard drive.
Once the hard drive has been reformatted, go to View Menu > Group Events by Disk
This will allow you to see you hard drive in the Events Library and allow you to drag items there. Since you haven't started editing yet, just Move the Events to the External Harddrive. Also, the hard drive will also appear in the list at the top Project Library too. If you want to copy a Project to the hard drive, drag it from where it is now in the Project Library to the hard drive icon. A dialog box will appear:
You will want to copy the project and the Events to the hard drive. Once they are safely copied over you test them to make sure the open properly and you can see the video, you can delete the original project from your iMovie Project Library. If all you want to do is just move it all at once instead of first copying and then deleting, drag the project while holding down the Apple key, which will bring up this dialog instead:
*Note: When you move the Projects & Events, they will be deleted from the original location then copied to the new location. But the projects will all work properly as all the Event clips used will be in the same spot. And it should all 'just work'

HT4848 keeping iPhoto and iMovie content on external drive

I can see how to keep my iTunes content on exsternal drives.
how do i do it in.
iPhoto
iMovie
Finle Cut Pro X

iPhoto: How to move the Library to an EHD
iTunes: How to move the library to an EHD
iMovie Storing or moving your video library to an external hard disk

Can't find Imovie file on external drive

Hi,
I finalized a project and exported it to an external hard disk. Used ' share' and 'export using quick-time' and saved it on a hard disk. However I can't find the file anywhere on the hard disk. What am I doing wrong??

Hi
And the external hard drive is formatted as ?
for video - it must be Mac OS Extended (hfs) (mine are journaled)
UNIX / DOS / FAT32 / Mac OS Exchange works for most other things BUT NOT for video whatever editing tool used. iMovie, FinalCut etc doesn't matter - it just doesnt work but cut's up video in 4GB bit's that don't connect back or play.
Select the ext. HD icon (one click) then go up to file and down to Show Info and read
• Formatted as : nnnnnnnnnnnn
• Frames per second
What does it read ?
Yours Bengt W

Transfer iMovie project from external drive??

I posted this on the iMovie forum with no luck. I thought I would try here in case it was a Snow Leopard issue.
My Apple died, so I transferred everything from the external backup to my new apple. It was all backed up with Time Machine. Everything went perfect except for my iMovie Project. It copied well, but I cant open it. The message says:
If the project is already on your hard disk, then the disk may be completely full, or you may not have permission to modify that folder. Correct the problem and try again.
the computer hard drive shows 28 GB are open for use (this is after the iMovie project was transferred over). I had this problem before on this new computer because I was using it for my business and had an administrative account separate from the guest account so others did not have access to some files. Anyway, I found out that I could open the iMovie project on the guest account but not with the administrative account. I still can not open it with the administrative account. I thought the administrative account was the only account I had now. There is a guest account which is disabled. I enabled and tried that, but when I logged in, the desktop did not even include the hard drive??
Anyway, I do not want to have to go to the guest account to work on my project, I only want access to everything on the one account.
When I check the permissions for the file. It shows that there are two "Everyone" listings with the icon of 3 people. One of them has "Custom" as a privilege and the other one has "Read & Write" as a privilege. I don't know what any of this means.
I know I said a lot. I was hoping to give as much info as possible.
Please help.
Thank You

I fixed it. I kept playing around with privileges until I found the right option. I have it now, thank you.
I did this earlier but no luck. I am good now.

Mini DV to external drive to iMovie to DVD – strategy?

I have had 4 hours of old home movies transferred from Beta to mini dv tapes, and plan to transfer them to an external firewire drive using a borrowed camcorder, then use iMovie to edit and burn them onto a one hour DVD. Can I use the copy of iMovie HD 6 on my internal drive to process the dv material on the external drive, or should I install iMovie on the external drive - and will iLife let me do that? There is insufficient capacity on the internal drive to handle more than a few minutes of dv material.
Thanks for your help. It's my first crack at iMovie - any hints would be gratefully received!
iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

hello there eagledavid1.
Welcome to the discussions.
You should have no problem doing that (although 4 hours will take a BUNCH of space). I have imovie on my internal drive and create the movies on the external drive.
All you do is open imovie6. A "create new project" window will open.
All you do is name the project. Then in the next field point it to your external hard drive.
One thing to remember is that DV format video can takes up a lot of disk space. About 3.6 MB/second or 13GB an hour.
One way to conserve disk space is to be selective about what you import to iMovie in the first place.
I recommend NOT to import wholes tapes, but do a selection WHILE import.
concerning disk size:
you need 10 - 15 GB free disk space on your internal drive, just to make iDVD work correctly... don't overcrowed your internal drive ...-
do some reading:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/imovie/
best practise:
don't start with your "best" project, start with some "trash" project, 5min max, just to get used with all the functions & options...
good luck!!
Mac Mini & Windows XP Mac OS X (10.4.5) in the process of making the FULL switch from PC to MAC

Imovie not reading my external drive

Have a bunch of imovie events I dragged from iMac at work to my Lacie 1tb ext drive. Have connected it to my MBP for editing at home. IMovie recognizes the external drive but the events are not showing up under the drive symbol after opening it (arrow pointing down)
confused?
Help would be appreciated
thanks

I have uninstalled Crossover. Still no luck. Here is what I see:
After plugging in the drive:
Then I see this image while the drive is still visible as in image 1:
Followed by:
As you can see, it is like the drive just disappears. Judging from the time stamps on the Screen Shots, it takes the whole process about 32 seconds.
It shows up in the Disk Utility while it is connected before it gets booted:
I am at a loss for what to do. Thank you for all your help so far, though!

External drive configuration for iMovie events

I have a lot of old 8mm & mini dv tapes, that I want to get transferred to external hard drives to edit in iMovie. Once transferred, I plan to back them up and store the backups, then edit and organize. I just upgraded to a new iMac and do not have the firewire 400 port any longer. It seems that the USB connection would be too slow to do iMovie editing on external drives. I would like to use internal drives in a dual or multi dock.
I have several 500G, firewire 400, external hard drives, daisy chained together that I have already I filled. They take up too much space, outlets and cables, so I'm switching to internal drives with a dock.
Someone mentioned that you can get a dock that holds multiple hard drives, which seems might allow faster transfer speeds between them for editing, between the drives. (as well as need less cables/outlets, etc). If I am editing in iMovie, I would think a firewire 800 dock would be preferable versus a USB.
I've seen dual USB 2.0/eSATA (or USB 3.0 docks, which I don't think Apple is supporting right now). Can you use a dual eSATA drive with an iMac (can you use an adapter)?
I also saw some 4 bay towers online, but I don't think that's what I'm after. I'm not sure that I would be swapping them alot. I would like it all together in order to create projects with clips from various years.
So I'm wondering what would be the ideal configuration for iMovie editing on a new iMac? I am thinking a firewire 800 dual dock might be ideal (I am sure 2-2Tb internal drives should be more than enough to hold all my video, until I edit it down). Would that be too sluggish? I guess I could work with 2-1Tb drives and swap them out, if that would be too much.
Any recommendations on a dock? Newegg has a pricey dual IcyDock with FW 800 for $180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198031&nmmc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-ExternalEnclosure-_-ICYDOCK--17198031
or a Thermaltake w/USB & eSASTA for $$44
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153112&cmre=dual_dock-_-17-153-112--Product
PS-is there a site that has suggestions on organizing iPhoto & iMovie libraries?

LOVE this Fantom drive. Very quiet and an amazing price for 1TB with all interfaces.
http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/detail.asp?Redir=1&description=FantomDrives%2DG%2DForce+Quad+Interface+1TB+External+eSATA%2FFireWire+800%2FFireWire+4 00%2FUSB+2%2E0+Hard+Drive%2DExternal+HardDrives&dpno=7350333
Or check out this deal for their 2TB version
http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/detail.asp?Redir=1&description=FantomDrives%2DG%2DForce+MegaDisk+2TB+External+Triple+Interface+%28Firewire+800%2F400+ %2B+USB+2%2E0%29+Hard+Drive%2DExternal+HardDrives&dpno=7304498

HOW Do I Store All My MP3 files on an external drive, and point iTunes?

I see on this forum that folks are storing byte-hogs like MP3 and MP4 files on an external hard drive, leaving the internal drive with more room for processing.
My internal drive is full, so I got a 2 Tb external drive where I want to store my MP3 and MP4 files.
After I move the files to the external drive, HOW do I point iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie to the external drive?

Type "move itunes library to external drive" into the search bar at the top of this screen next to "Support".

Imovie on an external drive

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