Mac OS X External Hard Drive Cache

I wanted to post this in the discussions to see if anyone knows the answer. For anyone who has used a PC extensively, you know that Windows caches all USB devices that are plugged into the computer and in order to remove the device, you need to go to "Add/Remove Hardware" and remove the USB device to completely erase any recollection of the hardware ever being connected. I plugged in a new USB device and decided that I did not want my computer to use that device or cache it. I needed to do a fresh install of Mac OS X cause of the new HD i bought but I migrated my old user account information. I also used Cache Out X to clear all system and user cache information. I have two questions from this.
1. Does Mac OS X cache USB devices once they are connected? If so where does it store that information?
2. Did reinstalling my OS remove all previously cached USB devices??
I want to delete any traces of the External USB drive I previously plugged in before the reinstall if it did get carried over in a cache or something. Thanks

USB Entries on OS X:
http://www.appleexaminer.com/MacsAndOS/Analysis/USBOSX/USBOSX.html
Kj

Similar Messages

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

sydababy wrote:
and then deleting them off of my computer.
BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous. One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
follow here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

Connecting 2 Macs to an external hard drive

Hi,
I have an iMac G4 and a Mac Mini (with Panther on them). The hard drives for these two macs are running out of space due to a large library of music, video, and photo. I am thinking of getting an external hard drive and move all these to there.
My question is, am I able to hook these two macs to the external hard drive and access the file? Do I have to partition the hard drive into two so that each Mac will have its own partition on the hard drive?
Thanks, guys.
iMac G4, Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.3.9) Mac Mini

An external hard drive can be shared by two computers, but both computers can't be plugged into the hard drive at the exact same moment. However, if you have iTunes or iPhoto running on the one computer with the hard drive, you can share your music and pictures to the other one. You could also turn on File Sharing on the computer with the hard drive and then you could connect to the hard drive across your network to access or share other types of files.
-Doug

I can't transfer files from my mac to an external hard drive. what can i do?

i have tried to transfer files from my mac to my external hard drive but i just couldn't.. help me

leemamacita wrote:
i have tried to transfer files from my mac to my external hard drive but i just couldn't.. help me
More information would help. How is the external connected? Does the external appear on your Desktop? Has the external been formatted for a Mac? What method do you use to transfer files? When you try to move a file to the external, what does happen?

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

Janet.b wrote:
About 3 years old...pretty dated now I guess. Am thinking I may just need to have it upgraded by a Mac tech.
For what the Apple Store's charge you can buy almost buy a new computer.
Just for giggles I brought my old laptop in for a drive upgrade and asked, they wanted $600 for a drive that only cost $120 at the time and it was a slow 5,400 RPM drive. The new Mac's of a similar make were going for $1000.
I did the drive replacement myself, got a faster drive of better quality for $300 instead.
Then another time I asked for a RAM upgrade from 4GB to 8GB, they wanted to charge $400 + $35 for the labor.
The same RAM is on Crucial.com for $90 and all I need is a 00 micro phillips screwdriver.
So you see what's going on here.
I think what you should do, if your out of warranty/AppleCare, is to call up the local PC tech guy who also does Mac's and have them fix you right up.
They can offer more personalized care which you need. Clone your old drive to the new and everything.
With Apple they are overworked at the Genius Bar and just place roadblocks so you buy a new machine instead.
For instance, all new iMac's now have proprietary drive software installed on the hard drives for heat monitoring. So now the only choice a user has is to bring their iMac into a Apple Store for a very expensive drive upgrade, which a person then decides the money is better spent buying a new machine.

Sync a folder on my Mac with an external hard drive

Is it possible to use the time machine to sync a folder on my Mac with an external hard drive?

Not using time Machine.
I use ChronoSync. Works great for me.
http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/ChronoSync/chrono_overview.html

Can i back up 2 macs on one external hard drive?

can i back up 2 macs on one external hard drive?

If the external drive is large enough, yes.
Recent versions of Time Machine will do this across a properly set up and Shared network connection or to a drive on a Server. But you may be unhappy with the amount of Wireless traffic generated to perform the backups, especially the initial full backup.
Utilities like Carbon Copy Cloner will do this ONLY when performing a file-by-file backup. A "Disk Image" backup reproduces the Source disk, including blank space, and fills the entire Destination drive with the Source Disk image.

2 Macs sharing an external hard drive, but can't see each other's music

We bought a 300GB Lacie external hard drive, and pointed each Mac's iTunes to the same folder on that drive. Then the computer asked to "consolidate," which means copying all the music on each to that shared folder--which is great so far. But then in iTunes one Mac can only see the music it copied to that folder, and the other can only see the music it copied over. If I go into Finder, I can see both of our music, but in iTunes, no. There is some purchased iTunes music, but mostly just our own CDs.
What happened, and what can I do? Thanks!

Each computer (actually, each user account on each computer) has its own iTunes Library, which is a directory file. Moving computer A's music files to the new hard drive resulted in the Library file being updated to show the new location of the music that already was part of the Library. Moving computer B's files to that same location didn't affect computer A's iTunes Library file.
On each computer, you'll need to use the Add to Library command (or do the equivalent by dragging music folders from the Finder onto the Library icon in the Source panel of iTunes) to get all the music into your Libraries.
If the Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to Library preference is ON (under Advanced\General of iTunes Preferences), then when you add music to your library, those files will be copied to the location in iTunes Music Folder location, if they're not already there. You may want to check these settings to make sure you won't end up with extra copies of music files in locations you hadn't intended.
iMac G4 17; iBook G4 1.33 Mhz 14; iPod 3G 20GB Mac OS X (10.3.9)

How do i move a file from my mac to an external hard drive?, how do i move a file from my mac to an external hard drive?

how do i move a file or folder from my mac book pro to an external hard drive? the hard drive is formatted just for the mac.
i backpacking and taking loads of RAW pics so i need to get them off my mac onto the hard drive. it seems i have to copy them, only some times then some pics dont work!!!!!!!! pain in the arse!!! im quite new to the mac and loving it, but on the old p.c it was easy as!!!!!!!!!!!! help please

You just drag them and drop them where you want them to go. If you don't want to keep the original on the source drive, you'll want to delete it afterwards.
What do you mean "some pics don't work?" Don't work how?

How do I import my old iTunes library from an old PC to my mac through an external hard drive?

Ok, so I actually have multiple libraries (from itouch, nano, ipod) and I want to import the library from my old pc to work on my Mac.
However, I only want it to work from my external hard drive, I do not want it to take any space in my Mac's SSD .
The one thing that you have to know though is:
Although I have some, a lot of my mp3s are not in my itunes media folder. However, the music is in the library itself, the one in XML and ITL format.
So, I know that had all my music been in the media folder, I could have easily added library and selected that folder, but in this case, I don't think it will work.
How do I import my library with my music if the media folder does not have all my songs?
I had exported my library from my old laptop so I just have the library not my songs in mp3 format :/ if this makes sense..

All your library consists of is a text file telling iTunes which files it should include in its listing. It doesn't have your music. Your music is in the files scattered around your computer in your case. You need to do the long process below, first consolidating, then moving the complete library (= the whole iTunes folder):
Quick answer (not for you) if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.
Longer answers if for any reason you do not think all library files are inside your iTunes folder (changed preferences settings at some point):
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168
2011 ilounge article: Transferring your iTunes library - http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/ - An article with good background information (similar to the links above), particularly if you are not sure your media files are all grouped for quick answer above. Unfortunately under the single term "transferring library" it describes two very different moves; relocating just your media (not really transferring your library and not recommended unless you really need this configuration), and relocating media+database (really your whole "library"). Make sure you understand the difference before electing to move only media.
Windows users see tip at: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18879381

Mac air with external hard drive - not being found on Finder, Time Machine, Migration Assistant

I have been using an external drive (Imation Apollo) to access only, old files from previous computer (PC) on a new Mac Air. I had not transferred them across to new computer (didn't want to do that) just accessing them from the HD. It had been working fine until recently. Each time the external drive had been connected Time Machine would come up and ask if i wanted to use this drive for back ups, and I always chose 'Decide later'. So, as yetI hadn't as yet configured Time Machine to do back ups.
Recently I noticed that the extrnal HD was no longer showing up on Finder. Slight panic as i have 5 or 6 yrs of work saved on that HD
Further investigations - it's also not showing up either on on Disk Utility, or on Migration Assistant.
I've done the following:
Tried HD in each of different USB ports - made no difference, HD still not showing up
Tested different Hubs in each port with HD attached - no difference HD not showing up
Tried USB flash drives in the USB ports - These are working fine and show up on finder
Tried the HD on other comptuters (a PC though, don't have access to another mac to do this test)- working fine, the HD is showing up and is accessable
Interrogated the Console logs to try to see if the act of attaching the HD creates a log entry - couldn't find anything
Rebooted computer via shut down, power disconnect - no difference
Reset PRAM - no difference still not showing up
Reset SMC - no differnce still not showing up
So I think I have established that all the USB ports are functioning correctly and able to access other external drive devices, using hubs with external powersource is not the issue, identified that the external hard drive is working OK, and it appears that the Mac itself is functioning normally.
What would be the reason the Mac now does not allow this specific external HD to be identified and accessed. The only possible things I can think of are
if I had in fact pressed 'Do not use' when Time Machine asked 'do you want to use this drive for back ups'. Would that mean that the Mac now totally rejects this HD from being a source of accessible files - I hope not!
I also think that my husband may have disconnected the hard drive from my computer to access some stuff and he just yanked it out rather than use the safe eject method. Could this create an issue? The Hard drive works fine on his PC.
Why is my Mac Air now rejecting this HD and what can I do to access my historical files now.
Any assistance anyone can provide would be very greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Anna

I can't answer why it isn't accessing it, but I have a slightly related issue w my back up drive starting to get noisy.
Realizing that redundancy is safety for critical data. I talked to my brother about my situation the other day & he said he has 3 small Western Digital portable HDs that he rotates for backup. He even keeps 1 in the safe deposit box.
I have read for some time that we should have multiple back ups & also have our critical stuff backed up off site. Amazon HD reviews had a woman telling about how she was very backed up on multiple computers & hard drives, but they were robbed or burgeled & all of them were stolen including her thesis that was on the computers.
Hard drives aren't that expensive. I just bought a new Western Digital 1 TB drive for $89.99. I plan to use it to back up the Seagate that is getting noisy & then maybe alternate them.
Also, when I came back to Mac, I moved practially all of my documents to Mac. I think I just dragged & dropped or something. Photos, Office, & pdfs do fine that way. & then you could back them up to a couple of different external drives & remove from your MacBookAir.
Unfortunately I think most of us do not back up until crisis & then it may be too late.
Also use Time Machine. For the 1st time in my computer life, my computer is well backed up--although now realizing the need for redundancy so will start backing up to at least 2 different HDs alternatly.
So, not sure why it isn't working & hopefully you have come up w a solution by now.
I think what I would do in a situation like this, since you can access it on the Windows machine would be to transfer the data to the Windows machine & then transfer it back to a different back up.
I'm looking into backing up what I still have in Windows using a thumb flash drive. I think it should all fit ok now that they have the larger drives & I don't have very much left in Windows format.

I cannot pass information from my Mac to my external hard drive, what can I do?

Hello,
This is my first Mac and I am new to all of it. I have an external hard drive that I use to use with my old PC . On the external hard drive box it says its compatible with both windows and Max os x. I can pass files from my external hard drive to Mac but I cannot pass files from my MacBook Air to my external hard drive. No messages comes up or anything explain why it simply doesnt allow me to do so. What can I do?

Your hard drive is formatted NTFS for windows. That format is read-only from OSx. If it's not needed on Windows anymore, you can use Disk Utility and format it for the Mac. Mac OS extended (Journaled) - Partition Map scheme of GUID Partition table.
Make sure to save any data from the drive as it will be wipped doing the above.

Upgrading from 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard 10.6.3 - I've backed up my mac with timemachine / external hard drive. Am I all set to go? Bit nervous!

Hello kind support people - I'm not hugely technical so would appreciate any advice, I'm very worried about my i-photos and loosing them. All my important documents are already on google drive so that's ok if anything has gone wrong. Does all the information stay on my mac (such as photos and mail etc) when I upgrade? Am I likely to experience any difficulties or should I be doing anything else? Yesterday I used time machine for the first time, I have an external hard drive with back-ups taking place all the time (completed yesterday over a couple of hours). Can I just eject the hardrive now and put my upgrade disc in?
Thanks in advance

1. Yes, unless a problem occurs.
2. No, you’re not.
3. Yes.
(111564)

Can a PC and a Mac read my external hard drive?

I just recently got a MacBook Pro. I have an external hard drive with all my pictures and music on it. I plugged this into my Mac and went to back it up with Time Machine, but it said it had to remove everything currently on the external since it was formatted to a PC. I made sure to save everything on there, went ahead with the back up, and put everything back on. Today, I tried to plug the external into my PC at work to take a look at some stuff and I wasn't able to open the external at all. I'm assuming this is becuase I reformatted it to the Mac. Is there any way to make it so I can use my external on both my work PC and my home MacBook? Thank you

Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select the external hard drive (entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to MBR then click on the OK button. Set the format type to MSDOS (FAT.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

Using Mac mini as External Hard Drive for time machine

I know this can be done but I am not sure how. How can I set up a mac mini as an external hard drive. Can this be used as a drive for time machine?? Any help is appreciated, Thank you.

Personal file sharing (which may require Leopard on the Mini) or by connecting the Mini to your other Mac via Target Disk Mode. I wouldn't recommend that latter, though; too much chance of inadvertently erasing files critical to the operation of the Mini.

Mac OS X External Hard Drive Cache

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