Need advice on External Hard Drive

I have an old iMac (6+ years old) with 500GB which is essentially full and an old Time Capsule (5+ years old) with 1TB. (I also have 2 MBPs but I don't back these up). Now I am finally ready to do a "technology refresh" and am looking at the newest iMac 27" with 3TB Fusion disk and a new backup device. So I am considering one of the LaCie devices (either the LaCie 4TB Prosche Design or the LaCie 3TB (or 4TB) USB/Thunderbolt device. I am unsure which way to go with this. I am very open to suggestions on this particular choice.
I plan to move my many iPhoto libraries and iTunes library from the old iMac to the new iMac by just copying them using a Thunderbold cable as this is the only data I really want on the new system. I will re-install all Apple and Third Party apps. My husband will inherit my old iMac which will then have lots of free disk space after deleting the iPhoto Libraries. (He's stil a Windows guy so I'm using this approach to get him "converted" - he is not really a power user - mainly financial stuff and of course there is no Apple version of his perferred app - I will get to try either CrossOver or BootCamp).
I would then use the new EHD with TM to backup both iMacs. I would retire my old TC as I don't use it as a router and I find backing up via WiFi just too slow - TM also seems to slow down the whole system when running. Perhaps I could keep the old TC and use it to back up both MBPs but I consider the user data on them "transient" - i.e. I move important stuff to my iMac.
All feedback on my plans most welcome.

If you want to use Time Machine to backup all these computers, then you will likely need more than 2 TBs of storage. A TM backup drive should have at least twice the capacity of the drives it backs up. Therefore if you have 5 computers with total drive capacity of 2 TBs, then your TM backup drive will require a capacity of at least 4 TBs. Or you need to have more than one 2 TB backup drive. TM, however, can only backup to one drive at a time.
A centralized backup system for all the computers would suggest some type of wireless network storage solution. In order to get, say, 4 TBs of storage you would need a RAID enclosure that could support up to four 1 or 2 TB drives that could be configured into a striped RAID to provide the storage needs for a TM backup-based configuration. Preferably a box from Synology may work since they support Mac formatted drives and OS X which will be essential in order to use Time Machine. Synology is one of the few NAS developers that provide a TM based backup solution. Normally TM will not work with any NAS device except a Time Capsule.
iTunes and iPhoto libraries can be shared amongst all local network users as long as the computer with the libraries is online. Simply open iTunes' or iPhoto's preferences, click on the Sharing icon in the toolbar, then enable library sharing.

Similar Messages

Need Advice on External Hard Drive Error

I just purchased the OWC 750g External Firewire HD for my Imac G4, plugged it in and it appeared in my Finder. The User Guide says that I need to use Disc Utility to repartition the drive, which I did, in 3 partitions - two to be bootable drives for my iBook and iMac (160g each) and the 3rd to hold data from both computers (the remaining 378g). However, after completing this and hitting "partition" I got the 'Partition failed - Could not unmount disk' message. Any clue ... I'm not extensively techno savvy but I do my best!
Thanks!
Sorry - I'm new at posting, so this appeared a few times in the wrong place

Probably something as simple as a restart of the iMac would be enough to remind the iMac that it's okay to unmount the drive.
Remember to use "Mac OS Extended ... (Journalled)" as the format for normal Mac use and as you have PowerPC Macs you should use "Apple Partition Map". Bear in mind you'd need to reformat for booting an Intel Mac.
cheers
mrtotes

Advice about external hard drive recovery

Does anyone have experience or advice about external hard drive recovery?
I have a USB external drive that crashed during a power brownout, I couldn't mount the image at first but used Diskwarrior to rebuild it. Now I can see and navigate the drive but I am unable to pull many files off without the finder crashing. It would transfer about 130mb of 10gb then stay at that number and not progress past that amount.
Should I try a different recovery program or would removing the drive and placing it in another external drive enclosure solve something like this?
any help appreciated

When in DW there is a Preview to see the old and new volume.
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/harddrives/topic4557.html#d10aug2010
Data Rescue 3 demo will show you what it's scan finds, costs $99
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
you need to have another drive to recover your files to.
Yes I would try another case, maybe the power brick was all that is now half-dead also
And you really need a UPS - never be w/o
http://pondini.org/OSX/UPS.html
MacBook Pro:
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro

I need a new external hard drive for my iMac8,1

I need a new external hard drive for my :
Model Name:    iMac
Model Identifier:    iMac8,1
Processor Name:    Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:    3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors:    1
Total Number Of Cores:    2
L2 Cache:    6 MB
Memory:    4 GB
Bus Speed:    1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version:    IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system):    1.30f1
Serial Number (system):    YD8520CD0N4
Hardware UUID:    073B29AD-6FFB-5E64-A52C-BF19A054F363
I do not have Thunderbolt on this and when I look up the specs for USB I get
USB Bus:
Host Controller Location:    Built-in USB
Host Controller Driver:    AppleUSBUHCI
PCI Device ID:    0x2835
PCI Revision ID:    0x0004
PCI Vendor ID:    0x8086
Bus Number:    0x3a
Don't know if this is USB 3.0 or USB 2.0
All the new drives seem to use either Thunderbolt or USB 3.0

I have a Western Digital 2 Terabyte USB External Hard Drive and it works like a charm and it costed me $129.00. My opinion is you can't go wrong with this brand and size for home use.
Cheers
Don

Do you need a special external hard drive for iMac?

Do you need a special external hard drive for iMac?

Any external hard drive that will connect via Firewire 800, USB, or Thunderbolt will work.
I have a 750GB Western Digital Scorpio drive in an OWC case, sitting on a Backpack, which connects via Firewire. Western Digital Scorpio drives have 5 year warranties, the OWC (macsales.com) cases usually use the Oxford chipset which works well with macs, and the Backpack is a slick way to mount a backup drive without taking up desk space.
After you hook up whatever external drive you end up with, you'll partition and initialize it for OS X, then begin using it.
My opinion, I would not get a Western Digital pre-packaged external drive/case. While the hard drives are OK, there have been a number of people that have had issues with the electronics.

Help/explanation needed - Using an external hard drive

Hi everyone,
I bought an external 250gb hard drive as my MBP was very close to full capacity. Yesterday, I had a bit of a scare...
1. I backed up my Aperture Library onto the external hard drive.
2. I had about 500 of my favourite images rated 5 star and so I selected these and set up a new project.
3. I went through my Aperture library deleting folders/projects that I have completed.
4. I went back into the 5 star ratings and they did not exist. I assume this is because I deleted the master files.
5. I wanted to have the 5 star images on my laptop and so I connected my external hard drive once again. [This is where I felt I lost control and understanding of what was going on].
6. I looked for the seperate Aperture files but could only find a file called Aperture Library. I clicked on this but nothing happened at all [I had thought that it would open up Aperture with the previous library].
7. I dragged the library onto my desktop and waiting for all the images to reload onto my laptop. I then saw that everything was as it was previously, i.e. all the files and images existed. However, my hard drive space was even lower [I assume this was because the current workflow that I had left on the laptop was now duplicated?].
8. Then I got a message saying my iDisk space is critically low and may damage my Aperture library. Moments later the majority of my images disappeared and a red space appeared where every photo had previously been. Since I have 2 weddings that I am yet to deliver I was very panicked. I tried to drag and drop the Aperture library once again and the message came back that the operation could not be completed due to the current file already existing.
9. I unplugged the external hard drive and the photos re-appeared [much to my delight]. However, my concern is that I really don't understand what happened and more importantly why. I will need access to the data on the external hard drive in the event in the near future and am worried that the same thing will happen next time I connect it.
As a result of all this I have some questions, as follows:-
- Have I adopted the completely wrong approach to backing up data?
- Can the master files be compressed as I shoot RAW and these are huge files?
- Why could I not use the Aperture library stored on the external hard drive without downloading it back onto the laptop?
and a more general question about file storage...
- I am confused as to how much hard drive space is being used on my MBP. I have 13gb in Aperture, 1gb in iTunes and 1gb in iPhoto. However, I only have 50gb available, so half the capacity is currently being used. I know that Aperture and Garageband applications use about 10gb between them and there is of course the operating system, but 50gb in total seems a lot. On investigation in the finder screen I see that on my personal drive the Aperture, iTunes and iPhoto data is stored there. However, it is also stored under pictures and music respectively. Does this mean that it is storing duplicate copies of this data and that is the explanation for such high hard drive usage? If this is the case, can one be removed?
I appreciate that this has been a long email, but I felt it was important to illustrate the steps I have taken. As you will no doubt glean from this post I am not the most computer literate person. Any help/explanation would be most appreciated.
Many thanks,
Jamie

Hi Jamie.
I am not sure what went wrong with your setup but I will let you know my configuration as an example and you can decide if you think it is a good way to have it. I am asuming you are using ver 1.5?
Like you I have only a Laptop (G4 17" 1.5Ghz 2 Gig Ram - would love a macbook) so hard disk space is a premium. I also have an external firewire drive to hold all the HiRes RAW images. When I download my images from the Camera I do it manually into folders on the external drive (Cataloged by Date and maybe description of location). I then Import the images from those folders into Aperture but use the option when importing to "Store Files - In their current location".
My Aperture library file is on my laptop so all that it has to store is the "Preview" file that gets generated automatically (in the preferences I have it set up to the resolution of my laptop 1440pix so that if I did a slide show it is only as big as my screen - anything more is a waste of disk space IMO.)
I do it this way so that it is easy to find and work on my files with other programs such as Photoshop by going straight to the image rather than exporting from Aperture.
Obviously I cant edit the RAW files while the drive is disconnected but I can still do ratings and keywords without the original files being there.
I hope this helps.
Regards
Andrew
G4 17inch Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2 Gigs RAM

Any advice on external hard drives and invaild node structure?

(Since I wrote a lot) The Basic summary:
What external hard drive would you recommend? How do I run/use safe mode to fix the "invalid node structure" error? Or the worst case scenario, how do I reinstall the OS?
The long version
I have an iMac PowerPC G5, OS X 10.4.11... When I last turned it on, it took 15 minutes to go through the startup process. I opened to Safari to try to find some answers but it was half working and slow. Firefox was fine.
I ran disk verify and found the invalid node structure error. I backed up some files onto DVDRs but I didn't get everything.
Going through forum threads it seems I have two options.
-One is to go into safe mode and type in commands to run disk repair repeatedly until no errors show.
-Second option is to start over and reinstall everything.
Obviously, I would like to avoid reinstalling. Can someone help me with what commands I need to type in when I start safe mode, make repairs and to get out of safe mode?
Also, before I begin to fix the error I need to finish backing up my files. Instead of dealing with CDs, I would like an external hard drive. Any recommendations?
I've read that USB is kind of slow and because I own a powerpc I can't boot from the external hard drive (via USB). I don't know if booting from the external hard drive is something I should worry about...? I found this Mercury quad that seems to cover all options but not sure if the brand is worth the price? Or is there something similar for less?
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/400+USB2/
Thank you in advance! I hope that wasn't too long of a post...

Hi baran1, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Going through forum threads it seems I have two options.
More actually...
DiskWarrior...
http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/details3.html
Drive Genius…
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php
TechTool Pro…
http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=83
One is to go into safe mode and type in commands to run disk repair repeatedly until no errors show.
To clear up some confusion, those are two different modes, Safe Boot, (Safe Mode), from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), tries to repair the HD while the Radian is going.
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.
Single User Mode is where you would type those commands in.
To use fsck, you must run it from the command line. Unlike using your mouse to open an application to do something, you'll need to type a text command at the prompt (#) to tell fsck what to do. The Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities) and single-user mode are two examples of command-line interfaces in which you can type such commands. To use fsck:
1. Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line. Hold CMD+s keys down at bootup. Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer. On desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.
2. At the command-line prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy
(SPACE between fsck AND -fy important)
3. Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found: 
The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK  If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message: *** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***   Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
4. When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), & use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, reboot once more.
Or is there something similar for less?
The FireWire 400 + USB 2.0 model is cheaper than the FireWire 800/400 + USB2, + eSATA 'Quad Interface' on that page.

Need Help with External Hard drives and too much music

I am not terribly tech-savvy, and I need your help. I have a G5 PPC dual processor with an internal 250GB drive. I have two seagate firewire/USB2 external hard drives. One is 250GB and one is 350GB. I want to know how to use them to get my Mac to run faster and better.
My original hard drive is 7GB shy of being full. Almost half of this is my itunes library which is over 100GB. The older (250GB) hard drive has about 150GB of photos/videos.
My Mac is running slow as molasses and when I power up the external hard drives it slows down to what I recall my original Mac Plus ran like.
I use the G5 primarily to work with photos, illustrations and creating the occasional DVD with video and photos. the apps I use most often are Photoshop, Illustrator and Painter. I always listen to music while work.
I hope all of this information is helpful! Here is my question:
What is the best way for me to set up and use these external hard drives to return my G5 to its original blazing (to me) fast speed?
PPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I think you should look at adding two 500GB internal drives. I'd say Maxtor MaxLine Pro for cost, but they also run much warmer (43ºC even when nearly doing zilch) so I'd go with WD RE2 500GB for $40 ea. more.
dump whatever you don't need, trash anything that is hogging space and is just temp file or useless cache. Web browsers can leave behind a ton of small files eating up tens of MBs.
Use SuperDuper to backup/clone your drive.
Disk Warrior 4 to repair (after it gets to 15% free, or just forget for now).
A 250GB drive formats to 240GB and you have ~3% free it looks like.
For every data drive plan to have two backup drives.
Keep your boot drive to 40% used.
And your data drive to 60%.
Backups can go a little higher.
Drives are cheap and inexpensive, especially for the space and performance. And they have improved SATA over the years it has been out.
By doing a backup followed by erasing your drive, and then restoring it, using SuperDuper, which optimizes the organization, skips copying temp files that aren't needed, it also defragments your files. I would do backup daily to different sets that you "rotate." And before any OS update. And do the erase and restore probably every 2 months.
Make sure you keep one drive partition somewhere that is just your disk utility emergency boot drive that is not a copy of working system, used for doing repairs like running Disk Warrior and Disk Utility.
You may need to repair; backup; even erase and restore your external drives. Rather than spend on vendor made case, just pick up a good FireWire case either with drive, or bare (and add your own). I think it'd add 500GB FW drive though.
Why?
To begin backup of your current drive. To leave your other FW drives "as is" for now.
Then install a new internal 500GB drive as well so you now have a good current backup, and you have moved your data off 250GB to 500GB. If anything happens, you have one off line FW backup.
Then begin to clean up, organize, and get your FW drives working. It sure sounds like they have had some directory or file problems.
You can find a lot of Firewire and SATA drive choices over at OWC:
http://www.macsales.com/firewire/

Advice on external hard drives for Macbook pro

I am looking to buy an external hard drive for my macbook pro urgently.
I was intending to purchase a time capsule but am really concerned with the reliability concerns of the time capsules where they stop working after 6 months to 18 months as posted on various forums.
I was considering purchasing a western digital external hard drive but they also receive a lot of negative feedback.
I have never used firewire previously but am interested in getting feedback as to how useful forum readers find this feature.
In terms of size am looking for 1TB approx.
Thanks in advance for your assistance as i need to purchase one immediately and i do not have time to research fully. Make, model number and approximate cost would be very helpful as well as where i could purchase hard drive in london. I am more concerned with quality rather than cost.

Opinions vary and people have different experiences ...
I'd recommend the LaCie 1TB Quadra drive at £134 it has eSATA, USB2 and FW400 and FW800 Interfaces (it comes with all four cables) and I've found them reliable and rugged.
http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?pid=11158
http://www.lacie.com/uk/wheretobuy/index.htm

Advice on external hard drives

hi
i am looking to buy an external hard drive of approx 250GB. I want something that will just plug and play. Ease of use and reliability are key!
i don't know where to begin - can anyone recommend one?
thanks
ibook g4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

OWC is where I bought mine. I got a 500GB model but the link is for a 250GB version since that was what you are looking for. The drive also has several USB2 and FireWire400 plugins for expansion.
The drive is ready to go as soon as you get it. I zeroed out my drive after I got it but that is up to you. It comes with some good software on disk. It also has some freebies on HD that you can burn off to CD.
As far as bootability you will need a good backup tool like SuperDuper.
The first time you copy to backup your hard drive it will take a little time. From then on smart backup will take only a fraction of the time as it only copies the changes that have occurred since the last backup.
Edit: They show the UK as a shipping destination.

Need to reformat external hard drive for time machine?

Hello,
We recently purchased an external hard drive for our family iMac after we had to have a new hard drive put in. We picked up a Western Digital 1tb My Book (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=725). I set up the external hd with time machine and all was fine for about a month.
An error message of "The backup volume is read only" started appearing. I attempted to repair the disk through these directions http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275#1 but when I was trying to follow the steps, I think I disconnected the external hd without dismounting it, so now I'd assume I need to reformat the external hd. I can't seem to find instructions on how to do this. Where should I look for reformatting my external hard drive?
Any other tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the 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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Message was edited by: Kappy

Need help with external hard drive!

Hi all,
I have been having trouble with my external hard drive.
My mac is reading the disk however all my files from the hard drive are missing?
In disk utility is seems to show that there are files on the disk but I cannot see them?
At the bottom is shows that there are files on the disk!
PLEASE HELP!!!!
Here is a screenshot of my disk utility

Ok just to clarify the format issue...
Just move the data from the external drive, format and then move it back if you want, as JiveMasterT explained.
If the external drive is FAT file system, then you don't need to format the drive unless you are planning on using the drive as an OSX backup.

Need help formatting external hard drive for OS 10.5.8.

My older 2007 iMac is running on OS 10.5.8. I purchaed Snow Lepoard but was told to back up years of music and pictures. I bought an external hard drive that is compatible with Mac OS 10.6. How do I format the external hard drive to accept OS 10.5.8.? Showing error code -43....? HELP PLEASE!

How is the current EHD formatted?

Need recommendation on external hard drive

I just purchased a Western Digital external hard drive 500 GB that is Mac compatible. The directions make it look like you just plug it in and go. Nope. I've been on hold with their technical support for 15 minutes now and I'm fed up. A previous person suggested "SuperDuper" and I have no idea if that's an actual external hard drive or another method of backing things up via the internet. I want something Mac friendly and "easy" to set up.
Thanks!

What do you actually want to do with the hard drive?
SuperDuper is a backup program.

Does time machine need a dedicated external hard drive or can I partition it?

I am trying to figure out the best way to back up my husband's computer. He has too much data so I need to get about 80 GB off his computer on to an external drive and then need to back that up as well. Right now I have two external drives one dedicated to time machine and one that backs up as a carbon copy bootable backup. I think both external drives are 500GB, but he is on the computer and I don't want to fuss with having him get off right now. I ordered an additional external drive so I have some where for his 80 GB of his data. I can take one of the external drives currently used for time machine and partition it (mac OS journaled) and use one of the parts for time machine and the other for the 80 GB of data. Will this affect our ability to get data off of time machine in the event his 5 year old hard drive dies? The 80 GB of data includes important photos, so I would like them in two places. I would consider cloud, but he is running Leopard and I know that iCloud only works with Lion.

Thanks to everyone for all your opinions and thanks to baltwo for this TM FAQ website. Before asking this question, I browsed the internet and some people advised that a hard drive needed to be dedicated. It seems now that if I partition the external drive and have a big enough drive that I should be ok.

Need advice on External Hard Drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for