500GB drives and backing up

I will be buying a Mac Pro in the very near future, as I'm after a machine that has plenty of upgrade potential (and I get a pretty good Apple Store discount with my employer).
I have a lot of audio files, large aiff files for audio production and around 150GB of mp3 files. After doing some reading here, it seems my best option is to have the stock 160GB drive from Apple, remove it, and install a 3rd party 500GB from day one. Now, in terms of backing up my files, I'm a bit unsure of how to go about it. Should I get a second 500GB drive purely to back up the first drive? Would this be achieved through RAID? And how exactly would the RAID configuration work in this case? Being honest, I've never had any experience with RAID, but if it's suitable for my needs (or not), I would appreciate anyone who can steer me in the right direction.
Thank you.
Powerbook G4
Powerbook G4
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Hi bos bos!
And Welcome to Apple Discussions!
No need to apologise here some are just a bit high on life
If I was you this is what I'll do (which I'm thinking of probably doing):
1. Get the stock 250GB you don't get much credit downgrading - and use it as your boot drive. If you however decide that you want another powerful or silent drive then you can upgrade in the future. Check this thread: Western Digital Raptor and Tiger concerning Boot drives and some serious great advice!
2. Get an external 250GB FW HD (FW 800 would be great but expensive) and use that to clone/back up you Boot Drive via SuperDuper weekly or when you like. You can also backup to internal 250GB Hard drive. Usually clone your drive before upgrading or installing firmware or security installs, etc.
3. If your going to run windows, buy another internal drive for it. So its seperate
4. Buy a larger drive eg. 500GB and use it for data, move your home folder to it eg. documents, itunes, movies, etc. Thus if something goes wrong with Tiger you can just reclone it back without affecting your personal data. Get another FW 800 External drive and backup that drive to it. Maybe some synching program as well that only updates the changes made daily or every 6 hours or so. And backup to DVD always and store off-site.
5. Forget RAID, if you do not know what it is you do not need it. Hey I'm still trying to understand it but I do not need it! But from what I understand it is used mostly for backup purposes by combing 2 or more drives together where people need large amounts of hard drive space. Some people will (and you will notice them here in the Mac Pro thread) use RAID as Boot Drive. But notice they are high end users and know the risks. Also note that you cannot update or install apple firmware in Tiger if your running RAID.
These days External HD are really cheap (but do get quality ones) especially FW400 and USB2. I was considering buying three drives something like 250GB and use them as a 3 day concurrent backup - eg. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then rotate use Monday for Thursday and so on. Then I've got 3 days of backup so if something goes wrong I can always go back to it.
If you have a basement/garage anywhere its reasonable to store a PC and have used PCs before what you can do is buy yourself a cheap ATX Cabnet (sells around £20) get a cheap motherboard, RAM, Gigabit Network Card and stock it with 4x250GB internal HDs and share over the network. Obviously do not connect it to the internet and keep it on its own subnet. Its surprisingly easy to configure this and it'll cost you the same amount of a 3-400GB external drive maybe even less.
Instant Storage. Use PC's what they were built for - basement/garage trash that no one needs to see

Similar Messages

Set up to save directly to external Hard Drive so cannot have separate 'back up'I now want to reverse i.e save to internal Hard Drive and 'back up' on external 'hard Drive'. Please advise me how to do this.

Macbook Air 13 inch purchased October 2013. set up to save [mainly photos] to external 'hard drive' i.e. not saved to internal hard drive. Cannot find easy way to create 'back up'. Please advise how I can reverse i.e save directly to internal 'hard drive' and 'back up on external 'hard drive'

For backing up your data I recommend that you use Time machine:
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
rob at the orchard wrote:
save directly to internal 'hard drive'
When you import images or create other data files, file them in the appropriate places on your internal drive, don't delete them and let Time machine back them up.
Ciao.

How do i use a time capsule as a shared drive and back it up to another time capsule using time machine ??

how do i use a time capsule as a shared drive and back it up to another time capsule using time machine ??

You cannot backup network drives with Time Machine.
You can simply setup the TC in the network.. it is a shared drive.

Problems trying to store iTunes on external hard drive and back up iPhone to internal hard drive?

Hi
I have been tirelessly trying to relocate my entire iTunes function to an external hard drive to free space on my laptop. I have migrated the iTunes library (from the 'My Music' location on laptop) to ext hard drive and also reinstalled iTunes, asking to save all files during set up to the ext drive (not in default 'Program Files' on laptop). I have also pointed iTunes to the library's new location on the ext hard drive. I did this after reading a recommendation on here that it is better to have both my library and all other iTunes files in the same place.
One of the problems is when I have moved the library, it has for some reason created two iTunes folders on the ext drive with different music in each, but the library database file is only available in one of them, and I am not sure if all the music from both folders is available in iTunes.
Another huge issue is that when I have tried to back up my iPhone to the computer (as recommended to do after migrating the iTunes program to another location), it is not letting the process complete; I get an error message saying it cannot save to the computer. It seems the location of the back ups (C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup) isn't compatible with the new location of my library etc (on my ext drive)and from searching the internet for a solution, it seems you can't change the location of where back ups of an iPhone are stored.
So, does anyoine know if there is a fix-all solution to these dilemmas? Or should I just keep my library on one drive and the iTunes program on my int drive?
Thanks in advance
VR

Hmm.
I'm sure I'd successfully tested the command line version of the move instructions at one point, but I'm getting the same "access denied" error when I try. Maybe "Move" doesn't like working with folders when the path contains sections with hidden or system flags. Anyway herewith version 3 which I've just tested works as described...
Relocate iOS device backups
Assuming you're running Windows Vista or later you can use the following steps:
Using Windows Explorer move the current Mobile Sync Backup folder from C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup to your chosen location, e.g. as X:\Backup where <User> is your Windows user name and X: is your preferred drive.
To make iTunes look for the data in the new location open a command prompt by hitting the start button and typing CMD<Enter> in the search box that opens up, then type in this command and press <Enter>
MkLink /J "C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "X:\Backup"
If your external drive has a different letter or you already have a folder called "Backup" then edit "X:\Backup" accordingly.
If you're still running Windows XP you can use Junction (cmd line tool) or NTFSLink (shell ext). In both cases you move the existing folder to a new location, create an empty folder where the old one used to be, then use the tools to get the operating system to link the two together and silently redirect any file operation on the old location through to the new one.
Note that while this method works for iOS device backups it cannot be used to redirect sections of the media library. iTunes will break the connection the first time it tries to write a file to the target folder.
What happens when you want to sync the device? If you're getting a warning about erasing and reloading the device with media from the current library then something is wrong. If you moved the library files correctly and then reconnected them to iTunes this should still be the "home" library of the device and it should sync as if nothing had changed. If not then revist the make a split library portable post for advice. See also Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device if for some reason you accidentally erased the original library files and all backups thereof.
tt2

External Hard Drive and Back Ups..

I've been searching the net and getting myself more confused with each website I find. Since I've had great luck with the folks on these forums I figured that I'd try my luck again...here goes...
I thought backing up my MacBook Pro would be easy...get and external drive one half the size of my current hard drive and let Time Machine do the rest. But then I got all twisted trying to decide between external drives, online back up services, etc.
1. Some folks recommend taking video, photo, iTunes files, etc. and keeping them EXCLUSIVELY on an external drive just to keep the computer from running slowly. Problem is...if I do that...there's only ONE copy of those files. Drive fails...bye bye.
2. And what about the system itself? If my comp goes down and I have to reboot the whole system or a new computer...does the external have my system files on it? Some folks recommend having a clone drive all by itself?
3. HOW MANY DRIVES AM I SUPPOSED TO HAVE?!?
Basically I'm a paramedic and emergency services educator and I'm always on the move. I also work overseas a lot and am always downloading medical videos, podcasts, photos, e-books, etc. for educational purposes. I don't want my computer to get slow but I have to make sure every thing is copied...one original...and one copy.
Sorry if I sound like I'm technologically illiterate but I could really use a hand here. The more I look...the more confused I get.
Thanks in advance for you time fellas...
-John-

There are many philosophies on backing up, and you will get many opinions.
For safety, it is good to have at least 2 separate drives for backup, so that you have your information on more than one drive. One of these drives could be a portable drive that goes with you everywhere. The other could be a large desktop drive that stays home when you travel, or it could be a second portable drive. I travel a lot myself, and what I have is two portable firewire drives. One goes everywhere with me, and the other stays at home in a fire proof safe. This is so that if the worst happens and my Mac and external drive are stolen or destroyed, most of my data will be safe at home. So if it it feasible, it would be good to have one complete copy of your stuff in a separate location so it would always be safe.
What might be simplest would be for you to have a large enough internal drive to accommodate all your stuff if possible. You will need to keep 15% to 20% of your internal drive free for optimum performance of the OS. As long as you do that, you should not experience the slowness that comes when a drive is too full.
If you want to create a bootable clone for a backup, you will need an external drive--or a partition of an external drive--that is the same size as your internal drive. If you want to have a Time Machine backup, you will need an external drive--or a partition-- that is much larger than your internal drive. I'm not sure that a Time Machine backup would be the best thing for you to have. For one thing, it it's not bootable.
If all your stuff will not fit on your internal drive, then you will need a drive--or a partition of a drive--that is dedicated to that data.
I would recommend that you look at these two cloning utilities:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
You can download either one and run it as much as you like for free. If you want to unlock Super Duper's more useful features such as Smart Update, you can register a copy for $28. CCC is donation ware.
I use Super Duper myself, so I can say that it is very easy to use. I am not as familiar with CCC, but I have heard good things about it.
What I would recommend is 2 external FireWire drives, each larger than your internal drive. A good source would be OWC, where you can select a bare drive and put it in OWC's excellent Mercury on the Go FireWire 800 enclosure. USB would work, but FireWire 800 would be much faster.
You can partition these drives. One partition on each would be the same size as your internal drive, and this partition would be used to create a bootable clone of your internal drive. That means that if your internal drive were to die, you would be able to boot from the external and keep on working. You would of course keep both of these external clones as up to date as possible.
The second partition would be for any data that would not fit on your internal drive--say if you find your internal drive is getting too full, and you need to move some videos off onto the external to create more space on the internal. If you did that, you could clone the second partition of that drive to the second partition of your other external drive, so that you would have 2 copies, one on each external drive.
It's hard to give complete advice not knowing the size of your internal drive or about how many GB's of videos and stuff that you need. If there is going to be a huge amount of videos, you may need separate drives for them rather than partitions.
Hope this will help. If you could post back with the size of your internal drive and the approximate size of your videos etc, it would be easier to make specific recommendations.
Good luck!

New hard drive and backing up

I just purchased a new hard drive. I currently use Time Machine to back everything up. Can I use this clone my new drive or should I use another program. Also my current drive has a partiton for Windows but it's not big enough. I would like to increase the size of this partition on the new drive. I'm not worried if I loose everything on the windows side of the partition. Just one program right now that I can relaod but need to keep everything on the Mac side of the drive.
Also I have yet to upgrade to the new OSX Loin. How should I do this. Upgrade before cloning the new drive, Put the OS on the new drive them move everything over or just clone the drive and upgrade after I instale the new drive and it's up and running.
Thanks

I would recommend cloning your current drive to an external hard drive other than the one you use for your TM backups. Alternatively, wipe the TM backup drive and clone to it. You can restore it as your TM backup drive later.
First, Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions:
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Second, Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility:
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Third, Install The New Drive.
Fourth, Prep The New Drive:
Boot from your clone. Prep the new drive as follows:
Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
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.
Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Fifth, Restore The Clone:
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the newly installed internal drive. Source means the external backup clone drive.

How to recover pictures I deleted from my hard drive and backed up with TM

Hello all,
2 months ago, using the TM for the first time, I decided to delete all my pictures from my MacBook Pro as they were saved with TM.
Then, when I went to look for them in TM, they were gone as well.
Anyway, I do hope, to recover them all?
and.... how to store them so that they don't take so much space on my MacBook Pro?
Many thanks in anticipation, I feel so useless with this all!

TM does not retain files that have been deleted from the hard drive for more than one week. During the weekly consolidation files removed from the hard drive are then removed from the TM backup.
If you are trying to use TM like a regular backup storage utility, then you've misunderstood how TM works. See the following explanation:
About TM "Backup Drive is Full" Alert
TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Data are deleted to make space for a new backup, but if TM is unable to delete enough files to free up space for the new backup, then you will get a disk full error. Normal thinning during a backup occurs during TM's periodic weekly and monthly consolidation backups. Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.

Invalid key length? Continue lengthy disk repair or wipe drive and back up?

Does Disk Repair address an invalid key length? Or should I wipe the hard drive and restore from Time Machine? Are third party disk repair apps worth considering — and the time and money?

Use Disk Warrior if you cannot repair the drive with Disk Utility.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Lion
Boot from your Lion Recovery HD. When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
To boot from the Recovery HD restart the computer. After the chime hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.

How do I move documents OUT of iCloud Drive and back to my mac?

Since I "upgraded" to iCloud drive, everything is all messed up. I can't view documents in Pages on my iPad; Apple startp[age won't even play movie trailers because it's telling me I don't have Quicktime (which is now in iCloud also), and I feel like I have no control over anything on my mac anymore. I would just like to turn off icloud drive but that will result in ERASING all of my documents that are in the cloud. This is SO STUPID. I want to move every thing back to my mac, and if I want cloud storage I will just use Google drive since it's easier and more seamless.
Any ideas/tips?
Thanks.

Since you mentioned that you delete photos from the camera roll as well as the photo stream, there is no way you can get access to your photos again. Photo stream is nothing but "the cloud". Since you deleted the photos off the cloud, you cannot retrieve them.
As to how photo stream works and how the cloud works, here is a link:
My Photo Stream FAQ - Apple Support

Trouble Transferring to a Portable Hard Drive and Backing up.

Hi there.
Recently I have come across a small snag when trying to back up my work folder to a portable hard drive. When I drag it across to the drive (Formatted FAT32 if that helps) it begins to transfer and creates the folder before giving me this message 'The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “Creative Work” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)'
So I decided to try and repair the permissions on Macintosh HD with Disk Utility. Which gave me this message repeatedly after several tries.
Permissions differ on "usr/share/derby", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x .
Repaired "usr/share/derby".
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
I also tried to repair my permissions with Onyx which game me the same message as Disk Utility. The strange thing about this problem is I cant seem to find anything wrong with any of the files it simply wont let me back them up...
I was able to burn two back ups of the folder with Toast Titanium. Although there seems to be some discrepancies with the file size on the burnt DVD and that on Macintosh HD. Being that the burnt folder is about 0.3 of a gig smaller. I have looked through all the folders and files and cant find anything missing. Though there is a lot in there and I may run into something down the line.
I would really like to be able to get past this problem without having to re-install OS X because I am still not sure whether I have a complete back up of my files on disk.
If anyone could offer me some suggestions I would be greatly appreciative.
Thank You.
(I hope my description wasn't too confusing)

Hi Piccolo32,
There's probably 1 or more files in the folder that are causing the issue. Depending on how many files your dealing with, you could consider dragging and dropping the files 1 by 1, to precisely track down the culprit(s).
*(error -36)* Please see the following posting and let us know if it's the exact same issue your having: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1771300&tstart=3285
*(SUID Error)* Please see this much longer discussion posting, which offers various solutions: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1204263
After reading threw the above posting, it appears, according to apple, the message your seeing can 'safely be ignored'. This is concerning the SUID file.
You appear to be having 2 issues. I was unable to find a solution for the error -36 issue. My suggestion about trying to narrow down which file(s) might be causing the issue is still worth trying, as long as you don't have 100s or 1000s of files to sift threw.
MacLovin
*Remember FAT32 has a file size limitation of 4GB (-1 byte). The previous posting is good advice, regarding formatting the drive to a native apple format.
Message was edited by: MacLovin54321

"Failing" Hard Drive and backing up

Greetings knowledgable Mac people. I have a 2.1GHz iMac G5 (w/ iSight), about 2.5 years old. No AppleCare unfortunately. Here's my story:
I was going to burn a copy of the "Flight of the Conchords" for a buddy. I went to Disk Utility, and noticed my HD was in red. I clicked on it and was dismayed to see that S.M.A.R.T. called it out as "failing" and that there had been some errors reported. I didn't know what s.m.a.r.t. was until it was too late. Everything has been working fine and I hadn't even noticed a difference. I'm a fairly casual home-user, mostly music/pictures/internet/garage band/etc. No backup as of yet, however...
I grabbed a LaCie 500gb external HD from a tech geek buddy's office. He's out of town and is more of a PC guy anyways. I plugged it into the USB port - it shows up in Disk Utility (with three apparent partitions greyed out) but nowhere else. In my hardware portion of the system profiler, it also shows up - but I haven't found it in Finder to drag all my music/photos/docs into for a backup. Do I need to format the ext. HD for Mac use? I'm guessing it's been used for PC's in the past. If that's my issue - anyone want to throw me a bone and give me the basics in formatting/backing up?
Many thanks in advance. Everything seems to be fine, but I'd hate to all of a sudden lose some irreplaceable pictures and have to reload 30 gigs of music.

You do need to format it, using Disk Utility: format it as Mac OS Extended (journaled) and use the APM partition method. Disk Utility will pretty much guide you through the process.
PLease post back with results,

Backing up an internal 500GB Drive to an external 500GB Drive

I recently began to use Time Machine on my Macbook in which I installed a 500GB drive and, initially, had good success. HOWEVER, now, my Time Machine drive says it has no space for another backup. It has a grand total of 1 (that's ONE) backup on it. I thought Time Machine did an initial Full and then only backed up changes to the drive. The external drive I am using has over 200 GB available (of its original 500GB) and nothing I have added to the laptop is THAT big. My purpose in backing this up is to enable me to return to a previous system in the event of a "soft" (directory issue etc..) hard drive failure (I have already done this successfully once).
I am contemplating getting a bigger Time Machine dedicated drive, but don't want to right away. I have recently had some hard drive issues and am fearful I will not have a current backup if things go south again.
Is there a way to ensure that Time Machine is doing the incremental I think it is or am I wrong in my assumptions? Can I improve my backups space usage (I already have removed the Apps and users from the backup) or should I get the bigger drive?
Message was edited by: JOEL L APPENZELLER

You need at least a drive that is twice the capacity of the data you are going to back up and I strongly recommend more. The more capacity your TM drive has, the more redundancy. Since you don't have enough drive space currently you have two options: trim the backup tree or buy a bigger drive.
Basic Solution 1: decide what data is most crucial and use TM's preferences to deselect all other folders. Keeping in mind the double capacity equation, this will work okay if you can trim your backup to around 250GB.
Basic Solution 2: buy a new (1 TB minimum) drive and use the current drive for something else. A few ideas follow.
The big problem with solution 1 is in the event of a catastrophe you have to reinstall your OS and your programs from a source other than your backup. This is going to take some serious time, not counting restoring data from TM. You could be dead in the water for hours - assuming you can replace the drive or get it working again by reformatting or partitioning.
Option 2 means spending more cash but it leaves you with a second backup drive and a solution to the problem above. Use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to clone your internal drive to the 500GB external. Once you've cloned the drive and know it is bootable, turn it off. You'll want to keep it updated but I like to keep my clone one update behind my computer - ie I am on 10.5.4 but my clone is still at 10.5.2 - when Apple releases the next update I'll clone my computer before I apply the update - just in case of disaster. If my drive dies I can boot off the clone, grab my newest data from TM and be up and running in a matter of minutes.
How do you know TM is doing incremental backups? For one thing, as long as you have it running, if there's a failure or if TM needs to delete something, you'll get a warning. If everything is okay, TM is quiet.

HT5097 I recently upgraded my macbook to Mountain lion. Before doing so I used time machine and an external hard drive to back up my entire laptop. When we upgraded my computer came back like new. All pics, music, videos documents etc gone. How do I ge

I recently upgraded my macbook to mountain lion. Before doing so I used time machine to back up my entire laptop with an external hard drive.
When I got my computer back it was clean....all pics, music, documents, bookmarks etc. are gone. How do I get these files off the external hard drive and back onto my laptop with the new upgrade?

I recently upgraded my macbook to mountain lion. Before doing so I used time machine to back up my entire laptop with an external hard drive.
When I got my computer back it was clean....all pics, music, documents, bookmarks etc. are gone. How do I get these files off the external hard drive and back onto my laptop with the new upgrade?

I formatted my hard drive and have tons of bookmarks I saved, but I can't figure out how to get them from my old folder into my new folder for my bookmarks.

I formatted my hard drive and backed up all my bookmarks to an external hard drive. I now want to take my bookmarks from my external hard drive and put them into my freshly formatted computer but I can't seem to find the place on my hard drive to save my bookmarks to. I searched everywhere online and it keeps telling me to import an html, but that doesn't help when I have about 20 bookmark folders and about 100 bookmarks altogether. Please help. Thank you.

'''''"... I have about 20 bookmark folders and about 100 bookmarks altogether. " '''''
Firefox doesn't store bookmarks like that, sound like a Windows / IE favorites scheme used for '''''url''''' files and folders which isn't directly compatible with the way Firefox does things. Firefox uses a '''json''' file for bookmark backups, a '''bookmarks.html''' for import and export is bookmarks, and stores the users bookmarks in the '''places.sqlite''' file, along with browsing history.
Put those folders and bookmarks in the '''\user\Favorites\''' folder so they are in IE and export your IE Favorites in HTML format, so you can import them into Firefox.
In IE:
File > Import/Export - Export to HTML file
''then in Firefox:'' <br />
Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks -> Import & Backup - Import HTML... = From HTML file

New hard drive and old ipod

I lost my hard drive (and no I hadn't backed up my music files). Is there any way for me to transfer music from my ipod to my PC?

1). Connect your iPod to your computer. If it is set to update automatically you'll get a message that it is linked to a different library and asking if you want to link to this one and replace all your songs etc, press "Cancel". Pressing "Erase and Sync" will irretrievably remove all the songs from your iPod.
2). When your iPod appears in the iTunes source list change the update setting to manual, that will let you continue to use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Check the "manually manage music and videos" box in Summary then press the Apply button. Also when using most of the utilities listed below your iPod needs to be enabled for disc use, changing to manual update will do this by default: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
3). Once you are connected and your iPod is safely in manual mode there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. iTunes will only let you copy your purchases directly from an iPod to the computer, you'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
For everything else (including purchases) there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
A selection of iPod to iTunes utilities:
TuneJack Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
SharePod Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod2PC Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
YamiPod Mac and Windows
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
iPodRip Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
Music Rescue Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
TouchCopy Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide
4). Whichever of these retrieval methods you choose, keep your iPod in manual mode until you have reloaded your iTunes and you are happy with your playlists etc then it will be safe to return it auto-sync.
5). I would also advise that you get yourself an external hard drive and back your stuff up, relying on an iPod as your sole backup is not a good idea and external drives are comparatively inexpensive these days, you can get loads of storage for a reasonable outlay: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

500GB drives and backing up

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