Best Results - Internal or External Hard Drive

What are the best results:
I have heard that a fully optimized (defragged) external drive is required for the best results, but not sure.
Any advice would be helpful
Thanks,
Steve

Welcome to the forum.
Unfortunately, you have been instructed incorrectly.
An internal will always be the best. Having a minimum of 2 physical internals is where to start and having 3 physical internals is better, and worth the $, so long as you have the space and controller connectors.
With externals, they stack up this way:
1.) USB 2.0 - horribly slow and prone to read/write errors, when attempting to edit to/from. Should be used for archiving and backups.
2.) FW-400 - slow, but better. Not prone to read/write errors, like USB 2.0.
3.) FW-800 - faster yet. I use these to edit to/from, and can migrate my Projects from computer to computer
4.) eSATA - now we're talking. These will offer real world performance, just a bit below your internal SATA II HDD's
Do not have data on USB 3.0's, or SATA III's. SCSI is good, but require a dedicated controller, and are not that large. They also cost premium $'s, and the performance is not THAT much better than a well-turned SATA II.
SSD's are good for OS, but one should have 2x physical HDD's for actually editing. The $/GB ratio is still way up there.
Things to avoid:
1.) partitions on any HDD
2.) only one RAID 0, which will be seen as a single HDD. RAID's are great and fast, but having multiple physical HDD's is better for video editing. If one uses RAID, it would be best for the media HDD and for the Export HDD. Some also use them for a separate Audio HDD.
Good luck,
Hunt
PS - all will benefit from regular defragmenting. I do this daily, if not more frequently.

Similar Messages

Backup internal and external hard drives-TC and offsite

I now have Mavericks 10.9.3 on my iMac with a 2TB (1.25 TB used) internal hard drive.
I also have some external drives attached to my iMac with older iPhoto libraries and other files (total file sizes 940 GB and 505 GB). I primarily use Aperture now on my internal hard drive, but still access those iPhoto libraries on my external drives on occasion. I have Time Machine backup my iMac internal hard drive on my 2TB Time Capsule regularly.
My primary question is in regards to getting another copy onto a larger external drive that covers my internal and external drives so I can have a backup off-site. Online backup services seem to always exclude external drives. So a physical drive I can have offsite seems to be the best option.
A year ago I changed the destination of my Time Machine backup to be on a 3TB external drive (backed up iMac internal hard drive and the two externals). However, when I changed the destination of the backup back to the Time Capsule, the TM initiated a brand new backup (it did not recall that I had backed up prior to that on my Time Capsule).
I want to backup monthly, if not quarterly for my off-site storage. But, if every time I change the destination drive for TM, a new backup profile is created, it will overwork my drives unnecessarily.
Is there a backup program or a process on "disk utility" I could run parallel to TM that I just use quarterly capturing only the changes/additions in those few months for both the internal and external hard drives? Also, is there a way to add an external drive to my Time Capsule that is solely used to wirelessly backup the two externals on a regular basis (i.e. keep the internal 2TB drive backing up to the Time Capsule; and the external hard drive attached to Time Capsule via USB used as the backup drive for the external hard drives)?
Summary: I need to backup regularly to the local Time Capsule/additional external hard drive. The data will come from my internal hard drive and my two external hard drives. I also want to do quarterly backups of the additions/changes to all three drives to have on an offsite external drive that I manually backup to quarterly. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Carbon Copy Cloner is not on the App store.
Correct.. it is not approved because Apple do not like the fact that CCC (and most likely superduper) which are the most popular backup software for Mac because it makes a bootable clone. Apple will never approve of that. But let me assure you that is the genius of it. If the internal disk fails, you simply boot from the external. It is $40 but you can use on all the computers in your home.
CCC is a clone.. ie when it does the backup, any changes on the drive are changed on the clone. It does not work like Time Machine which simply piles up incrementals until the drive fills up. The idea of CCC is a backup of the drive as it exists at any point in time. TM btw is also not a reliable archive, ie it thins backups constantly.. so you should never rely on it to archive old versions.. but in the middle of a project it does a good job to keep various versions of your files. That is why I specifically said in my last post do not stop using it.
and you can keep using the TC just for the internal drive.
Keep TM running to the TC.. that will then keep a current hourly incremental of your drive. You can set CCC in a way which is a lot more flexible. ie backup just at the end of the day. There is no need for constant hourly backups. So to answer the second question.. you are still using your TC and TM.. but I suggest you only backup the internal drive.
Please read a bit from forum expert Pondini on the value of clones and TM.
http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html
That's why many folks use both Time Machine and a bootable clone, to have two separate, independent backups, with the advantages of both. If one fails, the other remains.
Now the ports issue.
You can of course continue to use USB2. Just that moving large volumes around will be slow.. as doubtless you already know.
On your particular Mac since you missed out on USB3 which is a pain.. you can buy a Thunderbolt to USB3 adapter like the belkin.
http://www.belkin.com/au/p/P-F4U055/
I suggested the Thunderbolt to Esata (it is an older interface and the adapter is rather cheaper but I hear more reliable.. check reviews for both).
http://store.apple.com/au/product/H8875ZM/A/lacie-esata-hub-thunderbolt-series
Sata is the interface of the hard disk.. Esata just means external sata.. so it is native and without conversion.
I was merely suggesting ways to speed things up. But as long as you don't run CCC on more than daily basis then I think you will be fine just with USB 2. It will take a while on the day you do the swap over for the archive volume, but if you turn off the power saving in the Mac and leave it run overnight it should be able to do most of it.. you need to realise it will have to deep scan both the disks.. to compare files.. but CCC is based on Rsync and it is extremely fast and efficient. I am just not sure I know how long it will take to do. Anyway.. there is a plan.. tweak and adapt as you see fits your needs.

I just bought a new Mac and I want to transfer some data (not all) from my old Mac. Basically, I want to move my itunes library, iphoto library, and a few documents. I have not even turned on my new Mac yet. Is the best way by an external hard drive?

I just bought a new Mac and I want to transfer some data (not all) from my old Mac. Basically, I want to move my itunes library, iphoto library, and a few documents. I have not even turned on my new Mac yet. Is the best way by an external hard drive?

If both have Firewire ports then you can accomplish your goal by using Target Disk Mode. If this is not possible then you can do using an external drive or if you have a local network connect both to your network and use filesharing between the two computers.
File Sharing on Macs
Mac 101- File Sharing

ILife with both internal and external hard drives?

I've been considering switching from a homebrew, multi-boot desktop to a MacBook for my primary computer, in part so I can hang out with my family in the living room rather than be exiled to the home office when I want to compute.
But here's my concern: I have media. We have about 50 GB of iTunes; maybe 30 GB of iPhoto; and tons and tons of digital video that would be stored in iMovie. Obviously the libraries are all interlinked. And it's all growing. I also like to rip DVDs and re-encode them for my iPod and AppleTV. Right now, my desktop has 480 GB of internal storage and that's just about enough.
I have discovered that the MacBook only comes with an option up to 250 GB. I absolutely need AppleCare, so I can't get an aftermarket hard drive. (All my Macs break - this one from the office that I'm on right now has a bum DVD drive, and my wife's has needed both fan and logic board replacements.)
While I'm aware of the existence of external hard drives, I'm concerned about Apple's non-external-hard-drive-friendly way of storing iLife data. If I wanted to keep more recent or useful music and photos on the internal drive but older stuff on an external, and still be able to use iLife seamlessly, would that be possible? (I see myself editing recent video in the living room, but then hooking back into the external HD in the office if I need older stuff.)
What solutions are out there for integrating data stores on both internal and external hard drives into an iLifestyle?
Thanks!

Sascha Segan1 wrote:
.. What solutions are out there for integrating data stores on both internal and external hard drives into an iLifestyle?
all iApps (iPhoto, iTunes, iM08) support usage of external drives as 'mass storage' devices.. you can tell all apps which drive to use for the Libraries.. there some tools out there, which even allow the usage of 2/many different Libraries in iTunes/iPhoto..
for iM in detail: the Projects are small files, and should stay internal (allthough I'm discribing a 'hack' on my site: http://karsten.schluter.googlepages.com/im08tricks Project Library (and Events) on External Harddrive); the Events (=GBs) could be located on as much ext. HDDs as you want..
but ...
all iApps are single-user .. you can NOT 'share' Libraries to 2/many different users; the idea of a 'media server' which hosts/shares all kind of data to all kind of users is not 'on concept' of iLife ..

Suggestions.. HELP.. for editting.. Internal or External Hard Drives?

Im using FCP 5 for editting.. and I want to know what I need for my edittings.
Internal or External Hard Drives? and why? FireWire800...
Thanks...

My suggestion is to keep the internal drive for your OS system and applications and get Raided external drives (like 0 or5) to edit on the fly.
To learn more about RAID system read the link below or just google it as there's a lot to read on the web.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
Also google eSATA and Fibre-channel drives to compare speeds, specs, system requirement etc.

Can I split my itunes music library between and internal and external hard drive?

Is it possible to have music on the two different drives and still be able to make playlists from both drives to put on my ipod? Here's my situation: I'm using a Dell 32 bit computer running Vista Home Premium SP2 which I share with other users. I have a large itunes library (40g+ of music only) that's starting to hog the hard disk space from other users. If possible, I would like to split off part of my itunes library to an external hard drive while still having access to the entire library for my ipod. Ideally I would like to have all my downloaded songs on both the internal and external drives so I'll have backups in case a drive fails, while putting all the music I have hard copies of solely on the external drive. Any help on how this can be done would be appreciated.

If you manually manage your itues library, you can store parts of it on an external drive, or on an internal drive. Just keep in mind that in iTunes that you must set a default location for iTunes to manage it's files, and that will be the default location for iTunes to store anything it downloads. You would need to manuay manage moving things from there if tht is not where you want them stored.
Perhaps a "better" solution would be for you to invest a little mone into 2 external drives. One to hold your entire iTunes library, and the second to be your off-line backup of the first. This is the method I have gone with and I like how it works for me. My entire iTunes library is on an external (portable) 320GB drive. Then, when iTunes is not running, I will clone my external drive onto a second drive I happen to have, this way if I have any failure of my primary drive, I lose at most about a weeks worth of content. For me, I purchase little content during a week, but I do move a fairly large volume of podcasts. With the entire library being on the external drive, if I ever have to swap to using my backup drive iTunes wil just think that it hasn't run and downloaded anything for a week, and all the "lost" content will be re-downloaded automatically. This won't work for apps or purchased content, but for subscribed podcasts, it is great.

Brand New iMac 24" internal or external hard drive upgrade to 1TB?

I just purchased a brand new iMac 24" MB325LL with a 320GB hard drive. I currently have 432GB of data on my PC and I would like to upgrade the hard drive to 1TB. I have 2 options and I need your advice:
Option #1 » Cost:CDN*$255*
Buy a Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB from DirectCanada.com for CDN$155 (tax+shipping included). Get it installed by a certified Apple technician for CDN$100 in Toronto. I doubt I can get it installed for a lower fee.
Option #2 » Cost:CDN*$317*
Buy a LaCie D2 1TB external hard drive with Firewire 800 for CDN$317 (tax+shipping included) either from a U.S. retailer (e.g. iUnitek) or a Canadian one. Prices at Canadian online retailers start from CDN$266 + CDN$37 (13% tax) + CDN$18 (shipping) = CDN$321, which is just CDN$4 more than in the States, taking into account the exchange rate.
So, there you. From the financial point of view, the incentive is to get an internal hard drive, which I don't mind at all. I'd like to install Vista on a 30-40GB partition, if that makes a difference. If I were to get an external hard drive, I would keep all of my data (e.g. music, movies, documents, music, etc) on it and reserve the internal 320GB hard drive for system files and OS.
What would justify paying a premium for an external hard drive other than portability? If I were to get one, I would need to be able to access it not only from my iMac's Vista partition, but also from my HP Vista laptop. Same applies to the internal hard drive. If I were to get a Samsung F1, I would still need to access my mac files from Vista's partition (when I boot into Vista) as well as from my HP Vista laptop (over wi-fi). FYI: I have no use for Time Machine, since I've never deleted a file which I needed to recover..well, maybe once or twice. What I DO need is a utility to synchronize files across machines. Hence, I will need some kind of program to automatically sync my iMac files with my HP laptop files. Currently, I utilize SyncBackSE to sync files between my HP laptop and my PC over Wi-Fi every morning at 6am. Works like a charm.
That's my dilemma in a nutshell. Any comments, suggestions and words of wisdom are welcome.
P.S. I'm also planning on upgrading RAM to 4GB. Newegg.ca is running a promotion (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227251): $72 CDN minus $20 USD mail-in rebate. It's not related to my question in any way, but some Canadians might find this info relevant.

Well, I don't have the budget for both and as I've already pointed out, Time Machine does not address my needs. It's a great backup solution, but what I need is a synchronization solution. I need to have the same versions of basic files, such as music, photos, documents, and other miscellaneous stuff on my iMac and my HP Vista laptop. Even if I were to get a MacBook in the future, I would still need the same set-up. That way, if something happens to either my iMac or my MacBook, I would always be able to simply copy-paste files from one machine to another. That's, sort of, my version of a perfect backup solution...unless, there's an option to load up files from a Time Machine backup onto a separate one (e.g. MacBook). In the end, Time Machine only partially addresses my need in keeping 2 machines backed up in a sense that it only backs up one of them. My solution kills 2 birds with one stone. I would have 2 syncronized computers (e.g. iMac + HP Laptop, iMac + MacBook) AND both computers would serve as mutual backup sources, since whatever happens to one of them, I would always be able to copy data from the other.
The problem arises when I factor in the sheer number of gigabytes required on the portable computer to mirror everything from the iMac, whether be it a Windows laptop or a MacBook. I would always have more data on my iMac than the available space on a smaller hard drive. I now have 432GB of stuff and I can presume that this number will only grow. Hence, at any given time I would be able to synchronize only the most essential files to the laptop. Ideally, I would need a NAS which would collect = synchronize data from both machines. That way, whenever files get modified, changes would automatically be transferred to the NAS and routed further down the chain to the iMac. It would work both ways, obviously. In that scenario, I don't need to worry about any of the computers, since whichever one fails on me, I would always have a copy of the entire collection of files. Now, that I doubt Time Machine can accomplish.

Internal to external hard drive questions (G4 iBook 10.3.9)

Hello All,
I have a G4 iBook that the internal hard drive has crashed. At the Apple store, they cannot get the drive to mount.... I have a friend that thinks he can get it to spin, and therefore thinks he can get any info that is not corrupted off the drive. That would be way cool!! He only wants me to bring him the drive, and is going to use a device that plugs into the drive just like it would in any computer, and at the other and it is USB on the end he will plug into his PC to make the transfer. Here comes where I need help. He is a PC guy, and knows nothing of Mac. If I buy an external hard drive will it need to be formatted HFS+ first in order to transfer any data that might still be good? I herd that most external drives come formatted in Fat32. Another thing is I would like to use this external hard drive for both my Mac at home, and a PC at work. i have herd that fat32 will work for both, but have herd some people having trouble with backing up a mac on a fat 32 partition.
If anyone has any other ideas of how to get what ever is left on my drive so that I can recover it, and also how I can use an external HD for mac and pc (although not simaltaniously)that would be cool.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Thanks,
Sean

I have encountered no problems with fat32 formatted drives. I format my flash drives the same way too. For backing up files or using the drives for file transfer between a Mac and a PC it's very convenient. You can't use a fat32 formatted drive for cloning PPC Mac hard drives. Your friend may also find he can't access the hard drive through a Windoze computer.

HT201250 Time Machine backup of internal AND external hard drive

I have an iMac with an internal hard drive for everything BUT photos and music and an external hard drive for only photos and music. If I hook up a second external hard drive will Time MAchine back up both my external (music/photos) hard drive AND my internal hard drive?

You will be able to back up the external drive, but you will have to modify settings. Time Machine only makes backups of your OS X partition by default.
Open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and remove the external drive from excluded items, so it will be backed up. I recommend ot have your external drive formatted in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"

Trying to find the best format for an external hard drive

I have a new iMac 20", and I am now converting an external hard drive I had on another computer to be compatible with this one. The ext. HD was formatted as NTFS, and I would like to make it much more easily read/write. I've tried using various tools to enable write support on the drive, but I'm giving up on that, instead opting that I just format the drive to something else.
Disk Utility doesn't really offer me a comprehensive comparison of UFS and Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or any of the OS Extended derivatives.
Since Everything is either:
a) Mac OS Extended
b) MS-DOS or
c) Unix File System
What are the differences between a) and c) and why would I choose UFS over the others? For the time being, I just want to set up the drive as a backup, but I may use it for more than that, since it has a Firewire connection to it, enabling much better performance than USB.
Thanks in advance,
Nick

File system formats and partition map schemes are two different things.
OS X requires the Mac OS Extended (HFS+) file system formatting scheme. Details on file format schemes are in http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Performance/Conceptual/FileSystem/Artic les/MacOSXAndFiles.html
ICBMs (Intel-chip-based Macs) require the GUID Partition Table scheme. Details on partition mapping schemes are in http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/universalbinary/universal_binary_tips/chapter_5_section10.html and further information on GUID is in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUIDPartitionTable.
Erasing. When you erase a volume, you delete the volume's file directory (when you erase a disk, you also destroy its partitions and directories); and, when you zero out the data, you write 0s and 1s to the disk and map out bad blocks.
So, I suggest using Disk Utility and erasing, zeroing out data, Mac OS X Extended, and the GUID partition scheme.

Best way to access external hard drives wirelessly using AX?

I have an iBook G4 with an airport card and an iMac G3 with a D-link USB wireless adapter. Both work very well with my AX in networking, printing, using airtunes and accessing the internet. I can even see my external hard drive when it's plugged into either machine and mount that drive to the other computer over the network--however the file transfer is extremely slow of course.
Here's what I'd like to do: I plan on getting another external hard drive and would like to be able to connect both computers to either drive wirelessly with good file transfer/access. From what I understand both Linksys and D-link make network storage devices that allow you to do this, but I'm wondering if I then also need a wireless bridge for the iMac?
Can someone give me a run down as to how this all works and what the easiest way to go about doing this is?
Thanks!

These will allow you to do what you want to do.
Wireless-G Media Storage Link Router with SpeedBooster
All-in-one Internet-sharing Router, Access Point, and Network Storage Link! this is an all-in-one device.
Buffalo Technology Link Station though this will also need an ethernet wireless bridge as well as would this Netgear Storage Device.
This D-Link wireless storage device seems to meet your needs specifically. With this device you still need a wireless router such as the AX.

Best way to add external hard drives

Hi all! I have a fairly old iMac (2008). It only has 3 USB ports on the back. One is being used by my keyboard/mouse. One is plugged directly into an external hard drive. And the third is everything else... my digital camera cable, my printer, etc. I recently bought another external hard drive. I have found that when I use it through my hub, it's extremely slow. So... is that just a hub drawback? Or is there a better hub out there? I guess my question is... is there a way to expand the number of USB ports I have without having it be super slow? Thanks.
Julie

Disk drives should not be used in hubs. If you want to connect more than one then buy drives that can be properly daisy-chained and have separate power units because USB ports may not have sufficient power for more than one or two drives.

Best way to repartition external hard drive to give Time Machine more space

I have my external 2 TB hard drive segmented into 2 equal 1 TB partitions. The first partition is my time machine back-ups. The second is media files.
I also have approx 500GB of storage left on my 1 TB internal Mac HD. I keep receiving an error message that Time Machine cannot complete because it needs more file size. I have 185 GB available and it needs 225 GB.
I realize TM needs additional space to process back-ups; but what is my best option for re-partitioning my external HD since my first partition is used for TM? Or can I make TM work without repartitioning? Any suggestions?

Debonya1 wrote:
I have my external 2 TB hard drive segmented into 2 equal 1 TB partitions. The first partition is my time machine back-ups. The second is media files.
I also have approx 500GB of storage left on my 1 TB internal Mac HD. I keep receiving an error message that Time Machine cannot complete because it needs more file size. I have 185 GB available and it needs 225 GB.
See the pink box in #C4 of [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
It sounds like there ought to be room on the TM partition, though. Are you sure there's nothing else there, besides the backups for that Mac? See #A1 in Troubleshooting for a handy widget that will display the backup messages from your logs. Navigate to the first time it failed, copy and post them here.
Repartitioning will be tricky. How much stuff is on the second partition? It's possible you can split it, copy the data from it to the new partition, then delete the second one and expand the TM partition into the empty space. See #4 in [Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Using Snow Leopard+ forum).

Internal vs External hard drive question???

I have a very basic question about OSX and its treatment of drives...
If I have an external drive (either firewire or SATA using an Express34 card) and I select it, at boot time, as the boot drive, does OSX really treat this drive as if it were the internal drive or is there some underlying difference?
Is there a difference between an external firewire and an external SATA drive (other than the I/O speed)?
What I'm getting at is this. I want the ability, using the 'opt+cmd' (or whatever the key seq is) option, at boot time, to select either the internal drive or an external drive to be "THE" drive, as far as OSX is concerned.
Asuming that both drives have at least a bootable OSX partition, I'd like for the external drive to have OSX AND maybe another partition for maybe Windows or Linux.
At boot time if I select the external drive as the boot drive will it act like the internal drive and allow me to install a BootCamp partition? Can I manuly repartition it (while its a secondary drive usng iPartition perhaps)? Can I install a boot loader that will allow me to select an OS after initially selecting the external drive with the 'opt+cmd' option?
I'm looking for the ability to basicaly select different drives as the "internal" drive, much like you would using the jumper and/or cable selects in a Mac Pro or even a PC based system.
Is this even possible? id it is, is it possible with firewire or express34 card driven SATA drives?
Sorry if this is confusing, I'm having a hard time articulating exactly what i want to do...
Thanks in dvance,
Peter

Yes. One cool thing to do is create a bootable backup on an external drive, and use it for OS/upgrade testing - think Leopard. To me this is one huge advantage over Windows systems. You can back up the hard drive and prove it works. Also allows for faster recovery of not only data, but installed applications and settings. I always create a fresh backup to my external FW drive before going on trips.
MacBook Pro 17" 2.16GHz / 2GB / 120GB Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Internal or external hard drive?

I'm pretty new to macs and have run out of space on my macbook so I need another hard drive, price aside - is it better, easier, more energy efficient ( power is a big issue as i live on a boat) to install an internal hard drive (how easy is that to do, do I just unscrew the back of the laptop, take out the old hard drive and connect the new?) or install an external one which would run via a cable? any advice appreciated.

if you are seriously worried about power like i know many people are (we have friend who life off the grid in WY so they have to watch their use very carefully) then go for the internal for sure. Having an external will just require you to have something else plugged into an outlet. And whether it is turned on or not every electronic device draws power from the wall when plugged in. So I say go green and get a massive internal .
Billy

Best Results - Internal or External Hard Drive

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