Best way to erase a portable hard drive?

Hi, I just got done installing a new hard drive in to an iMac and used a portable hard drive when I use SuperDuper. Everything transfered without any problems. But now I want to erase the portable hard drive that contained all of the transfered data. What is the best way to erase that data so I can use the portable hard drive so I have a clean drive and can use it to back up with Time Machine?

If it was set up for SuperDuper, it should be Apple-format.
Go into DiskUtility, select the partition of the external in the left column, and you should have an "Erase" option at the top of the main-activity window. You can decide if you need more than simple "Erase" (you can do a 7-pass erase, but nromally that is used when transferring a disk to a new user/buyer).

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The best way to replace the internal hard drive

Hi,
I have a MacBook with a 160gb hard drive which has been partitioned into two partitions one for OSX (130gb) and the other for Windows 7(30gb) and as you can imagine 30gigs for windows is almost nothing, the OS itself is taking a big percentage of its capacity, so I would like to expand both partitions by having a bigger hard drive installed but I was wondering what would bethe best way to do this so I don’t have to reinstall OSX and Windows 7, I have heard about Super Duper for OSX I don’t know if a similar software exists for Windows, well I don't even know if this is the way to go. So my question would is...
What would be the best way to replace an internal hard drive and have everything moved including the Operating Systems (OSX Lion and Windows7)?
Can someone be so kind and tell me the procedure I should follow to accomplish this task? I’m not expecting a step by step tutorial but if you could list the tools needed and a brief procedure it would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, I’m using Boot Camp for the Windows 7 installation.
Thanks a lot.

For a hard drive try Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Laptop-Hard-Dr ives&Order=PRICE
Or OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/
Here's instructions on replacingthe hard drive http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=45088
To transfer your current hard drive I like the free application Carbon Copy Cloner. It makes a bootable copy of everything on your hard drive http://www.bombich.com/index.html You'll need a cheap SATA external hard drive case. Put the new drive in the case then partition and format the new drive and clone your old drive to the new one. Check that it's set up right by booting up from the external drive. Then replace your old hard drive with the new one.
Here's a cheap SATA external hard drive case on eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-5-SATA-HDD-HARD-DRIVE-EXTERNAL-ENCLOSURE-CASE-BOX-/120 636286623?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item1c167ba69f
For copying the Windows partition I like WinClone http://download.cnet.com/Winclone/3000-2242_4-172338.html
After you've installed your Mac OS with Carbon Copy Cloner (or SuperDuper) on the new drive create a new Windows partition with Boot Camp and copy your WinClone copy to it with Winclone.

Best way to install a new hard drive into a laptop?

what's the proper way to install a new hard drive into a laptop? i've heard that cloning can result in very slow boot up and shut down times, and that the proper method is install the new hard drive, install OSX, and restore data from time machine. comments? thanks very much

Cloning doesn't cause the resulting system to slow down in and of itself, but it does retain any previous problems, which can build up over time and result in poor performance. (The same can be said of installing new system versions on top of old versions.)
A clean OS X installation will give you a clean base to start from. Mass-restoring data and applications will undo some of that benefit, but by no means all.

What is the best way to use 2 internal Hard Drives in a laptop.

Looking for info on the best way (ease of filing, speed and efficiency) to use 2 internal hard drives in my laptop (OS and apps on one and Data on the other?) while using an ext. drive for back up and such.
Thanks for any info.

thanks for your help, I want to do the right thing, and I have thought about moving the files back to the c drive by 'importing' and just start over. But is there an easier way. I was wondering about using the 'add folder to library' function. Since all the music is now on my ext. drive.
DAVE

Best way to format a second hard drive in a MacBook Pro?

I put a SSD in my MacBook Pro and I am wondering what is the best way to format the hard drive that i am putting in the place of the optical drive. I could set it put in raid configuration but I'm pretty sure that it takes the speed from the slower drive. Making my upgrade pointless. Should I put the hard drive in and format it to Mac OS extended (journaled). Is this my best option. Will i only be able to put applications on the second hard drive or will i only be able to put on files such as media, word docs ect.?

Hello,
I read some of your responces to other computer issues. Do you have any thoughts that may help my situation. I posted this earlier. I try to use my OS X HD to reinstall but I only get so far and I am told install can't go any further.
Detailed Discription;
Everything is running-phizz-black screen
Start button-enter password-gray bar at bottom of screen-
Gray bar fills 1/4 - computer shuts off
So I looked around on wifes computer and find a few sequences to try and fix.
didn't work.
So I am here now after accessing reinstall from my os x disc and a couple other discs to choose from.
Nothing is working-need help
Past history;
from the begining my mac never carried a charge. Then it stopped charging completely.
I just lived with it-but now this-christ man it ticks me off.
Anyways I would appreciate all the hel I could get, thanks
Thank You

Best way to clean out a hard drive.

I have a A505 S605 Satelite laptop with a hard drive full of junk. I would like to start over by cleaning out the hard drive completely. After the hard drive is cleaned out, I will install everything using the recovery disks that I got from the Geek Squad when I bought the computer.
What is the best way to get the hard drive wiped out? Thank you for your help.

Just back up the data you need to keep onto a usb thumb drive or usb external hard drive then run the Recovery Disk to restore the system to it's factory out of box state. IT will wipe the drive as part of the process leaving your system exactly as it came to from the factory. You don't need to delete anything first.
If you don't post your COMPLETE model number it's very difficult to assist you. Please try to post in complete sentences with punctuation, capitals, and correct spelling. Toshiba does NOT provide any direct support in these forums. All support is User to User in their spare time.

Best Way to Backup a Raid hard drive on Windows 7 Pro OS

This is my set-up
Lenovo W520 on factory installed Windows 7 Professional OS
Two 500 GB Internal Hard drive on Raid 1 (factory installed):
NO DVD burner
Have a 2TB External Hard drive partitioned into three -
#1--600GB; #2-- 600GB;    #3--600+GB
I already created a "Factory recovery disk" from the thinkvantage tool and put it in partition #1
The next step is to create a backup of my system, application and data.
Thinkvantage tools offers 2 options:
1. Windows backup
2. Rescue & Recovery
Question 1:
With the set-up as listed above, what is the best & most effective way to backup a Raid 1 on Windows 7 Pro OS?
How do you do it? How often to backup? (I am just a beginner on RAID)
Question 2:
OR do you use other Back-up/ Imaging software??? (e.g. Acronis,paragon system backup,norton ghost , novabackup, nero backit up)

Hi, Herb,
   RAID is no substitute for backing up your hard drive. For example, if you get a virus it will destroy the data on both RAID drives. In fact, I don't think that RAID 1 has much value for most users. Odds are much higher that you will encounter a software (virus) issue than a sudden disk failure. However, if RAID makes you feel more secure, then by all means.
   I recommend getting Acronis True Image Home. It is cheap and it works. It will enable you to take a snapshot of your hard drive and recover with ease.
Acronis
   Last thing - I'm guessing your external drive is USB 3 or eSATA? If so, it has the speed you need to run complete backups. I do mine every evening, as I can't afford to lose a whole day's work.
                                                        Best, ZZ
P.S. I recommend rotating multiple external drives. I use three and keep one in my car. Yes, external drives can fail/ be stolen, etc.

Best Way To Configure Software On Hard Drives

I currently have OSX and Logic 8 on one hard drive and my music files on another. Is this the best way to set up software for fastest access?

hi,
my set-up:
1)Main Boot Volume, with LP8, LP7 and all the extra apps, but not:
the Apple Loops or EXS Sample Library. they are on 3 other separate internal and external HDD Volumes, along with OSX back-ups, etc.
i also use two more Volumes for recording to and editing the data.
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DR9.

I cannot find the best way to format an external hard drive for MAC, PC, TV?

Hello,
I have a problem: I want to use an external hard drive on my Mac as well as on a PC and a TV. The normal structure of Mac (Journaled) isn't supported by PC/ TV. I changed the structue into DOS(FAT) on my Mac. That's suppoerted by TV and PC. But I'll use the hard drive for storage of HD films so I'm afraid that the structure is not good enough for this (it seems old to me DOS.....) And I don't want the quality to be influenced by a bad structure.
Then I've formatted into NTFS on my PC, but then I cannot put files from Mac on the hard drive.
What is the best solution?
Hope someone can help me!
Regards, Kim

FAT works great, but the problem is that it's old and that you can't store files that are bigger than 4 GB. In this case, you have exFAT, a filesystem compatible with OS X and Windows, but I don't think that the TV will read it.
If you want to use NTFS, you need a third-party application to be able to write in it on OS X, like Paragon NTFS

What's the best way to reset my MacBook hard drive that's in a disc enclosure to factory settings?

I have a 2009 MacBook in which the hard drive is currenty in a USB disc enclosure since the MacBook is no longer operational. I want to sell it, but want to reset it to factory settings. How can I do that while it's in the enclosure and connected to my 2009 iMac?
Thank you!

If you've got everything you want off of that disk just start Disk Utility on your iMac and erase the disk. Would be wise to take a look at the security options and use a multi pass erase to make sure that none of your data can be mined off of that disc. Be aware that a multi pass erase will take much longer bu is much safer.

Best Way To Preserve MiniDV on Hard Drive

Hello!
I am starting a project where I am going through many MANY MiniDV tapes and I want to store them on an archive Hard Drive for future use (so that I do not need to deal with the real-time importation again). I have Premiere CS4 and have the camcorder connected via Firewire. My question is how can I save the raw footage the cam preserving all its detail? I want to keep the footage as it is on the MiniDV tape, so the archived version on the hard drive is a perfect reproduction of the tape. Once I have things archived, I will import them to edit and then compress them to smaller files sizes. I am well aware that the original tapes will take a lot of hard drive space (~ 13 gigs per hour), but that isn't an issue. I want to make sure that I never have to take all the time to import the original footage again.
I am well aware that the original tapes will take a lot of hard drive space (~ 13 gigs per hour), but that isn't an issue. I want to make sure that I never have to take all the time to import the original footage again. I also want to be able to import the archived video into any editing software I choose in the future, be it Premiere or something else.
Thanks!

I am well aware that the original tapes will take a lot of hard drive space (~ 13 gigs per hour), but that isn't an issue.
Thats SD, and I use ScLive for that. There's another program for HD that's supposed to be good but I haven't used yet.
It captures real time (firewire 800 is what I've used)...so it takes an hour ...I only have a mousey computer with 2 hard drives..should have 3...but I don't have the room in the tower or the sata port either for another....anyway, I capture to the 2nd hard drive which I use for my assets and projects....If I wanted to "save" those captured files ( even before importing to the project ) I would hook up an external hard drive and just copy all the files over to the external dirve.... some people use external drives for assets for a working project and that's when you need to assign the drive letter etc so you dont lose the link from project file ( on say the second hard drive ) to the assets ( on the external drive). But we're talking about saving for use on other stuff so you don't have to deal with that part of it...
ScLive will detect when your timecode indicates you turned off and on the camera...and make an avi type 2 file for each "clip"....so if you do more than one tape it's good to make folders for your tapes and name each folder , tape1, tape2 etc...then when capturing, name each file "tape1, tape2" etc and put into the relevant folder.....that way the timecodes match the tapes too...as the timecode becomes part of the filename..prefixed by what you name it...
ScLive is about $30 I think and its really good.
ps 1 terabyte 7200rpm drives are fairly cheap and fast and unless you really need larger size I would stick with that...
pps...dont forget, format drive ntfs, dont partition, indexing off...should be true of all your drives
the ones here who have taught me this stuff, harm millaard , john smith, bill hunt, ann bens, jeff bellune, curt wrigley, etc...lots more...have a lot of threads about systems and so on if you need more help on that end of it

Best way to unpartion a external hard drive?

I would like to know how to do this? Even if it means losing all my backed up data. Thanks

Use Disk Utility, choose the disk and choose a partition of 1.

I have 21,000 photos stored in iphoto. I have a WD 1.5TB backup external hard drive. What is the best way to erase about half of my photos on my internal hard drive?

I have 21,000 photos stored in iphoto. I have a WD 1.5TB backup external hard drive. What is the best way to erase about half of my photos on my internal hard drive?

Here's one way to do what you want:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

HT201625 All my media is on a portable hard drive. The drive letter has changed, and now my library cannot locate anything. Is there a quick way to re-link the library to the new drive location?

All my media is on a portable hard drive. I installed Itunes on a new computer, and scanned the portable hard drive, thus creating a new library on the new computer. The portable drive now has a different drive letter. Now, the library cannot locate any of the songs because when it was created it (I assume) linked to the other drive letter. Now, from what I understand, I can select a (song, album etc) and then browse to the new location. But I have thousands of songs.
I need a way to re-identify as the whole group. And because this is a portable hard drive, this could happen on a daily basis, so I know there must be some other process I am missing. I guess I could delete the library and rescan the drive and create a new library every time I reconnect the hard drive, but that seems inefficient and time consuming. Oh, Windows 8.1 and Itunes 12.1.1.4, if that matters.
Am I missing some simple step to this?

See turingtest2's user tip on Make a split library portable - the best approach is to have the complete library (database, artwork, etc. as well as media) on the external drive. This layout is not only robust against changes in drive letters, but also means that the external drive can be used with any system running iTunes - just hold down SHIFT while starting iTunes and select the library on the external drive.
A quick fix, of course, is to use Windows' Disk Management facilities to reset the external HDD's drive letter to match the locations stored in the iTunes database.

What is the best portable hard drive for my mac

What is the best portable hard drive for my mac?

A lot depends on the size you want...physical size, I mean...see what they have at OWC, http://www.macsales.com I have thee of there drives and they are great...compatible and already formatted out-of-the-box. But it is still better to format and partition yourself to set them up your way.

Best way to erase a portable hard drive?

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