Best way to use an external drive

Hello all,
I have several photos.
I also have three computers that I regularly use: my Windows PC, my Macbook Pro, and a very new iMac.
Rather than place all my photos on each computer... I thought I could place them on a Western Digital Passport portable ext. drive. Then somehow use the drive from computer to computer to edit/play with my photos.
How do I best use iPhoto 08 to do that? I'm not sure... do the photos have to be on the computer in order to make albums, libraries, folders, etc? Or are those things more of thumbnails that POINT to certain files?
Please help a newbie understand the best way to use his external drive.
Thanks for any and all help!

Hello, and welcome, Theodore!
I must first say that I don't yet have iPhoto 8.
I do, however, have a lot of experience with external drives (I have two). I have a huge amount of music in iTunes, so I keep a copy of it on each external drive. Then, when I need to access my music , I turn on either external drive, up comes the External Drive symbol on my display, then I go over to my dock, and select iTunes. I must remember to first open up the External Drive BEFORE I open iTunes (or iPhoto). I then add or subtract music (or photos), edit, and work on my collection. When I'm finished, I just close the application, then select the Hard Drive symbol, and choose File/ Exit Hard Drive. Reach over and turn off my Hard Drive, and it's all good. I just always remember to open the Hard Drive FIRST, before opening the application.
The same would work for iPhoto. If you place iPhoto onto your external drive, you could probably use any of your computers to connect to it. I would suggest you think about backing up your external drive's contents with either another external drive (which was my choice), or other alternate storage methods.
I only have one PowerBook, not multiple computers, but, other than that, the situation's the same. You want to keep your iPhoto collection off your computers, and onto one external drive. I hope this information can be of some help to you.
All best wishes... Cea

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Paragon even has non-destriuctive conversion utility if you do want to change drive.
Hard to imagine using 3TB that isn't NTFS. Mac uses GPT for default partition type as well as HFS+
www.paragon-software.com
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Also,
Mac OS X Help
http://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/
Isolating Issues in Mac OS
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1388
https://www.apple.com/support/osx/
https://www.apple.com/support/quickassist/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/tour/
Get Help with your Product
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304725
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https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_app_store/using_mac_apple_store
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http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/
TimeMachine 101
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Is Time Machine the best way to backup two external drives?

I only have the most basic understanding of Time Machine. I hook up an external drive to my MacBook Pro, click "backup now" on Time Machine, wait a while, and forget about it because I've never had to use it to retrieve a file - thank heaven.
Now I also have two external 2TB portable drives that are close to full and which need to be backed up. I just bought a 4TB drive that I haven't taken out of the box yet. Is it a simple matter to create two Time Machine files on the 4TB drive ... one for each of the 2TB drives?
And is Time Machine the best way to do this? Or is there some other system that makes more sense for backing up on this scale and with two drives?
-JOHN

No Time Machine is not the only way.
You can use one of the drive cloning softeare programs to clone your internal drive to an external or you can use OS X Disk Utility to do basically the same thing, IE Clone/Copy your internal drive to an external.
But in your case it look as if the upgrading of the iPhoto database has wiped out alll your images. What you are actually asking about is "Can you now get back those photos without first doing any backup of any type".
And the answer to that is No you can not.

What is the best way off using two external harddrives with timemachine?

Hi,
I have already searched the board but I am still not sure what the best way is to backup to two harddisk.
Here is what I want to achieve:
I have two identical external firewire drives. One is always stored at my parents house. I swap drives once a week +(not perfect, should be everyday but much better than nothing).+
Before TimeMachine I have used SuperDuper which made incremental backups on both disks.
Due to my "method" I never have both drives at home. So it will not work to clone the external disks.
Can I now simply swap the drives and TimeMachine will backup again on disk 2, what it has already backupped to disk 1? Like "catching up" the now missing backups for the last week?
Should I give the disks the same names or should I choose "change disk" everytime?
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Best Regards
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Hi Olaf,
Germany . . . hmmm, nice talking to you!
OK - We seem to have a lot in common. I used SuperDuper all the time too. Loved it. NEVER had a problem at all with it. Ever!
I use Carbon Copy Cloner now - it seems a bit erratic - sometimes fails, sometimes works, can't find the pattern.
But enough of that.
YES - Time Machine will do exactly what you want (or does for me, at least.)
I named the two drives the same name and bounced back and forth between them, Time Machining to each. Works PERFECTLY every time . . . BUT - you MUST go to TM preferences each time and click "change disk". Simply reclick the one it sees. This seems stupid - but it's worked every time for me so far. So this morning, I simple renamed one of the backup drives (from Finder). Simple renamed it.
Went directly to TM with the renamed disk - clicked "change disk" - he instantly "saw" the newly named disk - and it Time Machined perfectly to the "newly named" one. I didn't even have to re time machine the entire drive - it picked up perfectly and backed up only 50 meg, which is all I changed!
So Time Machine seems to work perfectly backing up to two hard drives, with either the same name, or different names - TM doesn't care. But you MUST simple click "change disk" each time.
Let me know how it works for you. It really does work for me!
Larry

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I'm transferring many LP's to an external hard drive as MP3 in a LP folder.
#1 - What's the best way to import into iTunes and still keep my original file where it is as well as have a copy in iTunes? Would I just import each song individually or could I add folder? I do have the setting checked for copying song to itunes. Just not sure if I should import or add?
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None of the above.
There's no importing involved. All you do is open the v6 Library with 09. It will then update the Library, preserving all your work. As always, back up first.
To move an iPhoto Library to a new machine:
Link the two Macs together: there are several ways to do this: Wireless Network, Firewire Target Disk Mode, Ethernet, or even just copy the Library to an external HD and then on to the new machine...
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Hi, Dave!
I don't know for sure whether the drive will work in the FW case that held the optival drive. Why don't you temporarily connect it and check?
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Gary

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Congratulations on taking the first step toward securing your computer and your data!
Formatting, Partitioning Zeroing a Hard Disk Drive
Warning! This procedure will destroy all data on your Hard Disk Drive. Be sure you have an up-to-date, tested backup of at least your Users folder and any third party applications you do not want to re-install before attempting this procedure.
Boot from the install CD holding down the "C" key.
Select language
Go to the Utilities menu (Tiger) Installer menu (Panther & earlier) and launch Disk Utility.
Option for formatting an External HDD
Connect external HDD to computer
Turn on external HDD
Start up computer and log in
Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility and launch DU.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in left side bar.
Select Partition tab in main panel. (You are about to create a single partition volume.)
Select number of partition in pull-down menu above Volume diagram.
(Note 1: One partition is normally preferable for an internal HDD. External HDDs usually have more than one. See Dr. Smoke’s FAQ Backup and Recovery for tips on partitioning external HDD
Note 2: For more partitions than one, after you have selected the number of partitions you can adjust the size of the partition by selecting the top partition and typing in the size; then move down if more adjustments need to be made..)
Type in name in Name field (usually Macintosh HD)
Select Volume Format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Click Partition button at bottom of panel.
Select Erase tab
Select the sub-volume (indented) under Manufacturer ID (usually Macintosh HD).
Check to be sure your Volume Name and Volume Format are correct.
Optional: Select on Security Options button (Tiger) Options button (Panther & earlier).
Select Zero all data. (This process will map out bad blocks on your HDD. However, it could take several hours. If you want a quicker method, don't go to Security Options and just click the Erase button.)
Click OK.
Click Erase button
Quit Disk Utility.
Good luck.
cornelius

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Best way to use an external drive

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