Can I do this?  One external drive, two computers.

This is what I would like to do. I have an iMac and a MacBook. I use both equally.
I just got a 250gig FireLite drive.
My ideal situation would be to have my iTunes music and Library stored on the FireLite, and each computer referencing that.
So when I am at work with my MacBook, I plug in the FireLite and everything is all good. Then, say, maybe while I am at work, I buy some music on iTunes, or import a CD. Then I go home, and plug in the FireLite to the iMac, and everything is all good. It sees and plays the newly imported music just fine.
I can switch the drive from computer to computer, and everything is always all good on both machines.
Is this possible? Nothing would live on the computers....nothing in the User/Music folder. Everything would be on the FireLite.
It seems like it should work...but before I go moving things around and changing settings, I want to make sure, or else I'll end up with a huge mess later on.
Thanks!

Copy your /Music/iTunes folder to the external.
Start iTunes holding the Option key.
Select *Choose existing library*.
Select the iTunes library file in the iTunes folder on the external.
Delete the /Music/iTunes folder.
Connect it to the other computer.
Start iTunes holding the Option key.
Select *Choose existing library*.
Select the iTunes library file in the iTunes folder on the external.
File -> Add to library.
Select the iTunes music folder in /Music/iTunes/.
This will add all music from the other computer.
Delete the /Music/iTunes folder.
That's it.
Everything will be available wherever you connect the external.
Make sure the external is connected, powered on and mounted before starting iTunes.

Similar Messages

  • One backup drive, two computers

    I was wondering, can I use one external backup drive to backup two computers with Leopard installed? That is, plug the drive into on computer to backup, then remove and plug into the other computer.

    Yes indeed you can

  • One Hard Drive Two Computers

    Can you use one Hard drive to back up 2 computers with time machine?

    yes but only across a network. you can connect the hard drive to one computer and back it up directly and if the second computer is on the same wireless or ethernet network as the first you can also back it up to that hard drive but across the network. it is also possible if you have an Airport Extreme Base Station. you can connect the drive to it and back up both computers to it via network.

  • HT201250 Can I use Time Machine on two different Macs to back up to one external drive?

    Can I use Time Machine on two different Macs to back up to one external drive?
    I have one 1T Western Digital backup drive that works well with Time Machine and my MacBook Pro.  I now want to back up my wife's MacBook Air using Time Machine on her Mac and want to know if I can use the same WD external drive or if I need to get a 2nd back up drive?  If I can use one external drive for the two Macs do I need to do something special on the drive or will Time Machine do it automatically?

    Yes. You will need to configure Time Machine preferences on each computer to backup to the same drive. Note that you cannot connect the backup drive to both machines at the same time.

  • Can time machine be used to back up one external drive to another external drive?

    I use the photography program Lightroom to organize and develop digital photos.  All my photos are stored on my iMac internal drive.  The internal drive is almost full so I want to move my photos to a new external drive.  At present, I have an external drive devoted to backing up my iMac using time machine.  I have no need to change this arrangement.  I would like to use a new external drive to serve as the primary location for my pictures, which I will move from the internal drive.  Then I would like to backup that drive to a third external back up drive.  Can time machine be used to automatically back up the second drive to the third drive as well as for continuing to provide ongoing backups to my internal drive as it is currently doing?
    Thank you in advance for your assistance.

    Jeffery t wrote:
    Thanks for the links, but I don't see in the pondini links, the scenario I am asking about.
    Time Machine can easily back up multiple internal and/or directly-connected external drives and partitions simultaneously (but Time Machine cannotback up data that's on a network).
    From the first link.
    Jeffery t wrote:
    ... Please note that my iMac internal drive is backing up to external drive number 1 using time machine.  I want my pictures on external drive two and those backed up to external drive three.  So are you saying that if I have 500 GB of pictures on drive number 2, I will need a third drive that is at least 1 TB?
    the confusion starts in your above statement...
    There should be Only One Time Machine Drive.

  • Can I transfer data from one external drive to another using my MacAir as a platform?

    I am trying to transfer about 94 Gigs of data from one external drive (Touro) to another (Seagate) using my Mac Air which only has about 14 Gigs of available space.  How best can I accomplish this operation?

    Niel - I know that I must be a real dunce on this.  I tried opening the additional window on finder and then dragging and dropping from the Touro drive to the other open finder window for the Seagate drive.  Again, it bounced back.  What is NTFS? And how do I find if either or both of the drives are formatted in that manner?
    Again, thanks for you help on this.
    JC
    PS  I just got the info on the Seagate that it is Windows NTFS formatted.  What do I do now?  Is Paragon something I can download off the Internet?  Why, since I formatted the Seagate to run on my Mac Air would there still be a problem?  The packaging on the Seagate says it is compatible with Mac OS systems. jc

  • HT2518 how do i or can i drag and drop files from one external drive to another ???HOW

    how do i drag and drop files from one external drive to another, i cannt get both drives to open up. only one at a time.. i have alot to learn i know but that is where i am at the time...

    You posted here so would assume you are also talking about running Windows.
    Are the drives NTFS and use on Windows?
    Are they Mac HFS formatted?
    You likely will need NTFS for OS X in one case. to mount PC and use under Mac OS Lion
    MacDrive to mount and WRITE to HFS drives under Windows

  • How to transfer from one external drive to another?

    I am trying to move files from one external drive to another.  I can write to both drive from my Mac.  When I do a large transfer using Finder, I only get a few files and an error code 50.
    I'm using two Seagate drives, one formatted for Mac only and where I'm writing to, and one formatted for PC and Mac.  I have written and read successfully to both drives.

    I moved some movies and some seldom listened music (coped the files) into a folder on the Lacie drive. Then I reimported them to the main itunes library while holding down "option". This created a link to those files to the external. the files show up in my itunes but cannot be played unless i have the Lacie connected to them.
    See this link.
    http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_split_your_itunes_library_across_multi ple_locations

  • Can't Access Photos on External Drive

    I attach my external drive (Toshiba 320GIG) and open, which gives me the external drive window. I click on Toshiba on the left-hand-side menu, then begin to enter IMG in the search window. As soon as I type the first letter, the menu highlight defaults to my hard drive menu item and I can't search in my external drive. What am I doing wrong?
    Thanks for reading. Any help appreciated.
    Russ

    So, you have two versions of iphoto? One from the old machine and one from the new?
    If so, forget about opening with the older version of iPhoto.
    For the newer version:
    Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
    Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.  

  • Multiple Time Machine backups to one external drive

    I have a MacPro with an external hard drive that I use exclusively for Time Machine (the external drive is mirrored RAID).
    I now have a MacBook Pro as well. Can I set the Time Machine on the laptop to backup to the same external hard drive that I currently use for my desktop? When I look at the Time Machine set up on the laptop I can see the desktop's external drive but don't know if I can have Time Machine backups from two different computers writing to the same external drive.
    Thank you

    yes you can do that. this is a supported configuration. although it's better to keep TM backups for different drives on separate partitions. probably not an option here though. the remote backups will be stored in a sparse bundle. while remote ones are stored directly in a folder on the drive.

  • How do I move an iTunes library from one external drive to another?

    I need to move my iTunes library from one external disk to another, because the original disk is about to fail. So, I went into iTunes Perferences --> Advanced, and set the library to a new, empty folder on the new drive.
    Nothing changed. I expected all my music to vanish from iTunes, so that I would have to re-import it. However, all the music remained, still on the old disk. At this point, if I were to recreate the library on the new disk, I would have all of my music twice.
    Is it possible to move an iTunes library from one external drive to another, or am I stuck with my original choice until I buy a new machine? If I can move it, can one of you clever folks explain how it could be done?

    Paul Seymour1 wrote:
    However, those are all dealing with old versions of iTunes that still contained the Advanced --> Consolidate Library command which is no longer part of the app. (I'm on iTunes 10.6.1.)
    Consolidate is still part of iTunes.
    It is in iTunes menu File > Library > Manage library > Consolidate.
    The article you linked to is old and it is (and was) a hacky way of doing it.
    Just copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to new location, hold Option (Mac) or Shift (Windows) when launching iTunes.

  • How do I save 2 iphoto libraries onto one external drive?

    Hi
    I have an iphoto library on my MacBook Pro and I have an older library of different photos on my graphite iBook.
    I'd like to store all my photos onto one external drive.
    How can I do this without losing either library in the process?
    I actually have the same question regarding music on iTunes.
    Thanks
    AS

    Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
    Do you want to merge these libraries into one? If so, then you'll need the paid version ($20) of  iPhoto Library Manager
    It's the only way to merge Libraries while preserving all metadata, versions and so on.
    Otherwise, simply rename one of the Libraries (so they don't overwite each other) and Copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder to the External Disk. in each case.
    To choose which library to open: holf down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location.
    Regards
    TD

  • Lightroom - how to restore backed up files (not Lightroom catalogue) from one external drive to another?

    How to restore backed up files (not lightroom catalogue) from one external drive to another.
    I recently backuped my photo files from one external drive to another. The backup (carbon copy cloner) pointed to some corrupt files on the original drive.
    I have deleted those files and am finding good copies of them  in Time Machine backups.
    I want to get rid of the original external drive; use the recent backup as my main external and then back it up onto a brand new drive.
    What I am not sure about is how to point lightroom to the backups so it knows to look on the new drive instead of the old drive and all those exclamation marks and question marks go away.
    There are close to 60,000 images in numerous folders all with one 'parent folder.'
    My best guess is from Lightroom Help - Create and Manage Folders -  Locate Missing Folders
    Can I point to the one parent folder and all the subfolders will come back?
    Is this the process to recover files into lightroom and will there be a problem with so many photos?

    http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

  • How to move Startup Disk clone from one external drive to another?

    I thought this would be a question easily answered on the WWW and easily found via search engines, but so far no luck, hence this question.
    Prior to upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion I followed some very good instructions from Tom Nelson on ask.com (http://macs.about.com/od/backupsarchives/ss/diskbackup.htm) related to using Disk Utility to clone my internal Macintosh HD drive to an external hard drive, making it a bootable drive.  I cloned to a very nice LaCie external FW drive that had far more room than that needed for the clone.  This drive booted just fine as a startup disk, so mission accomplished:   I have now a bootable clone of my Lion system prior to upgrading to Mountain Lion. 
    The upgrade to Mountain Lion went well, and now, before I put any additional apps or much additional data on the original internal  Macintosh HD drive, I want to use Disk Utility again to clone the drive so I'll have a snapshot of the system right after the upgrade to Mountain Lion.
    Questions: 
    Is there any way to use the same LaCie drive that now holds the Lion startup disk clone to hold the yet-to-be-done Mountain Lion startup disk clone?  
    If not, how can I move the Lion startup disk clone from the oversized LaCie external drive to a drive more the size of the Lion clone (approx 140G)?   The LaCie drive is far too roomy and nice to have sitting gathering dust for only 140G to be used in an emergency restore. 
    Thanks in advance for your advice.

    Good info Csound1, and thanks. 
    So my final question (I think):  How does one move/copy a startup disk clone from one external drive to another, and still have it bootable on the new external drive?   I'm still considering freeing this LaCie drive up for more dynamic storage and getting another drive for the bootable startup disk clones IF I can move this Lion startup disk clone to a new external drive. 
    I guess the summary question is:   how does one clone a startup disk clone?  As I think about this, and recall the Disk Utility screens, couldn't I simply select the Lion clone on the LaCie FW external drive and do the same operation I did with the original internal Lion drive?  Basically the same steps as before but this time the source is the LaCie FW external and the destination is a new external drive? 
    Thanks again; wonderful forum here with very smart people.  

  • Can I boot from an external drive with a "Virtual CD"

    I just purchased a Hitachi LifeStudio external hard drive for use as my Time Machine backup. When I plugged it in to my MacBook running 10.6.4, I realized that it had one of those "Virtual CDs" that contained the manufacturers crapware, similar to Western Digital's MyWare or whatever its called. It shows up in disk utility as an actual separate disk and not just another partition that can be wiped.
    I reformatted the drive using GUID and and created 3 HFS+ Journaled partitions. One was going to be for the 10.6 installer, one for the 10.6 boot, and one for my time machine backup. I restored a 10.6 install dvd disk image I created using disk utility to the 10.6 installer partition (with erase destination checked) then option booted my mac and the partitions did not show up. The only thing I could see was my internal hard drive.
    I have done this many times before and it has always worked so Im trying to figure out what Im doing wrong. The only thing I can think of is that the "Virtual CD" that Hitachi put on this external drive is stopping the Mac from seeing the bootable partitions I created. I even went into system preferences>startup disk and blessed the 10.6 install partition. That didn't work either, the computer just booted to my internal drive.
    So my questions are. Is it because of this "Virtual CD" that I can't boot from my external drive? If so, is there a way around it? I already searched their web site and emailed their tech support asking for a firmware update to remove the virtual cd.
    Thanks in advance.

    Yes, it's a known issue. You've already referred to the issue with WD systems. WD has a long list of products that are either not compatible with Macs or won't boot a Mac.
    There are practically no problems with bare drives, but once installed in an enclosure there is no guarantee that the package will function as a bootable device. This is especially the case if the manufacturer uses some sort of "virtual" scheme intended for using the device as a sort of one button backup device.
    External drives don't have to specifically say anything about being Mac bootable or compatible. It's up to the consumer to verify compatibility and usability.

Maybe you are looking for