Can I set up an external drive so it can boot either PPC or Intel machines?

I have a LaCie external drive with Firewire 1 and 2 and USB2 interfaces. I hoped to creat bootable partitions for both architectures and boot either one using the appropriate interface. I seem to be stumped by the partitioning schemes. It appears that if I partition with GUID I can ONLY boot from, an Intel machine, and that conversely, if I partition with Apple Partition Map I CAN'T boot from an Intel machine. Is this actually the case? Is there a workaround?
Cheers,
Aunty

Install Mac OS X 10.5 on a PowerPC Mac to a drive partitioned as APM. Any other configuration would be tricky or impossible to get to work.
The resulting single system can boot up any G4, G5, or Intel Mac older than it, but won't contain the Boot Camp Assistant.
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What is the best way to set up an external drive for video storage

What is the best way to set up an external drive for video storage?

Check the formatting. It need to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled). This is also known as HFS+.
FAT32 and NTFS formatting will not work with iMovie.
If necessary, you can reformat using Disk Utility.
Make one large partition. No need for multiple partitions.
Do moves or copies to the external drive through iMovie as detailed in iMovie Help. If you move Events in the Finder, they may become unlinked from the projects that use them.

I have my iPhoto set to an external drive yesterday when it was in use the usb disconnected i now have a message saying (your photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable) I have tried shutting down and restarting.

I have my iPhoto set to an external drive, when it was in use the usb disconected as i was moving my mac air, when i re-conected a message said (your photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable).
I have tried shutting it down and then re opening iPhoto but get the same message.
The reason for the external drive was there was not enough room on my hard drive, I have around 7000 photos on it.
is there a simple fix?
Regards
Dale

These are your options:
1. Restore the iPhoto library from the most recent backup that predates the issue.
          Advantages: Always works, if library damage is causing the problem and the backup is intact.
          Disadvantages: Impossible if you don't have a backup. All changes made since the backup are lost.
2. Repair or rebuild the library. Be sure to back it up first.
          Advantages: May solve the problem with no loss of data.
          Disadvantages: May fail. May take a long time if the library is large.
3. Scavenge the library with a third-party application called "iPhoto Library Manager," which you can find in a web search. From the application's menu bar (not the iPhoto menu bar), select Library ▹ Rebuild.
          Advantages: All images and albums should be preserved.
          Disadvantages: All books, calendars, and slideshows will be lost.

I just purchased Time Capsule today. I ONLY want to use it as an external drive. I do not need it for Time Machine. I can see the TC in my finder, but when I click on a file or video to drag and drop, I get message that TC can't be modified. Help please

I just purchased Time Capsule today. I ONLY want to use it as an external drive. I do not need it for Time Machine. I need to free up room on my computer. As of now, I can't even load updates. I can see the TC in my finder, but when I click on a file or video to drag and drop, I get message that TC can't be modified. Help please!

I agree with Kappy.. passing files and especially via wireless is slow as slow.
Just need to be sure your TC is the new AC model??
And the OS on the computer is Lion?
Have you completed the setup of the TC via the utility? You do still need to get internet via the TC so it has to be plugged into the main router..
Give us the full picture of the network.
Then we can help you get into it.. whether you should put your files on it is another question.

Holding down the option key when booting my iMac lo longer shows me my bootable external drives, the system just boots up to the main system. Also, holding down command, option,P,R no longer zaps the p-ram. the system just boots up.

Holding down the option key when booting my iMac lo longer shows me my bootable external drives, the system just boots up to the main system. Also, holding down command, option,P,R no longer zaps the p-ram. the system just boots up normally. Why do these key fonctions no longer work?

It could be your timing if on a bluetooth keyboard. I find it best to hit the keys as soon as i hear the chime, release and hit them again but this time holding them before the chime ends....like a fake pump in football.
But....you can always open up system preferences, startup disk, and select your bootable clone for booting. If it doesn't show up there, the Mac doesn't think it's bootable.

How do I set up my external drive to just back up certain apps?

I am runnning Yosemite and wanted to know, how can I set up my external hard drive just to store certain apps i.e music and pictures?

If you're using Time Machine to backup you should probably take a look at the late, great Pondini's FAQ http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

Set up new external drive-clone startup drive alongside Time Machine backup

I want to clone the boot drive to a 1 TB WD MyBook external (via firewire), using SuperDuper, with the rest of the 1TB drive used for Time Machine backups. I am currently formatting the drive to Mac OS Extended (journaled), and plan to set two partitions. I was planning on setting the first partition to 320 GB, and the remainder to a partition for Time Machine.
*Do I need to set the first partition to the specified drive size (320 GB), or can I set it to the available capacity (just below 300 MB)?*
I've read that SuperDuper and Time Machine work nicely side by side - e.g., creating boot clone image, and Time Machine backups. Will Time Machine and SuperDuper work without any issues once the formatting and partitions are completed, or is there some other setup required.
*Is this accurate?*

NibblesNBits wrote:
Thanks for the quick response - I hadn't looked at the FAQ, but the first thing I did after selecting the drive was the same things outlined in step B. This was where the failure was detected. I see in step B, the words "This may not work if the drive is already set up with a non-Apple Partition Map Scheme, such as is used on Windows". *Does "May not work...." mean the "Format Failure" message will be displayed?*
Yes.
Anyway, after failing step B, I did set two GUID partitions, which was what steps C and D listed.
No, that's two different things. The *Partition Map Scheme* applies to the entire drive. If your drive came set up for Windoze, it's probably MBR (Master Boot Record), which will not work with Time Machine.
And, last night I repeated step B - this morning repeated step C, D, E, F. Again, the only thing that indicated there was a problem was step B.
Excerpt from FAQ
B. Select the Erase tab, then confirm. This will erase the entire disk. (If you want, you can select Security Options, then Zero-Out Data to physically erase the entire disk by writing over everything. This will take quite a while, and shouldn't be necessary, especially on a new disk.) This may not work if the drive is already set up with a non-Apple Partition Map Scheme, such as is used on Windows. If that happens, just continue with item C.
Correct. But you must select GUID in step D, before you get to the Format(s) in step E.
So, try making only one partition in step C, with GUID, and format it +Mac OS Extended+ in step E. After that completes, you can split that single partition into two (which should be very quick).

Setting up an external drive before installing Leopard

I have just purchased a new MacBook and a stand alone version of Leopard to put on my iBook. I have an OWC external drive as well. I want to set up the external so that I can have a bootable copy of Tiger and OS9 (my kids need OS9 to run some of their games) The external is configured as MacOS extended right now with no partitions. I am guessing that I should partition this drive with four partitions? One for Tiger, one for OS9, one for Time Machine, and one for other data, music, movies, documents, etc. My question is what would be good sizes for these partitions? Also if I use Carbon Copy to clone my existing OS, is the clone bootable or do I have to do something else to make it bootable? Will it save all my current files too?
I have been reading the discussions group for several hours trying to figure out what steps to take to install Leopard on my iBook so it has the least amount of problems and this is what I have come up with.
1. repair permissions, run Apple Hardware Test, back up my current OS and any other documents, files, etc. using Carbon Copy
2. Install Leopard using Archive and Install option, with save network preferences box checked.
3. repair permissions again after install
4. enjoy Leopard, (hopefully)
Have I left anything out?
thanks in advance for everyone's help.
Jennifer

I believe you can have OS 9 on the same partition as Tiger, and use "classic" to run the kid's games under Tiger. That will prevent you from wasting disk space with to many partitions. I would definitely recommend putting Time Machine on its own dedicated partition as you indicated.
OS 9 can be installed on a single gigabyte. I'd not install OS X on less than 10GB (this would be for Tiger...and I'm assuming it wont be heavily used beyond running the OS 9 games in classic mode). I'd then put as much as you think you can into the Time Machine volume....as a rule of thumb, having the TM volume be double your Leopard installation is plenty, but it really depends on your uses (file size, frequency of creation/editing, etc).
The clone will be bootable if you restore it to a working partition. As a clone, it will "clone" everything on your drive...files and system...everything.
Those install steps seem right to me. The only thing I'd suggest is to give Leopard a "break-in" period where you set up all the system preferences the way you want and let it run (boot it up and shut it down a few times). Run all the applicaitons that came with it (textedit, photobooth, etc) and see if then open and behave corretly. Then move on to third-party applications you've installed and be sure they work as well. When all that's done and things seem to be ok, migrate your files back to the drive if it's needed, though in the archive and install there's teh option to preserve user data, and this will do the copying for you.
One potential problem is if programs behave funky and settings dont get saved, etc., you might have corrupt preference files, in which case try removing the preference files from your ~/Library/Preferences/ folder for the affected applications.
Hope it goes well!

Setting up USB External Drive to Airport Extreme Base Station

I've attached an External Hard Drive to my AEBS. My base computer is connected to the AEBS via Ethernet Cable and can see the external drive under Networked Drive however it shows up twice as Drive Y and Drive Z both showing the exact same capacity.
My desktop computer is running windows vista, and my laptop is also running vista. My Laptop connects to the AEBS wirelessly. The laptop does not see this External Hard Drive. How do I get my laptop to recognize this drive? Shoule my external hard drive display with two different drive letters, or should it only appear as one? I've not had much luck using this feature of the airport extreme and was the basic reason i purchased the AEBS

The USB port on the AirPort Extreme will support drive formats of Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and FAT32. NTFS is not supported, so that might explain some of your difficulties.
What feature did I invoke that automatically established a "third" drive? Where is it established on the physically formatted Mac drive? Does the format of Appleshare just indicate how the partition is accessed?
Not sure about this. When I format a drive as Mac OS or FAT 32, I see a single drive when accessed from the Finder.

External drive for iTunes library and backing up via time machine

Hi, I currently have an 320gb external drive plugged into usb port of my imac for time machine back up, but my itunes library is 500gb and currently excluded from time machine back up, I would like to buy a 2 or 3tb external drive and then move my itunes library to that to free space on my imac.
I'd really like to know the best way to set up and what to buy, ie, if i move the library to an external drive am I able to back up the external drive via time machine, plus I assume if I do this i need a second external drive or time capsule to back up the library
Also the external drive is plugged directly into imac but I have an airport extreme is there any benefit plugging the drive into this, would this mean you access file from network (should you do this if its used for time machine), should I get rid of the extreme and buy a time capsule
Thanks in advance

Hi, I'd recommend one of these...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
FW400 will be faster than USB2, & FW8000 even better.
I see no advantage to plugging it into Your Extreme.

Copying server system to external drive, be able to boot off if necessary..

Hello,
I have PowerPC G4 tower that is running Mac OS 9.2.2 as a server, and it works OK the way it is. What I am trying to do is copy the system to an external drive that I removed from a defunct imac, the drive is only 7GB, but should be enough for a bootable external drive. How do I copy the server system onto this drive so if I want in the future to boot from it I can. I am going to be upgrading the machine to OS X, with (2) mirrored 500 GB RAID drives that all users (6) can access. I am trying to eliminate the server as a server and just be able to access mirrored drives as shared volumes across the network. Can anyone steer me in the right direction? Thanks in advance...

Thank you for the info. I was able to copy the 9.2.2 OS to an external drive and was able to boot from that drive so... that seems to be working as intended. Although I didn't see the "blessed" icon, it seems to be running the way I want it to.
Now, trying to upgrade to OS X seems to be giving me a problem... Is there a version of OS X that needs to be installed first? When I try to load 10.4.3 and reboot the mac to the install CD I get an odd screen in multiple languages, stating that "You need to restart your computer" and in the background there are multiple lines of code saying various errors "unable to find driver for this platform: "PowerMac3,3" "No debug configured-dumping debug information" "Kernal Version: Darwin Kernal Version 8.8.5" among other text. Last line says: "Panic: we are hanging here...
Please forgive my ignorance with these issues , but I appreciate any help possible.

If I move my itunes and photo libraries to an external drive, will they still be backed up via time machine (on another external drive)?

I have 2 external drives, one of which I would like to use to store my iphoto and itunes libraries (to create space on my laptop hard drive). Then I have a 1tb drive that I'm going to use for my time machine backup. Will I be able to back up the itunes and iphoto libraries from the external drive onto the time machine drive with the rest of the files that are on my laptop hard drive? Thanks.

Depends on the version of the OS that you are using I would post on the forum for the version of the OS that you are using.
Later version od Time machine will, definitely. If the version you have doesn't, then there are plenty of 3rd party back up utilities that wll do the job for you.
If you're moving the iPhoto Library then remember the disk needs to be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Regards
TD

Best way to set up iPhoto; external drive

HI!
I want to set up iphoto in a way that steals less of my ssd drive space. I will buy a usb 3 harddrive, where I store my pictures. In iphoto I just want a reference to the picture on my external harddrive. But when working, some times I want to delete pictures; can I do this from iphoto, or will I only delete the reference?
How do I make sure that I have no duplicates, when I store files this way?
Ok, how do I set this up; is iphoto the best way?

But when working, some times I want to delete pictures; can I do this from iphoto, or will I only delete the reference?
It will only delete the Reference. iPhoto is not the best way. If you want to use iPhoto the best way is to run a Managed Library from the external disk.
For more on iPhoto and file management see this User Tip:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6361
Aperture is much more powerful in this regard.

How do I set up new external drive?

I have bought a new 750 GB external hard drive to use on my new MacBook.
I want to use it partly as a back-up using Time Machine but also for storing video during editing.
However, before puting it to that use, I want to use the drive to transfer selected folders from my old, soon to be sold, MacBook onto the new one.
Do I format the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) before transferring my folders?
Do I need to be involved in partition or RAID, and if so, at what stage?
How do I get data backed-up with Time Machine to be separate from video for editing?

john charnley wrote:
Disc utility gives me 4 choices of format for Mac OS. Which one do you recommend?
MAC OS Extended Journaled
Also, what size drive do you suggest for use with iMovie video editing?
If you mean a separate drive then get the largest you can, if you mean how much space to set aside on your TM drive I repeat that I do not recommend that.
Your TM drive should be 2 to 5 times the size of your main drive, now how much does that leave for other tasks.

Mac mini set to make external drive default for storing media

Running multiple computers in the home how do I set an external NAS device as the default for all iTunes content so it can work with my Mac Mini and AppleTV? Mac Mini does not have enough storage space for all the media and rather than keep music on one computer and movies and TV Shows on another would rather have it all in once place...

Update: I wound up going with a DroboPro, and I wound up filling it with 8 x 1.5TB Seagate drives (purchased for $100 each using this deal from techbargains.com ~
http://www.techbargains.com/tellafriend2.cfm/168063
For under $2,000, I have a 9.36TB single volume of backed-up awesomeness!
I realize alternate versions of this sort of rig could have been made cheaper, but the warm cozy feeling I get in my gut when I look at this beast was worth the extra penny

Can I set up an external drive so it can boot either PPC or Intel machines?

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