Can i use an external hard drive to upgrade to lion as only 1gb on my mac

I have an imac and want to upgrade to lion but I only have 1gb of memory. I have an external harddrive wired to the system for photos, movies etc can I use this to allow me to gain enough memory for the uprgade or do I just need to buy more memory/RAM?

macsales.com and crucial.com sell RAM that is compatible with your system (follow the system selection prompts) and will offer RAM that is as much as your system can take.  If it offers 4 GB, then buy the 4 GB.  If it only says 1 is possible, then you are out-of-luck.
ifixit.com and macsales.com will present vieds and picture guides (I may be an adult, but pictures DO help!) to replace RAM.
Should not adversely affect the mac, unless *something* is so faulty it is due fore replacement anyway.

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    I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

    In the Mac side of things, backups usually come in two flavors: clones or incrementals.
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    Holler if you need specifics on how to do each. This was just an executive summary.

  • Can i use an external hard drive in windows to add additional storage after my initial partition is set up. i want to add a 500 GB hard drive to use with my windows. I set windows up in boot camp with a 50 GB partition?

    can i use an external hard drive in windows to add additional storage after my initial partition is set up. i want to add a 500 GB external hard drive to use with my windows. I set windows up in boot camp with a 50 GB partition? I now want to add another 500 GB?

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  • Can I use one external hard drive for 3 of my Macs?

    I have a 2007 white MacBook, a 2011 MacBook Pro, and a 2013 MacBook Air.
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  • How can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory?

    i don't know if this question has been asked before: how can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory? just like itunes all my song are save on my external hard drive. make sense?

    Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
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    Can you use a external hard drive to keep all your iTunes info on it

    Yes.
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  • HT1766 Can you use an external hard drive to back up my movies in iTunes but still be able to access them or is there a device so I don't have to use a pc ??

    Can you use an external hard drive to back up my movies in iTunes but still be able to access them or is there a device so I don't have to use a pc ??

    You can store them on a separate hard drive, you don't need to keep them on your laptop's hard drive. On your computer's iTunes on the Advanced tab in Edit > Preferences there is a 'copy files to iTunes media file when adding to library' tickbox - if you untick that, you should be able to copy the films to a separate drive and add them back to your iTunes library (File > Add To Library) and it should then point to them on that separate drive and not copy them to your hard drive. When you are happy that it is what is happening and that they are safely on your external drive you can delete the films from your laptop's hard drive.
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  • Can I use an External hard drive and my computers hard drive for apple tv

    Can I use an External hard drive and my computers hard drive for apple tv

    If you mean to hold iTunes content to stream then the answer is yes.  Your iTunes library  folder and the media usually live in the same location, but media can be in a different or several different locations.  The external drive wuld have to e connected and powered to stream media to AppleTV.

  • Can I use an external hard drive with my ipad 2

    can I use an external hard drive with my ipad 2

    There are WiFi enabled portable hard drives available that can stream media, such as music or video, to your iPad, but no external hard drive in the sense of how you would use one with a computer.

  • Can I use an external hard drive for my ipad mini?

    Can I use an external hard drive for my ipad mini?

    There are some wireless external hard drives that can be used with the iPad.
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    http://www.macworld.com/article/1153935/hyperdrive.html
    On the road with a camera, an iPad, and a Hyperdrive
    http://www.macworld.com/article/1160231/ipadhyperdrive.html
     Cheers, Tom

  • Can I use my external hard drive for additional storage on my ipad?

    can I use my external hard drive for additional storage on my ipad

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  • I have 1 gb of memory with10.6.8 and want to upgrade my OS can i use an external hard drive to solve this

    I am running 10.6.8 and have 1gb of memory and want to upgrade can i use an external hard drive to solve this problem

    You are confusing RAM (Ramdom Access Memory) with hard drive storage space.
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    You can purchase an external hard drive, if you like, if you want to install the new OS X upgrade onto an external drive. If you want to run the new OS X Mavericks from the external drive, depending on your Mac model, you need a fast protocol external hard drive.
    Either a USB 3.0, Thunderbolt or FireWire 800 connected external hard drive.
    To start, if you are running your Mac on 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, this is the barest of RAM to run Snow Leopard.
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  • Can I use an external hard drive to download and store my iTunes library?

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  • How can I use an external hard drive to both back up and free up storage on my macbook?

    I've used a hard drive to back up my 2012 Macbook Pro via Time Machine, but I'm not sure how to use it as external storage to move things like video and music off of my Mac to free up memory and then how to move the same things from the hard drive on to other devices like my iPad or iPhone.  For instance, I have a ton of movies and would like to store most of them on an external hard drive so that they aren't taking up all of my memory on my Mac, but want to be able to move them easily back onto my phone or iPad.  Also, can I use the same hard drive to both back up my computer and use it for external storage?  If so, how do I do that?

    Always use two drives for this: one for backup; the other for storage. Don't mix the two uses on one drive. There's a greater risk of data lost without that redundancy.
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  • Can you use an external hard drive on ipad 2

    i'm going away in a few weeks and have a 14 hour trip and need to know if i can use an external hard drive with films on it on my ipad 2 if not does anyone know a cheep ish way to power my macbook for that long
    cheers guys

    I tried that earlier this month: https://discussions.apple.com/message/15867558#15867558
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