Converting 2009 MBA SSD to external hdd

The RAM on my 2009 MBA died on me, so I decided to retire it. I took the SSD out and thinking to use it as an external drive. It is a 1.8" SSD with LIF connector. I managed to find a LIF to SATA 2.5" SSD adaptor. The SSD with the adaptor works perfectly with my Vantec Docking Station and my iMac can read it without any problems.
However, I ran into a problem when I put the SSD with adaptor into a 2.5" SSD USB 3.0 enclosure. My iMac does not read it. I am guessing that it is not providing enough power to the SSD? Has anyone successfully converted this SSD to a portable hard drive?

I found my own solution.
Here's what I did.
1. Put the 2009 MBA SSD into a LIF to SATA 2.5" SSD adaptor.
2. Use a 22 pin SATA Female Connector to 16 pin Micro SATA Male connector (make sure it has 3.3V converter)
3. Use a USB 3.0 to Micro SATA 16 pin cable
Now the SSD powers up when it's connected to computers! I customized a case too so now I have a portable SSD drive!

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Using an ipod as an external HDD for the MBA and also as an ipod

I have 120gb of media that I would like to carry on an ipod which I then connect to an MBA.
Is it possible for the MBA to use the ipod as an external HDD to store media on, and also use the ipod as an ipod?

With the exception of the iPod Touch and iPod Shuffle, yes. See:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61131

Hi, I am planning to buy an MBA with 256 GB flash storage. I was wondering if external hdd's will be compatible with it?

Hi, I am planning to buy an MBA with 256 GB flash storage. I was wondering if external hdd's will be compatible with it?

Yes, any HDD will work, but as stated above, you should probably go for a more portable unit. My personal preference is for units that are powered by the USB or Thunderbolt connection, so I don't have to worry about a power cord.
I'm using a G-Tech 500GB Slim Drive for $90. They also make a 1 TB model for $150.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/H9996VC/A/g-tech-1tb-g-drive-usb-30-mobile-har d-drive?fnode=5f
It's about the size of a paperback book, and the thickness of an iPhone. Great for travel if you want to back up photos! Team it up with a 12 inch USB cord and you'll be set.

Windows 8 search not working for on particular folder on external HDD

I have an external HDD which has a library of pdf documents on it (about 11gigs worth) - it's in my index and it used to be perfectly searchable by windows search until I had the files system converted to NTFS from FAT32. Now it literally will not
find anything in the folder with all the pdfs in it (even if you search "pdf" it wont find a single thing) yet it will find anything else in any other folder on the same drive.
I have no idea what the problem is. That folder is also shared, and is a google drive. Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks, DB

check out this link:
http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=faq-Windows-8&faq=78
from above link:
To change the Windows-8 indexing options, please open Indexing Options Window. Press the key combination [Windows Logo] + [R],
then just type the command control.exe srchadmin.dll [...
see Image 1 Arrow-1]
Click Modify [...
see Image 1 Arrow-2] and please check the mark in the checkbox of the folders that you want[...
see Image 1 Arrow-4]
(Image-1) Windows-8 Indexing Options and Indexed Locations.
Every second counts..make use of it. Disclaimer: This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

How do I use an iPhoto library stored on an external HDD (time capsule) on the new photos app?

I have recently upgraded to a MacBook Air with the latest 10.10.3 updates as such it has photos installed, not iPhoto. The MacBook I'm upgrading from still had 10.9 and as such had iPhoto app.
The MacBook air has a smaller SSD (128GB) than the HDD from my 2008 MacBook, and isn't big enough to store my iPhoto library (over 150GB). I want to just keep my library on the external HDD (which is an Apple Time Capsule).
When I follow the steps on Designate a System Photo Library in Photos - Apple Support it seems to want to import all the photos, it took hours to get to just 3% of importing so I left over night. In the morning it said my MacBooks storage isn't big enough, which of course it isn't - I didn't want to import the library on my new MacBook Air !
I just want to change the location that photos looks for the library every time it opens, I don't actually want it to import the whole library which it appears to have tried to do. thanks!

Thanks for getting back to me!
It is connected over wireless. I don't have an RJ45 connection on the MacBook Air (although will purchase an adapter if needed). Even if I do have an RJ45 connection does this mean I can only ever use wired to view my external photo library?
I suppose having the wired connection will give me the time to organise my photos and delete some of the rubbish (which I would have liked to do on my old MacBook first but it was running too slow, especially with such a big photo library - so I treated myself to a new MacBook Air so I did!).
And I guess I could then put my favourite photos on the MacBook Air and have a separate library of older/lesser used photos on the Time Capsule and just access those as and when over RJ45 network cable. I prefer to use wireless as much as possible as the Time Capsule is normally stored in a room I don't use the MacBook or other wireless devices !

MacBook Pro iphoto external HDD and can't open iphoto.

I have a Macbook Pro OS X 10.9.2 and I cannot open iphoto. My HD has 0 kb free. Is this why? It worked yesterday and I haven't uploaded anything new, just attached a WD my passport ext HD and did a time machine back up. I can't locate the Iphoto backup on the external HDD. When I attempt to open iphoto I get an error message - Unable to write to library "iphoto library". Its got around 850GB of photos in there. Plan was to back up time machine on one HDD, then just the actual photo files to another HDD and store old photos on the external drives, thus freeing up my MacBook Pro.
I have a copy of time machine from about 2 weeks ago which is when my old external drive ran out of space. The new drives are WD My Passport for Mac 2TB.
I've tried holding down the cmd-alt buttons and can get the menus up but if I click 'repair database' I get the same error message up.
Any ideas?
I have dragged the iphoto library from finder, which is showing around 850GB, to the WD HDD and its backing up but very slowly!!
If I can get iphoto open I can get some photos off of it which no doubt will solve the problem!!

The ext HD is not partitioned. It also has a Time Machine back up on it
You don't want to run an iPhoto library off the same drive/partition the Time Machine uses. It will eventually run of of space and damage the library. Running a library in that manner is asking for problems.
Should I (can I?) rename one of the iphoto libraries so I know which is which?
Yes. Then if you're not sure which library you're using Control (right) - click on the iPhoto title in the top frame of the window to see which library it is:
What is the best way to keep my photos backed up on an ext HD before/ after editing as I want to keep the original as well as the edited version.
That's what iPhoto does. When you edit a photo the edits are applied to a modified version separate from the original/master version. iPhoto has a Revert to Original option which removes the edited version. Also when viewing an edited photo in the edit mode the Shift key will toggle between the edited version and orignal version.
Any ideas if it is easy to extract my music from itunes from time machine back up?
Enter Time Machine, go to the Music folder or wherever you kept your iTunes library, select the library and click on the Restore button. It will be restored to the Music folder on your boot drive. If you want to restore the library to another location Control (right) - click on the iTunes library and select "Restore to .....". That will let you pick the location for the restored library.
am thinking of getting LIghtroom to use instead of iphoto but have no idea whether it would talk to the photos that are in iphoto on my ext HD. Perhaps Aperture would make more sense?
Lightroom works alot like iPhoto and Aperture, a database based application. You can't use both Lightroom and iPhoto. You'll have to pick one and use it alone.
However, Aperture can use the same library as iPhoto so there would be no converting the library as LIghtroom would require.
Your best solution would be to daisy chain another EHD off of your TM hard drive to use with your iPhoto and iTunes libraries and any other files you'd like to keep there to use. Then have TM backup both your boot drive and the second EHD. The TM drive should be about 2X the size of the drives it's backing up.
So if you go that route you might want to get a new EHD for TM that's big enough and use the current TM drive as your working drive.

How to transfer my archlinux.vdi on an usb external hdd

Hello everybody from Mauritius ~!
I am Caron from Mauritius. I run Mint 17 Quiana 64 bit and an Archlinux Vm. My aim is to convert my archlinux vdi into a bootable external hdd ( I use a laptop so I'll be using a laptop external hdd in a usb casing.)
I read that I had first to convert the .vdi into a .raw and then use dd command. Unfortunately I failed because the commands are not working- unable to find the .vdi on my system. :?
Can u help please ?
Thanks in advance.
Caron
p.s : I use a Dell Laptop Vostro 1015

Hi everybody and sorry for the delay...
First please note that Mauritius is a former ENGLISH colony till 1968 and is now known as the REPUBLIC of MAURITIUS. I invite you all to vist it as soon as you can.
To be more serious, I abandonned the Arch vdi cloning and tried to setup archlinux on an external usb hard drive ( laptop 500 gb hdd in a SATA enclosure ) .
Arch recognised the disk as /dev/sdc and I did the install twice , having partitionning the hdd before on gparted.
I think that I am basing my setup process on a virtual box tutorial ( youtube ) but when I reboot the system and choose the option " boot on existing Os " : nothing happens.
Is it because the command " vbox echo >> /mnt/hostname " affects the boot sequence . ERROR MESSAGE is " APM not present ".
It's a pity becase all other distrib such as Kali, Ubuntu and even Cylon install far more quickly and easily on the external usb hdd ?
Thanks again for your time, patience and support
Caron

How to rename two external hdd's, that are exactly the same brand and model, in order to distinguish?

Hello again.
First of all excuse me if I mistype anything or fail to use some terms correctly. English is not my mother tongue and I am kind of new to MacBooks.
Here's my problem.
I've got a macbook pro (yosemite 10.10.1, retina, 15", late 2013, 8gb memory, 250gb ssd), and I am using an external hard drive which I found to be quite good for what I wanted (in case it matters it's the lacie porsche design 2TB USB3).
I wanted one more external hard drive, and since I was satisfied with the one I had bought before, I decided to go for that one again.
Now the thing is that, when I go to finder I see 2 disks with the same name (and their "share" partitions) and I don't know which is which.
I'll try to post a screenshot that might clear things out.
What I would like to do would be to somehow rename the second disk so it appears in the finder as (for example) Lacie1 and Lacie Share1.
Apparently, the system kinda thinks in a similar way as I do.
As you can see below, it has done exactly what I want to do in Lacie's manager (or however it's called), but that does not appear in finder.
(some words are in Greek, but you'll get the point)
So, is there any way I can do something that will make the disks appear like that in finder so I can differentiate among them?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Connect the external HDD to the MBP. Click in the title below the icon two times. It should then allow you to change the name.
See this example:
Ciao.

I've mistakenly deleted Time Machine backups from my external HDD. How do I fix this?!

I manually deleted several Time Machine backups from my external HDD. Whenever I attempt to empty trash, it states (error code -22) has occurred. How do I fix my predicament?
I understand (now) that I should never do this and ONLY delete from the Time Machine app itself but I did not assume this would be so complex by taking a blind stab at it. How do I either a) place the Time Machine backups where the originated (Put Back is not an option when right-clicked) or b) successfully delete these so I can clear my bin.
I am running Mac OS 10.10 on a 13" MacBook Air (mid-2013) w/ 4GB of RAM and 128GB SSD. My external drive is a 5400 RPM WD USB 2.0 External Hard Drive.

Try Trash won't empty deleted time machine backups

My new Time Capsule 2T 2013 doesn't see my Seagate External HDD

Hi,
I am new MAC user recently converted from PC. I have a Macbook Air 2013 and the new time capsule 2013 as well.
I did connect my external HDD (i.e. 1.5T Seagate HDD) in the Time Capsule USB port.
I went into the utility Airport Application to make sure "File sharing box is checked".
I went in Finder to look for my HDD and no sign of it...
I read many many discussions looking for the answer on how to make my External HDD (previously used on my PC laptop) appear on my MacBook Air throught my home network, but without success. From Apple website, it seams to be an easy task...!
Finally, I have read stuff about how the HDD is formatted. Could it be the reason?
I need some help please!
Thanks in advance.
FLTower.

Finally, I have read stuff about how the HDD is formatted. Could it be the reason?
I need some help please!
It surely is at least a major factor.. maybe several are involved.
You cannot see a disk formatted NTFS.. ie standard windows format from TC.
The disk must be plugged into the Mac and open disk utility..
You need to change the partition over to GUID from MBR.. and change the format to Mac OS extended Journaled.. or HFS+
Although FAT32 is also supposed to work.. that will lead to other issues.. don't do it.
If you format a drive with data on it.. your data is gone.. just to make sure you know that.
You can plug the drive into the computer and copy the data to another location.. and then format the drive.. and copy it back.. if you have an air without the Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter this will take aprox 1month to achieve.

Disk Utility Failing to Repair External HDD

I was in the midst of running a Time Machine backup from my MBA (2012, running Mavericks) to an external HDD when I moved the laptop and managed to knock the cord out of the HDD, causing it to disconnect abruptly (the drive pulled away from the plug and hit the floor). Since then, I have been unable to to access the HDD at all, although the drive itself seems to be working, insofar as the light still comes on and the disc is spinning.
The HDD isn't visible in Finder. I can sporadically see it in Disk Utility - sometimes I plug it in and see nothing, sometimes it appears in Disk Utility after an extended period of time. It won't mount through Disk Utility, however I have managed to eject it a few times.
I have tried both verifying and repairing the HDD when it is visible; all attempts have ended in an error stating that I needed to backup the files and restore the drive. I've tried a number of tools to clone the drive, including Disk Utility itself, Carbon Cloner and a few others, but all have resulted in errors.
Is there any way I can salvage the data on the HDD? There are a few files on there I really don't want to lose...

Remove the drive mechanism from the enclosure and install it in another one.

I have a 2009 Macbook Pro with 1T hdd 8GB Ram and ran Maverick without problem...Yosemite installation has me completely frozen, nothing works but the spinning ball...I had to force shutdown last night, and haven't turned it on again...what do you ad

I have a 2009 Macbook Pro with 1T hdd 8GB Ram and ran Maverick without problem...Yosemite installation has me completely frozen, nothing works but the spinning ball...I had to force shutdown last night, and haven't turned it on again...what do you advise? During installation emptied cache, etc. Backed up using time machine, fortunately.

Try these in order testing your system after each to see if it's back to normal:
1. a. Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
    b. Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
2. Restart the computer in Safe Mode, then restart again, normally. If this doesn't help, then:
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilities menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
3. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
4. Reinstall Yosemite: Reboot from the Recovery HD. Select Reinstall OS X from the Utilities menu, and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
5. Reinstall Yosemite from Scratch:
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
How to Clean Install OS X Yosemite
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

My Macbook Pro 2014 ran out of battery while mid-slideshow. Now the slideshow won't skip through photos and I can't figure out why? Macbook Pro 2014 13-inch Intel i5 8GB RAM 128GB flash, iPhoto library is on external HDD

Macbook Pro 2014
13-inch
Intel i5
8GB RAM
128GB flash SSD,
Integrated Graphics
iPhoto library is on external HDD
I was in a slideshow, with around 1,911 photos in it. About halfway through, my Macbook ran out of battery. Now when I restarted and charged the Macbook and reopened iPhoto, the slideshow won't advance through photos, and I can't figure out any reason why it would do this.
I thought it may be corrupted, so I deleted and reinstalled iPhoto library, iPhoto itself, and disconnected and reconnected my external HDD.
This didn't work, the photos still won't advance.
I don't know any reason why this would be happening, and there is ample space on my internal drive.
I'm happy to provide more information if needed!
Many Thanks,
James

Make a few tests, James, to narrow down the problem and find out, if the slideshow is corrupted, your iPhoto Library, or settings in your account.
To test, if only your slideshow has a problem, create a new slideshow, just for testing. Just use "File > New Slideshow" and add a few photos. Does this slideshow play correctly?
If the test slideshow does not play either, create a new iPhoto Library. Use the File menu in iPhoto: File > Switch to library > Create New. Import a few photos and create a slideshow. Does it play?
If even a new library does not solve the problem, test in a different user account (see this document: Isolating an issue by using another user account - Apple Support):
This process involves creating a new user account, logging in to it, and testing for the issue.
Create a new standard or admin user account in Users & Groups preferences.
Use these instructions for OS X Mavericks.
See these instructions for OS X Mountain Lion.
See this video, or these instructions for OS X Lion.
Optional: If you have any specific files you wish to test with, copy (don't move) those items to the /Users/Shared folder in the Finder.
Log out of your current user account by choosing Log Out from the Apple () menu.
Log in with the new account you created.
Attempt to reproduce the issue you were seeing in your regular user account.
After you have completed testing, log out of the test account by choosing Log Out from the Apple () menu.
Log in as your regular account.
After you have completed all testing with the test user account, you may want to delete it. You can delete an account in the Users & Groups pane of System Preferences.
Note: Prior to deleting a test account, make sure you are completely done with it. If you have files in the Guest User you wish to keep, you should copy them to the /Users/Shared folder .
If you should find, that slideshows only play in a new user account, post back.

Can I cut/paste my backups to an external hdd and then back to my mac?

Ok, here's my issue and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
I have an iPhone6 and my wife has one as well, and we both have iPads.
I have to backup all of these somewhere, and my current device is a Macbook Pro with 250gb SSD.
As you understand, backing up so many things in so little space it almost renders my Macbook useless.
I have read some advice about using sudo commands to make iTunes store the backups in an external hdd.
However, I am not an experienced mac user, and I do not trust myself doing something like that.
What came to my mind, and that's what I want your opinion upon, is the following.
Something that I used to do when I was using a windows pc to keep many different backups, rename them etc.
As far as I understand, when I plug in my iPhone to my Mac, iTunes recognize the device and the last backup of that device.
Then, by pressing "Backup to my pc etc" it only updates that backup and rewrites on it.
My questions:
I backup my iPhone then quit iTunes.
I remove (cut) the backup folder (the one with the huge weird name from the directory library/application support/mobile sync/backup/0604f04blabhblahblah) and paste it on an external hdd where I have tons of space.
When I want to backup my iPhone again, instead of creating a whole new backup that would take a lot of time, if I take the backup folder that I had stored to that external hdd and paste it back to its original place (the directory I mentioned above), will iTunes recognize it and update and rewrite on that backup?
And then again move it back and forth from my mac to my external hdd.
And something even more important.
In case something happens to my iPhone (it falls from the 10nth floor) and I buy a new one, will I be able to "restore from backup" using the same method I mentioned before? Will iTunes recognize the folder?
Sorry for the long text and any mistakes but english is not my mother tongue and I wanted to make sure I would be clear about my questions.
My current backups use more than half of my 250gb internal SSD and along with some apps and other stuff I cannot get rid off I am left with only 50gigs of space which is terrible.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

edwardpeck wrote:
If I have iMatch can I move the music files to an external drive and then play the music off the cloud? This way freeing up space on my hard drive? If so how?
You can move the iTunes library to the external and use it there.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folde rto the external.
Hold Option, launch iTunes, select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.
iTunes will use the external for everything.You can delete /Music/iTunes/ folder.
FYI: The iTunes media folder is not the (entire) iTunes library.

Mountain Lion 10.8.2 not showing big folders from External HDD, please help ?

Hello guys,
The problem appeared after I did a clean install of Mountain Lion 10.8.2. The OS works nicely except it does not show my big Movie (around 200 GB) folder from my External HDD. This Movie folder is not related to any Apple software such as iTunes etc.. What's funny is that my LG TV shows the folder, and I can access it to open any movie. But when I mount the HDD to my MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion now, all folders are shown except this one. The HDD is NTFS and had no problems with Snow Leopard (my previous OS).
I tried defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE and I see hidden folders in External HDD, but the Movie folder is still not shown.
Is this issue related to the size of this folder ? any help & ideas are greatly appreciated, thanks!

Hi all,
I see its been 2 months since the last post. Did someone find the solution? I have the same problem with 10.8.2 update. Macbook pro mid 2010 with Crucial 256 m4 ssd (latest firmware 010G). Since yesterday my mac refuses to start.
What I did so far:
1. Impossible to start os x 10.8.2, stuck at spinning circle below the apple logo at startup. Disk check ok, permissions ok. Startup in "safe mode" stucks on spinning wheel as well.
2. Impossible to format the drive for a new clean install. What I find strange is that I cannot format the ssd with any utility. So far I tried with windows, linux and with disk utility on os x. I put the ssd in a usb casing and I am able to read it as an external drive, can copy some smaller files from it but cannot change anything on it (no permissions).
3. Did a clean install on original hd of my mac. Data transfer (1 user) from time machine or the ssd goes through 85-95% then stops. And now impossible to format the original drive with the 10.8.2 installed to downgrade to 10.7.
4. Pram reset
Does anyone have any idea what to do now?
Thanks!

Converting 2009 MBA SSD to external hdd

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