Data transfer to external hard drive

I have an iMac running OS X 10.9.2. The problem I'm having is that my hard drive is full - mostly due to HD home videos that I have saved to iMovie. I need to move them to an external hard drive in order to free up some room. I really would like to put them (2 copies of the same videos) on 2 separate hard drives, so that I will have a back-up in case one fails. I am not really that mac savvy - so I was wondering if someone could tell me the best/easiest way to go about doing this. Where I get hung up is if I move it to one drive, then it's no longer on the mac - so how do I put a copy on a second drive?
Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!

You are copying a file from one drive to another, not moving it. The file will still be on the Mac from which you copied it.
Select all the movies you wish to copy. Then drag your selection to a folder on one of the backup drives. Now drag that same selection to the second backup drive. When the copying is completed you will have two backups. You can now delete the selection from the startup drive.
Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

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I cannot transfer data from my external hard drive to my new mac

I had to get a new hard drive put into my macbook pro because it was failing. So, I moved all my data onto an external hard drive so I would not lose anything. But now I cannot get iphoto or imovie back onto my computer. It says I cannot open it because it is a time machine back up. I don't want to have to purchase iPhoto and iMovie again just because I had to replace my hard drive.

Copying the files directly from a Time Machine backup may be possible but I don't recommend it. Your new hard disk is essentially a new computer to Time Machine, and it will have problems understanding where to put the individual files. What you're trying to do is just not the right way to go about it.
To restore from a Time Machine backup, boot Lion Recovery and select "Restore from Time Machine backup".
See Pondini's explanation here: http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

I transferred data from my external hard drive to my restored Mac Book Pro via migration assistant and now my external hard drive in time capsule has red minus signs. How do I get rid of that without getting rid of any of my data?

I used Migration Assistant to transfer my data from my external hard drive via Time Capsule to my restored Mac Book Pro. When I now go into Time Capsule I there are red minus signs in the corner of all the folders that are contained in my back up. How do I get rid of this and access my previous back-ups?

Select the drive and Finder > Get info and at the bottom "ignore permissions on this volume"
You can copy the files, but the ownership on the files still belongs to the other user account, once your done copying, then perform a #6 Reset Users Permissions and that will set all the ownership to that account.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Another method is to copy the entire folder, then change it's permissions.

How do i recover data from an external hard drive that was accidentally deleted? After I verified the drive, a message appeared that said my drive needed to be repaired. When I tried to access the drive again, the 700 Gigs of music is gone!

How do i recover data from an external hard drive that was accidentally deleted? After I verified the drive, a message appeared that said my drive needed to be repaired. When I tried to access the drive again, the 700 Gigs of music is gone!

Stop using the drive immediately, un plug it.
Buy a copy of ProSoft DataRescue 4 and use it to search for deleted files.

Archive data on an external hard drive

What is the best way to archive data on an external hard drive from a macbook pro in order to free up disk space?

Disk Space - Free Up
Disk Space – Free Up (2)
Disk Space Filling Up – OmniDiskSweeper
Disk Space Filling Up - WhatSize

HT1751 when i have moved all of my data to an external hard drive should i delete all of the library files on my laptop/PC

i have moved all of my data to an external hard drive should i then delete the copies on my laptop

What are you actually trying to accomplish? Backing up the library, or moving it?
If backing up don't delete anything.
If moving did you move the library files as well? Ideally you would copy the entire iTunes folder out to the external drive then shift-start iTunes to connect to the relocated library. This method makes it easier to move the library to a new drive or computer later and keeps everything together for backing up. Rather than delete everything rename the iTunes or iTunes Media folder first (depending on which approach you took) and make sure the library still works before deleting.
tt2

Is it possible to sync time capsule data to a external hard drive

Is it possible to sync time capsule data to a external hard drive connected to time capsule via usb. (as an precaution just incase time capsule fails)
Thanks

Yes, if the USB drive has been previously formatted correctly in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
Open AirPort Utility - Click Manual Setup
Click the Disks icon
Click the Disks tab below the icon
Click Archive
Allow plenty of time for the copy process to occur. You will not be able to make Time Machine backups from your Mac until the Archive process has completed.

How do i retrieve data from my external hard drive?

how do i retrieve data from my external hard drive?

If your hard drive can be detected and shows up as a drive letter in my computer but you can't access your files,then you can recover your data off it with data recovery software easily.This way is the easiest and the most inexpensive way to recover your data.If you bring it to a computer repair shop that is available for data recovery servise,they will cost you $500-1000 or more.Hmm, a lot of money.
I managed to recover data from crashed hard drive with Tenorshare Data Recovery.If needed,you can download it and scan your hard drive for free to preview whether your data can be recovered.It will show you thumbnails for recoverable pictures.

I'm having some difficulty with Time Machine. It appears to be deleting backups from random dates on my external hard drive. I am not deleting them. Are they hidden and how do I prevent this from happening? Can I retrieve them?

I'm having some difficulty with Time Machine. It appears to be deleting backups from random dates on my external hard drive. I am not deleting them. Are they hidden and how do I prevent this from happening? Can I retrieve them?

... I didn't know that Time Machine was more a last resort back up instead of main back up.
Don't rely upon Time Machine to the exclusion of all else. I compliment Time Machine with a periodic "clone". TM is much better than nothing, but it's a safety net, not a hammock
Here is my understanding of Time Machine's file deletion algorithm, distilled from Pondini's FAQ, Apple's KB articles, and my own observations.
Time Machine deletes ("thins") files from the backup disk as follows:
Hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first backup of the day
Daily backups over 30 days old, except the first backup of the week
Older backups get deleted when Time Machine requires space and you deleted them from the source disk.
Therefore, assuming TM has been performing at least one backup per day, backup files will remain available:
at least thirty days, if they existed on your Mac for at least a day
until you run out of space, if they existed on your Mac for at least a week
In addition to the above, Time Machine always keeps one complete copy of your source disk so that the entire volume could be restored if necessary. Any files that remain on your source volume will be present on the TM backup, no matter how old they are.
If you are using 250 GB of space on your source disk, its Time Machine backups are likely to require at least twice that much. A good estimate of the minimum required backup volume size would be about three times the size of your source disk - 1.5 TB in your case.
A more thorough explanation would require Pondini since he has plumbed Time Machine's mysteries far more than I have.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

How do I restore data from an external hard drive back to a restored mac?

how do I restore data from an external hard drive back to a restored mac?

Hello, Esmin77.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
I see you want to restore your MacBook Pro from an external drive. Here is an article that may help you with this process if you used Time Machine to backup these files.
OS X Yosemite: Recover your entire system
Cheers,
Jason H.

How do I transfer data from one external hard drive to another larger one?

I hope I am posting in the logical area for this topic. I have an external hard drive connected to my eMac. My iTunes library and some backup files reside on this hard drive. I am contemplating purchasing another, larger external hard drive so that I can archive more data--more music and some photos. How do I transfer my data from the first drive to the second one, and is this a risky move? (I have a lot of music!)

Hello,
Take a look at SuperDuper (link). This 'clones' any drive across to another; it should suit your needs just fine.
Firewire drives with an Oxford chipset are recommended for PowerPC Macs (like the eMac and iBook) as you can boot the Mac from one to recover the system if the internal drive suffers any issues.
mrtotes

HT3500 how do you transfer data from an external hard drive to a mac time capsule

I am trying to use my Mac Time Capsule as a wireless external hard drive for my MacBook Pro, so how do I transfer the data from a toshiba external hard drive, to my Mac Time Capsule?

Drag and drop or copy and paste files just as you would do with any normal Finder operation.
The Time Capsule is located under the SHARED heading in the Finder.
Click on the Time Capsule icon and double click the folder that appears representing the drive....named Data....unless you have changed the name......to mount the drive on the desktop.
Drag/drop or copy/paste files to the icon on the desktop or to the open window there.

Hard drive failed on windows computer. all data lost. backed up most itunes on an older model my passport ultra external hard drive. How do I transfer from external hard drive to new computer hard drive?

The hard drive on my windows computer failed and the data is not retrievalbe.
I had a new hard drive installed.
I had backed up on a older model my passport ultra external hard drive my itunes up to about a year ago.
How can I move the back up extenal drive Itunes data onto my new hard drive- will it work on itunes?
===========
Meanwhile my ipod has all my music and podcasts up till a month ago. What will I lose if I put my external drive music back on?

Hi Perilman,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities! I understand that all of your iTunes media is on an external hard drive and you would like to move that media onto your new Windows computer hard drive. The following article has step by step instructions for this specifically. Part 5 in the External drive section is probably what is going to be most relevant to you.
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4527
Part 5: Copy music to your new computer
To copy all your music files (including the library file that holds all your playlists and other settings) to your new computer:
I hope this helps,
-Joe

How to transfer my backed data from my external hard drive to new user

I have backed up my profile using Time Machine onto an external hard drive. I have opened a new user name on the same iMac but have not been able to transfer my backed up profile to this new user name. I see that my Launchpad apps are there but cannot see my files. I thought that once I used Migration Assistant to do this, my iMac would look exactly the same as the original profile and have my files visible etc. My files are not here. What am I doing wrong? Have I missed out a step? Thank you!

If you deleted the old user, try to inherit the backup.
Inherit a Backup
Inherit a Backup (2)
If the old user is still there, log in as the older user and copy the file to the new user's Public/Dropbox. Do this at the hard drive level/Users so you can see both users.

Can't transfer data from one external hard drive to another?

I have just purchased my first Mac book Pro a few weeks ago and i seem to be having alot of trouble transfering data between my to hard drives.
One is a 500gb and the other is a 1tb both with movies and photos on them, i want to tranfer the last data from the 500gb to the 1tb and format the 500gb.
I have tried to drag and drop and copy and paste but nothing seems to work? The movies are in avi format too so not sure if that makes a differance or not but that is another issue i would like to sort. How to change the complete hard drive to mp4 or do i do them one by one?
Any help would be great as i dont want to regret this purchase so early in the piece.
Thanks to all in advance.

Yes.

Data transfer to external hard drive

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