Disable external hard drive to prevent waiting for file open

I have a 1.5TB LaCie external drive I use exclusively for Time Machine. Whenever I try to open a file in Word or other apps, I find I'm waiting for the LaCie drive to spin up before I get a dialog box. I've excluded the drive from Spotlight searches but am wondering if anyone knows of a way to exclude it more broadly so I'm not waiting for it.
Thanks,
John

run the following terminal command. It will rebuild Launch Services database and may fix this issue.
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchSe rvices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

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I have two hard drives on my mac 10.5.8 power pc and hear the clickking sounds of the first hard drive and think that it may be dying, can I install everything on the other hard drive also and wait for the first drvie to die before i use the other drives

I have two hard drives on my mac 10.5.8 power pc and hear the clickking sounds of the first hard drive and think that it may be dying, can I install everything on the other hard drive also and wait for the first drive to die before i use the other drives? Or, what is the best way to handle this?

I do not know what you are waiting for.
I'd make a backup of your important stuff before cloning the entire disk.
Carbon Copy Cloner will copy your startup drive to an external firewire drive. You can boot from the external drive to verify that you have a good clone. When you upgrade your existing startup drive, you can at any time boot from your external drive and go back to your existing system.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
SuperDuper is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless. Its incredibly clear, friendly interface is understandable, easy to use, and SuperDuper's built-in scheduler makes it trivial to back up automatically. And it runs beautifully on both Intel and Power PC Macs!

Can you unplug the external hard drive you are using for time machine

can you unplug the external hard drive you are using for time machine and then plug it back in and it work normals because i have a mac book and don't want to always be carrieing the external hard drive every where i go so can you ?

Yes, that will work fine. It will back up normally once you plug it in again. I do this with my MacBook.

Since i upgraded to mavericks,my external hard drive lost half of the files ,how can i get them back?

Since i upgraded to mavericks,my external hard drive lost half of the files ,how can i get them back?

Type move itunes library into the google serach bar.
It has always been very basic to always maintain abackup copy of your computer. Do you not have a backup copy?

I downloaded iTunes 11.4 to my computer. I have my iTunes library on an external hard drive. When I try to open the library, I get a message saying "The file 'iTunes Library.itl' cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes." Help?

I imporeted my library from an old desktop that lost internet connectivity about a year ago. I haven't been able to update iTunes since then. I put it on an external hard drive and iTunes 11 won't open it. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Unless you've tried to install an older version of iTunes that message likely indicates a corrupt library file. See Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash...
tt2

I have some stuff i want to put on external hard drive when i drag the file or files it just puts them back

i have some stuff i want to put on external hard drive when i drag the file or files it just puts them back

Did you format the external disk on Windows? If you did this, probably the external disk is formatted in NTFS. OS X can't write on this format, so it's normal that it doesn't allow you to copy the files.
In this case, you have three possibilities:
1. Install Paragon NTFS. This program allows you to write on NTFS partitions.
2. Copy the hard drive content to your internal disk and format the external disk with Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Do it only if you are going to use the external disk only with OS X.
3. The same as the last one but formatting it with exFAT. This filesystem is compatible with Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8) and OS X (10.6.5 and newer), so you can write and read files on external disks formatted with it on Windows and OS X, but you may have problems on Linux

Best external hard drive as back up for time capsule

What is the most reliable external hard drive out there for use with time capsule/time machine? I have a 500GB version of time machine and it's full. I don't want to have to buy another one. The hard drives I've seen come with some pretty bad reviews.

Most any drive will work with Macs, and Time Machine.
Most drives come formatted for Windoze, but most of them can be re-formatted on your Mac to work with it. See item #5 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Also note item #1 there for size considerations; and items #3 and/or 4 for using with other data and/or other Macs.
If you think you ever might want to put a "bootable clone" on it, be sure it's a bootable drive. Most PPC Macs can boot only from FireWire; most Intels can boot from F/W or USB. But some Western Digitals won't boot a Mac. Their list of which ones should and +should not+ boot: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1787. But note the disclaimer that they don't support it +*at all.+*.
In addition, many of them have a built-in sleep mode that cannot be disabled, and sometimes interferes with Time Machine backups: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1376
Depending on what ports you have, FireWire 800 is by far the fastest; FireWire 400 next, and USB slowest (F/W 400 and USB 2.0 are rated about the same for short bursts, but F/W is faster for sustained transfers. Also, your Mac's CPU has to do more of the work with USB, so actual throughput is usually less).
Many folks think USB is less reliable than FireWire. If you do get USB, be sure to connect it to a port on your Mac, not a keyboard (that may be only USB 1.0). Try to avoid hubs, too.
If you're using USB, it's usually best to get a drive with it's own power supply, as taking power from your Mac can be a marginal proposition. Portable FireWire drives without separate power supplies don't seem to have this problem.
Take any advice for or against particular makes or models with a grain of salt: all makers (of just about anything) can have a "run" of bad components, or a relatively few early failures. Plus, by the time any really good trends are noted, the model has probably been revised or replaced anyway!

External hard drive won't unmount for disk utility.

Im not sure if this is the right topic area but I have a white macbook and my external hard drive won't unmount. I want to erase it via disk utility but it keeps telling me other programs are using it.

Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

Got a new MBP and old external hard drive is too full for backup

I just got a new MBP and got all my data migrated and everything. I plugged my external hard drive in to run a backup, and it apparently is too full to run a backup of the new computer. Even though all the files are the same (mostly), I guess it's not going to overwrite anything because it's a new computer. Should I just get a new backup drive and start fresh for this computer. Should I reformat my old backup drive (and if so, how?)? Advice?

You should always have two backups of all vital data in any regard. A good 1TB Toshiba USB is $65
If there is NOTHING on the external HD you cant lose, format in disk utility > erase > format MAC OSX extended journaled.
then apply a Time Machine backup to the old HD of your new computer. That will free of a great deal of space.
However you should still have a 2nd backup of data. 2 backups is 1, and 1 is none.

What is the best external hard drive i can get for my macbook pro snowleopard?

my hard drive is full and i need an external drive
we dont have a mac store here so i went to radio shack and picked up a toshiba canvio 3.0 plus
all fine and good except the fellow at the store failed to notice i am a 60 year old grandmother
and probably wouldnt know how to install let alone use it or format or whatever it requires... no manual
no nuthin' : (
i dont even know how to get all the stuff i installed off the computer (i uninstalled the driver)
So! i need an external drive but i am not a computer scientist
i just need to plug and play ya know?
Doesnt apple make one and does it have a users manual or operating guide or
whatEVER they are choosing to call the directions this week??!!
the thing is i came into apple's site and the flipping stuff in the middle is moving so fast
i cant even find someplace that talks about external hard drives...
i just get my eyes focused on the new array and it flips to the next one
hope someone can help me
i dont even know if i can find my way back here
will bookmark it but if not....
my email is
by the way... why is it all getting harder as we progress in this techno adventure??
it used to be so easy
[email protected]
thanks
calling apple care tomorrow

the BEST that exists (fact, not opinion) are Hitachi
best options for the price, and high quality HD:
Quality 1TB drives are $50 per TB on 3.5" or $65 per TB on 2.5"
Perfect 1TB for $68
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B005J7YA3W/ref=sr_1_ 1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379452568&sr=8-1&keywords=1tb+toshiba
Nice 500gig for $50. ultraslim perfect for use with a notebook
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B009F1CXI2/ref=s r_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1377642728&sr=1-1&keywords=toshiba+slim+500gb
BEST FOR THE COST, Toshiba "tiny giant" 15mm thick 2TB drive (have several of them, lots of storage in tiny package) $100
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Connect-Portable-HDTC720XK3C1/dp/B00CGUMS48 /ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1379182740&sr=1-4&keywords=2tb+toshiba
*This one is the BEST portable external HD available that money can buy:
HGST Touro Mobile 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive $88
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Mobile-Portable-External-0S03559/dp/B009GE6JI8/ref=sr _1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383238934&sr=8-1&keywords=HGST+Touro+Mobile+Pro+1TB+USB+3.0+7 2 00+RPM
Most storage experts agree on the Hitachi 2.5"
Hitachi is the winner in hard drive reliability survey:
Hitachi manufacturers the safest and most reliable hard drives, according to the Storelab study. Of the hundreds of Hitachi hard drives received, not a single one had failed due to manufacturing or design errors. Adding the highest average lifespans and the best relationship between failures and market share, Hitachi can be regarded as the winner.

Adding external hard drive to airport extreme for time machine error

Hello,
I recently bought an airport extreme that I wanted to combine with an external hard drive in order to do wireless time machine backups. I hooked this up and the hard drive shows up in the devices menu.
However, when time machine starts to backup, I get the following error:
"The backup disk image “/Volumes/Blackmer External MyBook/Benjamin Crispell Blackmer’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” could not be created (error 1)."
When my computer is connected directly to the hard drive, it works fine.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thank you.

It is important to understand that Apple does not support Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme. So, that may be an issue here.
Despite this, users try it anyway. Some appear to be successful for a time, some partially successful, some can't get it to work at all.
Even if it does appear to work initially, corruption issues may occur down the line without warning. Having tried this myself as a test a few times, I can attest to that.
If you want to try this anyway, the two important things to check are.....
The drive must be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Other formats will not work
You almost always need to use a powered USB hub...even if the hard drive has its own power supply....because the USB port is under powered on the AirPort Extreme
You might also want to consider a secondary backup plan to protect your important files

My mac mini quit recognizing the external hard drive i am using for time machine.

I have an IOMEGA external hard drive hooked up to my mini for Time Machine. It was working for about 4 months then quit. The PC will not recognize the hard drive and I have switched usb cables and tried different ports to no avail. Any help would be gladly appreciated!!

Yes, that will work fine. It will back up normally once you plug it in again. I do this with my MacBook.

What size external hard drive do i need for Time Machine

What size external hard drive should I get to be my Time Machine backup? My iMac is 1TB. (also, I have MBP that is 250gb and will need one for it as well)
Thank you.

It is better to buy an external drive that has 3 times the storage capacity
as of the computer's internal HD.
Best.

Can I connect an external hard drive to Time Capsule for off site back up?

I like having a copy of everything at another site in case of a house fire. Can I connect an external hard drive to Time Capsule to make a duplicate of what is on Time Capsule? I would store that hard drive at work and bring it home monthly or something to back up Time Capsule. Thanks!

Can I connect an external hard drive to Time Capsule to make a duplicate of what is on Time Capsule?
That is exactly what the Archive function on the Time Capsule is for. Connect a USB drive and click Archive, and a mirror image of your Time Capsule will be copied over to the USB drive. It's a slow process that will take 4-8 hours depending on how much data is on the Time Capsule, so best to start things late at night and let them run overnight.
Another option would be to use a commercial application like Carbon Copy Cloner to keep your backup. The advantage to this approach is that once the first "master" backup is done, the application will only back up the changes on the Time Capsule that have occurred since the last backup. So, subsequent backups will be much faster, probably only taking about 10-15 minutes.

Recommendations for an external hard drive I can use for both the Mac and PC

Hello,
I’ve used PC’s for nearly most of my life, and recently Imade the leap to using a Macbook Pro (the 15” Intel i7) as I got tired of theconstant crashes. Long story short – Ineed to have a common external hard drive that I can use with both the PC’s andthe Mac I own. Mostly I need theexternal drive to save my Microsoft Office documents, and family photos (aswell as Mp3’s and other programs). I’vegone to the Mac Store in town, but I keep getting told that you cannot have acommon external hard drive between the two computers. I’m just having a hard time excepting that,as I keep reading on Apple’s own website making the sales pitch of how PC userswho switch to a Mac wouldn’t have to purchase replacement hardware. Are there recommended external drives thecommunity could recommend? Also, wouldit be best to create a network drive to accomplish my goal? Any advice isgreatly appreciated.

Only one computer can be connected to one drive at a time without a server being involved or a NAS drive.
I don't think your needs are along those lines it's too complex.
Just a external drive formatted exFAT will do between Mac's and PC's.
Swtich the cable and connect to one or the other as needed or get two drives.
There are some hacks floating around that create a portable wireless shared storage so anyone with a wif can connect and share files with at like coffee shops.
Is that what your looking for?

Disable external hard drive to prevent waiting for file open

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