Don't have an external hard drive but want lion

I would love to download lion, but currently do not have an external hard drive availible.  Should I wait and buy an external hard drive to backup data?

You should get an external drive and start backing up immediately.  Not maintaining a backup is asking for trouble.

Similar Messages

  • I have never done a backup; i don't have an external hard drive ; i want to intall snow leopard...is it important to do a backup first?

    i have never done a backup; i do not have an external hard drive;
    do i need to do a backup before i upgrade/install snow leopard?

    Most commonly used backup methods
    OS X 10.4/10.5 need to upgrade, 10.6.8 ok still
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

  • I am having trouble installing.  downloaded Mavericks but it will not let me install to hard drive, says that is reserved for Time Machine.  I have an external hard drive, but disconnected that before download.

    I downloaded Mavericks but can't get past the install; it thinks my hard drive is reserved for Time Machine.  I have an external hard drive but dis-connected that before download.
    I have Time Machine turned off.

    Check to see if you have a file name Backups.backupdb on the disk drive.
    If the installer sees such a file it assumes that the disk drive is being used by Time Machine.
    Allan

  • I have an external hard drive but it is read only on my macbook.

    I have an external hard drive but it is read only on my macbook. I have tried my friends which works on his macbook but this is also read only on mine. Do I need to change any settings?

    Here's my lo-tech solution (if you have Parallels) to this frustrating problem:
    Eject your hard drive.
    Unplug (USB) your hard drive from the MAC .
    Start Parallels.
    When Windows has started, plug your drive back into the MAC.
    You should get a little screen asking if you want the drive to be utilized by MAC or Windows. Select Windows.
    Use Windows to copy your files over to the hard drive.
    This is less than ideal and not a long-term solution, but I was afraid of attempting any reformatting since I have many files on my hard drive. 
    Just remember that Windows has to be running first, before you plug in your hard drive.

  • HT1751 Hello, can you help? I have backed up iTune library to an external hard drive, but want to set up periodic back ups every month. Do I have to follow the "Consolidate file" procedure every time I back up, and does my original back become over writte

    Hello can anyone help? I have sucessfully backed up  my iTuines library to an external hard drive, but when backing up in the furture (Monthly)  do I have to follow the same procedure again, and will this place an additonal copy of my iTunes library on my hard drive, so duplicating the back up and so rapidly fill my hard drive.
    Ideally what I would like, is for the lateset back up to over write the original so saving space on my external hard drive. Many thanks ......Steve

    The "consolidate" command has nothing to do with making backups. You use that command when you have had content in multiple places and you wish to have it now all in a single iTunes folder. If all of your content is already in the iTunes folder, then the "consolidate" command will be of no use to you. You will make further backups using whatever method you normally would use to make backups of your data in Windows.
    Regards.

  • I have an external hard drive and want to know how to transfer files to my new lap top Window 7

    I have an external hard drive and I want to transfer my i-tune files to my new laptop....Anyone done this? What must I do?Thanks

    These are two possible approaches that should work.
    Method 1
    Backup the library with this User Tip.
    Restore the backup to your new computer using the same tool used to back it up.
    Deauthorize the old computer if you no longer want to access protected content on it.
    Keep your backup up-to-date in future.
    Method 2
    Connect the two computers to the same network. Share your <User's Music> folder from the old computer and copy the entire iTunes library folder into the <User's Music> folder on the new one. Again, deauthorize the old computer if no longer required.
    I'd recommend method 1 since it establishes an ongoing backup for your library.
    tt2

  • I have 2 external hard drives, but can not view photos from 1 hard drive in LR5 now. I used this hard drive in LR5 before, but now it does not show up. How do I get the hard drive to show up in LR5?

    Any ideas on how to connect hard drive back into LR5?

    Hi:
    Let's see if I can help you, help me.    Operating system is OS X, version 10.8.5.
    The photos on hard drive (1) have never been removed from Lightroom (or have they?)They have not been removed from LR. 
    Could you explain why hard drive (1) stopped appearing in Lightroom, it must have been because you did something, otherwise the photos on hard drive (1) will still appear there.LR always worked great, until I had to upgrade my operating system to get LR5 to work.  Then it has been one problem after another. 
    So, once I ran into this problem and before we started to chat….I simply RE-imported all the photos from (1).  They came in fine, except none of their key words came along with them.  So my ability to find anything is "0".  It was bad enough to have to do the import all over, but the thought of having to re-tag 1000"s of images is overwhelming.
    Thanks for your patience.
    Kathy

  • How do I keep my media on an external hard drive but still access it in iTunes?

    I just recently purchased a new Macbook Air and I had my itunes media library on an external hard drive. How do I access my itunes media on the macbook air from the external hard drive without transferring all the media onto my macbook air? I also want to be able to add and download media to my itunes and have it saved on my external hard drive. I have been trying to figure this out for weeks and need some assistance. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

    hey, basically i had the same problem as you. i had all of my itunes on an external hard drive and just bought a macbook pro, so here is what i was told to do....plug in the external hard drive to your MBA and then when you open itunes hold down the option button while you click and hold it down till you see a pop up window, it will ask you what library you want to use, click choose library and choose the itunes file that is on your external hard drive. and then all of your stuff will be in the itunes.
    what i have seemed to run into though is, when the external hard drive isn't plugged in itunes won't open unless you choose another library or plug in the external hard drive. - my question is this, should i open another library on my macbook pro's internal hard drive so i can at least look at itunes when i don't have my external hard drive connected. my old macbook did this, it would point to another library on my macbook and i would still be able to see all of my media but couldn't play it without the external hooked up, is there a way to do this on lion?
    i hope i was able to answer your question sam and hopefully can have my question answered too.
    thanks!
    - sorry sam, don't mean to hijack your thread but hopefully it will help us both - i don't want to store any media )movies, music, podcasts, apps, any of that stuff on my macbook pro's hard drive, so say there is a way to get itunes to open without my external hooked up and i can still see my media, or not see my media and i want to download a song or a app that i see when i am not near my external....what is the easiest way to get that file onto the external and not have it taking up space on my macbook pro's hard drive? sorry for all the long questions
    Message was edited by: thenumbersarebad - thought of one more thing - sorry

  • I have just bought a new pc with windows 7 my old one can not be started so I can not deauthorise etc, how do I now put my iphone 4 on my new computer, I don't care about the songs I have those on external hard drive, but I don't want to loose my contact

    I have just bought a new pc with windows 7 my old computer cannot be started so I cannot deauthorise it etc, how do I now put my iphone 4 on my new computer, I don't care about the songs I have those on external hard drive, but I don't want to loose my contacts, calenders etc

    Terry,
    Plug your iPhone 5 into your Leopard Machine.
    Fire up iPhoto.
    The phone should become available in iPhoto, and then you can import the camera roll.
    -Alan.

  • Is there anyway to export the iPod metadata from my iPhone 4? I don't need the music, I have that on an external hard drive, but my backup got wiped out and I need the metadata.

    Is there anyway to export the iPod metadata from my iPhone 4? I don't need the music, I have that on an external hard drive, but my backup got wiped out and I need the metadata.

    Okay, so I had to re-install iTunes. My iTunes library is currently empty. I can make a new back up and the location of the songs not having changed, these will be available in my library?

  • I have an external hard drive, from Iomega. However, I cannot copy or save any file to it. On my PC it says that is possible to read and write in it, but in my Mac, it says I can only read. can somebody help me?

    I have an external hard drive, from Iomega. that I can open and see my files. However, I cannot copy or save any file to it. On my PC I have it says that is possible to read and write in it, but in my Mac, it says I can only read. can somebody help me?
    Also, Im a photographer, so I like to name a lot of files at the same time (used to do in on PC and it was very usefull.) cannot find out how to do it on my Mac. Really appretiate if some one can give me a solution! Thanx

    Your drive is formatted with the NTFS file system.  OS X can read but not write to the NTFS file system.  There are third party drivers available that claim to add the ability to OS X to write to an NTFS partition.  I have not tried them and don't know if they work.
    The only file system that OS X and Windows can both write to natively is the FAT32 file system.

  • I have an external hard drive that was formatted by a PC and has files and directories etc. I want to format it and use it on my IMAC for backup but I can't seem to write to it nor can I delete current content. How do I initialize it for use with the MAC?

    I have an external hard drive that was formatted by a PC and has files and directories copied to it etc. I want to use it on my IMAC for backup. I see it on my my IMAC . I can open files etc.  But I can't seem to write to it nor can I delete current content. I don't care if I lose current content. How do I initialize it for use with the MAC?

    You can't write to it because it's formatted as NTFS which OS X will read but not write to. If you want to continue using the drive with both a PC and OS X you will need to download and install NTFS-3G so you can then write to it from your Mac. You can get NTFS-3G at:
    http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24481/ntfs-3g
    If you want to use the drive exclusively with your Mac then move the data off it and reformat it in Disk Utility (Applications - Utilities - Disk Utilities) as Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)

  • My hard drive crashed on my MacBook Pro crashed and I need to get my CS5 up and running on the new hard drive. I copied what I could onto an external hard drive but when I drag and drop I get directions to uninstall but the uninstall folder I have does sa

    my hard drive crashed on my MacBook Pro crashed and I need to get my CS5 up and running on the new hard drive. I copied what I could onto an external hard drive but when I drag and drop I get directions to uninstall but the uninstall folder I have does says it is an alias that is no longer present. I get error 6. I would like to get my software up and running on the laptop again please

    If you subscribed to iTunes match the songs are kept in icloud. If you didn't but you did save the actual iTunes library folder which should include the music, video, etc.  you should be able to just drag this file back to your machine in the same place and when you open iTunes it will give you a chance to identify the iTunes library folder. 
    You can test this to find out if you saved the media files or not and don't need to attach your nano to do it. 
    You are correct that once you connect the nano it will clear the existing files from it and sync it with the new iTunes library. 
    If you don't have the media files i'm not sure if/how to get them back on a windows ipod.  I have everything backed up regularly because of the horror stories I have seen & heard.

  • I have an external hard drive from my time capsule that stopped working on me. I am attempting to access the data with a hard drive reader on my MAC. I am able to see the drive in disk utility and under system info USB. But I am unable to access the data.

    I have an external hard drive from my time capsule that stopped working on me. I am attempting to access the data with a hard drive reader on my MAC. I am able to see the drive in disk utility and under system info USB. But I am unable to access the data and it does not show on the desktop when connected.

    Ok if disk utility was able to verify the drive I doubt there is any problem.. are you trying to open a TM backup??
    You need to mount the sparsebundle then check the actual info inside the bundle.
    Don't use disk warrior.. if the disk has verified then unless you deliberately deleted files there is nothing that is going to do.
    Pondini has a lot of stuff about getting access to the sparsebundle.
    http://pondini.org/TM/17.html
    But if you have copied info to the TC that is now gone.. and the disk is ok.. I am not sure.. the TC will not have deleted the files itself.

  • I just baught a new laptop as my old one packed up. I have all my itunes stored on external hard drive but when I go on Itunes everything is stored in icloud . I want to play song from my external hardrive please help!

    I have a just bauht a new laptop as my old one was packed up. I use my external hard drive to store all my itunes music. I had baught a few albums on itunes . I attached my external hard drive and consoldated them to my external hard drive but my itunes is all in icloud not only that my ipod does not have the new tracks that I baught on it. What do I need to do. all I want is when I attached my external hard drive that itunes knows this and that they dont be in icloud and that my ipod puts my new albums on to it.

    Did you put the library on the external drive, or just the media folder. See this migrate iTunes library post for the way this ought to be done and recovery tips for when it is no longer possible.
    tt2

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