Easy Question--External Hard Drive

My new iMac 24" will arrive in a day or two.
Here is the question:
I'm comming from XP (puke). All my photo's and iTunes music is on an external Maxtor UBS hard drive. Will I be able to plug the Maxtor into the iMac UBS and get my music and photo's???? Will the iMac OS recconnize the Maxtor?? The rest of the "stuff" on the external I'm not worried about.
Gotta have my "tunes & Photo's".
Thanks...... Man,,, NO MORE XP BLUES!

YA-HOOOOOOOOO,,,,
That means that I will be able to "copy & paste" the music and Photo's on to the iMac drive??
WOW,,, what a releive!!! BIG thanks!!! You know,, in Windows, I was always afraid to even sneeze around the computer 'cause it would screw up.
Now, first thing I can get my "jams" playing!!!!

Similar Messages

I am a novice - I need a simple, plug & go, external hard drive ... Have read various reports about Time Capsule ... Any opinions or alternatives? I am old, & need simple answers please - nothing complicated ... Thanks ...

I am a novice - I need a simple, reliable, plug & go (U.K.) external hard drive (1-3 TB) Have read various reports (good & bad) about Time Capsules - opinions & alternatives please .. I am old, so please keep answers simple - anything containing 'stuff' I won't understand & I'll ignore it .... Thanks in anticipation ...

I consider Time Capsule slow, mainly because it depends upon a wireless network for backing up. I tried it, but went back to the plug and play FW800 wired backup. Since this particular forum is for the MacBook Pro hardware, I'd suggest the following two forums to search for your answer (or ask questions):
Time Machine
Time Capsule
Since you want easy, the external hard drive is about as easy as it gets. Buy. Unpack. Plug into your Mac. Format (if you don't buy a Mac formatted one, which is unnecessary). Go to System Preferences>Time Machine. Choose the disk as the time machine. Turn on.

I am going to buy a new external hard drive and have some questions first

Although I asked this question several years ago, I would like to ask it again, just if in case technology in general or external hard drives in particular have changed in any significant ways.
I need to replace a 1 terabyte LaCie external hard drive that died on me after a few years.
1. I am afraid of buying another LaCie. What other brands are reliable? I heard that Western Digital is. Also another brand beginnibg with S (so helpful, I know).
2. Do I have to look for a drive that is MAC FORMATTED? I vaguely recall this term from years ago. I also remember another term that I was to look out for, but I don't remember what it was. Something like ”chronicled“ but obviously not that.
3. Should I get more than 1 terabyte? Right now I have an old, old 125 gigabyte LaCie that still lives, but it is so small that it is almost nothing
4. What do you think about buying external hard drives fron Costco as opposed to from the Apple Store?
~L

Ziatron, you wrote ”All you do is open the enclosure and the hard drive plugs in. (done.)“ What enclosure?
This is the enclosure I like, it needs a hard drive to work : http://www.cooldrives.com/ox93saiihadr.html
But there are many others.
looking at my two dead laCie ext. hard drives and they don't have ”enclosures.“ Just holes in the back to receive the cables.
A hard drive enclosure is a box or case the actual hard drive goes into. Look at the images in the link above. You can see what is inside.
This hard drive goes inside the above cool drive enclosure: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Intellipower-Desktop-WD20EADS/dp/B001RB1TI S/ref=sr11?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258862242&sr=8-1
You recommended getting a hard drive with a Firewire connection, but most of the hard drives have USB.
Well maybe, the better drives are Firewire.
Should that matter to me?
Yes, Firewire is "isochronous", basically meaning that you can pump "clocked" data though it in real time. USB works more like TCPIP, with the data chopped up into packets and later reassembled. (Thus, at a minimum, you have latency, that is, the wait for the data to be "put back together".) Second, the Firewire protocol allows more direct address to memory (including mass storage) with minimal intervention of the CPU.
Is USB a whole lot slower than Firewire if I am transferring materials?
Firewire is faster and _more reliable._
Take a look at the link below, "Build Your Own External Hard Drive". The enclosure I like is easier to use.
http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/tips/hard_drive/
http://macs.about.com/od/diyguidesprojects/ss/externalhdcase.htm
Also you need a Mac Pro to use eSATA, with a iMac use the Firewire port.

IMovie and external hard drive: follow up question

This is a follow up question from the iMovie 6 forum. Hopefully, this question will help the poster on that forum as well. I, too, am working on multiple iMovie 5.0.2 projects at the same time and am running out of hard disk space. I would like to transfer remaining miniDV tape to an external hard drive and, when finished, transfer these clips from the external hard drive to the current iMovie project in my Powerbook, one project at a time. Is this possible ? Will I transfer files from the external hard drive to the Powerbook hard drive and then to iMovie, or directly from the external hard drive to iMovie ? Do I have to format the external drive to Mac OS Extended as advised in iMovie 6 forum in order to transfer miniDV tape to the external hard drive ? When pressing the erase tab to format the external hard drive, will this erase files already on the hard drive before formatting ? Can I transfer projects I am not working on from iMovie to the external hard drive and then transfer them back to the Powerbook when it is time to work on them ? Sorry about all the questions but I need to think very simple-minded when it comes to computer related issues. Thanks for your help.

I was able to use and store iMovie in the external hard drive using my Powerbook as a monitor, so I presume it is formatted correctly
Sorry, but you cannot assume the drive is formatted correctly. iMovie doesn't tell you the drive format is incompatible with iMovie. (it should, but it doesn't.) Some iMovie project features can be saved and some cannot.
It's easy to check the disk format. In the Finder, click on the drive icon and choose File > Get Info from the Finder menubar. The window that opens shows the disk Format. You want it to say "Mac OS Extended". "(Journaled)" is optional.
With some drives, sometimes even that can be wrong. To be sure, use Disk Utility to check the format. When you click on the drive in the list along the left side of the Disk Utility window, the format is displayed at the bottom of the window.
Always, always, always check the disk format before using a drive with iMovie.
Karl

New to Macbook Pro, External hard drive question.

I've just made the swirch to an Apple Macbook Pro from a PC. I've used the PC since the early 90's and all I know is Windows. However I'm finding myself more at home in Lion. My question is probably a simple one so I'll get to it. I have a 1TB Seagate Mac/PC external usb powered hard drive that I've used on my PC for all my iTunes media, 95% of which was purchased from Apple (who the **** knows if that matters but information could be crucial and besides I saw someone else say that in a post, only he found his music, whatever that means, anyway....). Now I have added all files to the library of my iTunes on the Mac while still running them from the external hard drive and everything transferd smothly (see not a complete idiot) but for some reason I can not write to the hard drive. If I try to update an app, delete a fie, rename or otherwis change the file in itunes I get an error claiming I don't have permission to do so. When I look at the drive itself, sure enough it says I may read only. Now the drive was formatted and used on a Windows PC prior to today. What do I need to do on the Mac end to make it read and writable (is that the right word?) so I can enjoy updating my apps or plain getting rid of some old things? Thanks in advance for any help.
New Mac User

Your external harddisk uses the NTFS file system which is common for Windows PCs.
Mac OSX can read from NTFS harddisks but cannot write to them.
For full access you need a third-party helper tool like the free NTFS-3G or Fuse4X or the commercial ones from Paragon or Tuxera NTFS for Mac.
In the long run and when you don't need a "Windows-PC-compatibility" of the external harddisk anymore you should consider reformating/repartioning the external harddisk using the Mac OSX native partition and file system formats. (GUID and MacOS Extended (Journaled)).
But such an action would delete everything that is on that external harddisk so it is not that easy.
Stefan

External Hard Drive Questions

This is more of an opinion question.
I have a MBP with an 80GB hard drive which always seems to be full up. I also have a 250GB hard drive which is nearly full up. The 250GB is not used for backup, i have all my photos and big files on there and none of my files are actually backed up
I was thinking about getting another 500GBish hard drive and using it for more space and also time machine - can it be used for both? Can anyone recommend a good cheap hard drive?
How well does time machine work with laptops? would i have to plug it in every night? does it have a sort of separate trash kept on my computer which is only deleted when i plug in the Mac to the External hard drive. Or is anything i delete without the external hard drive attached deleted forever?
Or, is it worth the hastle and cost to upgrade my MBP internal hard drive?
Thanks very much
Message was edited by: pumpkin person

okay so what would a cheap hard drive from PC World be like - like this Western Digital Elements Desktop 500GB 3.5" - although i imagine that link will probably time out.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk:80/martprd/store/pcwpage.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@2000027328.1216206856@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccjadeejdfdkigc flgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=638717&categoryoid=-32889
I think i want to stick with Time Machine just because it looks so flash and easy to use really, plus i would have to pay for Super Duper
I dont really feel confident switching the hard drive myself, i tried doing the RAM once which is alot easier and i competly messed it up and had to take it to an apple store. How much would an apple store charge if i asked them to do it?
Would it be okay to have time machine running at the same time as also having separate media on the same hard drive? How much space would time machine take up?
Thanks very much for your replies

Itunes & external hard drive questions "original file could not be found"

I recently got my first apple, a Powerbook G4, and I am trying to figure out how to store and access my music files that are on my external hard drive. I have some music stored on my laptop and the majority of it on the hard drive. I can play the files on my computer's hard drive(itunes finds them), but the files on the external hard drive will not play, unless i seek it out manually. The message says "the song could not be played because the original file couldn't be found. Would u like to locate it" My question is how to get the files in my library to play when they are stored on my external hard drive. Any advice would be appreciated.

There's something missing in your explanation. If you're getting the "original file..." message, that would indicate that you may have had all your music files on your laptop drive at one point and them moved some of them to the external drive without using the proper procedure.
If you don't have a lot of playlists, star ratings, and that sort of information that you're trying to preserve, then Mike's suggestion is an easy way out. If you do have a lot of that kind of information, then you may need to see if you can restore your setup to its former condition, when it was all working, and then use proper procedures to move files to the external drive or whatever it was that you were trying to do.

Windows Easy Transfer (WET) Issues with External Hard Drive - "Can't read from the source file or disk"

I work for Office Depot, in the tech department. Basically, one of our associates was supposed to do a data backup, and re-install Windows 7, then transfer the files back. He used Windows Easy Transfer and compacted everything into a 163 GB file.
Now comes the hard part. When we try to put it back on his computer ((drag-and-drop to the desktop) which has been wiped back to factory settings using the recovery partition), it stops at 79.5 GB remaining (you know how it doesn't give you a % of completion,
it just shows how many GB are remaining) and then says "Can't read from the source file or disk" and gives you an option to try again, or cancel. It gets hung up on the same point each time.
Normally, this wouldn't be a huge issue, but the contents on the drive are his wife's architect blueprints and interior design stuff, along with wedding photos, etc, which are the only copies they have. On top of those, they have court documents and other
important files that we are unable to access now.
I wasn't involved with this transfer, so I'm trying to clean up the mess as best I can. I remembered that the customer's wife was Russian, and had some files typed with a Russian keyboard, so on and so forth. I wonder if that's the issue? If not, I really
have no idea how to manually extract things from a ".mig" file, or how to diagnose what area is potentially corrupted.
In light of this situation, we tried using "Recuva" to recover the files post-wipe, but everything was corrupted or unable to be opened, and it also extracted and recovered all of the "useless" photos, such as the skype logos, up and
down arrows for browsers, etc (it was 160,000+ photos).
Trying to avoid a potential lawsuit, unhappy customer, and costing the company lots of money to see if professionals can get into this external hard drive.
Other relevant information:
We used a Toshiba 500 GB (465 GB) external hard drive.
Customer's computer is an HP Pavilion P6000 Series (Model No. p6520y) running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Service Pack 1.
Any other information that is needed can be provided, thanks in advance, and hopefully we can find a solution to this issue quickly!
-John

I think there's a lack of understanding somewhere.
"If you even can't start the process, please unplug it from your new PC. Then head back to your new computer and plug
the external drive back in to your new computer. "
Unplug from new, head back to new, plug it back in? That doesn't make much sense! Haha.
I knew what you meant though, somewhat. When I search through the drives after clicking yes (Has windows easy transfer
already saved your files blah blah blah) I click on the transfer file and it says "Windows Easy Transfer could not open the file".
Rather than drag-and-drop the file to the desktop, I now tried to double-click on the file itself while it was plugged
into the computer. It opened, and it started transferring until it was about 70% completed, and then an error popped up saying "WET can't open the easy transfer file, make sure your USB device is plugged in or check your internet connection".
I checked, and the USB hard drive's light wasn't on. Now, I unplug it and plug it back in, and the light comes back on,
so I click Retry, and it resets the bar back to nothing and says "Transfer time: 1 minute".
Rather than continue trying, I clicked "Cancel" instead of Retry, and it says "Your transfer did not complete successfully."
It says to click "view report" for more information, but there's no "view report button".
At the moment, I am scanning the External Drive for bad sectors using the check disk tool in properties. It's frozen
at "0 USN bytes processed".

Questions Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive

I need to free up some space on my MacBook Pro, but first I need to reorganize my external hard drive. It's presently divided into five partitions, as follows:
Mac - Mac OS (Extended Journaled) - 100 GB
Mac 2 - Mac OS (Extended Journaled) - 115.76 GB
Media - Mac OS Extended - 100 GB
Websites - Mac OS Extended - 50 GB
PC - MS-DOS (FAT) - 100 GB
I use the first two for cloning my hard drive, the next two for storing images, videos and websites, and the last one is reserved for files I copied from the PC I abandoned when I bought my Mac.
In fact, the last partition (PC) has about 80 GB available, so I'd like to take 75 GB and redistribute it. I'd like to wind up with something like this:
Mac - 100
Mac 2 - 145
Media - 150
Websites - 50
PC - 25
In other words, I want to add more capacity to the partitions Mac 2 and Media.
First question: Is there a way to shrink PC from 100 GB to 25 GB without erasing the data it contains, then expand Mac 2 and Media without destroying the data they contain?
If not, there's another possible solution. My last attempt to clone my hard drive failed, so I erased Mac 2; it's empty.
So could I reformat it as MS-DOS, resize it to 25 GB, then copy all my files from PC to Mac 2, then either reformat and enlarge PC or delete it and create a new partition?
When I open Disk Utilties and click on my external hard drive, I can then click on each partition and see its stats. But I don't see any way to resize any particular partition. At the top of the panel it says Volume Scheme, below which it lists Current, followed by other partition schemes (3, 4, 5, etc.). However, I assume that clicking any of these would erase all my data.
So can anyone suggest a way to reorganize my external hard drive without losing all my data?
Thanks.

All the commands remain grayed out when I click on various partitions. Maybe it's because I'm actually booted up on my external hard drive. I deleted several GB of files from my internal hard drive, but it still won't boot up. So it looks like I have a technical problem, and I'll have to visit my local Apple store. After I get it fixed, I'll take another look at re-partitioning my external hard drive.
Thanks.

Hello, I have two questions on time capsule I can only have it on my external hd files and free up my internal memory to my mac I can use an external hard drive, in my case a lacie rugged as shared memory for my two computers

Hello, I have two questions on time capsule I can only have it on my external hd files and free up my internal memory to my mac I can use an external hard drive, in my case a lacie rugged as shared memory for my two computers

I have a mackbook pro and an iMac if I buy a time capsule 2tb airport, I can use it with time machine and what would be the best way to use it.
There is no particular setup required for TM.. both computers will create their own backup sparsebundle which is like a virtual disk.. Pondini explains the whole thing if you read the reference I gave you.
and how to use time capsule airport whit other external hd to use my old lacie airport with the new time capsule
Up to you.. you can plug the external drive into the TC and enjoy really slow file transfers or you can plug it into your computer and use it as external drive.. which is faster than the TC.. and TM can include it in the backup.
Again everything is explained in the reference.. you are not reading it.

Tried to use home sharing to transfer itunes library from old pc to new -- however it only brings over the music, did not bring audiobooks- My question is do I need to delete itunes from my new pc when I redo using external hard drive

Trying to transfer iTunes library from old windows 7 pc to new windows 8.1. Used home sharing, but not what I wanted, I want everything on the new so I can discard the old pc - so now all I have is my music library on new pc thru the cloud none of my Audible audiobooks came over - My question is do I need to delete iTunes off my new pc before I load it in from a external hard drive?

You might need to make sure neither is going to sleep (System Prefs > Energy Saver)
Also check your settings under System Prefs > Security. My sisters new laptop kept logging off due to some setting there.
HTH

Using an External Hard Drive Question

Sorry if this is such a green question but.....
Can you play back music and movies from an external hard drive through Apple TV or do they have to be physically need to be on the Apple TV HD?
Also, Is there a way to play what is "steaming" on a MBP to the TV through Apple TV?
Thanks in advance guys.

JayMacApple wrote:
Can you play back music and movies from an external hard drive through Apple TV or do they have to be physically need to be on the Apple TV HD?
Compatible content from itunes can either be synced to the AppleTV's drive across your network, or if itunes is running you can stream content from iTunes to the AppleTV if it's not on the AppleTV disk.
The AppleTV cannot connect to external drives, but iTunes itself can handle media on external drives connected to your computer.
Also, Is there a way to play what is "steaming" on a MBP to the TV through Apple TV?
If you mean can AppleTV relay a computer's video output (eg a streaming video in a web browser, or whatever is on screen) then the answer is no.
Thanks in advance guys.

Question concerning data removal from external hard drive

I have been backing up via Time Machine to a 500 Gig external hard drive. I will be adding a 1 TB external hard drive and switch the Time Machine backups to that unit. I want to then use the 500 Gig unit to store photos, music and video, to free up space on the iMac. I have found the tutorials/threads that explain how to move the photos and music. I have two questions.
First, will moving video from iMovie work basically the same as moving the photos and/or music?
Secondly, what is the proper way to remove the existing Time Machine data from the 500 gig unit, once I have the 1TB unit up and running and know that Time Machine is backing up to it?

I can help with number two. There are two things you can do, one quickly, the second more securely.
Both can be done with Disk Utility in the Apps/Utilities folder. Open DU with the HDD attached to your Mac and highlight the HDD in the left hand pane and choose Erase for the right hand pane. Press the Erase button. It should happen pretty fast, but because it is a big drive it may take a couple of minutes. But this does not really erase the data, and some recovery software could do a good job of getting a lot of you data back.
Since you want to store media libraries on this drive perhaps a better way to condition the drive is to select a Security Option and write zeros to the drive. After this any bad sectors on the drive will be locked out and not used in the future. Because this is a big drive this could take a few hours.
Dah•veed

Any EASY, simple to use external hard drives that are PC and Mac interchangeable?

I have a new Mac Book Pro, running Mountain Lion. I am new to Mac; my old laptop is a Dell running Windows 7.
I would like to move over ALL my pictures and files from the Dell to an external hard drive (EHD) that is also Mac-compatible. I want all the pictures and documents SAVED and easily retrievable on the EHD, but probably don't really need *ALL* of them on the Mac.
Does anyone know of an EHD that will do this? One that is really super easy to use and won't need "reformatted". (I don't want to have to try to deal with that!)
I just want to put ALL my stuff from my Dell on an EHD, then move over SPECIFIC items from that EHD to my Mac.
Any advice? Recommendations? THANK YOU!

Bob,
I'm sorry, my message was unclear! No, I'm not looking to hook up two computers at one time to one EHD.
I'm just looking to be able to use one EHD, and go back and forth between it and the Mac or Dell, getting stuff off one, and putting stuff onto the other.
I have all my old Dell files and photos already on the EHD. I was afraid that once I formatted the EHD that those files from my Dell that were already there would somehow no longer be accessible to transfer to the Mac? But it sounds like this isn't so?
So, to clarify: I would like to continue to have access to the files on the EHD (from the Dell). Once I format the EHD, will those files still be accessible to me, to either leave "as is", or transfer to the Mac, now or later?
THANK YOU!

Totally new to external hard drives and have a few questions

Since beginning my search for an external hard drive this morning I have learned that I know very little about this subject. I really have very little knowledge of all the computer lingo used when looking at these devices. I have a few questions regarding this, if someone could help me.
1. Are all external hard drives compatible with my mac?
2. Do I need time machine if I have an external hard drive?
3. I have two PCs in addition to my mac. Can I use the same external hard drive for all three or would I need a separate one?
Thanks for helping!

Use a Firewire not a USB drive.
I have had many reliability issues, and compatibility issues with USB over the years (starting with the original iMac), right up to the PowerMac G5 and Mac Pro - devices not working properly with hubs, needing to be plugged directly into ports on the computer (even though there aren't enough), etc, etc.
For me Firewire devices cause fewer of these sorts of problems.
Firewire is "isochronous", basically meaning that you can pump "clocked" data though it in real time. USB works more like TCPIP, with the data chopped up into packets and later reassembled. (Thus, at a minimum, you have latency, that is, the wait for the data to be "put back together".) Second, the Firewire protocol allows more direct address to memory (including mass storage) with minimal intervention of the CPU.
No collisions, no glitches. Firewire is rock-solid.

Easy Question--External Hard Drive

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