External drive and IGNORE OWNERSHIP issue

So here at work we share an external drive where we ALL share the files. And a good bit of the time one of us tries to open or save a file and it saws one of several things like "access denied" or "you don't have the right privileges and you will not be able to save changes" Anyway if I go in and get info on the external drive and click the "ignore ownerships" box all seems to be well...for a while. BUT the drive will sporadically decide to UNCHECK that button. It's very annoying. Any FIX for this issues.
Oh, I also have it "locked" which I assume means it can't be changed but that is not the case. Any help is appreciated Thanks.

Sorry, I don't know anything about Silverlining -- I'm a moderator at the Bombich (CCC) forums. If Silverlining allows for attaching a post-cloning script ask the Silverlining developer/distributor. If not, ask for help (even though the script will be pretty simple you may well need some troubleshooting until it works perfectly) in one of the scripting forums (AppleScript or Unix), e.g. this one.
Andreas

Similar Messages

External drive and sharing issues?

I've posted this question before but got no answer, so, I'll try again.
Ok here's the situation. I have a small network here at work. We (four of us) share a harddrive connected to computer A. That drive has all the client jobs on it that we all open and change and save. Lately and sporadically (no rhyme or reason) computer B, C, or D may try to open a job and it will say "access denied" and can not open it at all –OR– computer B can open it but will not be able to save it again in the same location. Now even though computer B can't do one of the two things listed computer C and D can open, fix and save with no issues. Again most of the time but not everytime.
Is there a way to fix this "sharing/permissions" issue? It's a bit frustrating.
I have opened the drive we are using and "got info" and assigned every individual listed full access and rights and that did not fix it.
What am I missing here? Or is this a system X issue with permissions and I just have to live with it?
Future plans are going to a server system which I assume will fix the problem but for now this is my set-up and looking for a fix. Thanks
G4

Couldn't you choose to "ignore permissions on this volume"
for the whole external drive; and then (hopefully) all of the
users would have no immediate sharing message issues?
Of course, when articles or documents have several updates
and more than one author contributing to their content, the
files themselves may develop permissions issues.
Among the casual reading I do on computer topics, I read
more than I need to know, so I know the answer is out
there and not terribly hard to implement; yet unfortunately
I do not recollect the path to the argument on how to do it.
There is a fairly simple outline of a way to handle some of
this stuff in the following page/link; more detailed info is
on the additional page/links which follow after this one:
• Mac OS X 10.5 Help: Mac 101: File Sharing
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1549
Among the security documents (download .PDFs) on OS X
there are some fairly good paths to implementing security
to include how to change permissions & privileges; as part
of the overall security strategy; some of those documents
covering these matters are in the Server security setup docs
from Apple Support's database. I have three .PDFs saved.
These vary from 2MB to about 5MB each.
• Mac OS X Security Configuration Guides
http://www.apple.com/support/security/guides/
Some of the Share Points and other facts here may be
of help, even in a non-server environment:
• Apple Support - Leopard Server - File Sharing (10.5)
http://www.apple.com/support/macosxleopardserver/filesharing/
There is a large amount of information available.
Good luck & happy computing!

I'd love some help trying to figure out why my 2008 MacBook no longer recognizes my external drive and now is not downloading photos from my iphone....?

After many years of having no problems at all on my Macbook, I recently figured I should finally upgrade my OS. I did that about three weeks ago, updating to Snow Leopard (10.6.8). I used Time Machine at least once after the OS upgrade but now Time Machine no longer recognizes the external drive I have used for all these years to back up. The MacBook does not "see" it. (Disk Utility does however.) The computer then also stopped recognizing another La Cie back-up that I have and now... my iPhone cannot download photos? Yikes.
I have, of course, shut down numerous times, used different cables (that worked for some) and the two USB drives. I even used a firewire. Nothing worked. I also tried to "Repair disk" on Disk Utility. It didn't work either, giving me an error (that I didn't save, sorry).
I read many other discussions on the file format of the external drive and of course I'd be happy to reformat the external drives--however, it is obviously a tad nerve-wracking to reformat drives before having an accessible back-up. Suggestions? I do not remember what file format they have but am pretty sure it's not the Mac file system someone mentioned. The drives are a 2009 WD "My Passport Elite" and La Cie 2007 d2 Quadra,
In terms of other hardware available, we do have another MacBook Air but it has started rejecting both drives as well (without the Snow Leopard upgrade). We have an old Dell but it wouldn't have the disk space to help out much.
Any thoughts on the process involved would be welcome. Any ideas on the iPhone rejection would be helpful as well! It is a 30gig iPhone 4 that has 20 or so gigs free (not clear as iTunes says that there are abour 18 Gigs on the phone but 24 free gigs? I may be bad at math but that's 40 gigs...).
I am checking out iCloud but apparently there are only 55 gigs available?
Will be glad to hear any thoughts. Thanks!

Good afternoon Lyssa,
Phew. First of all, thanks in advance...these blogs are always comforting help!
So, to answer your questions: For the age of the hard drive.Well, I added memory a couple of years ago (RAM and hard drive). Being a mom leads me to eat up a fair amount of gigs with photos of my kids and, in fact, I think I entirely replaced the original drive, so it is a couple years younger than 2008 since I did that in March 2010. If there is some way to verify that (whether or not I replaced the entire drive), I'm all ears. I have 311 Gigs free, so it is not a space issue. I verified the startup disk on Disk Utilityand nothing showed up.
Question 1- What formats...
The La Cie is format Windows NT Filesystem 3G ....At the time that I bought it I was still using a PC as well as a Mac and was told by afriend to use this format...
The WD is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I again tried to repair the WD last night and this is the error message: "Error: DiskUtility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
Also, Time Machine tried again to back-up and gave me this error: "Files can't becopied onto the backup disk because it appears to be 'read only'. You may needto repair or reformat the disk using Disk Utility. If the disk can't berepaired, you must use a different disk for backups. Open Time Machinepreferences to select a different backup disk."
Question 2. Other cables...
I used two other cables with the WD and that didn't change anything.
Question 3... Fire Wire from the La Cie
Yes, I used the Firewire cable from the La Cie and it is indeed present, though still not visible in Finder. Since it is not Mac OSExtended I know that I can't use Time Machine with it.
So, in summary...
I can plug in the La Cie and it is functional on the MacBook, visible on Disk Utility but not visible in Finder. The WD drive is not visible and not functional. So we can think it is indeed the WD that is not working.... Also, the iphone photos did, in the end, get downloaded, so it is not something more general.
Causes...
I forgot to mention that there is a "lost+found" file on the WD which apparently points to a UNIX /OS issue?
Some kind of "insurance"?....
I'm curious about how people avoid this kind of issue. You just regularly replace back-up drives and hard drives before problems come up? Time Machine is great and saves many of us from disasters, however, knowing that your Time Machine back-ups are vulnerable makes the whole system insecure. No way to have alarms ring before the drive goes out?
As for ways ahead...
It seems that I ought to be able to copy off of the WD to the MacBook then erase it and reformat it and start over again. However, I haven’t been able to see its contents except on random occasions. If you have any ideas on how to copy the Time Machineback-ups from the WD, again, I'm all ears!
Good afternoon Lyssa,
Phew. First of all, thanks in advance...
So, to answer your questions:
For the age of the hard drive. Well, I added memory a coupleof years ago (RAM and hard drive). Being a mom leads me to eat up a fair amountof gigs with photos of my kids ….and, in fact, I think I entirely replaced theoriginal drive, so it is a couple years younger than 2008 since I did that inMarch 2010. If there is some way to verify that, I'm all ears. I have 311 Gigfree, so it is not a space issue. I verified the startup disk on Disk Utilityand nothing showed up.
Question 1- What formats...
The La Cie is format Windows NT Filesystem 3G ....At thetime that I bought it I was still using a PC as well as a Mac and was told by afriend to use this format...
The WD is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I again tried torepair the WD last night and this is the error message: "Error: DiskUtility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible,reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
Also, Time Machine tried again to back-up and gave me thiserror: "Files can't be copied onto the backup disk because it appearsto be 'read only'. You may need to repair or reformat the disk using DiskUtility. If the disk can't be repaired, you must use a different disk forbackups. Open Time Machine preferences to select a different backup disk."
Question 2. Other cables...
I used two other cables with the WD and that didn't changeanything.
Question 3... Fire Wire from the La Cie
Yes, I used the Firewire cable from the La Cie and it isindeed accessible, though still not visible in Finder. Since it is not Mac OSExtended I know that I can't use Time Machine with it.
FYI...
So, in summary... I can plug in the La Cie and it is “functional” on theMacBook but not visible in Finder. The WD drive is not visible and notfunctional. So we can think it is indeed the WD that is not working.... ALSO,the iphone photos did, in the end get downloaded.
As for ways ahead…
It seems that I ought to be able to copy off of the WD tothe MacBook then erase it and reformat it and start over again. However, Ihaven’t been able to “see” its contents except on random occasions…
Any further thoughts are welcome!

When I check my boot SSD drive using Disk Utility under Mavericks, I often get "Incorrect number of extended attributes" errors. But if I boot off an external drive and check the same SSD, no errors are reported. Is this a bug in Mavericks?

When I check my boot SSD drive using Disk Utility under Mavericks, I often get "Incorrect number of extended attributes" errors. But if I boot off an external drive and check the same SSD, no errors are reported.
This happens not just with the SSD in my Mac Mini, but with another SSD in my MacBook (both now running Mavericks). So far as I know, all of the kit I am using is in good order (despite the file corruption reports). So I am beginning to wonder if it could be due to a bug in Mavericks? Both SSD drives have been formatted to MacOS Extended (journaled) format. Should I have used a different format, I wonder?
Has anyone else encountered this issue?
Does anyone have a solution?
Or an explanation that might help my investigation of the issue?
Thanks guys,

I understand that the Corsair Force 3 is not one of the SSD drives that are supported on Apple Macs.
I did try downloading and using Trim Enabler, but the error message came up both when it was off and when it was on.
I understand that not everyone thinks Trim Enabler is a good program, though there is a new version out now, so I may give it another try.

Using Disc Utility to copy my hard drive to a brand new external drive and am having the error "Unable to create...(Cannot allocate memory)".

I'm not very tech savvy but am trying my best to use Disc Utility to copy my hard drive to a brand new external drive and am having the error "Unable to create...(Cannot allocate memory)".
Last night no problems, woke this morning and it was freezing so I forced a restart and got the grey screen with the folder and question mark. Ran off to best buy to get an external drive... Please help! Thank you!

I have done both. When I hold down the "C" key it pauses for a few seconds while the cd spins and then the flashing folder icon appears.
Could be you have the wrong cd/dvd. The mac will only boot a supported cd/dvd for your machine. The flashing question mark indicdates your machine could not find a valid os.
When I hold down the "option" key for the startup manager the cursor comes up and moves but the actually manager doesn't come up no matter how long I leave the laptop on.
Not sure. Could be your machine does not support the startup manager. You would think the machine would ignore the key.
Where did you get the dvd? What is the number on the DVD?
What machine do you have anyway?
This site provides more information, but lacks security.
"A serial number is a unique, identifying number or group of numbers and letters assigned to an individual piece of hardware or software. It's used for various things depending on the product / brand but what is your Mac's serial number for and more importantly... what is it hiding and what can it do for you ?"
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
or
This site provides more information, but lacks security too.
"A serial number is a unique, identifying number or group of numbers and letters assigned to an individual piece of hardware or software. It's used for various things depending on the product / brand but what is your Mac's serial number for and more importantly... what is it hiding and what can it do for you ?"
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html
( hint by K Shaffer )

Can I back up an external drive and an airbook with a third drive

I would like to back up an external drive and an airbook with a third drive. This was the setup I used with my Imac. The third drive was linked to the external drive which was linked to the imac. I used time machine. Both the third drive and the external drive were visible on the desktop of the imac. Now I want to use this system to back up the airbook and the external drive, but the third drive doesn't appear on the airbook's desk top, in fact it is invisible and doesn't seem to be recognized in finder or anywhere else from the airbook. Is there some distinction that prevents the airbook from allowing this back up configuration, but that allowed the imac to work in this configuration.
Thanks,
Daviiiiiiid

Of course, always that the external drive is formatted in “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”. Apart from that, you shouldn't have any issue,
Then, open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and remove the external drive from excluded items. The next backup will include your external drive.
Note that you may not be able to back up the external drive if it's connected to your Time Capsule. If it doesn't work, connect the external drive to your computer

Is it OK to use USB 2.0 connection for Glyph external drive and Mac Pro as project drive?

Is it OK to use a USB 2.0 connection for Glyph external drive and Mac Pro as project drive? I was told by Sweetwater tech support to use Firewire, but both the FW400 and FW800 connections crash my audio interface software mixer (Presonus' "Universal Control" software).
Both Firewire connections also create a 10 second hang for each Command-Save that I do.
USB 2.0 for the external drive seems to be working so far, but is there some reason I should be wary of using this as my go-to project drive? In other words, I am imagining that there was probably some definite reason that the tech support guy mentioned not to use it. But maybe not. It's a brand new Glyph. In any event, it's nice to have the 10 second hang eliminated, and I was just looking for some advice, since digging into the Presonus software issue could take some time.

If you have a mac pro, why not stick the external HDD inside via one of your many SATA cables & have it run 9 times faster than your USB?
Or stick a HDD CADDY in your mac pro, so you can slot in a full sized 3TB HDD for recording, and when you are done, pull it out & slip it in an external enclosure if you need to take it places?

I tried to open a 2 year old movie (3.2GB) through iDVD today from an external drive and now I cannot get the color wheel to stop spinning. I tried restarting, it allows me to login and then gets to the background screen and spins again. Any ideas?

I tried ti open a 2 year old movie (3.2 GB) through iDvD today from an external drive and got the spinning color wheel. I restarted the computer to see if it would stop and it let's me login but then the color wheel continues to spin. Any ideas?

After admittedly only a quick read the one thing you don't say is how you are trying to make this move. Most people with moving library issues do it the wrong way. Plenty of web sites tell you how to do it the wrong way.
If the iTunes application is started before the drive with the library is fully mounted and awake iTunes will revert back to the internal drive.

Startup Drive full. What should I move to an external drive and how?

Startup Drive full. What should I move to an external drive and how? By "how" I mean what would the steps be to move photos and music so I could take them off the Startup Drive.

iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
See also:
iPhoto: Issues with FAT32-formatted drives

External Drive and Airport Extreme ?'s

I am using my airport extreme as a bridge for wireless printing (I currently have the AT&T U-Verse Residential Gateway as my router) and trying to use an external drive for both my imac and macbook for backup. I know I have accessed it a few times this way but now I get a message that says "can't find original item" or something to that effect. When I open the airport utility, I can see it as a disk, when I open finder, I click on my airport under shared and select my external drive and connect as me with the password. It takes a while to come up with the message cannot find original item. I can hear the external drive power up when I connect. Is there something I'm missing? I can plug it into both the imac and macbook directly and it works fine. I do have file sharing turned on. All suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

I have a new question, and perhaps I am supposed to start a "new question":
Actually, yes, you should if you want it to get the attention it deserves to solicate assistance from other users.
I am setting up this shared hard drive and it has the option under airport utility to "share disks over the internet using Bonjour. I checked this box and it directed me to create a global hose name and password, which I did. So now that that is done, how do I actually access my "global hose" when connected over 3G or not at home? What do I type in safari to get to it?
Interestingly, this option never seemed to ever get fully implemented as it required a combination of services that no one seems to offer. This service uses wide-area Bonjour.
Also, if I want to access with a Windows computer, it asks for WINS Server info. No idea what to put in there.
This option is not required so you can safely ignore it.

I think the DVD player reader on my Mac is going bad. Is there a way to copy the files off of an Apple Install DVD onto an external drive and then do theinstall from the external drive?

I think the DVD player reader on my Mac is going bad. Until I get it fixed Is there a way to copy the files off of an Apple Install DVD onto an external drive and then do theinstall from the external drive? It's ILife 11 if that makes a difference. Finder won't let me see the files to copy. I know - dumb question.
Thanks.
Bob

Adding an SSD is not a simple endeavour like adding additional memory or adding another hard drive to a Mac Pro. That's probably why the option is only offered as an option at the time of purchase. Even if your Apple store was willing to install the necessary parts you will probably be paying for 1-2 hours of labor plus the cost of purchasing the necessary service parts (SSD, bracket, cables, etc) which I suspect will make the upgrade cost much higher than what it costs to add the SSD option when purchasing a new system.
I use my system for business and need it to work reliably. Even though I'm fairly handy with tools I would not be willing to risk damaging my system and voiding my warranty by opening my system and removing the logic board and several other parts in order to squeeze in an SSD option and attach the appropriate cables and brackets. I'm also not prepared to deal with the hassles of explaining why my system has unauthorized parts installed in the event I experience issues and need to make use of my Apple warranty. My time is valuable, so I would probably investigate external storage options, or if I needed the speed of an SSD, I would consider selling my existing system and then purchase a new system configured with an SSD.
If you haven't already done so I suggest doing a search on 'iMac SSD installation' to see what's involved. It might help you understand why the SSD option is not offered post purchase.

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

no.

Taking the plunge - external drive and exclamation points

Okay...
I have cried for help on this forum before about the somewhat common problem of iTunes 7 having a strange relationship with music on my external drive. The drive in question is a Lacie 250 GB Firewire drive.
A few months ago, out of the blue, one day I opened iTunes to find a sea of exclamation points. Though all the music I had added after a particular date was there, most of the music I had added prior to that was tagged with the exclamation. When I'd try to play one of these songs, iTunes would say it could not be found, though I could manually locate it and things would work fine. I tried a few fixes recommended on this forum by well-meaning but misguided people that resulted in a few sets of duplicate playlists but no fix to the problem. Then, one day, out of the blue again...it started working fine.
I don't even recall having restarted the computer. iTunes had just fixed the problem somehow.
Well, now the problem is back, and I've dealt with it for about a month. But I'm not convinced that it will just go away this time. So, even if I destroy my painstakingly cultivated hundreds of playlists, ratings, play history and comprehensive information (artwork, composer, etc.), I am determined to fix this problem without manually locating over 10,000 songs.
I am posting my attempts here as a record that will hopefully help those struggling with this problem in the future. Though I would welcome any and all comments or questions, I have frankly come to expect very little assistance or even the willingness to assist from this forum (that is to say, I imagine my unresolved question will languish for awhile as a monologue until I either fix the problem or die).
The first thing I will do (after doing a final backup, of course) is to determine whether it makes a difference if an updated version of my iTunes library file and .xml are in the Music folder (on my hard drive) or in my Musica folder (on the external drive). The latest edition of the file is currently on the external drive.
So, here we go...
Grant
Dual 1GHz G4, 1G RAM, 80G HD Mac OS X (10.4.9) iPod (1st Gen), iPod Shuffle (1st Gen), iPod Mini, External HD

Well, I've made quite a mess of things. So I have 14,000 songs. Most were added years ago. Looking at the date added in correlation with the exclamation points, it seems as though iTunes forgot the location of most of the songs added before 5/9/06. Mind you, iTunes worked fine (with the exception of doing this whole thing once before) until about a month ago. So, in May 2007, iTunes forgot most of what happened before 5/9/06.
(For reference purposes, the gap seems to exist between two songs I downloaded. "Help Me, Ronda" by the Beach Boys is the last song with an exclamation point in the date added list (see two exceptions below). "Proud Mary" by Ike & Tina Turner, on the other hand, is exclamation point free and only a couple of songs added after "Proud Mary" have exclamation points. They are:
Freedom, by Richie Havens, added 6/3/06.
Slow Free Bird, by Geesekey, added 12/17/06, a song I made in Garageband.
Now, don't let me give you the impression that there is a solid wall of exclamation points up to "Help Me, Rhonda." Maybe about every 10/20 songs, there is a song with no exclamation point that plays fine. Following Jase's lead before (his advice to another user), I have investigated some of these songs that work fine, but can't find any reason why these work and others don't (any difference in the iTunes Library.xml, files created with/without track number, etc.).
So, here's what happened in the past couple of days: I dragged my "iTunes Music" folder (located in my "Musica" folder on the external drive) into the iTunes source list). Most everything was duplicated, with the new songs playing just fine but lacking ratings and play history. Also, the new songs were not included on any playlists.
What I did next was poorly executed. I sorted iTunes by the Date Added and selected the first few thousand (roughly, A-J; seeing them according to the Date Added reveal that they weren't added in exactly a linear fashion). I hit the delete button and selected "Remove", but I then told iTunes to "Move to Trash." What I should have done, I imagine, is told iTunes to "Keep Files". So, my A-J songs are now deleted off the External Drive and gone (though I have backup DVDs generated by the iTunes "Back up to Disc" feature).
What should I do next? is the pressing question. Should I rip everything out and start from scratch with my backup discs? I guess the question I would have with that approach is this: if I restore from backup discs made three months ago, will I still have all my playlists, ratings and play history as they were when I made the backup? If that's the case, that'd be fine with me...I just want to make sure that's what will happen. Also, I have a backup of my iTunes Library file before I've done all this crazy stuff of the past few days, so if that enters into the equation, let me know.
Otherwise, let me address your comments, Jase.
Anyway, here's a question. Can you export your
playlists, even though they're made up of songs with
exclamation marks? If so, you could try exporting one
of them as an XML file. Then import it--you'll
probably wind up with duplicates (playlists, not
songs). Does the newly imported playlist play, or
does it still have the exclamation mark problem? I
wouldn't know what to expect, but it might be worth a
try.
My playlists themselves are all still the same as they were (though there are exclamation marks all over the place). From what I can tell, they look fine when exported to an .xml (the music folder seems to have the correct path). When I import it, it's the same deal: exclamation points at the same places.
If your playlists are exportable, you might want to
export them to XML files, just so you'll have those
little databases of them. Then, if worse came to
worse and you had to give up on your current Library
file and reload your Music folder into a new library,
at least there's a chance you could import your
playlists and not have to build them again from
scratch (assuming nothing has changed in terms of the
organization of your Music folder).
I'm not willing to export every playlist, because I have hundreds and it would just take too long. Is there a way to export all or a lot of playlists at once? Anyway, I figured that my playlist data was stored somehow in the iTunes Library file, so I felt I had a backup already. I could be wrong about this, though, as I really don't understand much about the iTunes Library file and .xml and the like.
Can you drag songs that have exclamation marks into a
playlist? Somehow, I doubt it. But if you can, you
could use new playlists to make a record of some
information that you might want to save if you had to
start all over again with a new Library.
Believe it or not, I can add songs with an exclamation point into playlists and they're added just fine (though, they still have the exclamation point). How this works is: I can't drag and drop them into a playlist. However, I can control-click and select "Add to Playlist" and it works. There's another mystery for you.
Have you looked at your iTunes Library.xml file --
specifically at the location information for
individual songs -- to see if the location
information exactly matches the information you see
in the Finder? I have found mismatches when
investigating some exclamation marked files. I didn't
know how that happened, and I didn't know what to
about it, but it was intriguing to see evidence of
some iTunes mischief.
Is the iTunes feature to start music file names with
the track number turned on? To my mind, fewer missing
song file problems occur when this is on.
Yes and yes. Based on what you told others, I have looked at the .xml of some of the problem songs and the working ones and could find no difference, but I didn't really know what I was supposed to be looking for. I also use the Add Track Number feature and always have.
If you still have the 28,000 songs in your Library
and want to go back to the 14,000, you could sort all
your songs by Date Added and delete the ones you
added on June 21. Or, if you saved a copy of your
iTunes Library file before you dragged your iTunes
Music folder into the library, you could just throw
out the more recent Library file and reinstitute the
back-up copy.
I probably should have done the latter (just restore the backup of the iTunes Library file). Oh well...
Some advice for future experiments. Try them with a
small sample if possible unless you're absolutely
sure they will work the way you want them to. For
example, drag one album in your Music folder into
iTunes rather than the whole Music folder.
This is a great idea. I wish I would have checked my sample more closely or done more tests before I plunged off the cliff.
Back up your iTunes Library file, as well as your
Music folder. (You might already do this.)
Check.
Those are a few things to think about. They probably
will not be helpful. Like I said, I don't think there
are clear answers to this problem. The best I can
wish for you is that iTunes will magically fix the
problem, like it did once before. Then, maybe there
are some preventive measures you can take.
Since iTunes did fix it once before, I would not
throw your current iTunes Library file away, no
matter what. If you decide to start a new library so
that you can actually listen to your music, rename
this Library file and keep it around, since it has a
lot of your metadata in it. You can try it every now
and then and see if iTunes spontaneously revives it.
Okay, I will post what I do next, provided that I don't hear any compelling advice and make my own decision (though I should be even more gun-shy after my recent blunders).
Grant

Can I use Time Machine to backup to partition on external drive and a Time Capsule?

Trying to plan in advance...
I was wondering if I can (with a laptop) use Time Machine for both:
1. Creating Time Machine backups on a partiion of an external drive. My plan was going to create 2 partitions: one to be used for Time Machine backups of another external hard drive (that holds all of my media) and then the other partition was going to be a bootable clone of my internal drive (totally separate from Time Machine)
and
2. Also use Time Machine for my Time Capsule, to create Time Machine backups of my internal drive.
Is this possible? I had heard that you can't use TM to make backups to a partition on an external drive, AND use it for another drive (like Time Capsule) at the same time. But I would think that this should be possible-
Thanks everyone-

Yes you can, and if you are using Mountain Lion it's easy.
If you are using Snow Leopard (as in your profile - this is the Mountain Lion forum), you have to manually select the backup volume each time. Tedious, but possible.
Read Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini's FAQ on that subject: "Rotating" Time Machine backup disks

I redirected iTunes to an external drive and moved my iTunes library and folder, but my hard drive is still low on space. How can I be sure that my music is all on the external HD ONLY, especially with the new iCloud technology?

I redirected iTunes to an external drive and moved my iTunes library and folder, but my hard drive is still low on space. How can I be sure that my music is all on the external HD ONLY, especially with the new iCloud technology? It doesn't look like I created any more space by doing this, AND I totally lost all my iTunes playlists. I'm not sure if because I added old library materials manually if this messed up my playlists, or if the new location is just not reading my moved library. In any case, I followed step by step instructions and found a few holes and thought I'd just "figure it out" but I guess I'm not as smart as I thought since I'm still scratching my head many hours later.
Thanks for any support ;-)
Eaglerocker

Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.
If this is to a new computer and you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.

External drive and IGNORE OWNERSHIP issue

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