External drive as storage center

I am running out of space on my MacBook Air and so want to move a few files onto an external hard drive.
This drive is 40GB.
The files I want to move are photos and movies I have taken with my digital camera.
I initially thought I would use this drive like a USB memory drive and I was going to format it using Disk Utility (Mac OS Extended Journal), and then move files from the MBA to it.
However, I thought of actually putting the OS on the hard drive first and then adding the files. This way I can install Photoshop on the hard drive and edit the photos on the hard drive itself.
Is that possible to do?
Do I need a special hard drive for this (I have OS 10.6)?
I have a MacBook Air and only one USB port. How can I put the OS on the hard drive?
How much space does the OS need? (the hard drive is 40GB in size)
If it is too much trouble to install the OS, I will just use the hard drive as a USB memory drive and then edit the photos after moving the files back onto the MacBook internal hard drive.
If I have installed the OS onto the external hard drive, can I just move the files from the MacBook Air onto the hard drive like a USB memory drive - drag and drop?
Can I use just any hard drive like a SATA drive (with case)?
Thanks for any answers on this.

I am not exactly sure what installing Snow Leopard on the external drive will buy you other than having the ability to boot off it. Instead of installing the OS on your small external drive (I assume USB-based), just use for storing pictures. If the external drive is not already formatted in a filesystem known to Mac, you will be prompted to format it the first time you connect it.
Dragging and dropping files from the internal storage to another storage is considered copying, not moving. So you will have to delete the files on the internal storage after the drag and drop operation.
You can use any type of drives, provided the external enclosure has a USB interface.

Similar Messages

  • Formatting external drive for storage/backup/video files

    Hi,
    I just purchased a 500mb My Book Pro external drive for use with my imac duo which runs Windows XP via bootcamp. This computer is shared by three family with very different skills and needs. My dilemma. I want to format the drive so that the imac can be backed up easily three users. It is formated Fat32 and is supplied with Restrospect Express 7.5 backup software. It would be nice to backup the modestly used windows sector, but that's a secondary consideration. My problem is that one user has a lot of larger than 4 gb video files which are too large the Fat 32 format. My notion is to segment the backup drive so that I leave 300 mb in fat 32 to facilitate backup with supplied software, and segment a second 200 gb drive using mac os extended so that the user can manually move her video files for storage/backup on the backup drive. Is there a simpler solution? For example, if I formatted the entire 500gb as mac os extended, could I still run the retrospect backup software? If not, is there a reasonably priced alternative software? And finally, with either Fat32 or Mac OS extended, can I move files from the Windows platform? Would I be better off just biting the bullet and telling my daughter to make her own arrangements to compress and backup her video files or get her own hard drive, thus leaving the backup drive to the simple factory supplied software solution?
    G-4 and iMac core duo   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   use emacs and imacs at work location

    Hi,
    I just purchased a 500mb My Book Pro external drive
    for use with my imac duo which runs Windows XP via
    bootcamp. This computer is shared by three family
    with very different skills and needs. My dilemma. I
    want to format the drive so that the imac can be
    backed up easily three users. It is formated Fat32
    and is supplied with Restrospect Express 7.5 backup
    software. It would be nice to backup the modestly
    used windows sector, but that's a secondary
    consideration. My problem is that one user has a lot
    of larger than 4 gb video files which are too large
    the Fat 32 format. My notion is to segment the backup
    drive so that I leave 300 mb in fat 32 to facilitate
    backup with supplied software, and segment a second
    200 gb drive using mac os extended so that the user
    can manually move her video files for storage/backup
    on the backup drive. Is there a simpler solution? For
    example, if I formatted the entire 500gb as mac os
    extended, could I still run the retrospect backup
    software? If not, is there a reasonably priced
    alternative software? And finally, with either Fat32
    or Mac OS extended, can I move files from the Windows
    platform? Would I be better off just biting the
    bullet and telling my daughter to make her own
    arrangements to compress and backup her video files
    or get her own hard drive, thus leaving the backup
    drive to the simple factory supplied software
    solution?
    G-4 and iMac
    core duo   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   use emacs
    and imacs at work location
    Hello,
    You're indeed in a pickle. If you use Bootcamp and want the HD accessible via the Mac and WinXP, then you don't want to format it as Mac HFS because WInXP wouldn't be able to access it. If you go FAT32 then both WInXP and Mac OS can access it, but you face the dilemma of the 4GB threshold.
    If you format as NTFS, then you eliminate the 4GB threshold but then Mac OS cannot access it.
    I have a similar dilemma, which is why i use Parallels more than Bootcamp. I have 2 external FW HD's (160GB/250GB), both formatted to Mac HFS. The 160GB i have partitioned as 50GB and 100GB. I have a bootable backup of Mac OS residing on the 100GB partition (yay to SuperDuper!) and some other stuff on the remaining 50GB. The 250GB is exclusive for movies (cough..cough..bittorrent) and for streaming via Orb 2.0 to my Treo. I have WinXP running in Parallels, and Vista Ultimate via Bootcamp. In Parallels, i can access my external HD's via Parallel's Shared Folders but in Vista (Bootcamp) since the HD's are in a non-Windows recognised formatting, they're not accessible (which is a bummer, as i'm loving Win media center).
    What you can do is partition the HD the way you're thinking and format (one part Mac HFS and the other NTFS), but my best recommendation is that with the falling prices of HD's nowadays, why not just get a seperate HD do what you want with it. I spied a WD MyBook 500GB USB HD at CompUSA for $129.99 (no mail-in rebate nonsense) and similar good prices at Bestbuy and Newegg.com.
    iMac 17" 2GHZ C2Duo 2GB RAM 160GB HD   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

  • External Drive for Storage/Backup?

    Ok so I think I'm at the point where it would be a smart idea to back up all my valuable data (as if there was never a smart time to do this?)
    Now my question is this: Can an external Hard Disk be used on both my G5 and relatives MacPro at the same time? As in I can dump some files on it from the G5, then plug in into the MacPro and do the same - having seperate storage folders on the Drive for each computers backup?
    I've never attempted to do an external drive backup before. I've only ever done it with burning DVDs. So if I'm missing something or this sounds like a silly question please forgive!
    Thank you in advance!

    I am not too sure you can simultaneously connect one drive to two different machines, in fact I am quite sure you can't and I think that is what you were asking, vs. partitioning it with two partions (easy) and using it on one or the other mac at separate times.
    Note by easy I mean it uses the mac partitioning scheme and thus it cannot boot an intel.
    As pointed out, there are guides to formating one drive with 2 partitions so it can have two different bootup disks, on PPC and one intel. I would not bother. Seems daunting and if you are unsure of PATA vs. SATA then forget learning that very complex operation.
    These drives of adequate (or even quite massive) size don't cost enough to bother. Buy two drives, firewire only and partition one GUID for the intel and the traditional mac format for the other.
    And I think you should just buy two already made external (FIREWIRE) drives from LaCie or OWC and not get into buying raw drives, cases and the like and assembling them - you don't save a whole lot if anything, and a lot of these cases are rubbish pure and simple.
    Judging by increasingly unhappy posts about the "PC brand" external drives (Maxtor, WD, Iomega) trying to mosey into the mac world I would avoid them like the plague.

  • RTorrent behavior with external drive as storage

    Hi.
    I've moved my rTorrent storage directory to external drive and despite everything seem to work (I can download and upload) there is one problem...
    When I start rTorrent (configured as tmux service) and my external drive is not mounted, then I have to restart rTorrent having storage directory mounted (it's obvious). But is strange for me is that rTorrent starts to download everything from the very beginning while actually files on disk have already their final size. I noticed that triggering hash recheck helps (after recheck is done I can simply seed my torrents) - but it's not so cool to trigger hash recheck every time on 100 GB of files.
    .rtorrent.rc
    # This is an example resource file for rTorrent. Copy to
    # ~/.rtorrent.rc and enable/modify the options as needed. Remember to
    # uncomment the options you wish to enable.
    # Maximum and minimum number of peers to connect to per torrent.
    #min_peers = 40
    #max_peers = 100
    # Same as above but for seeding completed torrents (-1 = same as downloading)
    #min_peers_seed = 10
    #max_peers_seed = 50
    # Maximum number of simultanious uploads per torrent.
    #max_uploads = 15
    max_downloads_global = 3
    max_uploads_global = 30
    # Global upload and download rate in KiB. "0" for unlimited.
    #download_rate = 0
    #upload_rate = 0
    # Default directory to save the downloaded torrents.
    directory = /home/kuba/torrents
    # Default session directory. Make sure you don't run multiple instance
    # of rtorrent using the same session directory. Perhaps using a
    # relative path?
    session = /home/kuba/.session
    # Watch a directory for new torrents, and stop those that have been
    # deleted.
    schedule = watch_directory,5,5,load_start=./watch/*.torrent
    schedule = untied_directory,5,5,stop_untied=
    # Close torrents when diskspace is low.
    schedule = low_diskspace,5,60,close_low_diskspace=200M
    # The ip address reported to the tracker.
    #ip = 127.0.0.1
    #ip = rakshasa.no
    # The ip address the listening socket and outgoing connections is
    # bound to.
    #bind = 127.0.0.1
    #bind = rakshasa.no
    # Port range to use for listening.
    #port_range = 6890-6999
    port_range = 49164-49164
    # Start opening ports at a random position within the port range.
    #port_random = no
    # Check hash for finished torrents. Might be usefull until the bug is
    # fixed that causes lack of diskspace not to be properly reported.
    #check_hash = no
    # Set whether the client should try to connect to UDP trackers.
    #use_udp_trackers = yes
    # Alternative calls to bind and ip that should handle dynamic ip's.
    #schedule = ip_tick,0,1800,ip=rakshasa
    #schedule = bind_tick,0,1800,bind=rakshasa
    # Encryption options, set to none (default) or any combination of the following:
    # allow_incoming, try_outgoing, require, require_RC4, enable_retry, prefer_plaintext
    # The example value allows incoming encrypted connections, starts unencrypted
    # outgoing connections but retries with encryption if they fail, preferring
    # plaintext to RC4 encryption after the encrypted handshake
    # encryption = allow_incoming,enable_retry,prefer_plaintext
    # Enable DHT support for trackerless torrents or when all trackers are down.
    # May be set to "disable" (completely disable DHT), "off" (do not start DHT),
    # "auto" (start and stop DHT as needed), or "on" (start DHT immediately).
    # The default is "off". For DHT to work, a session directory must be defined.
    # dht = auto
    # UDP port to use for DHT.
    # dht_port = 6881
    # Enable peer exchange (for torrents not marked private)
    # peer_exchange = yes
    color_inactive_fg = 4
    color_dead_fg = 1
    color_active_fg = 3
    color_finished_fg = 2
    [email protected]
    [Unit]
    Description=rTorrent
    Requires=network.target local-fs.target
    [Service]
    Type=forking
    KillMode=none
    User=%I
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/tmux new-session -s rt -n rtorrent -d rtorrent
    ExecStop=/usr/bin/tmux send-keys -t rt:rtorrent C-q
    WorkingDirectory=/home/%I/
    Restart=on-failure
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    storage directory as symlink from home dir
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 kuba users 41 02-22 22:03 torrents -> /run/media/kuba/ExtStorage/stuff/torrents/
    lsblk
    sdb 8:16 0 298,1G 0 disk
    ├─sdb1 8:17 0 40G 0 part
    ├─sdb2 8:18 0 4G 0 part
    └─sdb3 8:19 0 254,1G 0 part /run/media/kuba/ExtStorage
    Last edited by jakub (2015-02-23 22:18:50)

    Great hint. Works really well. Now rTorrent service is not starting when storage directory is not mounted thus no hash rechecking is required. It helps a lot. So only nice thing to have now would be to add the service autostart in case the .mount unit is active (changes state from inactive to active actually, which will happen when I turned on my laptop without having USB drive connected / fstab configured)
    if anyone wants to know how final [email protected] looks like, this it the file:
    [Unit]
    Description=rTorrent
    Requires=network.target local-fs.target run-media-kuba-ExtStorage.mount
    [Service]
    Type=forking
    KillMode=none
    User=%I
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/tmux new-session -s rt -n rtorrent -d rtorrent
    ExecStop=/usr/bin/tmux send-keys -t rt:rtorrent C-q
    WorkingDirectory=/home/%I/
    Restart=on-failure
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    Last edited by jakub (2015-02-23 22:18:29)

  • Aperture use of external drive for storage

    I am trying to set up my aperture library on an external shared drive connected to my airport extreme. Aperture will import all of my pictures to this library, but crashes on startup after creating the library.
    I have tried this many items.
    What am I doing wrong?

    I would not expect an Aperture Library to reliably work across a network. Instead keep the Library on the internal hard drive and try using Referenced Masters (From within Aperture, import images from the hard drive folder into Aperture selecting "Store files in their current location."), which I would expect to work across a network.
    Good luck!
    -Allen Wicks

  • Using ATC as an external drive for storage

    How can I use my ATC to copy files and photos to to liberate space on my hard drive in my MacBook Pro?

    Whoa.
    If you move files and photos to the Time Capsule hard drive...and then delete them from your MacBook Pro......the only copy of the files that you will have will be on the Time Capsule.
    When....not if...the Time Capsule has a problem, you will lose all of the files and photos.....since you do not have a backup for them.
    Surely, you would not want to risk having only copy of your files with no backup, correct?
    Add another USB or FireWire drive to the MacBook Pro and move the files there.  Then, Time Machine will backup both your Mac and the hard drive.
    So, you have "original" files on one drive and "backups" on another. That would be a minimum backup plan. Many of keep extra additonal backups. For example, if my house burns down or is flooded, I have copies of all data on another drive that is offsite.

  • External drive usage, storage and backup?

    I'm using LR4, Mac OS, and a 1TB drive for my photos and videos, I have about 800GB used.
    1.) Since it is a data only drive with no applications or OS, are there issues with getting the drive close to being full? Are there any issues with LR not functioning properly as the drive gets closer and closer to being full?
    2.) I currently have a 2nd 4TB drive that I just drag everything from the main LR 1TB drive to back up. How do you backup your files? I'm looking for any suggestions on a better way to back my drive up.
    Thanks for any suggestions/info.

    1) Any drive will start to have problems when it is close to full, but "close to full" depends on what you are doing on the drive. The issue isn't really Lightroom functioning properly, the issue is the drive functioning properly, and you will have to pay close attention to whether or not you are having problems or not.
    2) In my opinion, the only way to do backups is automatically. You need a program that will perform the backups on a regular basis, so that ther is never a problem with humans forgetting to do backups or are too busy to do backups. For Lightroom, you not only need to make backups of your photos, but also backups of your catalog file.

  • I would like to use an external drive for the iPad I just purchased for my husband?  How can I accomplish this is there an accessory that would allow me to use a USB

    I would like to use an external drive for storage on the ipad I just purchased.   How can I do this?

    You can't attach drives to any iOS device.
    Having said that, there are some drives with built-in wifi routers that a device can connect to.  These would behave like a cloud device in which some of your apps might be able to connect.
    Try googling to find some brands.

  • FCPX editing on internal or external drive for small media files with lots of layers and compositing ?

    I am upgrading my mid 2012 MBP with an internal SSD. I have16 RAM. OS is Mavericks.
    I edit videos using a mix of photos (imported layers via photoshop), short animations, short video clips. I do some very basic stop animation also. So each media file is not heavy (photos, pics, short videos), but I do a lot of layering and compositing in FCPX.  I had a lot of delays and freezes with 5400 rpm HDD… so I decided to upgrade to SSD.
    Some people have told me to edit it all on my internal SSD as the media files are not big..
    Everywhere else on the web I read that all media / libraries should be on an external while I edit them. But most of these contributors are using huge video files, HD, which is not my case.
    So – with small media files but lots of editing and effects  / animation, should I spend the extra money on a good external 7200 rpm USB3 to edit from ? Or just use external drive for storage and not editing.
    Not going for TB as I read there would not be a difference between USB3 and TB on a 7200 rpm external drive (difference is felt when using RAID, r SSD external)
    Thanks!

    I uses external SSD Thunderbolt for my all my editing stuff. I make small projects and only keeps one library at a time on my external drive. When finished I backup the library to another big external. I would strongly recommend external SSD Thunderbolt such as LaCie Rugged 256 GB or 128 GB. I use this setup with my Mac Pro late 2013. I never edit from internal. You could also go for RAID with 4 disks but that might be an overkill.

  • Use external drive for both Time Machine and storage for Back to My Mac

    Hi all,
    I have been "a Mac" now for over a year and just keep finding cool new things that make me happy I switched. The latest thing is Back to My Mac offered with my Mobile Me account. With a rather convoluted mix of PC/Mac/iOS devices to manage - best $99 I ever spent btw...
    I also have a 1TB Time Capsule that I have been using with Time Machine to back up all four of my Mac computers at home. Needless to say, the 1TB is really struggling to handle the amount of data being backed up and certainly leaves no room for anything else.
    What I wanted to do was to attach a larger external hard drive via a powered hub to the USB port on the Time Capsule and use it for Time Machine backups while using the internal 1TB drive with Back to My Mac so that I can have remote access to all my data from anywhere without having to leave my computer running at home all the time in order for my laptop to "see" it when I'm away. And, yes, the amount of that data far exceeds what any level of Mobile Me subscription can offer! I should also mention that the hard drive is the only USB device connected through the hub to the Time Capsule at the moment. There are no other devices that might be "getting in the way".
    I'm thinking maybe all this is asking too much without the addition of a dedicated file server (Mac Mini, perhaps - not a purchase my budget wants to make).
    I understand that the Time Capsule doesn't support partitions, so I bought a Western Digital 2TB Elements drive, connected it to my Macbook Pro and used Disk Utility to reformat the drive from the incompatible NTFS it shipped in to a single, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition. I then made two folders on the drive, one for Time Machine backups and one for Back to My Mac remote storage/access. Great.
    However, when I connected the 2TB drive to my Time Capsule I could not see it at all. Time Capsule was reporting problems in the way of a disk error. From within my Airport Utility, I could see the trouble was the external drive. The utility suggested connecting the drive to a Mac and using it's Disk Utility to troubleshoot.
    I followed through, checking the disk, etc. and ended up reformatted the drive on my Macbook Pro yet again with the same specifications as before but without the folders and reconnected it to the Time Capsule. Same deal. But now, I can't even remotely connect to the Time Capsule at all. I can see the Time Capsule in the shared area of my Macbook's Finder but can not connect. The connection tries and fails even before it gets to asking me for username and password credentials.
    Long story short, first of all, I suppose I would like to know if I'm asking for the impossible?
    Second, if what I want to do *is* possible, what steps do I need to take to make it so?
    Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions you might have.

    Well, I have now reformatted/partitioned my poor WD Elements 2TB drive about a dozen times as well as restarted my 1TB Time Capsule so many times it's no wonder it's as confused as I am! <G>
    Last night, at your suggestion, William, and in respect for your continued support, I tried creating two 1TB Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partitions on the WD external USB drive, both with GUID partition tables. Both volumes mounted to my laptop's desktop flawlessly and without issue.
    Once the external drive was connected to the Time Capsule, however, it was a crap shoot as to whether or not the drive was recognized at all, reporting a problem with the disk, or, even at one point, mounting one of the two volumes but not both. <sigh>
    I read somewhere on the Internet that you need to restart the Time Capsule for volumes on an external USB drive to be recognized.
    So I tried that. I connected the freshly partitioned/formatted disk to the Time Capsule and restarted it. This succeed in removing the issue of reporting a nameless drive with a capacity of 0MB. It then reported the drive with its correct name but would not recognize whatever volumes in whatever partitions that particular crack at it contained with the exception of the once, as I mentioned above, when only one of two volumes mounted correctly and was listed with the right name and capacity on the Time Capusule's Setup's Disk tab.
    At this point I have given up on my goal to use the external drive with Time Machine to back up my Macs or to hope I will ever be able to see its contents remotely via Back to My Mac. All I would like to do now is simply find a reason why I can't get it successfully connected and playing nice with my Time Capsule in the first place!
    Any further suggestions or advice as to what steps I might take next would be greatly appreciated.
    Thank you all.

  • Upgrading my intel iMac to internal SSD and running 1TB external drive from firewire 800 for mass storage while still using a second external drive for backups...my goal-speed with a SSD, to still have 1TB of room for everything i have now..possible?

    I seem to kill HD's every two years...the last two i've installed were WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200rpm 3.5" drives. The speed gains over  stock drives have been remarkable. I don't blame the drives for the failures, my machines are up and running 16 hours a day, every day, year round. They die from 'mileage' so to speak...i assume...there's no viral acvtivity or questionable downloads to gunk things up...just lots of work.
    I have my third new drive ready to install in my intel based iMac...but i've had a thought...I want to install a SSD in my iMac for the speed gain (and recent price drops)...for standard storage i want to use this new WD Caviar Black 1TB in an external drive bay and connect via firewire 800 for storing everything except the OS and my most commonly used software...am i crazy? will the firewire 800 external drive negate the speed gained with an internal SSD??
    I have four iMacs in my office, and one at home. I buy second hand and install new drives and boost memory. I'm going to do this on my 'home' machine...if it works out well i want to upgrade the other three this way...but first i need to know if i'm just dreaming, or will it really make a difference? or even possible??
    Thanks!
    2.66 intell core2duo
    2009 iMac
    8gig ram
    1 gig hd
    OSX ver. 10.8

    The SSD gives great bootup and Application launch speed. I think it also speeds up the video rendering a bit, I do all that on the SSD and then move the finished project to the external drives. As far as the speed for the external drives they are quick enough for viewing video and the file transfer rate is good. I had initially put the SSD into an external cradle (FW800) and the system was faster than on the internal drive. I only got a 1.5GBs SATA drive, perhaps yours could benefit from the 3GBs. I know the 6GBs would be too fast and costs a lot more, even the MacPros need special hookups to make use of the 6GBs.

  • I have the G Drive 1 TB (GEN4 1TB) external drive purchased in 2010. I need to connect to my new MacBook Pro. I'm using the external drive for media storage of my video editing projects. Will a 800fw to thunderbolt adapter cable work?

    I have the G Drive 1 TB (GEN4 1TB) external drive purchased in 2010. I need to connect to my new MacBook Pro. I'm using the external drive for media storage of my video editing projects. Will a 800fw to thunderbolt adapter cable work? I understand that using a USB port connection is not fast enough for video editing. I read somewhere the G Drives don't connect well to MacBook Pro.
    thanks
    larry

    I doubt this can be relocated or moved so you might want to just repost in the macbook pro area.
      MacBook Pro
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os?view=discussions
    Can you afford a new Thunderbolt case and cable? any case with FW800 is going to be slow 72MB/sec and less, and any new 1TB drive is capable of 75MB/s minimum up to 125MB/sec.
    Thunderbolt storage can of course when setup properly reach 100's of MB higher using multiple drives.
    Use what you have for a system backup or for secondary backup storage.
    you might be able to take the drive - most cases allow you to open and swap drives - and use this:
    G-Technology 1TB G-DRIVE mini High-Speed Portable Hard Drive                                   
    or this:
    http://store.apple.com/us/product/HB137VC/A/g-technology-4tb-g-raid-professional -high-performance-dual-drive-hard-drive?fnode=5f

  • Use external drive for Time Capsule backups AND file storage?

    I have an external drive formatted by my MBP.  I'm using it to store my iTunes music library and iPhoto pics.  Can I use the drive for Time Capsule backups as well?

    Yes, but that is not recommended. Storage and backup should be kept separate to reduce the chances of a disk failure. This is especially important because you cannot even partition a Time Capsule drive. Go get a separate drive for your storage needs. Get another drive for a second backup and use a different method of backup than Time Machine

  • External hard drive as storage for itunes??

    I wish to use my external hard drive as storage for itunes as the main computer I have has limited space. Can this be done and if so how???? Thanks for reading this and I look forward to any replies. Ian

    I followed the instructions from the link you offered. All my files/music,games etc. showed up on my new external hard drive, however there is no iTunes itself, just the files. Can you offer more assistance? Thanks.

  • Hello! I am new to the MacWorld and I love I tunes! but I have bought TV shows and now I am running short of storage, Can I transfer my TV shows to an external drive, or if I erase them can I download them again since I paid for them?

    Hello!
    I am nes to Mac computers and I love ITunes. I have bought some TV shows and I am running short of storage and I have some questions.
    1) Can I transfer my TV shows to an external drive?
    2) If I erase these files, can I download them again? I bought a movie I erase it to make space, but I went to the Itunes store again and it says I have to pay for it.
    3) Can use ICloud to store my TV shows? and how is it done if possible?
    Thank you so much!!
    CB

    You can move the files to an external drive.  Delete the entry from your collection but don't let iTunes delete the file.  Copy the file to the external, then drag to iTunes to add it again.  Hold down the option key while doing this so the file doesn't get copied to the internal again.
    Alternatively use: Dougscripts: Relocates selected files to a folder of your choice - http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected - replaces "Move Files To Folder"  to move files.
    2) I wouldn't trust Apple or the media companies.  They could decide tomorrow to not allow a second download and you'd be stuck.  The media company could decide to pull an item from iTunes Store.  You are the only person who can be relied upon to ensure you always have access to your media copies.

Maybe you are looking for