External drive startup doesn't 'take'

I wish to install Logic Studio, needing 46GB, so my mac mini (intel) hasn't the space. I dont want to choose what I want and dont want at this stage, so wish to install the entire Logic package. I have the space on my LaCie drive. Logic can only be installed on startup drive. I can select the LaCie as startup, but whatever I do, the mac mini still reverts to internal drive startup.
AS System Preferences offer LaCie as startup, why doesn't the mac mini 'see' it when it comes to the startup? Disk Utility shows no problems with either drive. The LaCie is connected Firewire to the mac mini.

How did you set about installing MacOS on the external drive? Is the drive powered up and ready at the time the mini is booted (if it isn't, it may not be ready by the time the system commences looking for a boot volume)? If you hold down the Option key during startup to get to the boot loader, and then select the external as the boot volume, does it boot from the external then?

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Is there a way to "force-mount" an external drive that doesn't show up on it's own when plugged in with firewire?

Hi, is there a way to "force-mount" an external drive that doesn't show up on the desktop? I have a new Hitachi SATA III 2 TB Ultrastar that won't show up like all the other drives when plugged in. So I can't partition, repair, format etc with Disk Utility, Disk Drill, Tech Tools etc. How do I make it visible?
I use the FW 400 to 800 adapter and a FW hub.
Thanks,
W.

ok, I did find the log in Diskutil of what happened, I just can't figure out why it happened and how to start over:
2014-04-20 13:42:08 -0400: Disk Utility started.
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400: Preparing to erase : “Terra 8”
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400:           Partition Scheme: GUID Partition Table
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400:           1 volume will be created
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400:                     Name                    : “Terra 8”
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400:                     Size                    : 2 TB
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400:                     File system          : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400: Unmounting disk
2014-04-20 13:45:00 -0400: Creating the partition map
2014-04-20 13:45:01 -0400: Waiting for the disks to reappear
2014-04-20 13:45:01 -0400: Formatting disk2s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name Terra 8
2014-04-20 13:45:26 -0400: Initialized /dev/rdisk2s2 as a 2 TB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 155648k journal
2014-04-20 13:45:26 -0400: Mounting disk
2014-04-20 13:45:29 -0400: Erase complete.
2014-04-20 13:45:29 -0400:
- That was it, gone.....

When I plug in my Lacie (thunderbolt) External Drive it doesn't show up on the desktop. I need to move some stuff out of my hard drive to make room.

When I plug in my Lacie (thunderbolt) External Drive it doesn't show up on the desktop. I need to move some stuff out of my hard drive to make room. I have very little room left on the hard drive and need to move an iPhoto library.

i have a lacie, and i encrypted it. i had to wipe it, because it kept dropping off over and over and re-logging in. so unencrypted i went.
at some point it wasn't recognized at all. sometimes disk utility would open it, but then it got to the point that it wouldn't recognize it either.
i hadn't realized that the power supply was dysfunctional. but i was able to recover it using disk warrior at the last deep breath it took. the disk itself still works, but not in that housing.

After installing Yosemite beta on external drive, Mavericks doesn't startup from the internal drive

Hi,
After I installed OS X Yosemite Beta on my external hard drive, my Macbook Pro no longer recognises and boots from the Mavericks partition on my internal drive. instead, it starts up the Yosemite installer even when the external drive is not connected.
And when holding the option key during startup, it shows 2 partitions: "OS X Installer" (that I've not created) and "Recovery-10.9.5". However from the system preferences in Yosemite, the partition is shown as a startup disk. and also i can see the Macintosh HD partition and its contents in Yosemite.
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Try this:
Go to "System preferences"
Click on " Boot-up Disk" (4th row)
Select the disk you want to boot
Restart the computer

How do i get my limited internal storage of my macBook Air to use iCloud for photos library now on external drive -- I want to take my photos with me on my macBook Air?

My primary computer is a macBook Air (late 2011). I have two external hard drive attached when I have it on my desk at home. I want to take it with me sometimes and not have to also lug a 3 TB external drive also. How do I get it set up similar to my music library with iTunes Match. The library is on the internal drive, but the media itself is on the external drive.
How do I get the same kind of result as seeing my library on my iOS devices?

I have already turned on iCloud Photo Library and it works just fine for my iPhone. BUT, what I want is for it work on my main machine, the macBook Air. I do NOT have an iMac or other to store the "system" Photos library. I do Not have room on my internal drive for the macBook Air ("system" library is located on an external drive). I don't want to have to lug that 3 TB drive with me. It also will not let me move the library file. The library file is close to 40 Gbytes and I have less than 20 left on my internal drive (and I don't dare let it get much smaller than this)....
Any ideas as to how to do this?
For my iTunes library, I ran into a similar issue, but I simply started a new library and dragged the files (on my external drive) into iTunes. This told iTunes where they were without copying them to the internal drive.
I would think something similar should work with Photos, but I don't know how to do it.

I'm trying to download updates to iTunes but it's downloading to an external drive that doesn't exist - how do I change the file download path?

error message says "Invalid Drive"

Perhaps try the following user tip with that one:
"Invalid Drive X:\" install errors

My finder window is showing an external drive that doesn't exist.

It is empty, but I can't eject it because it says it's in use, even though I have no applications open or other drives plugged in. Does anyone know what this is and how I can get rid of it? Thanks.

Perhaps try the following user tip with that one:
"Invalid Drive X:\" install errors

TC backups work, router works, external drive access doesn't

I have a lot of files on the TC other than the backup files created by Time Machine. If I tried to connect to the Time Capsule, I get a message saying "connection failed." This didn't start until an update was pushed out by Apple on Sunday night.
Any clues on how to fix?

It only took a few phone calls to tech support and a half hour on hold

ITunes doesn't find my music files on external drive anymore

I have some 15.000 music files on an external hard drive. I added them to my iTunes library and added also a lot of extra info (titles, genres, albums covers, etc.).
After a great New Year's Party, where several people "played" with my iTunes playlists, for some reason iTunes doesn't sees / recognises the music files on the external hard drive anymore.
What can I do? I don't want to import the music files all over again. Otherwise I loose all the info I added in the past year. And it is undoable to find the music files one-by-one on the external drive. That would take months.
Who can help?

Select one track in your library that is currently missing in action. Press CTRL-I to Get Info then look at the Where: entry on the Summary tab. You should get something along the lines of:
file://localhost/<path 1>/<Artist>/<Album>/## <Name>.<ext>
e.g. file://localhost/D:/iTunes/iTunes Music/Arcade Fire/Funeral/01 Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).mp3
The true path will be something else of the form:
<path 2>\<Artist>\<Album>\## Name.<ext>
e.g. D:\iTunes\iTunes Music\Music\Arcade Fire\Funeral\01 Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).mp3
Comparing the two paths should reveal what needs to be done to put music back where iTunes "expects" to find it. The examples show the different default locations before and after the upgrade to iTunes Media Organisation. I've seen problems before with the way iTunes manages this upgrade so that it occasionally reorganizes the files but then carries on looking for them in the old location. It is also surprising how easy it is sometimes to accidentally move a folder without noticing. Alternatively Windows may simply have switched the drive letter for your external drive. Windows Media Player is more resilient in these circumstances.
If you can give the two locations for a sample file I can probably suggest what will need doing to put things right.
tt2

Question about Formatting Buffalo USB 1TB external drive for use with Mac Book Pro Mountain Lion HD

Hi there, Have Mountain Lion HD operating system (not sure if it is 10.8 or 10.8.1. or 10.8.2) and have a Buffalo USB 3.0 1TB hard drive. When go to utilities to try and format with Mac OS extended, following 3 files show. DriveNavi. exe, Slm.exe and Mac. The option to left click and erase menu is not there. Or at least not as shown in all the help videos.
It is USB connection so will take ages but want to use drive to store video footage and also partition to back up Time Machine. ( travelling in South America and no other Ext Drive option available too buy) how much space should i assign to Time Machine when partitioning? Is there anything else i need to think about? as new to formatting. Any thing else i can do to make process of transfering footage to Buffalo quicker?
Final question is if it is finally reformatted am i going to have to spend so long accessing footage from hard drive when back home and editing that it really is not worth if, and i should just write this off as an inappropriate purchase, and try and buy more memory cards and not bother with transfering/storing? Thanks in advance for time spent trying to assist.

Use Apple's Disk Utility in the Applications/Utilities folder to format the drive.
The programs on the drive given to you by the manufacturer is likely backup software (or malware) and essentially worthless, it will be wiped when you format the drive.
I do NOT advise you partition that drive for TimeMachine, rather I advise you not to use TimeMachine at all for your purposes because TM is just a backup, not a bootable drive.
Rather do this.
Get another hard drive that is equal to or slightly larger than your boot drive.
Format the drive in Disk Utiltiy > 1 Partition, option: GUID, Format: OS X Extended journaled, click Erase and move the slider one spot to the right and click Erase. This will take some time as it's going to map off any failing sectors it can BEFORE you lay data on the drive corrupting it.
Next, pay for and download Carbon Copy Cloner, use the default settings and simply clone internal drive to the external drive. this will also take some time the first time.
Next use Disk Utility to Repair Permisisons on both drive. Now reboot the machine and hold the option key down, you can select the external drive clone to boot from!!
You can update the clone the same way by using CCC, but it doesn't take as long, only copying changes.
This is better than TimeMachine as a bootable clone is bootable in case your internal drive fails to boot the machine.
Use the first drive for storage and be very gentle with it while it running, like you should do for all hard drives as they are subjective to shock damage.
The objective with the clone drive is you keep it safe, and not carting it around where it can be more subjective to damage like the other drive will be.
Remmeber you need 2 forms of hardware backup at all times.
Most commonly used backup methods

Step by Step Guide needed for external drives.... Help!

I know this has probably been done to death already but I can't seem to make any of the suggestions work in this case. I guess what I need is someone to tell me like I'm a 5 year old on how to do this.
I want to move my music library to an external drive as my main drive is getting full. I have iTunes on my c: drive and want to move my music to an external drive (h:) so it can play and be stored there. I have tried a couple of times to move it and tell iTunes where to find it but for some reason a couple of things happen...
1. iTunes changes the location back to the c: drive, even after I have pointed it to a folder created on the external drive.
2. if it does look to the external drive it doesn't find the library... the music is there but iTunes doesn't display it in the library.
I must be doing something really wrong or this isn't possible... any advice would be a great help.

You might find this article useful: iLounge - Transferring your iTunes Library to Another Drive

How do I move my Home folder to an external drive?

I am leaving for 3 months. I want to copy the entire Home folder on my iMac to an external drive so I can take it with me. I want to clean up the files/folders, sort and delete thousands of iPhoto pictures, organize hundreds of genealogy documents, etc., using my MBPr. When I return home, I want to replace the old Home folder with the cleaned up one. I thought I could simply drag and drop the Home folder to the external drive (2 TB) but twice now I get these two dialogue boxes mid-way. After the second, the copy window disappears and copying stops. A shadow of the Home folder is on the external drive, but nothing else. Can this be done? How? Thanks!

1, Yes. Making a partition for the clone is what you want to do if you want a bootable clone.
2, If you want a bootable clone, you do not want to create disk image.
3, Dragging and dropping will not get all of the files the was cloning software will. Using drag & drop uses more superficial commands then the cloning software uses. So that is is not able to get everything.
The next two link are a couple of site that explain how to set up SD to clone a disk.
http://www.lansharks.net/lansharks/SuperDuper_Backup_Instructions.html
http://mac.appstorm.net/how-to/hardware-how-to/how-to-make-a-bootable-hard-drive -clone-with-superduper/
The link below is the complete manual for SD
http://s3.amazonaws.com/com.shirtpocket/SuperDuper/SuperDuper.pdf
I hope think helps.

Is there any way to restore data from an external drive to another external drive without using the macbook pro you backed up?

Is that I sold my macbook pro an the person who bought it needs it quickly so I have an external drive but it is not portable so I bought a portable external drive but it may take a while to arrive so I backed up my data with the external drive that I have in my house but I would like to know if I can restore my data to the new external drive without the macbook pro and just with the external drive of my house to the portable external drive.
Thank you

No, that's not possible. A computer is required in order to effect such a transfer. Connect both drives to your computer. You can use Disk Utility to clone one drive to the other. Be sure you first partition and format the new drive:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new external drive. Source means the old external drive.

Type of External Drive to use with Time Machine

I just upgraded to Leopard & want to use Time Machine to back up my data. Is it better (i.e. faster) to use a FireWire or USB external drive, or doesn't it make a difference?
TIA!

Hi-
It's better, and faster, to use firewire.

Help on inporting from external drive

when I drag my imovie files to idvd from the external drive, it does not take,
I see my options as
1. make them into quicktime movies and then drag them
2. install idvd to my external drive.
Any thoughts, thanks

Can you open iDVD and select the imovie from the external (instead of dragging)? Why not convert it to QT (Full Quality DV)?
I would not recommend installing it on your external.
Sue

External drive startup doesn't 'take'

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