External drive with two computers?

Before long, I'll have to get an external firewire hard drive for my iMac. I think it's going to be a Maxtor 1 Touch III 1tb Firewire 400. My question today is...if I get a laptop at some point, MacBook or MacBook Pro, will I be able to use the external drive with that as well?

Yes mate you can use it on any computer you want as long as it has a firewire 400 connection.

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Using one external drive with two computers

I have been trying to figure this one out but I seem to be stuck. I have a desktop PC running XP and a notebook running Vista.
I am using Lightroom 2 on both machines. I would like to move the external USB harddrive from machine to machine and use the same catalog stored on the external drive. I am having a little problem with this because the two machine assign a different drive letter to the USB drive when I attach it. Has anybody tried doing this?
Regards
Mike

With the drive hooked up, in Windows Control Panel go to Computer management. There you can assign a drive letter to the external drive. Use one at the other end of the alphabet (PQRST etc) so you don't clash with inbuilt drives etc.
I do exactly this and have no problems. I also have left my backups going to my C drive so the backup is on a different drive to the working drive.
You can also just hold down the shift key on booting LR and manually select the correct catalogue or you can double click on the catalogue and LR will open it.
Gordon

Library on external drive with two computers and a backup...

Hi there,
I'm a video editor (and Adobe Cloud user) and I'm about to start using Lightroom for my photographs.
I don't want to have my photos in the same place as my other projects just to keep everything sorted.
My question's are:
1. Can I put everything (photos and catalog) on an external hard drive?
This shouldn't be a problem I think.
2. Can I use this one hard drive and switch between my desktop and laptop? Both have the latest version of Lightroom.
3. Can I use CarbonCopyCloner to backup everything to a second hard drive in case hard drive 1 fails?
And if hard drive 1 crashes continue working on hard drive 2 without any problems?
Thanks a lot

Yes, yes and yes.
If tragedy strikes and drive 1 fails and drive 2 is put in its place, if drive 2 is identified with a different letter (Windows) or name (Mac), Lightroom will need to be redirected to the new location for the catalog and photos, but this is easily done. Same thing could apply when switching the external from desktop to laptop if the drive letter/name differs between the two machines, but they can be set to always use the same letter to identify the drive.
See this: Catalog getting too big in MyPictures/C Drive, What to do?!

Using an external drive with two different computers

(Very new to this) I have a laptop (windows vista) and a desktop (windows xp)and an external drive. I can download songs from cds usings both computers to my itunes library on the external drive. However I cannot access the songs I downloaded using the laptop while on the desktop and visa-versa. I thought that by downloading songs to the external drive I would be able to access them regardless of what component I use. Please help.

You'd have to use the same exact iTunes library file.itl for each PC.
Put the itl file on the external drive, and make sure the exHD is always seen by the operating system before starting iTunes.Also make sure it is always the same drive letter on both Vista and XP.
Then always use the library file on the exHD.
If the exHD isn't plugged in, iTunes will revert to the library fileon the PC's C: drive.
Some background articles:
ITL file: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93732
multiple libraries: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589?viewlocale=en_US
Message was edited by: Katrina S.

Using the same external hard drive with two computers

I recently started sharing an external hard drive with my roommate because I was running out of room on my computer. I have had no problems until he added a new cd to the external drive. When I plugged in the drive to add it to my ipod, it didn't show up in itunes (or on the external drive) but it is there when he plugs the same drive into his computer.
Did I set up something wrong? Do I need to synch something whenever I plug the drive in after he adds something? I have searched around anc can't find an answer. Any help is appreciated!! Thanks.

As Kappy says, Time Machine will put both sets of backups in the same Backups.backupdb folder. That may not be a good idea for the future; your best bet may be to partition the drive.
See #4 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Can I use Time Capsule to serve as an external drive with two different iMacs?

I want to be able to set up Time Capsule to serve as a backup drive for my iMac, as well as my wife's iMac.
So that we don't have to use two seperate back-up drives on each computer.
Is this possible?

The following quote is from: https://www.apple.com/airport-time-capsule/
Have multiple Mac computers in your home or office? AirPort Time Capsule can back up and store files for each Mac on your wireless network. No longer do you have to attach an external drive to each Mac every time you want to back up. AirPort Time Capsule spares you the work. Your computers are always backed up — automatically and wirelessly.

HT1386 I bought a new computer and I cannot transfer my library to this new one. The message says that I'm not allowed to sync with two computers??? How can I delete the previous from my account???

I bought a new computer and I cannot transfer my library to this new one. The message says that I'm not allowed to sync with two computers??? How can I delete the previous one from my account???

You cannot transfer from the iPhone to the computer.
You must move the contents of your old computer to the new one directly.
Use an external hard drive perhaps or restore your old computer backup to your new computer.
The iPhone is not the source of your data, that is the computer, the iPhone is only a slave device to iTunes.

Using an external drive with shared files (iPhoto, iTunes), attached to a Time Capsule, can the contents of the external drive be backed-up to the internal Time Capsule drive? Perhaps a RAID1 mirror to a partition?

Using an external drive with shared files (iPhoto, iTunes), attached to a Time Capsule, can the contents of the external drive be backed-up to the internal Time Capsule drive? Perhaps a RAID1 mirror to a partitioned Time Capsule? I understand that the Time Machine (software) cannot backup a networked drive (the external) and that Time Capsule (the router/wireless hard drive) does not have its own backup software... so it won't backup the connected drive. What I would like is an alternate solution for having an automated backup of a networked drive. A 2TB Time Capsule has more than enough space for Time Machine backups of my family of Macbooks, so I had hoped to mirror a 500GB external drive (with shared media files) to a portion of the Time Capsule internal hard drive. I assume this would require a partition of the Time Capsule drive. If not, would the sparse file from the various computers being backed up need to be copied to the external drive as part of the RAID1 setup? This seems like overkill for the Time Machine backup, but it would cover the media files.

The complexity with this idea is the software has to run from a Mac computer on your network.. so you need a Mac turned on, probably most of the day.
It isn't possible to partition the TC although you can create a image area.
The software would have to copy the material, that means all files to be copied, go from USB drive, back to the Mac, then back to the TC, and written to the drive. In other words you have just added Network congestion, although a proper incremental backup type software will not actually use a lot of capacity.
Finally it will be slow.. network drives are slower than internal drives. Well USB connected drive is much slower than the same drive connected directly to the computer.. and if the drive is connected directly to a computer it can be shared with the network.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4577/airport-extreme-5th-gen-and-time-capsule-4th- gen-review-faster-wifi-/4
Read carefully the speed of the USB drive plugged into the TC.

Re: Leone's post May 2014 about how to best use an external drive with Aperture

I am trying to find Leone who had a great post May 2014 to Diane. I posted tho same message as a 'Reply' to the Leone/Diane posts but then was worried it would not show up since that was some time ago so I decided I should post it as new. Apologies if it comes through twice. I am having trouble as indicated below:
I found this response to the question about Aperture and external hard drives from last May. I bought a WD My Book 4TB and need to back up photos I have in Aperture (many!) to free up space. I am a photographer and need to be able to plug the external drive in as needed, pull a photo out from the WD and back into Aperture to work on it if needed.
I read your directions to Diane and have the external drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I read the two ways you suggest to move part or all of my library to an external drive and still be able to use it in Aperture with all the metadata saved, as I need to continue to work with the images. I am not completely clear about the advantage of the 'referenced' method but decided to go with the Split Library because it sounded like the Referenced method would still keep originals (and take space) in Aperture. I'm not sure about this, but that was what I chose.
I have backed up my computer, formatted the drive then went to Aperture to begin. I do the 'Export' and it shows the external drive it will go to but when I click 'OK', it says "EXPORT LIBRARY FAILED - Library could not be create because the file system of the destination volume is not supported." I doubled checked to be sure the drive was Journaled which it was. I did call WD and talk to them but they told me this was outside their area.
Also, in Aperture, I have my photos in Projects by yymmdd. Is it possible to transfer Projects into the ext. drive without having to break them out of the Projects?
Any direction anyone might give would be greatly appreciated, Sandy

Hi Sandy,
I suggest taking a week or two to get to know Aperture better before proceeding. Aperture can do many things, and can do what you want. It's important to be specific about what you want, however. From what you've said, it appears that you don't yet know.
bybeeler wrote:
[1] I found this response to the question about Aperture and external hard drives from last May. I bought a WD My Book 4TB and need to back up photos I have in Aperture (many!) to free up space.
[2] I am a photographer and need to be able to plug the external drive in as needed, pull a photo out from the WD and back into Aperture to work on it if needed.
[1] A back-up is a copy of digital files stores on a separate device. A back-up is recommended because drives fail, and humans make mistakes. A back-up is not used to free up storage space.
[2] Aperture can be set up in many equally-usable ways. The program files reside (almost always) on your system drive. The data files can be anywhere you want them, as long as they are on locally-mounted drive(s). The main data file is your Library. The best place for it is on the drive that has the fastest throughput to your logic board. This is, in nearly 100% of machines, the system drive. But Aperture functions well with Libraries of secondary drives — internal or external — with sufficient throughput. USB-3 and Thunderbolt I (& II) provide sufficient throughput for using an Aperture Library on a secondary drive.
Nearly all photographers will fill whatever storage space is available (making data is what photographers do). The question is: what do you do when your Library no longer fits on your system drive? (And remember, you should leave at least 10% (I recommend 20% for heavy users of Aperture) of your system drive free.) The answer depends, primarily, on whether your computer is portable or fixed in location.
If fixed, just buy a more-than-large-enough secondary drive of USB-3 or faster throughput, mount it permanently, and move (using Finder) your Library to it.
If your computer is portable (and you can't increase the on-board storage), you have to select the best from several confusing alternatives:
• Put your Library on an external drive with throughput at least as fast as USB-3
— Pros: Easy to maintain and back-up.
— Cons: Must have drive with you in order to use your Library.
• Leave your Library on your system drive, but relocate your Images' Originals to an external drive.
— Pros: You can work on your Library without having the external drive available.
— Cons: You can't export (except Previews), Print, or make adjustments until your external drive is mounted. Significantly more difficult to administer, especially importing and backing-up.
• Leave your Library and and _some_ of your Images' Originals on your system drive, and relocate most of your Image's Originals to an external drive.
— Pros: You can do any work on those Images whose Originals are stored in the Library regardless of where the external drive is.
— Cons: Yet another level more difficult to administer.
If you are comfortable with the administrative overhead, the third set-up will be the most rewarding. Keep all _current_ Images Originals inside your Library, and routinely relocate the Originals of Images no longer current to the external drive.
In no case is it recommended that you at any time remove from your Library an Image (not the Original — the Image in Aperture) that you expect to ever use again.
HTH,
—Kirby.

My 2007 Macbook pro Intel Core 2 Duo   Processor Speed 2.33 GHz has power issues with one or some of my USB powered devices. Last night I could not back up my Lacie external drives with software SuperDuper, hard drive copier. I also had a message that Tim

My 2007 Macbook pro Intel Core 2 Duo   Processor Speed 2.33 GHz has power issues with one or some of my USB powered devices. Last night I could not back up my Lacie external drives with software SuperDuper, hard drive copier. I also had a message that Time machine failed. I have two powered 12V USB
routers that are plugged into a 550VA CyberPower surge protector. I often receive these insufficient USB power for devices messages a dozen times even when I do not have devices like camera, Ipad, Ipod, and Tascam digital audio recorder plugged in. Is there a way to troubleshoot these USB routers or should I consider that one of the routers may be defective and replace them?
David

My 2007 Macbook pro Intel Core 2 Duo   Processor Speed 2.33 GHz has power issues with one or some of my USB powered devices. Last night I could not back up my Lacie external drives with software SuperDuper, hard drive copier. I also had a message that Time machine failed. I have two powered 12V USB
routers that are plugged into a 550VA CyberPower surge protector. I often receive these insufficient USB power for devices messages a dozen times even when I do not have devices like camera, Ipad, Ipod, and Tascam digital audio recorder plugged in. Is there a way to troubleshoot these USB routers or should I consider that one of the routers may be defective and replace them?
David

Using AirPort Time Capsule as an external drive with access to files by guest account

Is it possible to use my AirPort Time Capsule as an external drive with access to files by a guest account?
I would like to store a large number of folders containg photographs on my AirPort Time Capsule and allow anyone with a password to access the photographs - at the time of viewing the Time Capsule would be connected to the internet but I wouldn't want users to actually access anything other than the files on the Time Capsule - is this possible? if so any help in configuring it would be really helpful.

No it is not possible.. Guest is just that.. a guest that is allowed permission to access the internet but none of the local files.
To give a person access to the TC they must have password to access your normal network..
From there it is up to you how you do this.. people cannot actually access files on your computers unless you give them share and password permissions for that.. you can even setup accounts on the TC although I recommend against it.. if you want shared photos anyway. All security on a TC is illusion.. merely pressing the reset and it is all blown away.. so if you are concerned about security don't put stuff on the TC people should not access.. or like your TM backups ensure they are encrypted.
A person can then access you TC and the photos.. but what else on the network??

I got a new computer and now iTunes is telling me it can't sync with two computers

I got a new computer and now iTunes is telling me it can't sync with two computers, it's telling me it will erase what's on my iPad and re-sync. Will I lose my iPad data that's on it?

No - not at all. Look at that one app that I gave you the link for. That is supposed to transfer all of the iPad content to the new computer. I have no idea how much it costs, but it's worth a look. There are other out there as well. Google "apps to transfer iPad content to computer" or something to that effect. These apps claim to transfer everything.
Several things to remember - you can still transfer all of the iTunesicon tent that you purchased by using the Transfer Purchases option in iTunes. Just remember to turn off auto syncing before you do it. You will also have to authorize your new computer to transfer the purchase if you haven't done so already. From the iTunes menu on your computer go to Store> Authorize this computer.
Plus any apps or music that you have bought can be downloaded again at no charge with the cloud feature in the latest iPad iOS.
EDIT - I see that you did transfer the purchases. Look at one of those apps that I described and they should be able to get you set up. You should also invest in an external hardrive for backing up all of your computer content ... don't want this to happen again!
Message was edited by: Demo

Using iPhone with two computers

Home PC - MacBook Pro
Work PC - Windows
both running iTunes 7.7
My music is on my home Mac and I manually create playlists, add music etc.
With my 3G Nano, I can connect and listen to songs on my iPod from my work PC. I can't seem to do this with my iPhone - my PC sees the iPhone but all of the music is greyed out and cannot be selected.
Is it a limitation of the iPhone that I cannot use it with two computers in this way, or is it a configuration issue?
I would prefer not to have to buy a set of external speakers just to use my iPhone to play music at work.
thanks
Shane

Actually, there are several articles on the web about the fact that you CAN
synch the itunes with two computers. Music, Video, and Ringtones can be done from one computer, and Mail, Contacts, etc. can be done from a second computer.
Just do a Yahoo search on "synching iPhone with two computers."
If you are trying to do music from two computers, you are right, that will not work. There is a program, which I think the Yahoo search above will also uncover that allows you to do a "swap," where you can have the songs from one computer show up on the iPhone, and when you swap, the songs from the other computer show up. I am not sure if this utility survived the upgrage to version 2.0 of the softweare.
cheers,
Ray

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How do I format an external drive with mountain lion?

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select the external drive in the left pane
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External drive with two computers?

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