External Drives - Best Practice?

So I have a MBP that doubles as our Television. I have the MBP connected to an external display and two external HDD as well as usb hubs for keyboards and mice. This is all on my desk.
Frequently I unplug everything to take the laptop to bed to watch video and less frequently I take the laptop on the road.
My question is about how I'm treating my external devices - specifically my HDD. I have a FW800 cable connecting one drive and I have a second FW400 Device daisy chained to the first. I always unmount all the drives before unplugging the cable. I leave the HDD enclosures running all the time. The drives are for Time Machine and my iTunes library as well as general storage.
Is there any problem with this model? Is the mount / dismount - plug in / unplug routine causing any damage to the equipment?
What do others do in this situation?

Most modern external drives will typically go into a standby mode shortly after they're unmounted or disconnected which will spin down the drive. They'll still use some power, but your drive won't be doing anything so you don't need to worry about wearing it out. I'm a bit anal about stuff. I usually go so far as to unplug my external drives when I'm not using them as the power supply still consumes some juice... but, in your case, as it seems like you probably go back and forth quite a bit... just powering it down would be the best thing. It really doesn't take any extra effort when connecting your MacBook Pro to just switch it back on again.

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Formatting external drive: best practice?

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I want to erase and reformat an external drive used for video editing with my MBP. I do this so rarely I had a couple questions.
First, in Disk Utilities, where the drives are listed, I should choose the size/mfgr.'s line, not the line where my name appears, rt?
Then, I believe 'Mac OS Extended' is the best choice, not 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)', rt?
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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 Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
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Premiere Pro + External Hard Drive Best Practices

For best performance when editing in premiere, is it recommended to keep raw files and project files on seperate drives? Does this make workflow and response time quicker? What are the most efficient and safest options? Thanks

I see this repeated over and over. I have not found it to be true. I have found over and over again that a single dedicated 7200 internal drive for media will work just fine. This is editing RT employing mainly DV, HDV, Cannon XF and Sony XdCam up to 50 Mbps. This includes multicamera projects up to four cameras.
Since 2002 I have set up at least 10 separate Premiere based NLE PCs and have witnessed hundreds of projects across these many systems edited with Premiere 6.0, 6.5, Pro 1.5 Pro 2.0, CS4, CS5x, and CS6. The only time when hard discs became an issue was a misadventure using USB external drives.
I experimented, early in DV editing days, with advising editors to save their graphics, music, and project files on a separate internal media drive. However I could never get a consistent compliance with that, so for file management sake, I began having users keep all scratch disc dialogues checked to "same as project". That way they just needed to be certain to create their project folder on a Media drive, and save their project into that folder.
Things have been smooth with that. I think that over the years I've had enough testing to say with confidence that anyone will be fine with it for general use with codecs up to 50Mbps per stream.
The only place I've found some benefit is in targeting a separate internal drive for exports. This can speed up exports a bit, but I haven't found wild differences.
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     D: internal 7200 rpm Media 1 (Active Premiere Projects)
     G: USB\Firewire External Drives Storage (Inactive premiere projects and offline file storage)
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Again, lots of experience with this set up and no drive performance issues.

External connectivity best practice

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I would like to know what are the best practices to have external users using Excel to connect to SSAS cube. I understand the general concept that a cube user must be in a domain AD andthat same user is a member of a SSAS cube.
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Most modern external drives will typically go into a standby mode shortly after they're unmounted or disconnected which will spin down the drive. They'll still use some power, but your drive won't be doing anything so you don't need to worry about wearing it out. I'm a bit anal about stuff. I usually go so far as to unplug my external drives when I'm not using them as the power supply still consumes some juice... but, in your case, as it seems like you probably go back and forth quite a bit... just powering it down would be the best thing. It really doesn't take any extra effort when connecting your MacBook Pro to just switch it back on again.

Backup to external drive - best method?

Hi -
Just got a backup drive for a mac without Time machine. What is the best way to do a full backup? Can the Mac HD icon be dragged & dropped to the drive to copy everything? Also - is there a way, without Time Machine, to only add new/changed files on subsequent backups?
Thanks!

You can do a drag and drop to copy just her user account home folder. That is just her personal data, so you can back it up that way with no problem. If you do the same thing with the rest of the drive, it would not be worthwhile because you could not restore properly from it. However, if you have at least her user home folder (assuming she stayed organized and kept all of her user data there), TO RESTORE, you would reinstall her system from the Mac OS X installation disc, reinstall her apps from their original sources, run the necessary updates for the OS and apps, then restore her data from the backup.
To back up the complete startup volume, you need to use a cloning utility.
Alternately, you can use Disk Utility to make a disk image of her complete startup volume and save the disk image file to another drive. However, I do no think you can make a disk image of the volume that is currently used for startup (you can try it to see if it works). Therefore, you would need to start up from her Mac OS X installation disc (or an external drive with a bootable system if she has one) and run Disk Utility from there. The disk image file can later be used to restore the original volume using the Disk Utility Restore tab. Make the disk image file the Source and the internal drive volume the Destination.
Another alternative method using Disk Utility is to use that Restore tab to make the duplicate itself. Again, you may need to start up from another system (such as the Mac OS X installation disc) and run Disk Utility from there. On the Restore tab, you can make the Source the volume she wants to back up; and make the Destination the volume to back up to. Check the box that says +Erase Destination+ to make the copy an exact duplicate. Click the Restore button. I'm explaining this using the current version of Disk Utility; I do not remember if the one that came with Jaguar has the same configuration or not.

Back Up OSX Hard Drive - Best Practice?

Hi:
I have usually used Carbon Copy Cloner for backing up my mac hard drives to an external, but would really like some expert opinions on the current best method before proceeding. I have done one backup already using CCC, and would like to keep that backup up-to-date with regular backups. TIA for ny advice.

You need to use Super Duper's Smart Update to keep Super Duper up to date, and Time Machine to keep Time Machine up to date. They are totally separate, and need to be updated separately.
You can, however, use the same external hard drive for both, but each one needs to be in a separate partition, or volume, so that one does not ever overwrite the other. The clone volume should be the same size as the internal drive. The Time Machine volume should be much larger, as it will also contain past information as well as current information.
One think you might find useful is to give each volume a name, such as "Super Duper Clone" and "Time Machine" so that they are clearly different. You could even give each one a different icon:
http://iconfactory.com/home
The icon factory has a lot of free icons you can use. There's even one for The Tardis, the time machine from Dr. Who.
How often you back up will depend on what you do and how often you need to back up. Often when I am working, I connect Time Machine, and it will back up once every hour. However, I can also order it to back up immediately, which I often do if I finish something and don't want to wait until the next scheduled backup. I don't recall if Super Duper has the same ability, as it is not something I use. Generally I do a Super Duper backup whenever I have something new I need to back up. I ALWAYS back up just before downloading or updating software. If something horrible happens with the new software, then it is easy to revert by cloning back onto your hard drive.
This may be more paranoid than is necessary, but I actually have 2 clones on 2 drives. The primary clone is the one I keep up to date. The secondary one I only update prior to installing new software or leaving on a trip. The primary clone is the one I travel with. The secondary clone and the Time Machine stay at home, usually locked up in the safe. If the worst happens, and someone steals my MBP and portable drive, I still have a recent backup of my data safe and sound at home. So far nothing like that has ever happened to me, but I did read not too long ago where someone's MBP was stolen along with 2 external drives which had all his work on them.
You can use two separate drives, or one drive with 2 separate partitions if you want to use both Super Duper and Time Machine. If you decide on separate drives, You could get a portable FireWire Drive for Super Duper and carry it with you, and always have your bootable backup along. For Time Machine, a larger desktop drive might be more appropriate.
Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, do post back.
Good luck!

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Matt,
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Keeping same Events and Projects on 2 external HD - Best Practice

I would like to receive your suggestions on this working flow. (I am also interested to get some confirmation that I am doing the right way).
I use FCPX since few weeks. Coming from iMovie and FCE.
I import videos from external drive "C" on 2 different external drive "A" and "B" with settings to copy the files there.
In this way I hope orignals remain on "C"
I edit using "A" or "B" and the resulting Projects remain on the same drive.
I copy Events and Projects between "A" and "C" to keep them uptodate after some work. I do all copy with FCPX with both drives connected.
Will this workflow let me to keep Events on both drives according the latest editing ? (If I reopen each project on the same drive of its events A with A and B with B).
Then I like to group projects under folders (move not copy) again working only inside FCPX. This removes the project form the Project folder and let me to save a new version of the next editing workflow with the same project name. But if I try to save the same project again it will be renamed with extension (fcp1).
This way will bring me to a serie of projects instead of replace the previous with a new version. I would prefer to limit this to a few versions: any way ?
Last: I like to keep also a copy of projects on the main HD. Only Projects with its Render files without Events.
Will it be possible to use this Projects moving them to one of the 2 HD "A" or "B" and go on ?
Thanks for your time.

Hello Zebber28.
I do exactly as you propose doing in terms of having a 500GB Western Digital elements portable external HD which I simply connect up every three months or so on a top up basis. I don't disconnect the primary external HD while I do this as I don't need to. I simply plug into the port in the keyboard.
Just make sure you properly eject the new HD each time you use it, otherwise it's all pretty basic.
Message was edited by: seventy one

HT202807 I have a MB Air 128gb and a Time Cap.802.11AC. My HD is maxed out because of 30GB of photo storage after migration to 10.3.3 Photos. Please recommend an external drive best for connecting to TC and moving the iPhoto Lib off my HD

I have a 13" mid 2011 MB Air 128gb and a Time Cap.802.11AC. My HD is maxed out because of 30GB of photo storage after migration to 10.10.3 Photos. I have reduced apps and files as much as possible so the only thing left is to move the photos. Please recommend an external drive compatible for connecting to my TC 802.11ac and moving the iPhoto Lib off my HD which will free approx 15 gbs. of space. I don't plan on using it for any other purpose so a small capacity drive will suffice. I know the "optimization" is supposed to adjust for this condition but I don't trust that assertion.I only have 2gb free space remaining.

I don't plan on using it for any other purpose so a small capacity drive will suffice.
If you really only want such a small capacity drive.. what about just buying a 32GB or 64GB USB memory stick.
You should still have a back up to the internal hard disk of the AC TC.
Or just buy a WD Passport.. don't waste your money buying 500GB as it is only a bit more to buy 1TB and a bit more again for 2TB.. For future use if you do buy a USB hard disk buy 2.5" type.. and buy 1TB or if the budget stretches 2TB..

Events only to external drive best option?

Hi, I have read the following below on how to move events to an external drive.
karsten.schluter - iM08 tricks
I want to make room on my macbook internal drive and just wanted to make sure it was safe to just relocate my events only to my external drive and keep my projects on the internal drive.
Thanks,

once i started iMovie I just told all of my videos to be loaded on the External Hard-drive. So it automatically copies everything to my Ex. HD.

Join large external external Tables (best practice ?)

Hi there,
I have three external tables in a master-detail relation: table A (10000000 rows) is master of table B (20000000 rows), Table B is master of table C (100000000 rows). Can you tell my the best way:
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Thank you for that detailed explanation. The PC is not mine. I am dumping a ton of files from an event to a drive to put everything in one place. I'm mirroring that drive to another to give to two different people. I have no idea who will be using the drive, on what computer, or for what purpose. So I'm trying to make it compatible across the board.
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Mac OS X (10.4.9)
Mac OS X (10.4.1)

hi there
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hope this helps

What's 'best-practice' with external hard drives?

Hello folks,
I just got myself a 500GB LaCie d2 'Quadra' hard drive, and it works great - just as I was led to expect. Now I've connected it to my iMac with a FW400 cable. I've a few questions regarding general usage and 'best practice' when using an external hard drive like this:
1. Do I need to disconnect it (pull out the cable from my iMac) every time I Shutdown - and reconnect on Startup? Or can I leave it it and pretty much just forget about it?
2. Can I turn it 'on' and 'off' any number of times (using the on/off switch on the back) when working on the iMac? I might like to switch it off if I'm not using it for an extended period of time while still working on the computer. Is this okay?
3. When I'm not using the drive and the drive switch is 'off', can the drive still remain connected to 'mains' power? Or is it necessary to disconnect it from the 'mains' entirely?
4. I understand it's best to disconnect when 'Repairing Permissions?' Can this be confirmed?
Thanks so much.
Cheers!
Steve.

1. Do I need to disconnect it (pull out the cable from my iMac) every time I Shutdown - and reconnect on Startup? Or can I leave it it and pretty much just forget about it?
What I do is shut down my Mac, leaving it connected to the mains: the external HD, external speakers and other peripherals are all connected to a mains switch and I turn these off. There's no need to disconnect the cable: some disks spin down when the computer is shut down, some don't. It probably wouldn't hurt to leave it spinning anyway, though I prefer to shut it off at the mains. Incidentally I shouldn't disconnect the computer from the mains when you shut down: doing this will run down the PRAM battery and hasten the day it needs replacing, which is expensive.
2. Can I turn it 'on' and 'off' any number of times (using the on/off switch on the back) when working on the iMac? I might like to switch it off if I'm not using it for an extended period of time while still working on the computer. Is this okay?
I shouldn't do this: the most strain on a hard disk is when it is starting up, not when it is running: I should leave it running all the time the Mac is on. If you do switch it off, make sure to unmount it first (drag it to the trash) otherwise you will have all sorts of problems.
3. When I'm not using the drive and the drive switch is 'off', can the drive still remain connected to 'mains' power? Or is it necessary to disconnect it from the 'mains' entirely?
No: I see no problem in leaving it plugged in to the mains: the 'off' switch disconnects it anyway.
4. I understand it's best to disconnect when 'Repairing Permissions?' Can this be confirmed?
I've never heard this, and I can't see that there's any neccesity: the repairing process will be confined to the disk you have nominated to work on in any case.

External Drives - Best Practice?

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