External Hard drive and .avi files ?

Ok so I just got an Iomega 500 GB external hard drive. I am using it mostly to transfer a lot of movies from my Mac hard drive. Most of these movies are .avi, and I've just recently noticed that when I connect the external hard drive to my computer or another computer and open these movies.. the quality is significantly lower. Way worse than the original copies on my mac hard drive.
Is there a way to copy or transfer my movie files to the external hard drive while retaining its original quality?

Hi,
If you are able to successfully transfer your .avi files from your laptop to your external HD, there is no way to you should loss in quality. When you observe the loss in quality, you are reading your .avi files from your external HD!?
You might observe some lag due to the transfer of data from your external to your software on your Mac that reads the .avi files, but if not, I really can't see where that loss in quality comes from. I've been reading .avi files for years from my external hard drive and I've never seen loss in quality or lagging...
May I recommend you observe which programs use most of the RAM/CPU while you do so in Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor. Maybe not having enough available RAM is the culprit. If not, you should bring back your external HD and trade it with another to see.

Similar Messages

External Hard drive and dmg files not mounting

External Hard drive and dmg files suddenly not mounting. Im running Mavericks on 27" iMac. Anyone have a fix or has anyone else suddenly had this problem? There was a Mavericks update a few weeks ago, but things were fine until today. This is weird. Ive checked in disk utility and can see one of my two external HD's, the one that I back up. But not even this will mount. Ive tried repairing HD thinking it was damaged but now see that all my ext hd's suddenly dont mount. Ive tried several mac restarts.

Solved the problem. My external HD is a WD (My Book Studio). I needed to install updated driver manager and this fixed it:
http://support.wd.com/product/download.asp?groupid=114&sid=62&lang=en
If you have a WD external HD goto the above link and search for your model and a list of updates will be shown, Yay!!

Can I connect an externa hard drive and access files from 2 or more computers wirelessly?

Is there a way to connect an external hard drive to my linksys modem and access the files wirelessly by 2 or more computers?
I have a wireless G wrt54G modem working on windows XP a desktop and laptop on my home system. I have a WD “my book” external hard drive with a usb interface. My modem does not have a USB interface.
At work I also have 4 laptops using XP and vista and looking to have them all access an external hard drive and printers. I have not selected a hard drive for the work system.
If yes can I add 2 or more printers and print form all connected computers?
If yes, is it possible to access the files of the external hard drive (home system) via the internet?
Thanks in advance for all your help

First, your WRT54G is a router, not a modem. Different function.
Yes, you can "connect an external hard drive... and access the files wirelessly by 2 or more computers," just not that external hard drive. You need one that supports network attachment, with an ethernet connection.
And you can print to printers from various computer, again if the printers are made to support that.
The answer to your last question is maybe. Oh, it's definitely possible, but may require learning about static IP addresses, dynamic DNS, firewalls, port forwarding, file sharing...

External hard drive and viewing files

I have recently upgraded to a 15 inch 2014 Macbook Pro (OS X Yosmite Version 10.10) and imported all my old iMovie files from time machine without any major issues. I'm now running iMovie 10.0.6 and I have since had to move them to a external hard drive and want to delete them off my computers hard drive to free up space, but my problem is this......the files appear under the external drive in iMovie, but under Finder I can't physically see the actual files on the hard drive. Just a film strip icon with what I named the external drive and some old files. Anyone else had this problem or any suggestions?

IIn iMovie 10.0.6 all Events And projects are saved in one iMovie file!!!!! So no chance to see the created events and projects in old filed and folder structure which is a big **** regarding backups as the one file can be TB big although only a small piece in it has changed.

How do I find my external hard drive and move files?

Im totally a non tech person so please bear with me. I have had my imac for several years. I started getting a message every time I went to do anything saying that I didnt have the space available to do whatever I was trying to do. I finally bought a 2tb external hard drive. It didnt come with instructions or anything so all I did was plug it in. The computer seemed to recognize it and something having to do with timemachine came up and I just clicked yes and it did its thing for about 2 hours and it was done. I didnt get the message about the available space again so I assumed that corrected it. Well today when I went to update my software its telling me I dont have the space available for the update. I have no idea what is going on. I dont even see an icon on my desktop for the hard drive, just timemachine. What am I doing wrong?

AS you drag files to an external drive, a little Plus sign + will appear to indicate the files will be copied.
You need to delete some files ASAP. Best to have greater than 2gig of free space. Many posters to these forums state that you need much more free space: 5 gig to 10 gig or 10 percent of you hd size.
(0)
Be careful when deleting files. A lot of people have trashed their system when deleting things. Place things in trash. Reboot & run your applications. Empty trash.
Go after large files that you have created & know what they are. Do not delete small files that are in a folder you do not know what the folder is for. Anything that is less than a megabyte is a small file these days.
(1)
Run
OmniDiskSweeper
"The simple, fast way to save disk space"
OmniDiskSweeper is now free!
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/download/
This will give you a list of files and folders sorted by size. Go after things you know that are big.
(2)
This will save you a gig of space.
Monolingual is a program for removing unnecessary language resources from Mac OS X,in order to reclaim several hundred megabytes of disk space. It requires at least Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther) and also works on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). It worked for me on 10.4
http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/
A detailed write-up on how to use Monolingual:
http://www.jklstudios.com/misc/monolingual.html
(3)
These pages have some hints on freeing up space:
http://thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html

How to use an external hard drive and copy files to the disk for mac and windows??

please tell me how to copy files to external hard disk and use it for both mac and windows. there is the fat32 formatting bt i dont wanna use formatting because i already have a lot of content on the exteral hard disk. thank you.

It is simplest to have the HDD formatted to noe common to both Mac an PC. ExFAT is one. But to do that will erase all data on the HDD.
If the HDD id formatted NTFS, Mac can read but not write to it. The solution then is to use a third party application such as Paragon or Tuxera which will overcome that obstacle. These applications do have mixed reviews.
Ciao.

I didn't safely eject my external hard-drive and now my files are not showing up on my other computer?

I didn't safely eject my external hard-drive as my imac was in sleep mode and I thought it was shut-down. Now I have turned up to uni and plugged my hard-drive into the uni computers (apple) and the word document I was working on last night (before my computer went to sleep mode, and it may still have been open, I cant remember) is gone.....
I have phoned home and got a family member to try and recover the file. They said they can see it when they open Word under recent documents, however its "ghost" and nothing happens when you click on it.
My question is, when I go home and plug my hard-drive back into my imac, will I be able to recover this word file? or have I lost it forever?

I only saved it to my external hard-drive and saved it at the completion of working on it. However left the document open, went to dinner, and this morning pulled the hard-drive out, whilst the computer was asleep not shut-down and now the file doesn't appear.
I thought when I clicked save then it saved straight away, therefore anything i do after that point (ie a un safe ejection) shouldn't make a difference. Clearly, no matter if you saved the document, if you un-safely eject the hard-drive then the file is lost anyway?

Can i make (for example) 3 partitions on my external Hard Drive, and make different formatations for each, so i can share files of one of them in a pc and mac?

Hello ...
My name is Rui, i'm from Portugal ... (so please be patiente with my english, it can get a bit confusing)
so... first of all ... i have to say ... i'm still a pc user ... i don't have a Mac ... yet ... they are sold out right now in the shops near me ... i am waitting for them to arrive so i can pick up mine ... (i wish in a couple of days i will be entering the Mac world ....) ... i'll be picking the "entery" iMac model, the 21,5'', i5 with 500gb hard disk ... well .. i know it's the cheapest one (i hope it is a good machine tho) ... but it's my entering Mac world too (my only apple products till know were the ipod ...) ... one of my concerns are being the 500gb hard drive ... that for my pc experience is a little bit short ... that makes me a little scared (but paying 300e for the next model to have a 1tb disk, it's not a good option for me right now) ...
so..
I've been reading a lot about iMac's ans OS X so i can get familiar with this all new world ...
and i couldn't get any answer for some of my doubts... so i decided to ask you Mac Users ..
My idea is to have an external HD to store files (and not to fill the 500gb of the iMac) ... and i am wondering if it would be possible to make this ...
- make three partitions on the external Hard Drive and
- the first be formatted in Mac OS extended (journaled) mode
- the second on fat 32 - so i can store and share files with a mac or pc
- third be reserved for Time Machine
i wonder would that be possible... or would make sort of incompabilities ... would it work all well ?
hummm ...
I hope someone can help me with this ...
... if it is a silly question ... sorry ... but please remember, i've never had a Mac computer (i'm waiting for my 1st iMac to be available on store) ... so a lot of things are "flying" in my head right now ...
... and of course .. sorry for my english ... i hope you all understood me ...
thanks (obrigado) a lot for your patience...
Rui from Portugal

Hi! Dwagner, once again ...
I've just got my Mac last friday ... i'm still getting amazed with this new world to me ... eehe .. quite different ... but
... "i can do it, i can do it" eheeh
i'm in that period that a new question appears at almost every mouse click ... lol
so ... can you help me (once again) ..
you said you had your hard drive with this settings...
"You can partition for OSX (extended Journal) - read/write by only OSX or read only by Windows via BootCamp
You can partition for Windows (NTFS) - readable by only Windows
OR - you can format with ex-FAT and this is read/write capable for both operating systems."
how did you formated the partition in NTFS ? ... on the mac? using the "disk utility" ? or did you use another program to do so ...?
i hope i'm not "bugging" you ... this might be a silly question for most of people ... but right now ... it's a major question for me ... ehehe
once again Obrigado (Thank You)
Rui from Portugal

HT1473 Help I just moved my music files to a external hard drive and am using the new crappy version ( i know my opinion) of itunes and cant add the files to my libray it gives me the add file to library option but not the add folder to library option wha

Help I just moved my music files to a external hard drive and am using the new crappy version ( i know my opinion) of itunes and cant add the files to my libray it gives me the add file to library option but not the add folder to library option what am i doing wrong?

In iTunes 11 uncheck the preferences setting in in the iTunes Preferences panel "Advanced > Copy Files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library"

How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet. I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7

How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet. I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7. HP computer intel Dual Core. Thanks for any help!

Hey idw3,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities, and thanks for the question. Follow the instructions on this article to move your iTunes Media folder to an external hard drive:
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Regards,
David

How can I store my music files on an external hard drive and listen to them through iTunes that way?

How can I store my music files on an external hard drive and listen to them through iTunes that way? At the moment they're both on the external hard drive and also stored on the computer but I'm quickly running out of memory on my iBook G4 so I'd like to only keep them on the external hard drive and, if possible, delete them from my computer's hard drive. At the moment, when the hard drive isn't plugged in a lot of the files won't play and I get the exclamation mark next to the particular song in iTunes, but everything plays fine when the hard drive is plugged in.
Thank you.

Sounds like your files are playing from the external drive already. To check go to iTunes - Preferences - Advanced and check the Media Folder Location. Change it to the external drive if you need to.

How to move huge HD video files between external hard drives and defrag ext drive?

I have huge high definition video files on a 2TB external hard drive (and its clone). The external hard drive is maxed out. I would like to move many of the video files to a new 3TB external hard drive (G-drive, and a clone) and leave a sub-group of video files (1+ TB) on the original external hard drive (and its clone).
I am copying files from original external drive ("ext drive A") to new external drive ("ext drive B") via Carbon Copy Cloner (selecting iMovie event by event that I want to transfer). Just a note: I do not know how to partition or make bootable drives, I see suggestions with these steps in them.
My questions:
1.) I assume this transfer of files will create extreme fragmentation on drive A. Should I reformat/re-initialize ext drive A after moving the files I want? If so, how best to do this? Do I use "Erase" within Disk Utilities? Do I need to do anything else before transfering files back onto ext drive A from its clone?
2.) Do I also need to defrag if I reformat ext drive A? Do I defrag instead of or in addition to reformating? If so, how to do this? I've read on these forums so many warnings and heard too many stories of this going awry. Which 3rd party software to use?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions, tips, advice. This whole process makes me SO nervous.

Here is a very good writeup on de-fragging in the OS environment that I borrowed
From Klaus1:
Defragmentation in OS X:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1375 which states:
You probably won't need to optimize at all if you use Mac OS X. Here's why:
Hard disk capacity is generally much greater now than a few years ago. With more free space available, the file system doesn't need to fill up every "nook and cranny." Mac OS Extended formatting (HFS Plus) avoids reusing space from deleted files as much as possible, to avoid prematurely filling small areas of recently-freed space.
Mac OS X 10.2 and later includes delayed allocation for Mac OS X Extended-formatted volumes. This allows a number of small allocations to be combined into a single large allocation in one area of the disk.
Fragmentation was often caused by continually appending data to existing files, especially with resource forks. With faster hard drives and better caching, as well as the new application packaging format, many applications simply rewrite the entire file each time. Mac OS X 10.3 onwards can also automatically defragment such slow-growing files. This process is sometimes known as "Hot-File-Adaptive-Clustering."
Aggressive read-ahead and write-behind caching means that minor fragmentation has less effect on perceived system performance.
Whilst 'defragging' OS X is rarely necessary, Rod Hagen has produced this excellent analysis of the situation which is worth reading:
Most users, as long as they leave plenty of free space available , and don't work regularly in situations where very large files are written and rewritten, are unlikely to notice the effects of fragmentation on either their files or on the drives free space much.
As the drive fills the situations becomes progressively more significant, however.
Some people will tell you that "OSX defrags your files anyway". This is only partly true. It defrags files that are less than 20 MB in size. It doesn't defrag larger files and it doesn't defrag the free space on the drive. In fact the method it uses to defrag the smaller files actually increases the extent of free space fragmentation. Eventually, in fact, once the largest free space fragments are down to less than 20 MB (not uncommon on a drive that has , say only 10% free space left) it begins to give up trying to defrag altogether. Despite this, the system copes very well without defragging as long as you have plenty of room.
Again, this doesn't matter much when the drive is half empty or better, but it does when it gets fullish, and it does especially when it gets fullish if you are regularly dealing with large files , like video or serious audio stuff.
If you look through this discussion board you will see quite a few complaints from people who find that their drive gets "slow". Often you will see that say that "still have 10 or 20 gigs free" or the like. On modern large drives by this stage they are usually in fact down to the point where the internal defragmentation routines can no longer operate , where their drives are working like navvies to keep up with finding space for any larger files, together with room for "scratch files", virtual memory, directories etc etc etc. Such users are operating in a zone where they put a lot more stress on their drives as a result, often start complaining of increased "heat", etc etc. Most obviously, though, the computer slows down to a speed not much better than that of molasses. Eventually the directories and other related files may collapse altogether and they find themselves with a next to unrecoverable disk problems.
By this time, of course, defragging itself has already become just about impossible. The amount of work required to shift the data into contiguous blocks is immense, puts additional stress on the drive, takes forever, etc etc. The extent of fragmentation of free space at this stage can be simply staggering, and any large files you subsequently write are likely to be divided into many , many tens of thousands of fragments scattered across the drive. Not only this, but things like the "extents files", which record where all the bits are located, will begin to grow astronomically as a result, putting even more pressure on your already stressed drive, and increasing the risk of major failures.
Ultimately this adds up to a situation where you can identify maybe three "phases" of mac life when it comes to the need for defragmentation.
In the "first phase" (with your drive less than half full), it doesn't matter much at all - probably not enough to even make it worth doing.
In the "second phase" (between , say 50% free space and 20% free space remaining) it becomes progressively more useful, but , depending on the use you put your computer to you won't see much difference at the higher levels of free space unless you are serious video buff who needs to keep their drives operating as efficiently and fast as possible - chances are they will be using fast external drives over FW800 or eSata to compliment their internal HD anyway.
At the lower end though (when boot drives get down around the 20% mark on , say, a 250 or 500 Gig drive) I certainly begin to see an impact on performance and stability when working with large image files, mapping software, and the like, especially those which rely on the use of their own "scratch" files, and especially in situations where I am using multiple applications simultaneously, if I haven't defragmented the drive for a while. For me, defragmenting (I use iDefrag too - it is the only third party app I trust for this after seeing people with problems using TechToolPro and Drive Genius for such things) gives a substantial performance boost in this sort of situation and improves operational stability. I usually try to get in first these days and defrag more regularly (about once a month) when the drive is down to 30% free space or lower.
Between 20% and 10% free space is a bit of a "doubtful region". Most people will still be able to defrag successfully in this sort of area, though the time taken and the risks associated increase as the free space declines. My own advice to people in this sort of area is that they start choosing their new , bigger HD, because they obviously are going to need one very soon, and try to "clear the decks" so that they maintain that 20% free buffer until they do. Defragging regularly (perhaps even once a fortnight) will actually benefit them substantially during this "phase", but maybe doing so will lull them into a false sense of security and keep them from seriously recognising that they need to be moving to a bigger HD!
Once they are down to that last ten per cent of free space, though, they are treading on glass. Free space fragmentation at least will already be a serious issue on their computers but if they try to defrag with a utility without first making substantially more space available then they may find it runs into problems or is so slow that they give up half way through and do the damage themselves, especially if they are using one of the less "forgiving" utilities!
In this case I think the best way to proceed is to clone the internal drive to a larger external with SuperDuper, replace the internal drive with a larger one and then clone back to it. No-one down to the last ten percent of their drive really has enough room to move. Defragging it will certainly speed it up, and may even save them from major problems briefly, but we all know that before too long they are going to be in the same situation again. Better to deal with the matter properly and replace the drive with something more akin to their real needs once this point is reached. Heck, big HDs are as cheap as chips these days! It is mad to struggle on with sluggish performance, instability, and the possible risk of losing the lot, in such a situation.

I opened my iPhoto library today which was stored on an external hard drive and several of my videos now will not play. The weird thing is that each file shows a duration of 1 second and when I open them it just shows one frame. What the

I opened my iPhoto library today which was stored on an external hard drive and several of my videos now will not play at all. The weird thing is that each file shows a duration of 1 second and when I open them it just shows one frame. What the !&%$#@ Where did my original video files go?

Sounds like a good plan, you can never be to safe and having a second External HD is safer than one.
The only thing that I would do different, is setup the 3T as my TimeMachine Backup and then erase and move my Photos, Videos and perhaps even iTunes Media to the 1T. That way you will have room to backup both the Internal Hard Drive and the 1T External Hard Drive to the 3T using TimeMachine.
Take your time, study and use the > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions if you get stuck or aren't sure how to make the move.
Also see > iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location
iMovie ’08: Storing or moving your video library to an external hard disk
and > iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder

My hard disk is damaged and i have no external hard drive, and i was wondering, if i sent my computer to Apple, would they back up my files for me before repairing it?

My hard disk has been damaged for about 4 months now. When I ran the disk repair under disk utility, it told me to back my files and send it in for repairs. My problem is that I had a external hard drive, but I lost it, so I obviously can't back up my files. Also I tried using other external hard drives and that didn't work, pretty sure it was because they were not formatted for a mac. So my question is that if I send my computer to Apple, for repair, that would they back up my files there before repairing my computer. It could be a dumb question but at least I asked. Also my mouse pad no longer works. The "clickability" of it stopped about 3 months or so after getting the computer and just around last Christmas the mouse would not click anymore at all, it would move if one put there fingers on the mousepad but it would not "touch click" anymore. So yeah, help!
And the OS X was still a snow leopard, not sure the number of the OS.

Can't you just get another external drive, format it for Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and backup some if not all of your files? Apple's not in the data recovery business. You should have maintained a backup and now it might be too late. Your best bet would probably be just to call it a loss and buy both an internal, to put in your machine, and an external, for backup purposes. You can boot from your installer disc, format the 'new' internal and begin restoring your apps at least.
I'll never understand why some people don't have backups. Drives fail. It's best to have redundant backups so that all three or four drives don't all fail at once.
Sheesh - I know that I'm not helping your problem but maybe now you've learned your lesson and others will as well.
Clinton

I have been transfering info to an external hard drive and when I try and trash contents off my computor i get the message it will not continue with the message SUID file syst/library/coreS has been modified and will not be repaired. Hence I cannot free u

I have been transfering photos and movies to an external hard drive and when I try and secure trash contents off my computor i get the message it will not continue In utilities the message is: SUID file syst/library/coreS has been modified and will not be repaired. Hence I cannot free up space on my computor. What can i do?

Do not worry. It is probably a permission you should ignore, but you should check that the permission appears in this site > http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

External Hard drive and .avi files ?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for