External hard drive and video editing

Does an external hard drive allow me to download large mp4 video files directly to it so I may edit them?

Hi kellyfromfreeport,
This can be done by locating your iMovie Library on the external hard drive. Your iMovie Library is where all iMovie data (imported clips and video, as well as projects) are stored.
Move your iMovie for Mac (2014) library
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203049
All my best,
Allen

Similar Messages

What format is best for an external hard drive for video editing on a mac?

What's the best format for an external hard drive for video editing to be use with a mac only? I need to format my new hard drive and want to be sure I choose the right format.

I concur with Kappy. His suggestion is correct.
Allan

What is the best External Hard Drive for video edition?

Hi guys, I'm looking for a good firewire external hard drive for video edition.
I have 2 HD already but the bigest is a Seagate and is a trouble cause this one have an auto sleep system that is impossible to put out and when I'm printing to tape this one fall to sleep and the video that I'm transfering get a delay horrible!!
I'm looking for a 1 tb or 2 tb external HD.
Can you recomend me something??
thanks a lot!

Gufa wrote:
Thanks Jouu, great prices but I need to know if those discs doesnt have the autosleep function!
Thanks
That was why I mentioned the 24/7 live Chat support, they (should) know the products they sell.
8^)
Joe

Need advice on purchasing an external hard drive for video editing

Hi,
I looking for advice on which external hard drive to get. The main purpose for the hard drive will be storing video files on for use with Final Cut Pro. I have the 12 inch powerbook G4 so I plan to use the FireWire (400) port to connect the drive. I'm interested in getting comment from others who use their external hard drives for video editing.
Thanks!

Firstly your decision to use FireWire is a good one, as not only will it free up the USB it performs much better on sustained transfers.
That said you're still limited by the FireWire interface, so opt for a drive with a big cache (16MB would be good) and fast spindle speed (7200rpm+).
Some of the newer enclosures are compatible with SATA drives. While these are easier to install and theoretically will perform better, I'm not sure that the performance would justify the extra cost.
Matt

External hard drive for video edition

Please, anybody can recomend me an external hard disk for video edition in high definition with final cut pro x?
I have an imac with thunderbolt, firewire 800 and usb conections.
Is firewire 800 enough to video edition, not only for storage the images?, thank you very much.

If you're looking for a dependable Firewire 800 External HD check out the OWC Mercury Elite Pro
I'm not familiar enough with RAID Externals, but I know a lot of video production pros use them. In that case check out the
OWC Performance RAID O
OWC also has Thunderbolt Drives

External hard drive for video editing

I am looking for a reliable and fast external hard drive, which I can store my projects in and work off of. I use Final Cut Pro. PowerBook G4 17"
I don't know if my mac has the eSATA or FW 800.
Here are what I’ve been looking at so far:
500GB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 'Quad Interface' 7200RPM 16MB Cache Solution with eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB2. Intech HD Speedtools, Prosoft Data Backup, and connecting cables for eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB2 Included. 2 year OWC Solution Warranty. (OWCMEAQ7500GB16) $217.99
1.0TB OWC Mercury Elite-AL PRO 800 RAID Dual SATA Drive 7200RPM FireWire 800/400+USB2.0 Oxford 924 Storage Solution w/32MB Data Buffer(16MB per HD). All Cables Included, Prosoft Data Backup 3, NovaBACKUP, and Intech Speed Tools Included. 2yr Warranty. (OWCME8SRS10TB32) $359.99
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEAQ7500GB16/
G-Tech G-DRIVE 500GB FW400/USB 2.0 Hard Drive $249.95
Two year Warranty with USB 2.0 cable and Manual on CD-ROM
Should I get the ones including the eSATA? Would this help with the rendering or playback issues? (Considering I might have to get a eSATA-to-SATA bracket/cable-adapter, since I can’t see any eSATA on my laptop.)
The OWCs are cheaper than G-Technology and offer backup software. what would I lose if I go with OWC? or if u have better suggestions?
Is there any auto back up program for mac?
I am also having difficulty rendering my files specially the ones with more than 2 layers of images. I thought it might have been because of the USB connection. Beside upgrading the connection with the new hard drive is there any other way to enhance the working quality? or do I need any thing else?
This is what I have on my PowerBook:
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.2)
CPU Speed: 1.67 GHz
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
I included a lot of Qs but Your answers to them is truly appreciated.

Any of the drives you mentioned would be fine but since your 17" PB has a FW800 port, I'd go for drives that support FW800. G-Tech also has them, but as you said they are higher priced.
The ProSoft backup software that comes with the OWC drives is very nice but it really provides more convenience than anything else. You can always backup your files manually without any special software (using the Finder to copy files/folders from one drive to another ... or you can even set up Automator actions to do backups). Anyway, the ProSoft backup software is only ~$40, so you're not out much if you have to buy it separately.
There are other good backup programs out there, SuperDuper and Retrospect come to mind; Lacie includes SilverKeeper and/or Retrospect Express with their drives. And Leopard (OSX 10.5) includes Time Machine, which is an auto backup capability. Requires its own hard drive for backup, by the way.
As for eSATA, you would have to get an eSATA card for the PC Card/Cardbus slot in your PB. eSATA is even faster than FW800 but I think in the case of a G4 PB it's probably overkill.
You mentioned problems rendering files ... if you are currently using a USB external hard drive, that is most certainly the problem. USB 2.0 can't keep up with the demands of video and your PB only has the slower USB 1.1.

Using an External Hard Drive for iMovie Editing and Burning to DVD

Between iPhoto, iTunes and other applications I am rapidly running out of hard drive space on my 2003 iMac. Because of this, I recently purchased a Lacie 250 GB Firewire external hard drive and was hoping to use it for iMovie editing and buring of DVDs, because of the large amount of disk drive space video eats up. Is it it possible to "load" iMovie and iDVD to the external drive and edit/burn videos on that drive? If not, is there some other way to use that external drive in this process? Thanks in advance for any assistance that can be provided.

Scooper
see my reply to Trollus, just posted:
That's how I do all my stuff now - via external lacie 'brick' drive. The only trick is when you begin your iMovie project, hit save immediately after creating the new project, and save the project file in an appropriately named folder on the external hard drive (don't call it 'Movies' as it'll be confused with your Powerbook's movies folder). Then as you import all your clips from your movie camera, they will be written to the external drive, rather than you G4's drive. Very handy.
I do all my iMovie and iDVD stuff via the external Lacie drive - the FireWire 400 interface is quick enough (ie never had skipped clips, etc). I also save all iDVD finished projects as disc images on the external drive and burn DVDs from those at slow speed via Disc Utility. No coasters...:-)
Greetings from Canberra
Dave
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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

I have a disconnect between my external hard drive and lightroom 5.6. The recommended steps do not connect 11000 photos on the hard drive. How can I connect? I am concerned I have lost my edits in lightroom.

I have a disconnect between my external hard drive and lightroom 5.6. The recommended steps do not connect 11000 photos on the hard drive. How can I connect? I am concerned I have lost my edits in lightroom.

after some sorting out your article, I clicked on a question mark with the message find the missing folder. This brought me to a page where I could choose a folder by year and click on it. The question marks disappeared and the photos were available. In some cases I had to click on the year folder for each subfolder by date.
The find missing folders message did not bring me to the finder window in which I could click on folders in the hard drive itself. I appreciate your help big time!!

I had a windows laptop, and I save files like photos, documents, videos and other things on an external hard drive, and now I want to move those files to the Mac book Pro, and then move those files again to another external hard drive 1T. My question is:

I had a windows laptop, and I save files like photos,documents, videos and other things on an external hard drive, and now I want tomove those files to the Mac book Pro, and then move those files again toanother external hard drive 1T. My question is: Is it possible? Doing this willnot affect the files that I had in windows? No information is lost? or how cani do it?

Connect the external drive to your Mac and drag the files from it to your Mac's internal drive. Then dismount and disconnect the external drive, connect the 1TB external drive, and drag the files from the internal drive onto the external. Nothing will have been deleted from any of the drives up to this point; the files will only have been copied. Verify that the files are readable. There's no reason they shouldn't be; this is just a precaution.
Now if you wish to delete the files from any of the drives, drag them to the Trash, and Empty the Trash while the drive from which they came is still connected. If you disconnect the drive before emptying the Trash, the files you were trying to remove from it won't be deleted. They'll remain in the Trash and continue to take up space on the drive.
Note that if your external drives are in NTFS format, you won't be able to write anything to them or delete anything from them, though you will be able to read and copy the files they contain. The NTFS disk format is read-only to the Mac OS, unless you have a third-party NTFS driver installed. To make your drives cross-platform readable and writable, you must reformat them in the FAT32 or ExFAT format.

Daisy chaining external hard drives and a video camera from a single firewire 800 port on my imac

I have only a single firewire 800 port on my imac and want to know if I can daisy chain two external hard drives and my video camera, please? If not is there another solution using USB 2?

Are the external HDs self powered or powered by the FW port? If they are self powered there should not be a problem. If they are port powered they may put a strain on the port's power output but I'n not positive on that.

Editing using a firewire external hard drive and a NTSC television monitor

I have Final Cut Express 2 and use it with a firewire external hard drive and a NTSC television monitor.
I have started to use iMovie with this same set up. I save my iMovie projects to an external hard drive and also have my miniDV deck connected via firewire with the composite outputs going into a 27 inch television so that I can get a better idea of what my colors and title safe framing, etc. look like.
I have had some minor problems with this set up. Like stuttering video, audio tracks playing back when thay are "unchecked" and the "unexpectedly quit" deal.
Thanks in advance!!!
Frank

iM uses a lot of harddrive space on the "start up"/internal disk, even when the project itself is located on some external drive.. make sure, you have at last 10 - 15GB free...
.. and the goo' ol' stutter-problem, in detail discribed by Mastermind Karl Petersen: Stutter in iM5/6, causes and workarounds <<click

Multiple Hard Drives for Video Editing with Premiere Elements 8?

I'm using Premiere Elements 8 for video editing. These are the specs I'm using:
The camcorder I used to shoot the footage is a Sony Handycam with model number HDR-SR12. It's a digital HD video camera recorder that shoots in NTSC 1920x1080i HD recording. The footage was shot with AVC HD 9M (HQ), which records in higher image quality mode. The video camera is connected to my computer through a USB cable.
The computer itself is a Windows 7 desktop computer. The CPU is an HP Pavilion Elite HPE-150f PC with Intel Core i7-860 processor. I imported the video into Premiere by selecting "File" --> "Get Media From" and then choosing the third option from the top.
My import option is NTSC/AVCHD/Full HD 1080i 30 5.1 channel, which matches the specs of the camera I shot the footage with.
Even with the patch 8.0.1 that should be preventing crashing, the program keeps crashing upon startup with one specific video project. Using the exact same video files for that project, I recreated the video, with Elements, and never ran into the problem. Both times, I had the patch installed.
At the moment, I am using only the single internal hard drive for everything (software, OS, video editing, etc.). It is 1 TB in size. However, I am informed that one hard drive is not recommended for video editing, and that I need at least two hard drives, one for OS and one specifically for video editing. I was also informed of FireWire 800 and eSata; however, it does not appear that my computer supports eSata.
Can this problem be resolved if I have an external hard drive and connect it to my computer with FireWire 800 (which the computer supports)? If not, what can be done so this problem doesn't arise in the future?
Thanks for the help.

staring-into-space wrote: My import option is NTSC/AVCHD/Full HD 1080i 30 5.1 channel, which matches the specs of the camera I shot the footage with.
When you import the footage is there a red line across the whole of the timeline?
staring-into-space wrote:
I recreated the video, with Elements, and never ran into the problem.
As you have the recreated project working fine I'd be inclined to put this down as a one-off glitch. If it happens again on a different project then it may be more worrying. You may want to consider using save-as to create multiple versions of your project (note this does NOT duplicate the source clips - so you won't be eating up much extra disk space). You could for example use save-as to create a daily version - ProjectName-Mon, ProjectName-Tue etc....
Cheers,
Neale
Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children

How do I back up my itunes to an external hard drive and restore from same if necessary

How do I back up my entire itunes to an external hard drive and restore from same if necessary.
Thanks

This is where iTunes stores backups for different operating systems: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946
I do not use a Windows machine, have a Windows Vista Dell I rarely startup now. But, from what I remember with Win boxes is, you will have to create on the external hard drive a file system like that one iTunes normally uses, and then in the iTunes preferences or control panel edit the location for the storage to specify the name of the external hard drive, or its letter code, with the name of that file system you created on the exernal drive.
I would also move all of the files from the internal file system to the external since you have now told iTunes that is where they are...before deleting from the internal drive, test iTunes to see that it goes where you want it to go.

External hard drive and video editing

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