External Hard Drive assistance?

Hard drives is a vicious arena. Everybody makes the best and they all are trash at the same time.
I am an average user and looking to upgrade by external hard drive. I want Firewire 800 and want a small compact 2nd drive with USB2.0 bus - that I can use to transfer iTunes/iPhoto to an older Mac Mini in a different part of the house.
Been looking at G-Drive, LaCie and perhaps Seagate and OWC. I have seen so much good and bad that I have become thoroughly confused and would welcome any and all comments and/or suggestions. Having trouble deciding - have been told to make sure it has encription software for security, but just not sure anymore.
PLEASE HELP!

I usually roll my own. Six or eight Phillips screws and your finished. These are the three I currently have. The last is four years old:
Macally GS350SUAB2 Hi-Speed eSATA/1394A/1394B/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD
w/Seagate 2TB ST32000542AS Barracuda® Green SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive
Macally GS350SUAB Hi-Speed eSATA/1394A/1394B/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD
w/Hitachi 1TB HD31000 IDK/7K Deskstar SATA 7200 RPM 32 MB Cache Internal Hard Drive
Macally GS350SUA Hi-Speed eSATA/1394A/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD
w/Seagate ST3750640AS Barracuda 750 GB SATA 3.0GB/s Internal Hard Drive
BTW, I never use USB 2.0, since it's slower than molasses. I likewise disdain WC's products since they don't provide any support if you want to boot Macs with them and their SmartWare software isn't and it is disastrous for Macs.

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I transferred data from my external hard drive to my restored Mac Book Pro via migration assistant and now my external hard drive in time capsule has red minus signs. How do I get rid of that without getting rid of any of my data?

I used Migration Assistant to transfer my data from my external hard drive via Time Capsule to my restored Mac Book Pro. When I now go into Time Capsule I there are red minus signs in the corner of all the folders that are contained in my back up. How do I get rid of this and access my previous back-ups?

Select the drive and Finder > Get info and at the bottom "ignore permissions on this volume"
You can copy the files, but the ownership on the files still belongs to the other user account, once your done copying, then perform a #6 Reset Users Permissions and that will set all the ownership to that account.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Another method is to copy the entire folder, then change it's permissions.

I'm attempting to transfer files, address book, etc from an external hard drive to my new Mac-mini using migration assistant. The external drive is showing up on my desktop but Migration Assistant is not seeing the drive when searching for devices

I'm attempting to migrate files, address book, maile, etc to my new Mac Mini using an external hard drive and Migration assistant. I followed the instructions on using Migration Assistant to do this but Migration Assistant is not seeing the external drive, which is displayed on my desktop

I've been chasing this problem all afternoon. I had to reformat my internal drive on my MBP and reinstall Mountain Lion Start up assistant wouldn't see my extrnal drive with the Time Machine files on it. After many tries, I skipped the restore there and let the system boot. I could see my external drive from Finder and the files looked OK. I was told to use Migration Assistant and it had the same problem.
I saw a hint on one of these posts that the icon that you see and is label Macintosh HD is actually your backup disk and it is telling you that it has a copy of your internal Macintosh HD. I went ahead and told it to continue and it started to restore my apps, settings, and documents. It's been going for a couple of hours, and is close to being done. I expect to see my old system restored when it is finished.
Wish that Apple would put some type of note that it is seeing the backup. That is most confusing and seems to be a problem for lots of users.
It's been a month or so since your post Did your get it to work?

Mac air with external hard drive - not being found on Finder, Time Machine, Migration Assistant

I have been using an external drive (Imation Apollo) to access only, old files from previous computer (PC) on a new Mac Air. I had not transferred them across to new computer (didn't want to do that) just accessing them from the HD. It had been working fine until recently. Each time the external drive had been connected Time Machine would come up and ask if i wanted to use this drive for back ups, and I always chose 'Decide later'. So, as yetI hadn't as yet configured Time Machine to do back ups.
Recently I noticed that the extrnal HD was no longer showing up on Finder. Slight panic as i have 5 or 6 yrs of work saved on that HD
Further investigations - it's also not showing up either on on Disk Utility, or on Migration Assistant.
I've done the following:
Tried HD in each of different USB ports - made no difference, HD still not showing up
Tested different Hubs in each port with HD attached - no difference HD not showing up
Tried USB flash drives in the USB ports - These are working fine and show up on finder
Tried the HD on other comptuters (a PC though, don't have access to another mac to do this test)- working fine, the HD is showing up and is accessable
Interrogated the Console logs to try to see if the act of attaching the HD creates a log entry - couldn't find anything
Rebooted computer via shut down, power disconnect - no difference
Reset PRAM - no difference still not showing up
Reset SMC - no differnce still not showing up
So I think I have established that all the USB ports are functioning correctly and able to access other external drive devices, using hubs with external powersource is not the issue, identified that the external hard drive is working OK, and it appears that the Mac itself is functioning normally.
What would be the reason the Mac now does not allow this specific external HD to be identified and accessed. The only possible things I can think of are
if I had in fact pressed 'Do not use' when Time Machine asked 'do you want to use this drive for back ups'. Would that mean that the Mac now totally rejects this HD from being a source of accessible files - I hope not!
I also think that my husband may have disconnected the hard drive from my computer to access some stuff and he just yanked it out rather than use the safe eject method. Could this create an issue? The Hard drive works fine on his PC.
Why is my Mac Air now rejecting this HD and what can I do to access my historical files now.
Any assistance anyone can provide would be very greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Anna

I can't answer why it isn't accessing it, but I have a slightly related issue w my back up drive starting to get noisy.
Realizing that redundancy is safety for critical data. I talked to my brother about my situation the other day & he said he has 3 small Western Digital portable HDs that he rotates for backup. He even keeps 1 in the safe deposit box.
I have read for some time that we should have multiple back ups & also have our critical stuff backed up off site. Amazon HD reviews had a woman telling about how she was very backed up on multiple computers & hard drives, but they were robbed or burgeled & all of them were stolen including her thesis that was on the computers.
Hard drives aren't that expensive. I just bought a new Western Digital 1 TB drive for $89.99. I plan to use it to back up the Seagate that is getting noisy & then maybe alternate them.
Also, when I came back to Mac, I moved practially all of my documents to Mac. I think I just dragged & dropped or something. Photos, Office, & pdfs do fine that way. & then you could back them up to a couple of different external drives & remove from your MacBookAir.
Unfortunately I think most of us do not back up until crisis & then it may be too late.
Also use Time Machine. For the 1st time in my computer life, my computer is well backed up--although now realizing the need for redundancy so will start backing up to at least 2 different HDs alternatly.
So, not sure why it isn't working & hopefully you have come up w a solution by now.
I think what I would do in a situation like this, since you can access it on the Windows machine would be to transfer the data to the Windows machine & then transfer it back to a different back up.
I'm looking into backing up what I still have in Windows using a thumb flash drive. I think it should all fit ok now that they have the larger drives & I don't have very much left in Windows format.

Can i use windows migration assistant to transfer files from my windows formatted external hard drive to my mac?

I have a windows formatted external hard drive and a macbook pro. I was wondering if i could use the windows migration assistant to transfer files from my external hard drive to the mac

No.
Just connect the drive to your Mac. The Mac can read most Windows formats (it cannot WRITE Windows New Technology File System (NTFS) formatted drives.

Hi all not sure where original request went but as a new apple user I have external hard drives that are now "read only" and I can't change or save documents. Went to Get Info and this did not help. Can anyone assist with solution, thanks.

I am a new user to apple and have external hard drives from previous computers. I have many documents I can no longer access and change as they say the drives are read only. How do I change the read only to read and write etc for these external drives. I tried Get Info but this did not assist. Thanks.

Hi,
Google is your Friend
10:18 PM Sunday; February 12, 2012
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

How do I use a backup of my previous system in migration assistant from an external hard drive?

I had to redo my system completely because Snow Leopard broke my Parallels and then when I went back to Leopard my entire system got all screwed up. So I archived and reinstalled Leopard. Transferred the entire Previous System file to my external hard drive then erased and installed a fresh install of Leopard then upgraded to Snow Leopard. Now I'm trying to restore my Previous System on my computer and I can get the Macbook Pro to recognize the external hd in Migration Assistant and in Disk Utility it appears I would have to transfer section by section. I'm trying to prevent that. I don't have money to buy Super Duper or anything else at the moment so Migration and Disk U. seem to be my only options unless you know of anything else.

Carbon Copy Cloner or SilverKeeper - CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.

Migration Assistant finds external hard drive but says it has 0 kb in profile

I'm trying to transfer all my stuff from one MacBook to a Macbook Pro. I have been saving Time Machine back ups on an external hard drive for a few years on the original MacBook, running 10.6. I know it has been backing up properly because all of the files are there when I browse the backups folder.
When I go to Migration Assistant on the MacBook Pro and choose back up from Time Machine or other disk, Migration Assistant recognizes the external hard drive, but when I click through, it shows my user profile and says it has 0.0 kb in it. Also says 0.0 kb for Apps and Documents / Files.
If I do Mac to Mac transfer through Wifi, it finds the entire profile and all of the files. That takes too long, though, and I thought the purpose of having my stuff on a hard drive was to make this process really easy.
Appreciate any help anyone can give me about getting this to work right. Thanks.

I did this just yesterday yesterday. I put a new disk into a G4 iMac, installed a fresh copy of Tiger on it and then migrated the user folders across from the old drive that I put in a firewire enclosure. Obviously if you go for an Intel Mac then you will have to be careful with the applications.

Migration assistant does not recognize external hard drive

I just had a new hard drive placed in my computer, and am trying to restore my old data using an external hard drive and migration assistant. However, after I click on transfer from time machine or disk, the external hard drive is not recognized. Help.

Boot into Recovery from the backup drive by holding down the option key at the startup chime. Select Restore from Time Machine. If that doesn't work, install OS X and then follow the prompts to transfer your data from a backup. If that too doesn't work, set up an account and then restore your data in the time-travel interface.

Mac does not transfer data from external hard drive when first set up and isn't listed on migration assistant

I've just had a new hard drive in my MacBook, luckily I had backed up everything on my external hard drive.
I've just got home and my MacBook set up as a new one and asked me if I wanted to transfer my old data from an external device. I clicked this option, and a box appeared with me to choose my device so I plugged it in and nothing. It was not listed so I couldn't continue. I clicked go back to continue without transferring any data and tried to use migration assistant. I plugged in my external HD again and it was recognised on the desktop with me being able to open it and see my old document, folders and iTunes etc.
I went on to migration assistant and that came up with much the same choice as the first time so I chose the option again to transfer information from my "other device" again there was an empty box so I cannot choose my device.
I then thought maybe I would need to install snow leopard again as when I got the computer back it was only running leopard and when I previously backed up my mac it was running snow leopard.
So I've now got in my snow leopard disk and put in my password to install leopard and it's not installing!
I'm very frustrated and now it's too late to call apple!
Any help would be appreciated. I don't want to go back to the store again as its 30 miles away!
Thankyou
Vicki

Thanks for the quick reply, Kappy. I did use Carbon Copy Cloner. When I returned the cloned data to the new hard drive I tried starting the computer and I got the logo and the spinning gear. It did not go any further. I also tried starting in safe mode and it would not go to safe mode. I have other bootable volumes on the external drive that I cloned the data to. When I tried migration assistant it would not list the volume that I cloned from the failed hard drive. I can see the users desk top, documents, pictures from the cloned drive.

Migration Assistant with External Hard Drive

Can the Migration Assistant be used with an external hard drive which has a complete install of OS X on it?
I am finally upgrading my old iMac for a new iMac. I plan on harvesting the old iMac's 60 GB drive and put it in an external enclosure for added storage. Though the old one's firewire ports work fine, I thought it might be easier to migrate the old iMac's settings from the "new" external drive rather than going through the targeted disk mode and all.
Thanks for any opinions,
Michael
iMac DV, G3 400 MHz, Grape Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I did this just yesterday yesterday. I put a new disk into a G4 iMac, installed a fresh copy of Tiger on it and then migrated the user folders across from the old drive that I put in a firewire enclosure. Obviously if you go for an Intel Mac then you will have to be careful with the applications.

Migration Assistant Won't Recognize External Hard Drive

I have a PowerPC G5 and made a bootable backup of the computer's content to an external firewire hard drive. I tested the backup to make sure that it booted and everything was fine. So, I then did a clean install of Leopard to the machine. After the computer restarted, I reconnected my external drive and it mounted fine. However, when I went to use Migration Assistant to bring over all of my applications, it would not recognize the hard drive as an option to migrate files from.
The hard drive is formatted as Apple Partition Map, and works fine as a bootable copy. Does anyone know why Migration Assistant will not recognize it?
I recently did a clean install of Leopard on my Macbook this weekend using a different external drive with a bootable backup of the drive (GUID formatted) and then used the migration assistant to move all of my files and everything worked just fine.
I can't find any reason that I shouldn't be able to get my applications through migration assistant from the external hard drive but maybe someone knows how to fix this or of a workaround.

Very curious, indeed.
Welcome to the Apple forums where we do try to sort things out
Your delineation of the problem and comparison to your MBP is perfect.
I migrated my G5 from a second internal disk, but actually used the setup assistant when Leopard came alive.
You might see what happens if you eject your external HD and then do what you need to to connect it back (turn off/on - unplug/plug, etc.)
Are there any errors when Migration assistant runs?
It is perhaps that Spotlight is doing its thing and the drive is not available until it is indexed?
I would remove the external HD temporarily from the SpotLight indexing list and then see what happens.
I recall that there were some odd issues with external drives taking up to 1/2 hour to be recognized by Leopard, but I don't recall why.
I am not sure these things will help, but they will eliminate some of the possibilities, and when we have eliminated the probable, what is left is where the answer lies
I wonder if Leopard is confused by the external drive not being GUID?
Try this - - connect the GUID external drive to your G5 and see if Migration assistant sees it. Obviously do not migrate anything, but if you can see that one, we may have a solution.
Keep us posted.

Migration Assistant won't see external hard drive

I have just done a clean install of Leopard onto my MacBook Pro, previously running Tiger. Now, I want to migrate my old user and programs from a backed up volume on an external firewire hard drive. The problem is that Migration Assistant won't recognize my external hard drive.
I have no other problem mounting or reading the external hard drive from leopard.
Could the problem be that the external drive has the Apple partition map instead of GUID as reported here? http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1329665
Any suggestion, solutions or work arounds are gratefully appreciated.

That isn't a valid link to your picture (it's a link to the file on your computer). You would need to post it to a serve (and remove the spaces in the name) and post that link here.
However it would appear that your short name is 'dalechristiansen' so presumably you originally created a user with that short name and your full name as.. the full name (unless it was just 'Dale'. Whatever you did before when you created your account is what you should do now. Then you can copy the equivalent folder's contents. (You might have problems replacing some of the root level folders, in which case you shuld copy their contents into the equivalent folders).

Migration Assistant can't see my external hard drive.

Migration Assistant can't see my external hard drive with my back-up info on it. I need to migrate my user data from an older back-up ( OS X 10.4.11) to a recently installed OS X 10.5.8 system on a Mac Pro. The external drive is not bootable. Any ideas?

Great news, thanks!
On iTunes see this...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Expand the External drive section & it's 6 steps.
More info, especially the Wrong Way part...
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/

Migration Assistant - External Hard Drive

Hi - I am trying to use Migration Assistant on a MacBook Pro to transfer my files from a La Cie external hard drive - which has all my files backed up from a 2005 mac book (photos, music etc) The migration assistant does not recognise the LaCie Hard Drive although it is connected to the MacBook via a cable and I can see the Hard Drive & associated files on the desk top.

Here's a link to Kappy's Basic Guide for Migrating to Intel Macs:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435350&tstart=0
I'm not sure that Migration Assistant would be the best choice for what you want to do.
Good luck!

External Hard Drive assistance?

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