External Hard Drive File System

I am backing up my iMovie files to a Network Attached Storage device that is formated with the ext3 filesystem. I am only backing them up to this device, and I am not trying to use the files from within iMovie from this device. The working files are on the local disk of my Mac. I have read in a couple of places that iMovie needs its files to be on an HFS+ formated disk, so my question is does that only apply to when working with the files within iMovie, or also to where you back them up to? I want to make sure that if I need to restore the files, they will still be usable.

The ext3 file system at the minimum has a 16GB filesize limit depending on the block size, so I don't think I am going to run into any issues with filesize if that is what you are referring to. I have been successfully backing up the Movies folder for awhile now, and recently started wondering if I will have any issues restoring it. I have read other articles about moving the entire contents of the Movies folder from one mac to another without issues, so I was under the impression it was portable that way, as long as you didn't start individually trying to move files within the subfolders of the Movies folder.
I know I should just try to restore all or a portion of one of my backups, and see what happens in iMovie, but I thought I would ask first.

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Help fixing some changes discovered after external hard drive files were recovered.

My external hard drive files were rescued and placed on a new one. I have 2 issues that I need to resolve. Most important, in many of the files, up to half the RAW image files were returned converted to a CR2 symbol. I can't open them or upload them. Aperture tells me that the images aren't supported. They weren't this way before the recovery. I need to be able to open and work with these files, again. I'm not sure how random files were converted during the recovery process. But, I sure need a solution, to get them to open again.
Second problem, hopefully simpler to solve. Is there a way to tell Aperture that the files connected with the previews have been relocated? It's looking for the files in a location that no longer exists. I could start all over again, and upload each album, which will take a long time. I'm hoping there is a way to avoid this.

Download and install VLC. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

Updating an External Hard Drive Operating System to Yosemite

I have a MacBook Pro (late 2007), it was upgraded to 500GB hard drive. I use the old hard drive as an external hard drive for backing up files from the MacBook Pro. It's operating system is version Mac 10.6.8 and formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Can this hard drive be upgrade to Yosemite 10.10?

Yes. You'll be given the option to choose it when setting up the Yosemite installation.
(123327)

External hard drive file transfer

How do I transfer video files from one external hard drive to another external hard drive? OS X 10.9.5. I opened up each device in a finder window and tried to drag and drop from one device to the other. No luck. Next, I R-clicked on the file and requested to copy it, then R-clicked on the Finder of the destination drive, hoping to paste but that option did not present. I am able to paste a file onto the desktop from the original location but I cannot move it from there onto the destination drive. Full disclosure: I began this operation using a Windows laptop with no difficulties. Both drives are dual formatted. The destination drive is 2 Tb and has 1.5 Tb remaining space.

Most drive companies have a free NTFS driver.
Seagate -> http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/item/ntfs-driver-for-mac-os-master-dl/
If I remove the files from the destination hard drive currently formatted to NTFS
You cannot remove them until you install NTFS driver software.
You can copy them elsewhere but you will not be able to delete them as this requires writing to the drive.
Formatting the drive will remove them (and everything else on that drive).
I assumed that dual-formatted meant dual compatibility but apparently it means one-or-the-other (?)
Where do you see "dual-formatted"?

Cannot see a particular file on an External Hard Drive- file is not hidden!

Hi folks,
I think this should be a common problem, but I couldn't seem to find an exact match to my topic in the search, so I hope you guys don't mind helping me out if this has been asked before!
Well my problem is basically stated in my subject. A few days ago, I plugged in my friends external hard drive to copy some files off of. Everything loaded fine once I plugged it in, but the problem was that the file that I needed to copy was invisible in my finder! Other files were there, and the remaining disk space indicated that it was there, but the file itself was not!
I disconnected and reconnected the HD several times but to the same problem. I tried to search for it in the HD directory, but it didn't bring up any results.
My friend confirmed that the file was not hidden, and so we plugged it into her sisters Mac Book to test it and it was there! I ended up having to copy it from the Mac Book then transferring it back to my iMac, but I'm rather concerned about this problem because I wouldn't want it happening again!
One slight problem now is that I don't have my friends HD to test any solutions at the moment, so I guess my main question is to know why does this happen/what causes this to occur? I'm think it's my iMac acting up, because it has been running a bit slower and noisier lately, so I'm thinking of reformatting my iMac? What do you guys think?
Cheers!

Hmmm, only thing that comes to mind at the moment is Permissions, Admin Rights, Groups, or HW/SW!

ITunes 11 no longer displaying external hard drive files

My iTunes library is on an external hard drive and I have iTunes directed to the media on the external hard drive, but no media of any kind is showing when I open iTunes. This problem started today and as recently as two days ago everything was fine. I moved my entire library to an external drive a year ago and have been using iTunes forever. I have opened iTunes while holding 'option' and directing to the music on my external but I'm not able to select the music folders on the external and there is no file named "iTunes Media" on th external. There is a "iTunes Media" folder on my internal hard drive bit it contains only 3 artists since I've moved everything. The iTunes libray itl and xml files are on my internal drive as well. Any thoughts on what to try next to get iTunes to show the music on my external drive? Preferably I'd like to keep the info and playlists that I was using a couple days ago. Thanks!

I thank u all for your input espec mark but also all the various posts in discussions generally. i am pleased to say i astounded myself by working it out (but no hubris here).the answer was to LEAVE the old 'iTunes Library' folder and the old xml file in the 'iTunes' folder on mac2 and then to copy to (subsequently) replace them with the original similar files from mac1 et voila everything - songs,tiles,dates,playlists etc all show up in new iTunes screen. how pleasant when ones aimiable bumblings work!

External Hard Drive File Names Are Gibberish

Earlier today someone explained how to move my iPod contents from my iPod to a new external hard drive on a computer that was also new, that is it didn't previously contain my iTunes Library.
I now have the contents on the external hard drive but instead of the album and song names listed in Windows Explorer, the names are all gibberish. Does this matter? If so, how do I delete and re-copy the music files so the correct labels show? Thanks!

If you moved them from your iPod then that will happen (folders like F01, F02, etc.)
However, when you import these into iTunes the song information should be correct.
You could also tell iTunes to add all of the song files to a certain folder and to keep that file organized. iTunes will put copies of all of those songs in a folder on your external HD and organize them properly.
To do this (before adding the song to iTunes)...
1) In iTunes, go to edit-->preferences. Click the Advanced tab. Click the General Tab under that.
2) Set your iTunes Music folder location. Make it a folder/spot on your external HD.
3) Check Keep iTunes Music folder organized.
4) Check Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library
5) Click OK
6) Now add those folders from your iPod into iTunes. In iTunes, go to file-->add folder to library. Find the folder containing all of those folders and songs from your iPod. Add that folder.
7) iTunes should add all the songs from that folder into your iTunes library. It should also place copies of those songs in an organized manner into your iTunes Music Library folder.
You can then go ahead and delete the folder with the music from your iPod. While they are in the recycle bin, make sure that the songs still work in iTunes. Post back if after you move the songs from the iPod into the Recycle bin and you try to play a song in iTunes, the song gets an ! next to it and it won't play. Please do this prior to emptying your recycle bin.
You could also use a program like this to add the music to your ext. HD. It should add everything in a more organized manner...
YamiPod
It may just be easier to work with the files you already have though.
btabz

External Hard drive file erased whilst saving

As I saved a Jpg today, the file I was saving it to, on my external Hard drive, some how had its contents erased. How do I get it back? I'm panicking!

Most drive companies have a free NTFS driver.
Seagate -> http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/item/ntfs-driver-for-mac-os-master-dl/
If I remove the files from the destination hard drive currently formatted to NTFS
You cannot remove them until you install NTFS driver software.
You can copy them elsewhere but you will not be able to delete them as this requires writing to the drive.
Formatting the drive will remove them (and everything else on that drive).
I assumed that dual-formatted meant dual compatibility but apparently it means one-or-the-other (?)
Where do you see "dual-formatted"?

External hard drive files suddenly not readable

This keeps happening to my hard drives for no apparent reason. I use an external drive to backup my macbook pro contents, eventually, I cannot open the files. I get an error message saying they may be damaged and their preview icon defaults back to the system original. The file is there, with the same file size but I cannot open them......
This happend with my time machine and 2 external drives. Disk rescue and similar programs do not work.
Any suggestions?

Hi Barry,
thanks for your answer! The hard disk with my time machine backups on it is the same hard disk I successfully used to migrate my "old" files (from the Leopoard installation) to the new Snow Leopard based system (through the migration process during the installtion). I expected that this time machine backups would be still available and that I could use the same external hard disk to resume the time machine backup on the new system. Hope this was understandable?
But I am still wondering how this could happen while it worked obviously fine during the installation itself.
I understand that I could just reformat but then my old backups would be gone
But probably this is the easiest solution.
Thanks! And: yes! I am from Munich (Germany

External Hard Drive in System Profiler not on desktop

The system profiler recognizes my firewire drive (though it has a corrupted looking title: "m(õc‰ìÎÜÒ”≥’:". I can't access the drive itself. I've tried disk warrior, disk utility and Data Rescue II in an effort to get in (so I can put the info on another drive) and none of them find the drive at all.
Any ideas (beyond cycling power or changing to different cables/ports) how I can get to the drive so I can salvage anything off of it?
Thanks,
Robert

Basics of File Recovery
If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.
If you empty the Trash the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When you delete files you erase only the directory entries, not the files themselves. However, the space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten with recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

External Hard Drive and System

This is my computer spec's, I have updated to 10.5.3 from 10.3.9 and all is working perfectly except photoshop.
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: eMac
Model Identifier: PowerMac6,4
Processor Name: PowerPC G4 (1.1)
Processor Speed: 1.25 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 1
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.8.2f1
Serial Number: G84**ZQJB
I am buying this firewire external drive, can I put my 10.3.9 system on the drive so that I can use photoshop 7.0 again?
"LaCie 301825U d2 Quadra 500 GB eSATA/FireWire800/FireWire400/USB 2.0 External Hard Disk"
Thank you much for any suggestions or help.
Margit in Minnesota
<post edited by host>

I am buying this firewire external drive, can I put my 10.3.9 system on the drive so that I can use photoshop 7.0 again?
Yes.
(32593)

External hard drive - files over 4gb?

Hello
i have a seagate 1,5 TB external harddrive
i just formatted in MBR partitiontype and MS-DOS, but when i try to copy files to it over 4gb it wont allow it..
help please.

That's a limitation of the FAT32 file system not an Apple problem.
Apple computers can read NTFS but not write - there are 3rd party solutions.
If you are not using Windows computers don't bother formatting to a Windows format and use HFS jounaled.
AC

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...

Unable to view files on external hard drive. Progress Bar

I have been deleting various files from my external hard drive and now I cannot see the remainder of the files. Although the Trash is empty, it still shows there is something there and I get a small window that shows progress bar. I can still see the external hard drive files via spotlight, so they are still there. I have tried
Force Quit
Restart
Shut Down
Forced Shut Down
I feel sure that has something to do with the Trash?
Please...Any Ideas

I have the exact same problem.

ITunes causes Windows to lose contact with external hard drive

I'm running iTunes on Windows, with my music library on a 160gb external hard drive. System has been set up this way for a couple of years with no serious problems.
I recently received a used iPod which I successfully synched with iTunes a number of times. The last time I tried however, I got a strange error message (can't remember what) and the synching quit.
Since that time, whenever I open iTunes, it causes Windows to 'lose' the external drive; i.e. if I check to see if Windows detects the external drive before I open iTunes, it's there. But when I open iTunes and attempt to perform any function (like play a song) I get the "Delayed Write Failed" error message, the lost track error message by the song titles, my music folder location has switched from the e:/ drive to c:/ and a check of Windows explorer shows that the e:/ drive is no longer there.
Lots of tech friends of mine - and the tech support at Ximeta (the external drive maker) - are stumped by this problem.
Any and all answers, suggestions would be hugely appreciated.
PC Windows XP
PC Windows ME

that's an odd issue.
by way of experiment, do you get the same sort of issue if you try opening a different sort of file (with a different application) that is stored on that hard drive? say, a Word document or something like that?

External Hard Drive File System

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