External hard drive Snow Leopard and Lion compatibility?

I am going to install Snow Leopard on my Mac (so I can then purchase Lion and install THAT into my Mac) but it only has 975 mb of memory left. So, I've decided that I need to purchase an external hard drive so that I can transfer some videos, songs, etc. to create more space on my Mac. My question is, what external hard drive will be compatible with Snow Leopard and Lion? I was going to purchase a Western Digital external but I've heard many problems of it being incompatible with Lion. What's a reliable and compatible brand that I could purchase? I'm looking for an external hard drive that hold at least 500 gb.

I think your analysis is kind of harsh, kurt.
'garbage'? really?
Sure, some familiar paradigms have changed, and change brings pain - or at least, unfamiliarity - but that doesn't necessarily mean they're bad.
Of all the changes you mention three things that you consider abominations...
UI changes more in line with iOS. Sure, and this is bad because...?
It's clear that Apple see the iOS as the future, and it makes sense to unify the experience - at least where it makes sense. You don't actually mention which elements you consider bad, BTW.
The scrolling seems to be the one most often cited, but to me it makes way more sense to manipulate the document directly, rather than manipulate a scroll bar that works inversely. I'm not sure what other UI elements you're concerned about.
As for the Save As... issue, the change to Duplicate makes a lot of sense when you understand the concept of automatic file saving and versioning. There's never a need to 'save as' in order to create a point-in-time backup since you automatically get point-in-time backups just by using the OS. The only reason it makes sense to to force a branch and for that, 'duplicate' makes sense. If it bothers you, just read 'duplicate' as 'save as'.
The big break here is that versioning requires application support - the developer needs to add it to their app code - and that creates inconsistencies in the short term because not all apps support versioning. That will fix in time as developers release updates to their apps.
As for bugs, the current release is 10.7.2, so that's two revisions past the original. Any major release (of any applications, not just an OS) is going to have some number of issues and some people avoid any .0 release just for that reason. I think the concensus is that by the time you get to .2 most of the issues have been resolved. Can you point to any bug in 10.7.2 that directly affects you and your use of the OS? or are you basing your statements on outdated material?
In short, every major OS release, from every OS vendor has some number of changes that confuse and upset users, and some number of short-term pain while application developers and users get up to speed. Lion is no different in that respect, and if you look back in history you'll see the exact same sentiment for Snow Leopard's release, and Leopard's, and Tiger's, and..., and..., and...
To call it garbage, though? I think not.

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My new 24in imac doesn't recognize my usb external hard drive- snow leopard

i was attempting to do a new time machine back up on my new mac but it won't recognize the usb external hard drive (kaser 250gb). i used it frequently on my old g5 imac, no problems. i plugged the hard drive into my g4 ibook and it recognized it right away. i followed the apple tip of pulling the power plug out of the wall power socket and pulled all the usb cables out as well (i have the wireless keyboard). i let it rest for over 5 minutes and only plugged in my wacom stylus and usb external hard drive. still nothing. and it doesn't show either in disk utility. i also downloaded as per another thread the 3g ntfs system preference but to no avail. the only thing i can of doing is erase and reformat my external on my ibook, but i don't want to risk loosing the data without a back up.
anything else i can try? (before i buy time capsule) thanks

i just checked again by plugging the external into my ibook g4 and checked how it was formatted - mac os extended (journaled).
Then the 3GFS software is not required at all.
i have an idea, not sure if it will work and it will have to wait a couple days until i get my firewire back from a friend, but this is what i'm thinking: my intel imac has a 1tb hard drive. could i use target mode between my imac and ibook? with my ibook i'd attach the external hard drive, then using the firewire and target mode start it up. hoping that the ibook hard drive and the attached external hard drive would show on my intel mac for which i could copy over the external back ups onto my imac. once completed, i could erase and reformat the external on my ibook and then try again on my imac to see if it appears on my desktop. do you think this might work (even though it is correctly formatted already?)
I use Target mode on a regular basis for mounting the internal drive on a Mac to transfer or salvage data. I don't know if you will be able to connect to an external drive on the Target computer. There's not usually any reason for this and I don't know if the Target Mode will enable the Logic board to deal with the USB ports and transfer data. I kinda doubt it, but other more experienced users can jump in here.
I don't think the problem with your external drive is the format, since you've already checked it and it is already formatted for a Mac. Intel Mac's will mount drives formatted by a PPC Mac with no problems, unless your OS doesn't support the chipset in the USB case that connects to the drive. There are some USB drives that are known to not work well with SL but worked fine with Leopard.
You can buy a cheap USB case (about $30) and move the drive from the old case to the new case, or buy a USB to IDE adaptor cable (about $20), or you can buy a larger external drive that will work on the iMac and use the G4 to transfer the date from the old drive to a new one. Or you can take both drives to a friend with a Mac and use Disk Utility to restore the USB drive to a partition on the Firewire drive. That doesn't fix the USB drive to work with your new Mac, but unless the vendor comes out with a firmware fix, I think that's a lost cause anyway.
other than the above, i may just go buy a 1tb time capsule,
I would not be getting a Time Capsule to back up a single computer. Wireless backups are a lot slower than FireWire or USB (of course, it's the initial backup that takes so much time). If you do have several Mac's that need a TM backup volume, then the Capsule can help you out. It is supported by Apple (and there are a lot of users here in the forums). I'm using a ReadyNAS device for network backups, but it is not supported by Apple, and I have to rely on NetGear for fixes if an OS update breaks my backup system.
BTW, it's a good chance that a TC device will be able to see and mount your USB drive. The incompatible chipset problem with some drives seems to be limited to the USB drivers in SL which the TC is not running. That's why I said that a USB hub may also let you see your drive, the problem is there's no guarantee's...

Which external hard drive snow leopard

Which BRAND of pocket 1,5-2TB hard drive should I buy that I can partition down to have one 80GB clone of my Macintosh HD? Apparently NOT Toshiba...

Thanks Dirk,
Tried your suggestion various ways but it had no effect the download button was still greyed out and the install button would not activate will keep trying to find a solution. I dont want to boot from the external hard drive that has Lion on mainly because it is a usb HD and the connection to my wireless modem slows the connection rate and downloading would take about ten hours

How do I make a back up system disk. I wish to run snow leopard and Lion on 1 drive.

I wish to run Snow Leopard and Lion on 1 Hard Drive. I need to back up snow leopard and then install Lion. Any suggestions on how to do this?

Too follow up on this topic - I have recently upgraded to 10.8.2. I have a complete backup HD with SL inclluding some SL-only programs on it. What I want is to make a small size, just SL and my few programs, hard drive with which I can boot when needed. Is it possible to trash all the many programs I have on the SL drive and just keep certain ones? How?
Thanks you for any advice,
John

Dual boot machine- snow leopard and Lion

It appears I will need to set up one of my machines as dual boot, containing partitions for Snow Leopard and Lion. The reason is that Quicken is NOT compatible with Lion, and will apparently never be. Intuits "solutions" are to go to other, far less capable software, or not upgrade. Which, of course means, NEVER upgrade again.
So, I think my best solution is to set up a partition for snow leopard and one for Lion. How do I go about this? Size of partition. How to partition? Which boot disks do I use to do this?
Any help is much appreciated.

Ok, I just got done doing this yesterday so I can lay it out for you.
1: Copy all your user files to a regular external drive and disconnect.
2: Carbon Copy Cloner your 10.6.8 setup to another blank HFS+Journaled external drive and disconnect.
3: Hold c and boot off the 10.6 installer disk and erase your entire boot drive in Disk Utility (under the Utilities menu) format HFS+Journaled (default) of course.
4: Quit and install 10.6. Setup with the same user name as Snow. Run the 10.6.8 Combo Update. Then Software Update.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399
5: Use the MacAppStore to download Lion, BUT DO NOT INSTALL yet! Cancel it and click on the Installer and select "Show in Finder" follow these instructions to make boot DVD's and dmg images of Lion installer.
http://www.eggfreckles.net/tech/burning-a-lion-boot-disc/
6: Once you do that, then Install Lion. On a pristine 10.6.8 with no third party programs or other BS it should go perfectly. Check it out that it's stable just in case or else hold command r and boot into the Recovery Partition and redownload/install again.
7: Once that's done and Software Updated, run Bootcamp and create a Windows partition larger than your 10.6.8 clone naturally. The size is up to you to decide. Cancel the Bootcamp when the partition is created.
8: Hold Option and boot off the 10.6.8 clone with all your stuff and programs, use Disk Utility to change the "BOOTCAMP" partition to "Snow Leopard" and make it a HFS+ Journaled partition from the MSDOS format (not the whole drive now or you'll lose Lion and the Recovery Partition) If this doesn't work then use Disk Utility c booted from the 10.7 DVD or command r from the Lion Recovery Partition and use Disk Utility there.
9: Once that's done, Option boot off the 10.6.8 clone and Carbon Copy Clone 10.6.8 onto the Snow Leopard partition.
Walla, a dual boot system with all your stuff intact. Just hold option upon boot and/or use the Startup Disk in System Preferences to set a default.
I'm currently working on a quad boot system now. It's got Lion, Snow, Linux and will have Windows too. A lot more complicated than simply Snow and Lion.
Note: OS X Lion reguires a internet connection to install, even from a boot DVD.
Enjoy.

External hard drive gone wrong and copied everything to Imac HDD filling it completely

I have had my iMac backed up to an external hard drive for years and randomly the External hard drive is now not readable and it has seemed to copy everything to my imac hard drive filling it completely.
any ideas how to firstly fix the external drive without losing everything on there and second why it would have copied everything to the Imac?
I cant even do a restore from a back up as its all backed up to external drive and its saying its not readable.

If they're still in two folders (iTunes app and Music) on your external, can you not just copy those two back to the internal drive and expect it to work properly again? It's my understanding that music you wish to be active in iTunes must be on your internal drive.

I use only two channels, have plenty of memory in my hard disk, and external hard drive, no effects, and still having problems with Garage band. Giving messages as you have too many live channels

I'm frustrated, I am doing everything you recommend, I use only two channels, have plenty of memory in my hard disk, and external hard drive, no effects, and still having problems with Garage band. Giving messages as you ave too many live channels, the disk is slow prepare...can you help?

Quote from: Richard on 15-November-07, 20:33:05
tornado2003,
What you need to do is boot into Safe Mode. Then delete the VGA Drivers.
After that boot normally and install the latest nVidia ForceWare Drivers
Take Care,
Richard
i guess you missed that:
Quote from: tornado2003 on 15-November-07, 17:26:52
ive tryed booting xp in safe mode but it just freezes after it loads up a couple of needed files .
ive even formatted my hard drive and tryed installing a fresh xp on it but it just keeps locking up when it gets to the "starting windows setup" .(this is just after it loads all the drivers from the xp cd)

Can I use an external hard drive to download and store my iTunes library?

Can I use an external hard drive to download and store my iTunes library?

Yes - in most cases you can just copy your entire library (by default C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes) to your external drive, with the result being a iTunes folder in the root of that drive with a structure like this:
Then hold down SHIFT when you start iTunes, and when you see this prompt:
click on Choose Library..., navigate to the iTunes folder on your external drive, and click Open. See turingtest2's user tip on Make a split library portable for more information, including steps you may need to take to align your library structure before moving it to an external drive - this applies if you currently have some/all of the media in your library stored outside the standard iTunes Media folders.

My laptop and external hard drive both failed and got corrupter.

My laptop and external hard drive both failed and got corrupter. I've lost my quick time pro 7 and all my music, I still have my Ipod with the music on, How can I get it back on to Itunes and quick time pro back on to my PC? Many thanks.

Since your current editing workflow is based around Virtual Copies there are no actual files containing the edit data. Therefore, you'll need to use the 'Import from another catalog' option ( see File menu).

I know if I want to update my 0S x.5 to Mountain Lion, I have to update to Snow Leopard and Lion first. Where do I find the Snow Leopard download?

I'm trying to upgrade my daughter's computer for college. She currently has OS 10.5.8. She needs to upgrade to Mountain Lion. I know I have to upgrade to Snow Leopard and Lion first. I can't find the download for either. Please help! I was in the site the other day and thought I saw a link, but now I can't find it.
Thanks.

There is no download for Snow Leopard and never was for the general public. Phone the Apple Store and buy it.
Purchasing Lion isn't necessary to get Mountain Lion, but you will need to run the Mac OS X 10.6.8 combo updater.
(68687)

I am having issues with my external hard drives since installing Mountain Lion

I am unable to get my time machine to backup consistently on my external hard drives since installing Mountain Lion. One of my drives seems to have lost all data since installing Mountain Lion. Is this problem cropping up with other folks? BTW, all of my drives are Lacie brand.

Marzomo wrote:
One of my drives seems to have lost all data since installing Mountain Lion.
Do you mean, when you select it to be used for backups, the Preferences window shows "none"? If so, that's not a problem. That doesn't get updated until the next backup to that disk is finished. See #B3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting

I have a macbook and was having trouble with safari so I removed it and am trying to re-download but it says snow leopard and lion are too big. which version of safari can i download?

I have a macbook and was having trouble with safari so I removed it and am trying to re-download but it says snow leopard and lion are too big. which version of safari can i download?

Which operating system are you running? Not sure, click the apple on the left of the menu bar, the click about this mac. It will say version 10.6.x or 10.7.x.

What external hard drives are compatible w/ lion, snow leopard and time machine?

I am looking to buy an external hard drive to back up all data on my Macbook Pro that is currently running Snow Leopard, then upgrading to Lion. I want an external hard drive that is compatible with BOTH Snow Leopard (for use of creating a backup prior to my upgrade) and Lion (for daily use once I've upgraded). I also don't want to spend more than $100 if possible. Any suggestions? Thanks!

There is currently a shortage of drives due to flooding in one of the countries in which they are manufactured.
Getting one for under $100 at this point might be difficult. You didn't mention how full your current hard drive is, but for Time Machine, you should plan on two to three times the data you currently have (or expect to have).
I looked through Newegg's selection and didn't see more than a couple 1TB drives for less than $100. I recently bought a 3TB drive for $150. They're in the $200-$300 range, now.
I always buy bare drives and put them in an enclosure I buy separately. All the name-brand, ready-to-use drives come with a bunch of software you don't need and some of their software causes problems.
I had some bad luck/bad customer service with Seagate, so I've been buying Western Digital. Though, my replacement drives from Seagate have been going fine.
I've used Icy Dock and MacAlly enclosures. Both have worked well. If you do decide to go that route, you must make sure the enclosure can support the size of drive you buy (both physical--2.5" or 3.5", and storage size--1TB, 2TB, 3TB). The controllers in the cases may not be able to handle a 3TB drive, for example.
No matter how you go, you have to decide what kind of interface you want to use. USB is cheaper, but Firewire is faster. Firewire 800 is even faster, but costs more. All of that depends on what ports you have on the computer. OS X doesn't currently support USB 3.

Snow Leopard and Lion on external hard drive

I successfully installed Snow Leopard on an external hard drive in one of the partitions. I am also able to boot from the Snow Leopard on the partition, access the internet, get my email and have successfully installed Evernote. I am also able to access Apple Store and needed items on my laptop.I am using a MacBook Pro as the laptop so it starts up with Snow Leopard from the external drive and I can still access my original info because I used Super Duper to clone my hard drive (running 10.5.11). My question is when I access email and the internet when Snow Leopard is booting does that change the settings on my MacBook Pro. All was fine for a couple of days but today I was unable to access the Internet or get my email when I booted from 10.5.8 on my laptop. (The external drive was not connected.) I was able to figure out what to do to get everything working again but I'm not sure I could repeat it. So, if I boot from an external drive does that change the settings on the laptop? If so is there a standard way to change things back. I did make screen shots of the settings on my laptop once I got it working again.
Thanks.
Nancy

Unless you are using the same common home directory for running both versions of the OS (which is possible) then when booting from two distinct volumes, and it doesn't matter where they are, doing something on one does not affect the other.
You have two home directories, one on each volume. You are using the one on whichever volume you booted from. So if you defined your mail settings on each exactly the same way (pop, smtp, etc) I would expect them to behave the same way. Similarly for the network settings.

How to format an external hard drive for vista and snow leopard?

I want to format an external hard drive to attach to Airport Extreme base station to us with Snow Leopard and a PC with Vista. What format should I use for read/write access for both?

I use NTFS for my external drives being used on both Macs and Windows. To get the Mac to write to NTFS, you need a separate program. I use Paragon for Mac software. It works behind the scenes. There are also some free things that do the same thing but I found them cranky and unreliable. YMMV.
Windows can not read any of the Mac disk formats without additional software.. FAT32 is fine but is extremely limited.
For the last year, I have had absolutely no problems on any computer, Mac or Windows.

External hard drive Snow Leopard and Lion compatibility?

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