Failed hard drive-Can I switch authorization for purchased songs to new HD?

I have a pc that had a hard drive failure, I had a back up of my library and playlists so I was able to import to the new hard drive but all my purchased songs say that this is not an authorized pc. I can authorize it, but that will use up one of my 5 allowed and this is the same pc. Is there any way for me to transfer the authorization to the new hard drive? Thanks

You'll have to authorise the new hard drive just as if it was a different computer, you can't deauthorise a 'dead' installation on it's own. However once you've reached the limit of 5 authorisations, you have the option once a year to deauthorise them all in one go: About iTunes Music Store Authorisation and Deauthorisation

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Replaced HD and now I can't get authorization for purchased songs

I've had to erase & install 2x in the last year and then about a month ago, my HD finally crashed and burned.
Today I tried to play a song I purchased prior to the crash (and backed up on a separate drive) and I'm being told the song is not authorized to play on this computer. When I punched in my ID and password, I get the same window with the following in red type: "Field name: null.java.lang.Exception"
I paid for the song and now I can't play it?

While I'm unsure of the error message, assuming your Apple ID info was correct when you entered it, it sounds to me like you might have hit the limit for the amount of computers which you can authorise a DRM protected (Non iTunes Plus) song for, as each erase & install most likely counted (at least to iTunes) as a new computer and authorisation.
Anyway, your best bet is probably to open iTunes, then on the Store menu, click View My Account, then after signing in, check the number of machines it says are authorised to play music used with this account, assuming that number is five, click the Deauthorize All button. Once that's done, try to play one of the your purchased tracks again, sign in, and hopefully your music should play.

Disk utility copying hard drive, can I use computer for other tasks

I had backup my entire hard drive and its taking forever, can I use other apps and continue to work ?
Thanks for any help!!

Best not, as files may be moved and therefore may upset the backup.

New Hard Drive - How to re-download previously purchased songs?

I have an iTunes account. My son and I have purchased songs thru the same account. I have my songs in iTunes in my mac desktop. He has his songs in his iPod.
My desktop's hard drive recently died and had to be replaced. I had all my songs backed up so no problem there.
But my son did not have all his songs in his iPod.
When I go to the iTunes store I see all the songs we have purchased but I can't figure out how to download them again to the new hard drive.
Any help is appreciated.
Mac OS X (10.3.9)

See this -> iTunes Store: Purchased content can be downloaded only once
Go here -> http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/lostmusic/
and send an email to Apple.
They have been known to allow users, on a case by case basis, to re-download songs ONE TIME.
If they do allow this, make sure to back up any purchases immediately.
Also, if the songs are on an iPod, they can be taken off the iPod back onto the computer.

Recover data from failed hard drive?

Hi,
My hard drive failed recently and wouldn't boot up anymore.
Since then, I replaced the drive and bought an IDE to USB adapter to try and recover some of the data on the drive.
But when I plug in the adapter to my computer, a message comes up saying "Disk you inserted is not readable by this computer." It gives me the option of "Initialize" "Ignore" or "Eject." When I hit initialize, it goes to disk utility. The disk shows up, but is still not mounted to the computer. The option to repair the disk is grayed out.
Does this mean that the data is gone and the drive is toasted? Or is there a solution to get this data back?
Would making an image of the failed hard drive in disk utility and saving it to my new drive solve the problem?
Any suggestions, in a real bind here?
Thanks!

Hi,
My hard drive failed recently and wouldn't boot up anymore.
Since then, I replaced the drive and bought an IDE to USB adapter to try and recover some of the data on the drive.
But when I plug in the adapter to my computer, a message comes up saying "Disk you inserted is not readable by this computer." It gives me the option of "Initialize" "Ignore" or "Eject." When I hit initialize, it goes to disk utility. The disk shows up, but is still not mounted to the computer. The option to repair the disk is grayed out.
Does this mean that the data is gone and the drive is toasted? Or is there a solution to get this data back?
Would making an image of the failed hard drive in disk utility and saving it to my new drive solve the problem?
Any suggestions, in a real bind here?
Thanks!

My iMac suddenly can't read the backup hard drive I've been using for Time Machine. I did NOT just upgrade the OS or anything. The external HD is an OWC Mercury Elite All Pro. It's worked fine since I got the iMac 4 years ago.`

My iMac suddenly can't read the backup hard drive I've been using for Time Machine. I tried unplugging the cord that connects the HD to the iMac and plugging it back in, but I still get "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" below which are buttons for Initialize, Ignore and Eject. I was using a cord that went from larger square plug to larger square plug. So then I tried one that went from smaller square plug to what I think is USB (thin rectangular plug) of the sort that connects the keyboard and mouse. It's the type that my printers and scanners use to connect to the iMac. I did NOT just upgrade the OS or anything. The external HD is an OWC Mercury Elite All Pro. It's worked fine since I got the iMac 4 years ago. What else can I try before just trying to initialize and

Thanks, Michael! I do hear it at times spooling up and running. Just after I bumped the thread I looked for troubleshooting for this drive online and found the manual which suggested using Disk Utility which I've seen before accidentally (if I hit Command Shift U instead of Shift U to type "Unit" on a new folder for a student's homework ) but had never really noticed. Disk Utility does see it and also a sub-something (directory?) which might be the Time Machine archives on the disk, called disk1s2), sort of the way that my iMac's hard drive shows up as 640.14 GB Nitachi HDT7... and has a sub-something titled DB iMac, which is what I named my iMac's hard drive.
Anyway the owner's manual just shows the image under the formatting section, not the troubleshooting section, but as soon as I saw it in the manual I remembered seeing it accidentally a few times, went to it, and am now verifying the disk. Right now it's telling me that it will take 2 hours to complete the verification, so I guess I have a bigt of a wait. :-)
Does that fact that Disk Utilities can see it mean it's not failed, or just that it hasn't completely failed?
I can see the virtue in having multiple redundant backups, or at least two backups. What do you suggest? Two external hard drives? I had this one linked by ethernet, and but I also have a cord that could link it by USB (like a printer), so if this one is reparable I could get a second one and link it by USB. If this one is not reparable I could get two and do the same thing. I do have an Airport so I suppose it's possible to get some sort of Wi-Fi hard drive (my new printer/scanner uses only the network and not a cable, although it has a cable that I used for the initial installation), but I'd suspect a Wi-Fi hard drive might have a higher price.
What hard drives, if any, do you recommend? I seem to recall that when I was looking at external hard drives 4 years ago, Apple's were substantially more expensive, which is why I got the OWC Mercury Elite All Pro.

Can Time Machine back up a failed hard drive, and how long will it take to prepare?

1. The hard drive in my 2009 MBP has failed. My Time Machine external drive failed about three weeks ago, and I don't know if I'll be able to restore from it. Is it ever possible to backup a failed hard drive with Time Machine? The machine boots, it just comes up beach balls if I use any applications for very long.
2. I'm trying to back it up right now. I have Time Machine running to a new external drive. It has been stuck on "preparing backup" for about 20 minutes. Everyone says that preparing a first backup takes some time, but no one says if "some time" is 15 minutes or one hour or more. What is a typical length of time for preparing first backup? At what point should I walk away?
If it's not worth trying to back this drive up myself anymore, I'd love to just drop the thing off and get the hard drive replaced -- but if it's worth doing, I'll take the extra day to back up what I can.

You might have better luck using a clone.
Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
Clone – Data Backup
Clone – Deja Vu
Clone - SuperDuper
Clone - Synk
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Can I move cache to external hard drive to save disk space for photoshop and bridge?

Can I move cache to external hard drive to save disk space for photoshop and bridge?

So could I take everything off my external hard drive, save it to my Mac, then re-format it for my Mac and move everything back to the external hard drive?
Yes. Keep in mind that you need to back up all data, including the data on an external drive. So if you're going to use the external drive to store original data, as opposed to backups, then you really need another one to back up the first one. You also need to back up the data on your internal drive, of course. This isn't optional. You must do it, or you'll lose everything sooner or later. All disk drives fail eventually, often with no warning.
If I do that how do I format the external hard drive for my Mac?
Launch the Disk Utility application and search the built-in help for "erase."
Would it be easier to just buy a external hard drive that is for a Mac?
All external hard drives work with Macs. Some might come pre-formatted for use with Macs, but it only takes a few minutes to do that yourself.

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

In the Mac side of things, backups usually come in two flavors: clones or incrementals.
A bootable clone is a bit-for-bit copy of all essential files in the startup volume. If using the Lions, clones can be made using CarbonCopyCloner or just plain old Disk Utility. These backups represent the safest protection of your info, but take the longest to do. Recovery is an inverse process: you copy the clone back into the internal drive.
Incremental backups start with a complete backup of the startup volume and only copy whatever changed from the previous run. OS X includes the fully integrated Time Machine backup utility to do this. It is extremely easy to do and takes the least amount of time. Recovery is another matter altogether since you have to start with a freshly installed instance of the OS and have to apply all intervening backups to bring the result to the latest saved version.
As for where the backup takes place, the recommended media is an external dedicated drive or drives connected via the fastest interface available on your Mac: Thunderbolt, USB3, Firewire, or USB2. Network-based backups, wired or wireless, are attractive but may not offer the same performance and hence take longer. Also important to note that the entire drive need not be completely dedicated to a single backup. The Mac's EFI firmware infrastructure allows for an unlimited number of partitions on a hard drive and each can be used for either type of backups.
Holler if you need specifics on how to do each. This was just an executive summary.

I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

dj_paige wrote:
however, I do point out that obtaining an additional hard drive and not throwing anything away seems a preferable solution to me.
heidie22, dj_paige has a very good point there. I would not through away the NEF files; I would archive them to a external drive.
By the way, I am assuming that converting RAW files to DNG is a decision you have made and not an accident.

Is there any way to create a time machine backup to an external hard drive with content already on it? I have a hard drive that i have used for pictures but when i try to run a backup it says i need to start from a blank drive. Can i get around it?

Is there any way to create a time machine backup to an external hard drive with content already on it? I have a hard drive that i have used for pictures but when i try to run a backup it says i need to start from a blank drive. Can i get around it?

It would be much better if you had separate drives for the pictures and Time Machine backups.....but, if you want to use the same drive for both purposes, temporarily move the folder with the pictures to another location for safe storage.
Run the Time Machine backup on the hard drive and verify that everything is working correctly. Time Machine will format the disk for you in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as part of the backup process.
Then move the folder with the pictures back to the hard drive with the Time Machine backups.
When you have tested to make sure that everything is working again, then and only then should you delete the folder with pictures from the temporary storage area.
Again....it would be much better to keep Time Machine backups on a drive just for that purpose, and other data on another drive for that purpose. This is clearly one of those times when the fact that you can do something does not mean to imply that you should do it.

I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

Unfortunately, that drive is long gone, probably back to the mfr. Drives are not returned when they are exchanged. You can go by and ask them, but the chances are slim to none.

How do I figure out if I have usb 3.0? I am trying to buy compatible external hard drive (western digital my passport for mac) and I can not figure out if it will work with my mac book.

how do I figure out if I have usb 3.0? I am trying to buy compatible external hard drive (western digital my passport for mac) and I can not figure out if it will work with my mac book.

Dont buy a Western Digital, get a Hitachi or Seagate (Toshiba is made by Hitachi). These are the most reliable, and the HD used inside Macs.
ALL HD can be made compatible with your MAC (including a WD if you already bought same), ......they just need to be formatted for the Mac platform, format them in Disk Utility as Mac OSX extended journaled.

Can I save my files from a failing hard drive?

Sorry if this is kind of long. I booted up the system off the Mac OS X disc after getting startup errors. I ran the Disk Utility and it could not verify or repair the hard disk. S.M.A.R.T. status reads "failing" in red. My best guess it that the hard drive is on it's way out. Tried to save my files by making and image file of the hard disk and putting it on an external drive, but I got an error and it wouldn't save. Put the system in Target Disk mode and tried to access the files from another Mac connected via FireWire, but it wouldn't mount on the second Mac's desktop. I checked Disk Utility and it was creating multiple images of the first Mac's hard disk and failed to mount. Is there any other way to retrieve the files from the failing hard drive? I'd appreciate any assistance on this.

Maybe, but at this stage, I'd boot from a data recovery tool, such as those listed on my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html#RECOVER
If none of those work, you may want to consider a data recovery service, depending on the value of the said files.
Moral of the story, always backup your data*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
It is not a question of if data will be lost, but when.

Can I load "Pages" onto new hard drive without having to pay for it again?

I have a 5 yr old Mac that just had it's hard drive replaced. I had paid for and loaded Pages onto the original hard drive. Wondering if there's any way to load Pages onto my new hard drive without having to pay for the program again. Thanks so much

If you originally installed Pages from a CD or DVD, reinstall it from there.
If you installed Pages from the Mac App Store, yes, from the Apple ID you purchased it with.
If you got Pages from the iTunes App Store, the Mac version of it is a separate purchase.
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Failed hard drive-Can I switch authorization for purchased songs to new HD?

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