Fastest Ports

Hi,
I just ordered the new retina MBP with a thunderbolt port and USB 3.0. I was wondering what external hard drive woud be best to get for the computer?
Obviously thunderbolt would be great but they are expensive. Should I get a standard USB one or a firewire 800 using a thuderbolt to firewire 800 adaptor?
Also how do I know if the external hard drive will support USB 3.0? - and is it a lot faster?
Thanks!

Get enclosures that support USB 3 if you want to take advantage of the speed. It is not the HDD that will slow you down, but the connectivity. The Firewire adapter will give you Firewire speeds which are much slower than USB 3.
Ciao.

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How to find mt fastest USB port?

Sorry, although this isn't exactly related, I hope this group is the closest to the subject!
I use an Arch/LXDE based network to sync (using rsync) photos between an external USB card reader and an external USB hard drive.
The manual of the netbook states that all three USB ports are USB2, yet, from the output of the lsusb (below), it seems only one of the ports is indeed USB version 2 (and the rest are 1.1..).
1. Am I right?
2. If Y, how can I find the fastest port?
Thanks
-----------copy of lsusb-------------
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 064e:a127 Suyin Corp.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:8189 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187B Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Adapter
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

rmmod ehci_hcd
This will disable USB2 and attach the dongle to one of these USB1 controllers. Provided that it supports USB1 - many devices are USB2-only.
Last edited by mich41 (2013-03-08 09:10:28)

Tweeking a ExpressCred to boot?

I'm trying to install Tiger and Boot Camp on my external eSATA RAID-disks as I want a faster and more reliable harddrive to work on.
External Firewire-drives works for installing and running OS X, but it seems that they can't make Boot Camp partitions.
I have seen instructions for OS X and XP on USB-sticks, but I find nothing for the ExpressCard, which I believe is the fastest port on the MBP(!?).
I got myself a 2-port eSATA expresscard, and a eSATA box with hardware RAID on two 320GB SATA II disks.
Silicon Image released new version of the driver just a few days ago (06-12-26) but that didn't change much except stopping the card from giving "roller blind"-death to OS X while reinserting a card.
I have some hope at least to get XP booting from these disks as they actually shows up before the XP boot.
The card and the disks flashes by a second or so just when boot kicks in after I chosen XP in the alt-start OS-choice.
I see this:
SiL 3132 SATALink BIOS Version 7.2.23
Copyright (C) 1997-2005 Silicon Image, Inc.
0 WDC WD3200YS-01PDB0 298GB
1 WCD WD3200YS-01PCB0 298GB
Then the screen gets "256-colored" stripes and booting continue as without the drive.
In OS X the drives shows as:
SCSI Parallel Domain 1
SCSI Target Device @ 0:
SCSI Logical Unit @ 0:
SCSI Target Device @ 15:
SCSI Logical Unit @ 0:
In XP they show as SCSI too.
Any ideas on how to get this ExpressCard to cooperate?
Will it work with Leopard? Vista?
Macbook Pro 2Ghz CoreDuo, 2GB RAM, 128MB VRAM, 80GB Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Ok, I think I have found the problem.
When booting up the MBP the eSATA-expresscard does not wake up until the apple-logo shows at the grey screen.
That is after the option-menu, and thereby I can't choose it to start from.
Is there a way to help OS X (or the MBP itself) to start up this device earlier?
I'm thankful for any ideas about this.

Time capsule with external hard drive

My wife and I just recently became an all Mac family and I am looking into backing up our files. We have approximatly 1 TB of Photos and 1 TB of Music/Movies. We are photographers (well, my wife is, I just take blurry photos) and so we expect the size of our Photos to grow.
We both have Macbook Pros and a mac mini (1 TB of storage). Connected to our mini is a an 8 TB external hard drive currently set up as a Raid 10, so I have effectivly 4 TB storage with 4 TB of back up. My plan was to buy an Air Port Extreme to replace our 4 year old wireless router, and I see some of the Air Port Extreme's have time capsul storage built in.
My question is, our photos, music and movies will be kept on my EHD, which is mirrored and will make its own back up. Is it worth buying an Air Port Extreme with time capsule to back up everything? We will primarly be keeping programs word documents and home school stuff on the Mini and everything on our Macbook Pros will be files we take from the EHD.
Also, should I plug the EHD into the Air Port Extreme or the Mini?
I formated the EHD on the mini, so it is set up as journaled, not FAT32.

Connected to our mini is a an 8 TB external hard drive currently set up as a Raid 10, so I have effectivly 4 TB storage with 4 TB of back up.
I would quibble with you on the use of the word backup.. Mirror yes.. you have a mirror.. but that does not represent a backup. But you also suggest later that you have a separate backup as well .. if so you have not listed what exactly this is.
The issue is if you delete a file.. it is deleted from the array.. if you manage to corrupt a file.. it is corrupted in the array.. worse yet.. if you corrupt a library.. very real possibility with the way apple stores files.. and I do hope your are storing original RAW versions.. so the library will then be corrupted in both sections of the array.
How is this connected to the mini? I hope it is a recent mini and using thunderbolt??
The best backup imho is a 4TB drive plugged into the array by usb or whatever is the fastest port it has.. esata would be great.. expensive but thunderbolt even better. Does the software with the array have some inbuilt backup?? They are usually the best way to do it. I would even consider a second cheap USB stored offsite.. friends house. Thieves love those big disk arrays.. they are worth a lot of money.. and they collect your TC/AE along with the rest.
Now all this might be already part of what you are doing so please take it simply that you didn't list it.
My question is, our photos, music and movies will be kept on my EHD, which is mirrored and will make its own back up. Is it worth buying an Air Port Extreme with time capsule to back up everything? We will primarly be keeping programs word documents and home school stuff on the Mini and everything on our Macbook Pros will be files we take from the EHD.
Also, should I plug the EHD into the Air Port Extreme or the Mini?
I formated the EHD on the mini, so it is set up as journaled, not FAT32.
You can use Time Machine in the notebooks to do a backup of the current configuration of them. Without needing to do the backup of the EHD which is really too big to do effectively. TM is very good at keeping incremental backups.
A Time Capsule is good value considering the price of the hard disk now.. so you can buy an Extreme and run it with USB drive.. but the TC with inbuilt drive is a better option in that the drive speed of the internal far superior to the usb2 drive.
The new AC models are still somewhat buggy.. I think I would wait a bit for Apple to get their act together.. a few months probably. Of course I only see the people with issues here.. but the firmware is still immature.
I read a review recently by a guy I respect on our local forum.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2125865
Compared to the Asus N66U model.. the AE wasn't even in the same class. And that is not AC but just 900mbps (so called) N wireless. That the AE was totally outclassed is somewhat of a surprise.. they are basically identical.. the chipset both use is standard broadcom. That means Apple has tried to do funny stuff instead of sticking with the broadcom OEM linux firmware.. they have to rewrite it in NetBSD.. and this is going to take some time to debug.
For now you can use TM to network drive,, just as easily as to a TC.
See http://code.stephenmorley.org/articles/time-machine-on-a-network-drive/
This is plainly opinionated.. and others might be in better position to post.. so go ahead and tear me to shreds.. but I would take great care.. before leaping at new edge technology.. unless you like the bleeding edge.

Where can I buy and external hard drive for my MacBook Pro?

anybody out there?

I would first determine which is the fastest port on your machine (Firewire, USB, even Thunderbolt - if you want to spend that kind of money) and look at the drives at OWC and on Amazon. I would stay away from Western Digital drives - they just have a nasty track record with Macs for some reason.
I have a couple of G-technology drives that I bought from Amazon. I also have LaCie and Toshiba drives. All have served me well (a couple of the LaCie's, no longer in daily use, are over six years old and still going strong).
Good luck - call back with any questions...
Clinton

External hard drive for quick access to photos/music

Hi! I have a 13" Macbook Pro circa 2009. I want to purchase a large and fast external hard drive that I can actively use. Meaning this external hard drive would become my storage for all photos and music, NOT just a backup drive. I want to be able to sync my iPhone to my Macbook Pro, and have iTunes read off of the external drive. And the same for photos and videos. By doing this, I free up about 90% of the space on my Mac, and I'd imagine it would run a lot faster. Firstly, is this even possible? Secondly, which drives can do this? This is the reason I want it to be fast, so that I can seamlessly use the external hard drive as if it's right in my computer. What do you suggest? Can wireless drives do this? I'm more than open to any manufacturer including non-Apple. THANKS.

Yes, you can use an external drive for primary storage. As to which type would be fastest, it's limited to the fastest port on your MacBook Pro (which, in your case, would be FireWire 800, if you've a mid-2009 MacBook Pro).
There are many good drives out there with various degrees of size, but you'll want to look at one with a 'quad' interface, which would include a FireWire 800 port. I've had very good luck with LaCie (now owned by Seagate), LaCie, etc. OWC also has a number of external, quad-interfaced drives.
Good luck,
Clinton

How best to set up multiple time capsules for multiple needs?

There is so much good information on these discussions about using TCs for extenders or external drives - I am hoping to do both so will ask my own question here. BTW, this is my very first post so please be patient with me if I do not include something important.
I have a 1/2 gen (2007) Airport extreme and a 5th gen (2011) 2 tb TC. I am buying a 6th gen (2013) 3 tb TC because I am getting the new Macbook Air and want to take advantage of the new ac wireless. I have 2 apple TVs and 1 iMac plugged directly into my home ethernet network (if I'm saying that right - they are plugged into the wall). We have iphones, ipads, and an old macbook as well that all plug in wirelessly. Below is what (I think) I would like to do in the order I think I would have to do it. Could you help me understand if (a) this makes sense, and (b) if so, how do I accomplish these steps?
1. I unplug the 2 old units (2007 and 2011) and set them aside for the moment.
2. I plug in the new 6th gen TC to my modem and follow set up instructions to make it my backup area for iMac, Air, and old Macbook. I assume I need to do this because I want it to be the primary right?
3. I want to use the 2011 TC as a hard drive - I will be transferring all photos and 2 iTunes libraries (mine and my husband's) to it. We watch lots of movies so that is the main use. I think I would want this plugged directly into an ethernet port in the wall so it will be quickest for Apple TVs to access right? Or would it be better (fastest access) to connect it directly to the new TC or even the iMac? Is there something I need to do to make it an external drive rather than TC?
4. I would also, if possible, like to use the 2011 TC as an extender into a far room in the house. Could I simply plug it into an ethernet port in that room and it magically becomes an extender too? Would this not be ideal for some reason, like it is slower to access? Note that this is not terribly necessary but would be nice if easy.
6. Would it make sense for me to plug in the 2007 unit in a far room upstairs to serve as an extender up there?
Thank you so very much in advance.

There are a few things to get straight..
This is pedantic but heck I post too much..
The Gen of the TC is one behind the Extreme.. so a Gen6 AE = Gen5 TC.
Totally pedantic.. but it keeps me happy.
3. I want to use the 2011 TC as a hard drive - I will be transferring all photos and 2 iTunes libraries (mine and my husband's) to it. We watch lots of movies so that is the main use.
I would like you to rethink this.
You can do it.. but I think you are misunderstanding how iphoto and itunes work.
Your Apple TV never connects to the library of itunes..
And
Your TC is not a media player.
So all files stored on a TC are going to flow like this..
TC(ituneslibrary)---Computer (itunes)---stream---TC(network)----ATV.
If you remove the computer.. then you have nothing.
The TC is not a great place to store the itunes library for the following reasons.
It is slow.. much slower than local hard disk.
It is slow to spin up .. causing itunes issues with losing the library.
It is fast to spin down.. so streams get lost.
It has no backup.. and Time Machine cannot backup network drives. That means one day you will wake up.. TC will be dead.. (they do not last forever so this is 100% certain to happen).. And your library is gone. Apple offer no recovery service.. and it costs a small fortune to recover files.. without any guarantee of success.
iphoto is even worse.. it is strongly recommended NOT TO USE NETWORK to locate the iphoto library. It corrupts easily and a small corruption makes the entire library unreadible.
Since you have imac it is better to use an external drive for libraries.. use the fastest port available and you can afford.. ie Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2
Only the very latest Macs have USB3 but it kills the earlier USB2 and Firewire. And for many people will be as fast as Thunderbolt which is the tops but uber expensive.
Then the TC serves its correct function as TM backup.
You can share this hard disk to the network if you want other computers to access it.
You can store multiple iphoto or itunes libraries on it.
Follow the specific instructions about sharing your itunes library.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2688
http://www.apple.com/au/support/itunes/library/
And your iphoto
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198
Most of the rest is fine..
1. Yes.
2. Yes.
4. Yes you can extend with the old TC. Ethernet would be better. You might be mixing up wireless extend with Roaming.. you can use roaming if you have ethernet already available.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4260
6. Yes.. you can use a number of units via ethernet as AP points.
5. For another life??

Photoshop crasht when saving a document on the externe HD, witch is connect with the TC

Hi,
I have a Problem, I have 2 macs connected to 1 Time Capsule. The Time Machine works perfect. But when I am working in Adobe Photoshop, and I want to save the Photoshop document on the extern Harddisk (connected to the Time Capsule) Photoshop crash, and when I force stopp Photoshop, the whole Mac crash, and I have to reboot!
Can anyone please help us!
Thanks!

Use external hard disk on the TC for backup.. do not use it for current files.. it is extremely slow.. it is likely to spin up and spin down issues.. it is highly likely to corrupt the files. Use local disk for the current project.. or plug external disk directly into the Mac.. hopefully using the fastest port you have available. When you complete the project you can move it to the TC external drive. TM will also have made a backup of it. But once you move a project TM can delete it at some unknown future point. TC has no way to back itself up so make sure you keep at least a couple of copies of any work you do.

Will aperture run off an external firewire 800 drive?

Hey All,
I have an iMac that has firewire 800 as its fastest port and my aperture library is getting too big to have on my maun hard drive. If I were to get an external enclosure will I be able to move my aperture library over and still have the same fluid workflow or am I going to get lag going over firewire 800?
Thanks
Ruwan

Adding to Williams advice:
You might consider leaving your Library on your system drive and moving most (or all) of your Images' Originals from inside your Library to an external drive. Aperture calls Originals stored outside your Library "Referenced Originals" and has robust tools for managing them. Read some of the posts here (and check the User Manual -- start here) and ask any questions you have should you choose this route.
As William said, FW800 with a good drive is usually fast enough, but keeping your Library on your system and storing your Images' Originals on an external drive will be faster. OTOH, it makes administering your Library and Originals more complex, and leaves you to back-up your Originals separately from your Library.

Want 2 make mozilla fire fox as run as administrator how to do so?

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A Time Capsule is not that fast.. the store told you porkies..
It cannot be connected as an external drive.. it is now and always a network drive and to be connected by ethernet or wireless.. it will slow down your MacPro if you move files onto it.
If you want higher speed drive to store extra info.. put more drives in your MacPro.. it is the only Mac that has expansion capability.
If you want to use external use the fastest port you have available.. Thunderbolt is best followed by USB3.. Firewire and last USB2.

Moving files to external hard drive

Hi - I am getting a message that my start up disk is full. I don't know what to do. I thought I might move all of my videos onto my external hard drive but am not sure how to do that. Any help please ??

Oh, wow, your disk really is almost full - not even a gigabtyte remaining!
You're going to need to get an external drive soon. What model MBP do you have (i.e., "late 2011", "8,2")? You need to find out which is your fastest port (Firewire, USB, Thunderbolt, etc.) and get a good external drive that's in your price range. I might suggest a 1TB drive since you have so many movies. That 150GB of 'other' is just everything from system files, various documents, etc., which take up a lot of hard drive space.
A 1TB drive would give you room to grow. You could even partition it - using half to store your movies and half for a Time Machine backup (or other backup software of your choice).
Let me know what model you have and I'll help you find an external drive that will be the fastest for your system.
Clinton

I´m a Registerd user of Lightroom since Version 1,can i update from Version 5.7 to Version 6 (Stand Alone,not CC)?

Can i Update from Versión 5.7 to Versión 6.0 Stand Alone,NOT CC.?

Your 2009 iMac’s fastest port is FW800 and an SSD will be somewhat faster than the internal drive but it won’t provide anything close to the full benefit of an internal SSD or the newer faster USB3 and Thunderbolt interfaces. For example FW800 provides roughly half the bandwidth of USB 3. Installing an SSD internally isn’t for the feint of heart and it requires a couple special tools including suction cups to remove the glass front. But if you have a local independent Apple reseller you can almost certainly get it done there.
If you do decide to investigate this, I’d recommend going with a 128GB drive which would ensure you have plenty of room for the operating system and all your Applications and temporary files. Then use an external FW drive for user directories. You are likely to find the 64GB drive to be quite cramped.

Trouble installing MacOS from Disc

I mainly use windows on my imac 2010 and recently the computer all of a sudden took an hour too bootup and was VERY slow to do anything. I tried starting my antivirus but it wouldn't even startup. I thought that the macOS partition would be fine, but it also was in the same situation. I was able to run DiskUtility and I found tat there was nothing wrong with the state of the HDD. I decided to just start over and factory reset and install everything. I then used my macOS install disk and deleted everything on the HDD, once I tried to install with the disk it took a very long time (like 4 hours) then it got stuck at "11 min left", I looked at the error log and it seems to just keep looping on this error "could not get darwin_user_dir, falling back to nstTemporary directory". Could someone please help? Should I reformat my HDD?

Your hard drive may be failing. One indicator of a failing drive: slow operation on both the Mac and Windows partitions. Another indicator: inability to reinstall OS X from the original installation discs. Disk Utility and even the Apple Hardware Test provide little useful information in a situation such as yours. However, desktop drives typically have a lifespan of 4-5 years, so failure would not be surprising at this point in time.
You could try to reformat the HDD and reinstall OS X again, though you're likely to hit the same error/timeout road block that tripped you up the first time if the hard drive is failing. So, alternatives:
-- Replace the hard drive. You'll find good instructions at iFixit.com and OWC (macsales.com). OR . . .
-- Install OS X (and, if you need it, Windows, too) on an external drive. You'll get best performance by using your fastest port--that is, FireWire 800 rather than USB 2 on a mid 2010 iMac.

Slow bootup all of a sudden

Hi all,
Ytd all of a sudden my MBP start up becomes extremely slow. It takes ages, around 3 to 5mins or longer. (got no chance to use stopwatch to time it yet) This is what happens.
Press power button -> have the boot up sound -> white screen with apple logo and spinning gear. (from this the wait is unbearable) -> go to a blue screen and wait some more maybe around 1 min -> go to login page and type in password -> long process of loading everything, feel sluggish -> after sometime it works normally again.
From sleep to wake up -> able to open instantly but after logging in, there are freezes for a while.
I don't hear any HDD clicking sounds. I have installed windows 7 via bootcamp as well but that is sometime ago and doesn't give me problems.
My mac HDD left storage is at 170GB, so it shouldn't be because there is not enough space.
Running 8GB RAM.
This is some of the steps that I have tried and not working.
1. Uninstall the software that I installed.
2. Reset PRAM and NVRAM.
3. Change my RAM physically and still behave the same way. (so i believe it is not RAM failure)
4. Try disk repair and permission repair through the CD as well.
5. Try to boot up in verbose mode and saw that loading kernel chace file 'System\Library\Caches\com.apple.kext.caches\Startup\kernelcache_x86_64.3311734 7
(the waiting at that part is very long)
What other thing should I try? Or is this a sign that HDD is failing?
Can anyone know what is this problem?
I search around and most of the solution not helping me at all. =/
I appreciate the helps. Thanks.

Your hard drive may be failing. One indicator of a failing drive: slow operation on both the Mac and Windows partitions. Another indicator: inability to reinstall OS X from the original installation discs. Disk Utility and even the Apple Hardware Test provide little useful information in a situation such as yours. However, desktop drives typically have a lifespan of 4-5 years, so failure would not be surprising at this point in time.
You could try to reformat the HDD and reinstall OS X again, though you're likely to hit the same error/timeout road block that tripped you up the first time if the hard drive is failing. So, alternatives:
-- Replace the hard drive. You'll find good instructions at iFixit.com and OWC (macsales.com). OR . . .
-- Install OS X (and, if you need it, Windows, too) on an external drive. You'll get best performance by using your fastest port--that is, FireWire 800 rather than USB 2 on a mid 2010 iMac.

Aperture wont op "To use this library, make sure its file permissions are set correctly." error when opening aperture 3.4.5 library.

Have been using fine up until Wednesday this week and suddenly cannot open file at all.
I have around 10K images on drive but file size for library says 0bytes. When I use Alt to open it shows file and shows correct number of versions and originals but then gives the error re permissions when trying to open.
Have tried the repaire permissions, repair database and rebuild database all give same error about permissions and fail to start.
HELP!
Regards
James.

I think I set it to keep the images in the library not referenced but the drive did contain many pictures before I started using Aperture so i need to bring them into the library.
How large is your library now, and how much space can you afford for your Aperture library on your internal drive?
Or do you have a second exernal drive, that you could format MacOS Extended (journaled) to be able to temporarily host your Aperture library?
Do you need the "Tuxera NTFS" formatting on your external drive to share image files with other systems, or would it be an option to reformat that drive?
If you are more comfortable with a managed ibrary, by all means keep the library managed. Only it needs to be on a drive formtated MacOS X Extended (Journaled). It could be your inernal drive, if you have enough space or a locally connected external drive. Connect it to the fastest port you have; Firewire, or Thnderbolt, a fast USB port.
Move the library there, then import the images, that you now have in separate folders on your externa drive. To prevent Aperture from importing duplicates, enable the option "Do not import Duplicates" in the import panel. If you are lucky, Aperture will recognize many of the duplicates. if you have not changed the filenames.
I have to sign off for the next couple of hours, but will look in later.
Regards
Léonie

Fastest Ports

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