Hard Drive copying

Hi everyone,
i've not had to copy my entire hard drive before, this is the drive with my OS on it etc so i don't particularly want to simply reinstall onto a new HD, as i want everything on it still intact... how do i go about this? can i do it with the drive still in the computer, or do i have to put it into a third party computer and go from there?
as you can see, i have no idea! this is possibly the wrong place, but the only forum i regularly read!
cheers guys
JJ

JJ,
If I've read your post correctly it sounds like you're looking for a drive imaging program.
You have several choices however the most popular ones include:
Norton Ghost (just released Ghost 9.0)
Acronis True Image (TI8 is the most current version)
Drive Image (Symantec bought Power Quest I think Ghost 9.0 is a merged product)
Casper XP
Drive Snapshot
Bootit Ng
Check out the links. One of these should do what you are looking for.
Bootit Ng
Drive Snapshot
Casper XP
Norton Ghost
Acronis True Image
Drive Image
Edit: One caution... I think that when you copy your OS partition to a new drive you may have to re-activate windows in the 30 day time frame

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https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2295#ROSETTALION
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Hello kskip,
Thank you for providing so much information about what is going on. It sounds like you have setup iTunes to save new content to your new external hard drive in iTunes>Preferences, but it sounds like iTunes is not opening iTunes Library.itl file on the new external drive. You have one last step to take to have iTunes point to your new external hard drive rather than your old one:
Steps to create or choose a different iTunes Library file
If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
If you are using Windows, hold down the Shift key and from the Start menu and choose All Programs > iTunes > iTunes.
You should see the following screen:
Additional information
If you do not see the screen above, then you did not hold the correct key at the correct time. You may want to try again. Note that if you pinned iTunes to the Start menu programs, and open it that way, it may not work.
Once you select "Choose Library," you will need to navigate to the iTunes Library.itl file on your new external drive.
You can find the full article here:
iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1589
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
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ive looked all over the internet but i cant figure out why my tv doesnt recongise the mp3 files on my external hard drive.
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im not sure if its because i had all my music in one folder and transfered it to my mobile phone. then delted the original foler.
i then took the folder back off my mobile and onto my mac then onto my hard drive. wouldnt that be the cause of the problem?
im using a mac and i have formatted my hard drive to ms-dos(fat32)
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ot to worry i figured it out!

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Cant find it clearly in tutorials...

You can do it.. should you do it is another question.
Store files on the TC.
This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
Major issues.
1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. Think this out very clearly.. how and to where are you going to backup your files. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no control. In fact the TC is so lacking in controls for even the router side.. that you cannot do more than the most basic of setups.
The following are controls on the hard disk side.
Reformat it. You can name the share. You can do a full archive of the whole disk. This will go at a speed of aprox. 30-50GB/Hr so calculate how long an archive of a full 2TB will take.
4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
Even apple btw say don’t do it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32 it adds network drives.
5. iTunes can constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
Read pondini for some work arounds.
Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

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I have plugged in 2 external drives. I want to copy a large file on one of them to the other. I find I can drag and drop nor is there a copy command to create a mirror image. Help, please
Congabobby

Hi c,
Have you tried copying a small file just to see if the issue is with the larger file or one of the HDs?

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One problem is that iTunes for Mac can't handle WMA files, iTunes for Windows will convert them, but not iTunes for Mac. When you add unprotected WMA files to your iTunes library (Windows only), iTunes converts them to new files that iTunes can play, based on your import settings. See if you can use your friend's PC to do this. If the borrowed PC has iTunes, create an alternate iTunes library so you don't mess up your friend's library. This explains how: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589
This support document might be helpful: iTunes: About the Add to Library, Import, and Convert functions, http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1347

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I had to get a new hard drive put into my macbook pro because it was failing. So, I moved all my data onto an external hard drive so I would not lose anything. But now I cannot get iphoto or imovie back onto my computer. It says I cannot open it because it is a time machine back up. I don't want to have to purchase iPhoto and iMovie again just because I had to replace my hard drive.

Copying the files directly from a Time Machine backup may be possible but I don't recommend it. Your new hard disk is essentially a new computer to Time Machine, and it will have problems understanding where to put the individual files. What you're trying to do is just not the right way to go about it.
To restore from a Time Machine backup, boot Lion Recovery and select "Restore from Time Machine backup".
See Pondini's explanation here: http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

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I'm starting the ambitious project of copying our family videos from 8mm tapes to iMovie to eventually making DVDs. since I don't have much disk space on my iBook, my plan is to put the iMovie files on an external hard drive & work from there. Here are the system specs:
Camera: Sony DCR-TRV520 (Digital 8)
Computer: iBook 800 MHz PowerPC G3, 28GB hard drive, 5GB available
OS 10.3.9
iMovie 4
Hard Drive: LaCie Eternet Disk mini 300GB (150GB available) format: Mac OS Extended
Problem: Open a new iMovie project on the external hard drive. Start to import the footage. After one or 2 seconds, the image freezes and import aborts.
Solution: Open a new project on the computer. Footage imports fine.
Problem: Can only import 1/2 hour or so of video before I'm in trouble. Files WAY too big for my itty bitty iBook!
Solution: Make a new iMovie file on the external hard drive & copy the clips from the computer to the hard drive. (this takes TONS of time!)
Problem: Open movie file on the LaCie. Import the clips. Clips show up but won't play!
Question: Is there any better way to do this? Why won't the project work on the external hard drive?
I teach video production at a high school and have done this many times on newer iMacs (iLife 6). We can't save every project on the computers, so certain projects I'll copy to an external hard drive. I've never had a problem working on an iMovie project from the hard drive. I considered uploading my movies on the computers at school, however then I'm stuck with iMovie 6 files on the hard drive and iMovie 4 at home.
Any suggestions -- other than get a newer computer?

Importing new footage from a video camera and working with iMovie with footage already on the computer are two completely different things.
At school, do you actually IMPORT video from digital camcorders directly to the USB drive as you said you were doing at home?
Because while you can indeed work on iMovie projects off a USB drive if you are not actually importing video, the whole importing process from a Firewire camcorder is sort of a streaming video type transfer and Firewire is used because it has a mode for this type of transfer. USB, on the other hand, can not import video from a camcorder straight to a USB drive reliably because there is way too much CPU overhead associated with USB transfers and it therefore can not keep up with the "streaming" video coming out of the camcorder.
If you want to find out more details, do a search for "isochronous" with Firewire. Firewire uses type types of transfers. Asynchronous transfer which is like USB uses where you transfer data, wait for the CPU to respond, then transfer the next chunk of data. Video transfer uses and isochronous process where, to put it very simply, the camcorder starts spitting out chunks of footage with a checksum and the receiving end receives it, calculates a checksum and if the checksums match, stores the chunk of data. If they don't match, the data is discarded and it starts to receive the next chunk of data. There is no ability to resend failed data so you get dropped frames in your footage.
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I just moved my iTunes library from my old computer to my new one. But there's a problem. I want to have my computer rely on its own hard drive for the storage of my iTunes, but it currently relies on my external hard drive. I would also like to have new songs simultaneously downloaded on the external hard drive and the PC's hard drive, when the external hard drive is plugged in. When its not plugged in and I have new content downloaded to iTunes, it would store it on the PC's hard drive, and later when the external hard drive is replugged in, it will download new content onto it as an automatic update. Is there anyway I can successfully do this? Any help is appreciated.
'Keep iTunes media folder organized' and 'copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library' are enabled. I have been trying to enable 'consolidate files', but it will not stay enabled and it will not do anything when enabled. Again, any help is appreciated. Thank you.

To move your library to the internal hard drive, copy the whole library folder structure (which includes the iTunes database - the iTunes Library.itl file - as well as your media). If you currently have the database on the internal drive and only your media on the external one, see turingtest2's tip on Make a split library portable for the procedure that will bring everything together under one location.
There is nothing in iTunes that supports the "Intertwining" of two drives that you describe. The best approach is to use the internal drive as your "master" drive and regularly synchronize with the external one - many find Microsoft's SyncToy tool an effective method for this.
"Consolidate files" is not a setting - it is a one-off operation that will copy any media files that are currently outside the standard iTunes folder structure into that structure; again see turingtest2's notes referenced above for the scenarios where you may need to do this in order to create a well-formed, manageable library structure.

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Hold the SHIFT key while launching iTunes. You will get the option to navigate to the iTunes folder on your external drive. In the iTunes folder point it to the iTunes Library.itl file.

Lack of hard drive space overnight and oddity at login prompt.

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HI and Welcome to Apple Discussions...
Boot from your Mac install disc and run Disk Utility in case the startup disk needs repairs.
Insert your install disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
*(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)*
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
Select your start up disk and click Restart
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If you cannot boot from your install disc, try booting in Safe Mode
What is Safe Mode
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Hard Drive copying

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