How do I move my operating system to a different hard drive

Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

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How do I move my operating system from one internal hard drive to another on the same Mac?

My question is pretty straightforward: How do I—or can I—move my operating system from one internal hard drive to another on the same Mac Pro desktop?

I'll let baltwo come in with a definitive answer, but the last time I just made a clone, CCC used Disk Utility to create a recovery partition on an external drive's partition. You get these windows successively (and it did create it with a message that it was successful):

How do i move my iphoto library to a different hard drive

i want to move my iphot library / and photos to a differant hard drive. I have no room on my current hard drive, just way too many photos.

Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
LN

How do I install an operating system on my erased hard drive when I get the error "This item is unavailable"?

So i erased my MacBook's hard drive trying to get a fresh, clean system install. After erasing, I tried to install a new OS X with the Recovery drive but after entering my Apple ID it simply says "This item is currently unavailable, Please try again later." So now my computer has no operating system on it, and I can't get one.

You may need to do the following. Check this to be sure you can: Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery. If you are OK:
Install OS X Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should restore the version of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer.
If the above does not work, then you have to first install Snow Leopard:
Clean Install of Snow Leopard
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
         button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. After you finish Setup Assistant will complete the installation after which
         you will be running a fresh install of OS X. You can now begin the update process
         by opening Software Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your
         installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
You can now upgrade from the App Store, but right now Apple's servers are not working for Snow Leopard users, so be patient and keep trying to download Yosemite.

Move the iBooks library to external/different hard drive?

Hi! Is it possible to move the iBooks library from its default location on the boot drive (where the iBooks-application also resides) to a different hard drive?
Currently all my ebooks and PDF’s are kept in the default „Books“-folder in the home-library on the SSD-boot-drive of my Mac where the iBooks application is also kept by default (path: Users/„username“/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBo oks/Books). Space is getting narrow on my SSD-boot-drive so that I would like to free up approximately 20 GB by moving the entire iBooks library to a second internal HDD-drive of my Mac or to an external USB-drive.
I have not been able to find any instructions on the internet on how to move the iBooks library nor have I been successful in any of my experiments to move the „Books“-folder. What I have tried is the following:
1. I moved the original PDF-files away out of the „Books“-folder to a different drive and placed aliases from these files in the „Books“-folder. The result is that the iBooks-application will simply re-create a full size copy of the original PDF file in the „Books“-folder. I.e. no saving of disk space!
2. I copied the „Books“-folder from its default location in the user library on my internal SSD-boot-drive to a second internal HDD-drive, erased the „Books“-folder at the original location and instead placed a hard link at the original location. I verified that the hard link is working and pointing to the right location on the second drive. The result is that the iBooks-application will not recognize/show any of the PDF-files at the new location. Trying to re-import the missing PDF-files into iBooks results in the message „This book is already in your library. Do you want to replace it with the one you’re adding?“. By clicking on „Yes“ the same message returns infinitely often. I.e. no successes!
3. I repeated the same procedure as described above under 2. using the „iBooks“-folder which encloses the „Books“-folder (along with three other folders) with the same results as before. I.e. no successes!
(path: Users/„username“/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks)
Does anyone know how to successfully move the iBooks library to external/different hard drive?
Does anyone have links to internet discussions about this problem?
Regards BJB

I was in on the Mavericks beta, when iBooks was introduced. You can not believe me if you want but it isn't currently possible to store the iBooks library on external storage at this time. The ebooks must be on the path ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books for iBooks to function properly. Any other method you may find to accomplish what you want will be unapproved and could break at any time.
You may submit your polite feedback to Apple here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/ibooks_ios.html

How do I copy my operating system to a solid state drive and make it the disk I boot from?

How do I copy my operating system to a solid state drive and make it the disc I boot from?

Where is your operating system now? Basically, you clone it from wherever it is now to the SSD:
Clone Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue button.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the SSD. Source means the drive now holding OS X.

How do I move my iphoto library from one external hard drive to another?

how do I move my iphoto library from one external hard drive to another?

Drag it there in the Finder and then launch iPhoto with the Option key held down. Point it to the new instance of the library.
(58012)

How do I move my itunes library to an external hard drive?

How do I move my itunes library to an external hard drive?

Drag it there in the Finder, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and navigate to that instance of it.
(108779)

How can i move my Iphoto library to an external hard drive?

How do I move my Iphoto library to an external hard drive?

Here's a worflow for that:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

How do I move a file from Icloud to my hard drive?

How do I move a file from Icloud to my hard drive?

From the appropriate application (eg, Pages, TextEdit, etc) find your file(s) in iCloud (use File - Open), then highlight (you can multiple-select) the files you want to move, and drag them to your desktop or another Finder location.
Matt

Is it possible to run an operating system from an external hard drive?

Really weird question here, but I've always wanted to know this. I have a MBP 13" mid-2012 and I installed a 256GB SSD. I currently have OSX 10.9 and Windows 8.1 installed on the drive, but is it possible to actually run an operating system from an external hard drive. I don't want to install anymore operating systems onto the internal SSD because I don't want to run out of space. So, I'm wondering can I install Linux on an external hard drive, the same way I would on an internal hard drive and just plug it in via USB 3 or Thunderbolt? Is it actually possible to use a computer this way? I know I can boot from a usb stick, so is it possible to actually use a computer with an operating system installed in an external hard drive?

windows don't support being installed on usb mass storage installs like usb

Playing video and running an Operation System in the external hard drive

I am sorry that this question is not relevant to apple but I want to ask if I paly video or run an operation system on my external hard drive, will it shorten the life of my mac air or my harddrive.

Probably not. That said anything can and will eventually break but what you are doing what these devices were designed to do. Relax and enjoy.

How do i move files from mac mini to external hard drive

how do i move files from mac mini to external hard drive

The simplest method would be to drag & drop the files you want to move to the external drive using the Finder. Just open both the source and destination locations in separate Finder windows.

Can I move my operating system to a different partition on the same drive?

I thought I knew what I was doing when I partitioned my hard drive and installed the operating system and everything else. The other partitions are for documents, photos, etc. It worked well for quite a while but now I find there is not enough free space on my start-up partition (24GB) to be able to do new installations. I have cleared a 50 GB partition on the same drive to be the new home of my operating system. I tried copying all the files in the System partition to the new drive but "Startup Disk" doesn't recognize the copied version. How can I make this work without having to install everything all over again?

Too true. I have been partitioning my drives since the 80's when it was "illegal" and voided warranties as was opening the case on a Mac. Now the cases open right up and you drop and slide in new drives and memory. And it has saved my butt many many many times. You put your operating system on one partition, from what I have read it is best on the first partition of the first hard drive in the chain, Master, if you have more than one drive. I have four drives with now down to 8 partitions with the last two 10.4.x OS's that worked well and my last 10.5 for emergency use, all on one drive in separate partitions and boot to them all the time with no problems. I always keep my last install just in case intact and bootable. It's no different than what is done with BootCamp and running Windows. Then put all your data, files, non-Apple applications on another partition(s). That way when the OS hammers, and it will, all you have to recover is the OS and your data is safe. Thenall you really have to worry about is certain preferences and databases that have to be on the start up partition that won't work when aliased. I have found them, and they are few, and use Backup from the iDisk software library to back these files up to my iDisk nightly. And having the OS all by itself makes back ups so much easier and smaller. But you have to leave Apple applications on the OS partition in the Applications or Utilities folder or the Apple Updater will not see them.
Before iTunes and iPhoto would allow you to link to databases that are not on the start up partition, I was aliasing those files from other partitions. Then early 10.5 it didn't work as well, now when you hold the option key prior to starting up in iTunes and iPhoto you'll get a window to go find or create any of many databases to run off of. I have done this for years with Apple, Microsoft, Macromedia, Adobe and many other applications.
So far my largest OS has been 14.6GB after I installed GarageBand and it loaded a ton of instruments on to the OS partition. I have been through this before and found them and moved them off to another partition and aliased them back and GB works great. Otherwise, even in 10.5.x you can have relatively smaller partitions. And yes you want room to grow, if even just scratch disc space that some applications will not let you choose or go off the OS partition. So I hover around 25-30GB partitions and have never gotten close to getting more that 60% full, fulfilling the 10-15% free space axiom that seems to get larger with every update. I have read here that several people that had taken their machines to an Apple where they replaced drives saying that the techs partitioned the drives and said that the minimum for 10.5.x was 12GB. As the updates flow, that will vary probably up. Plus Apple has some bloated applications and a ton of things that you'll never need or use that take up room that are a pain to find, like unnecessary fonts. A little extra space is always good.
I use CarbonCopyCloner to make compressed back ups and bootable clones. The older versions would not copy files that would be easily rebuilt when you booted that OS, thus cleaning up the clone/back up by cleaning/omitting files that normally get damaged. Not sure if that is part of the latest versions. I think they copy everything. Another great thing is that Apple installers and Disk Utility and can use them to restore or migrate from. Because of CCC, I now have it down to 10-15 to restore a crashed or failing OS from parts. I have yet to loose anything, except time in having to deal with an OS that sometimes has a mind of its own.
As you play around as I did when I was waiting for an Apple Tech Rep, and reran the Combo Updater back over a wonky install, to find out if you could do that, it was done and worked great just as he returned and said no one there knew. I told him that I did and it worked great. We kept in touch for a couple of months to see if anything weird happened, which it didn't, and now it is suggested and common practice. Just as the Tech's and I whispered under our breath in the 90's about partitioning. Now they suggest it and Apple will talk to those that have partitioned. As you see needs and experiment you'll learn (trial by fire) and all this will become second nature. So don't think this is too much and go for it. Just make sure before you are completely comfortable, have another drive, I use 25GB Rewritable Blu-ray Discs, to do regular normal, CCC, back ups until you get the hang of it. This method yields 6-8GB compressed archives. Then you'll have a place for your stored back ups and whatnot. I was keeping up to 5 iterations, i.e.: 10.5.1a, b, c, d and e. Once my paranoia subsided I pared it down to two since I could easily recover the small amount that I have to now from small back ups that are mostly aliases relinking files that are safe on other partitions.
So yes you can put/clone the OS to another partition. Just make sure you cover your bases, use an application made for cloning/backing up (CCC) and label your installs as not to have the same name on two OS's or you'll have a bit of a problem off the top remembering which is which. I'm on 10.5.5C2.
Good Luck and Happy Partitioning.

How do you move your iphoto library to an external hard drive--step by step because I dont even know the basics--Help!

I have no more space on my hard drive and my computer keeps freezing. I would like to move my 10,000 photos from IPHOTO to an external hard drive but dont know how to do it. I am reading answers to similiar questions but dont know how to do even the simplest instructions like "after you quit Iphoto how do you copy the iphoto library from our pictures folder to the external disk????" Ugghhh I have no idea how to do this. Please help a busy mom of three who sits here for an hour and just spins her wheels!!!

Make sure the external drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled), quit iPhoto, drag the iPhoto library to the external drive, depress the option key, launch iPhoto and use the select library command to select the iPhoto library on the external drive
Fully test the library. Once you are sure it is totally ok delete the old library - test one more time prior to emptying the trash
Check and make sure that your backup system is backing up yor external drive
LN

How do I move my operating system to a different hard drive

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