How to boot off of my external hard drive?

How can I achieve this?

What kind of drive do you have? (3.5" or 2.5" FireWire, USB 2.0 or something else?) Have you formatted the drive with the GUID partitioning scheme? (Using the Disk Utility.) Have you installed Mac OS X to the hard drive? Those are the two steps you'll need to follow to make a bootable external hard drive.
-Doug

Similar Messages

HT1727 is there a way to run iTunes off of an external hard drive?

My iPhone 4S is currently in recovery mode and I'm trying to restore it. I'm stuck overseas so I haven't been able to update the iOS software for a few months and iTunes on my computer won't restore my phone without installing the latest software (which is a 920 MB download). The problem though is that the base I'm on has wifi but the server resets its connection every few hundred MB you download (this is to prevent people from monopolizing bandwidth all day long). The iOS download however is an 'all or nothing' download so I have now watched it get to 500 MB three times before resetting the connection and when that happens the download starts over from scratch. I called apple support and worked out that the only way for me to download this update is through a hardwired connection. We have several computers available that have a hardwire connection but I can't install anything on them since they are US government owned. So what I basically need to be able to do is access my iTunes off of an external hard drive, download the update to that drive, and then copy the update to my phone so that I can restore my phone from the backups on my computer. Is there anyone out there who can give me a step-by-step to doing this? Otherwise my phone is an expensive paperweight until I can get back to a place with high speed internet that I can connect to my personal computer. Thanks.

You can put your iTunes library on an external drive. Just copy the entire iTunes folder from <User's Music> out to it. You can access the library from any computer running the same build of iTunes by holding down shift as you start iTunes and browsing to \iTunes\iTunes Library.itl
What you can't do is have a self-contained portable version of the iTunes application that isn't "installed" on the machine you want to use it on, so unless there is a spare port on a hub or switch that you can get permission to connect your own laptop to I don't see how you're going to get that update.
tt2

How do I restore a failed external hard drive using Time Machine?

I have an external hard drive connected to my iMac that is being backed up with Time Machine. I just realized that should it one day fail and no longer appear as a connected device, I'm not sure how to restore its data to another external drive. When I disconnected the external hard drive (to mimic a drive crash) and entered Time Machine to see if I could verify that the external hard drive was, in fact, being backed up - I didn't know where to find it. Under the Today (Now) information, I didn't expect to see it there as it was no longer connected to the machine. But when I went back a few days, I expected to see its backup appear in the Sidebar. But no!
So - how do I restore a failed external hard drive using Time Machine?
Searches for this information on Google yielded "iffy" results. I'm hoping someone here is able to offer some clear steps to follow. Perhaps I'm missing something silly. Thank you very much!

I came across this discussion after encountering the same problem. Since my internal HD was cose to full I added an additional external HD to my setup. I moved my iPhoto files to an external HD and backed both this external HD and my internal HD up with Time Machine to another external HD. So far the theory. When I wanted to test if this setup worked I noticed that I could only see my iPhoto libraries on the external HD in Time Machine when the external HD was connected to my computer, but not if I turned it off. This led me to search for a solution on the Apple Support Communities discussion board.
The suggestions made Kappy seem right, at least in my experience, in that my Time Machine simply did not back up the external HD until I followed the steps he suggested above. These were the following:
"So, if you want it backed up then here's what you need to do:
1. In Time Machine preferences remove the external drive from the Exclude list.
2. Verify that it is now included with your other drive in the backup list.
3. Do a Backup Now to create a new backup of the external drive."
After doing this, my external HD showed up in the Backups.backupd as a seperate folder. I could clearly see the Time Machine back-up for my internal HD and my external HD. In addition, in Time Machine itself I was able to find the external harddrive by clicking on my own computers name under "Devices". I hope my experience helps to resolve your issue as this discussion board has helped me resolve mine (which I believe to be very similar).
Cheers!

Is there a way to access my iTunes Library, which is stored on a (PC) External Hard Drive, on a MacBook Air (through an Apricorn Universal Hard Drive Adapter), without transferring the music files off of the external hard drive?

Is there a way to access my iTunes Library, which is stored on a (PC) External Hard Drive, on a MacBook Air (through an Apricorn Universal Hard Drive Adapter), without transferring the music files off of the external hard drive?
In other words, because the MacBook Air only has 120 gbs of hard drive space & my old hard drive, from a Lenovo, has 500 gbs of hard drive space (and I have over 120 gbs of music), I’m looking to manage my iTunes music from the external hard drive permanently. Upon attempting to access the iTunes library held on the external hard drive the following message comes up: “The iTunes Library.itl file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permission for this file”. Is there a way to get around this?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks so much!

You will have to engage a split library which means you will have to start answering questions on this forum because you will need to learn a lot about how iTunes works in order not that have a big mess at the end of it all. It also won't be easy when the time comes to relocate it all to different drives.
You can go to advanced preferences and turn off organize media and copy to items to media folder when adding items to library. Next read about how to selectively consolidate items to the external drive.
Sept. 2010, Consolidate selected content - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2589812 and April 2014, https://discussions.apple.com/message/25414357
"...selected the new tracks directly in iTunes, Control-clicked on the selection, and saw that now you can consolidate selected items." - http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090919000326840
Remember that when you start iTunes without the external drive turned on iTunes will present you with a bunch of broken links. If you have automatic downloads enabled with iCloud you may have to turn that off to prevent iTunes from repopulating your drive trying to deal with those "missing" tracks.
If you add tracks in bunches to iTunes and want them to go to different media folders you will need to either add them by holding down the option key while dragging if the desired media folder is not the one set in preferences, or by changing the media folder in preferences. Changing media folder preferences only applies to new files added, not old ones.
Okay, I am going to stop typing because you might just reply to me, "Oh, okay, forget it," and I don't need the exercise.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391

Running Itunes library on a new computer off of an external hard drive

Hello, I've recently purchased a Macbook and an external hard drive. I transferred all my files from my old Mac onto my external and would like to try to run my itunes library from there through my new laptop as opposed to putting all the files onto the new computer.
Is it possible to have the files exclusively running off the hard drive and never going onto the new macbook? How might I go about doing this?
I've tried following some of the video tutorials but that just seems to route you to do it from your old computer off of a external hard drive, and nothing to do with using it on a new computer.
Basically what I want to do is get everything running off the external (all the old computer's data) and none of it ever to set foot on my new Macbook.
Thank you all in advance for your help!
-Rob

Assuming you use the iTunes default settings where iTunes copied added items to your iTunes folder and organizes your library (meaning - everything is all self contained in the iTunes folder), then all you have to do is drag & drop your iTunes folder (not just the iTunes Music folder you find inside the iTunes folder) to the external drive and copy the entire thing.
If you want to test that it worked or would like to actually start using it from that location instead, use these instructions when you start iTunes to point it to the new location...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
If you are just testing to make sure a backup copy works and still want to use the internal location, then close iTunes after you verify it works, and restart iTunes again with the same instructions and point it back to your internal drive (original) location. Otherwise you are all set to use the library from the external location.
When you move the external drive to another computer, use the same start up instructions above to point your iTunes on that computer to the library on the external drive.
Additional info...
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307074
Cheers,
Patrick

Hello, i am new to the mac and i need to learn how to re image using an external hard drive

Hello, i am new, like baby fresh new,...lol, to the mac and i need to learn how to re-image using an external hard drive.

How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive. Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure. You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
Step Three: Boot from the external drive. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your new hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
1. Open Disk Utility from 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. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume. Click on the Restart button. You should boot from the new drive. Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.

How do I set up an external hard drive as startup disk?

How do I set up an external hard drive as startup disk?

Install OS X onto the external drive. Then:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the external disk's icon from which you want to boot.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.

Can anyone boot Leopard from an external hard drive on an iMacPPC?

Can anyone boot Leopard from an external hard drive on a G5 iMac PowerPC? How?

Allan's answer is irrelevant as he refers to Snow Leopard. He must have isread your post!
Yes, you can and I do. The proviso is that the external hard drive is connected by firewire, as a PPC Mac cannot boot via USB.

Since I upgraded to 10.9.5, my macbook no longer recognizes my external hard drive. How do I fix this? External hard drive is a 1TB Toshiba formatted for mac. Worked fine until latest upgrade.

Since I upgraded to 10.9.5, my macbook no longer recognizes my external hard drive. How do I fix this? External hard drive is a 1TB Toshiba formatted for mac. Worked fine until latest upgrade.

Solved the problem by dumping my external HD onto another computer. Re-formatting and re-installing the data. Not what I wanted to do but it solved the problem.

Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation it gives me an input/output error and stops. Any tips?

Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation and after having selected both my destination and source drives, the operation begins but soon fails due to input/output error. If I try to create an image of the drive it gives me the same error message. Any help would be much appreciated.

Disk Utility only creates a image of the drive, so it's no help getting exactly what you want, which is your files. If the file structure is messed up or the drive is failing then it's no help.
If you have a external boot drive and you can't access the internal non-booting drive though the typical Finder and windows to transfer your files via drag and drop methods, then you need to install Data Rescue on the external boot drive and it will do as best as it can to recover your files. (works on non-encrypted/non-Filevaulted drives only)
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Are you sure you have hard drive failure, or that OS X isn't merely not booting?
Because if the drive is working physically, then there is a host of fixes
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/

I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive.

I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive. Please help for I am not that computer savy and don't want to mess anything up.
Thanks!

I called Apple Support and they walked me through it. They told me to basically copy and paste my music to the external hard drive. (I think.) Or maybe it was they had me transfer a folder to the EHD. I don't exactally remember it was a few years back. But I tried to plug in the EHD before starting and...nothing. Still says same thing, "locate file."

How do you back up an external hard drive with time capsule?

how do you back up an external hard drive with time capsule?

Will time capsule back up the machine and the hard drive that is plugged into the machine?
Yes, if the hard drive with the video files is formatted correctly for Mac
On the Mac with the hard drive connected....click on the Time Machine "clock" icon at the top of the screen
Click Time Machine Preferences
Click Options
Here you will see a list of items that have been excluded from backups
Click the name of the hard drive to highlight it
Click the - (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the hard drive from the list of excluded items
The hard drive will now be backed up with your Mac on the next pass that Time Machine makes

How do i import to a external hard drive

Hi in I movie how to i import to a external hard drive from my video camera as i find it takes to much room on my imac. thanks

Hello there foxcub 6,
It sounds like you want to be able to import your video to an external drive rather than your internal drive to save space.
First, you'll need to create an iMovie library on your external hard drive. Take a look at the "Create a new library" section here: http://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.0/#mov3fa25bae7
After you've created the library, you can import media directly to it, and copy existing projects and events to it as well. You can learn more about importing here:
http://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.0/#movbc953953e
Step 6 outlines how to Import to a different library specifically:
Do one of the following:
To choose an existing event to contain the imported clips: Choose the event from the “Import to” pop-up menu at the top of the Import window.
To create a new event to contain the imported clips: Choose New Event from the “Import to” pop-up menu, type a name for the new event, and press Return.
To learn more about events, see Organize your events and projects.
The Import To dropdown is at the top of the Import window that opens when you click File > Import.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,Sterling

How do I a setup an external hard drive on my Macbook Pro?

How do I a setup an external hard drive on my Macbook Pro to my primary hard drive for my iTunes library?
I ask this because every time I try to do this it my Mac book pro always wants to use the external hard drive I plug in as a time machine back up rather than my primary hard drive. I figured it would be cheaper and more efficient to use an external hard drive rather than have apple charge me an arm and a leg to replace and upgrade my current hard drive in my Mac book pro.

I responded to this in your duplicate posting at: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2690347
I recommend giving a first post a chance before posting a second time, especially since it may result in a lot of duplication in effort from the people volunteering their time here.

How do i safely eject an external hard drive?

how do i safely eject an external hard drive after back up is done?

Press the eject key, or open a program like iTunes and eject it, or drag the desktop icon to the trash.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

How to boot off of my external hard drive?

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