How to "choose" external hard drive

I have searched several of the internal to external HD discussions but do not know what to do when the external hard dricve does not show up so i can choose it.
I have been working on a video on my internal HD and then realize ( of course) that my internal is too small. bought a WD 320 external and hooked it up. Time machine recognized it and sent everything onto it for back up I guess. I double clicked on Mac HD on desk top> application> disk utilties and it is there so I went to Erase> Mac extended journal and titled it > security at zero out. When I went to FCE 4 >system preferences > Set, I cannot find it ( cannot open disk utilties) in order to set it as the scratch disc. When I go back in thru Mac HD again I can open the disc utitlites but none of the setting I made like ( like name and security ) were saved. Now what???
is there a way that I can do this and continue on my video seamlessly
thanks

The reason why I was asking is that when an external drive is attached it should show up on your desktop. Then from FCE you simply navigate to the drive on your desktop to choose it on your scratch disk, not go through disk utilities. It seems to me that something might be wrong with your drive if it is not showing up.
When you connect it, does it show up in Disk Utility? If so, how is the drive formatted?
And last of all, What do you mean "Time Machine used to show up on my desktop"? Time Machine is an application. Do you mean that the external drive with the Time Machine symbol used to show up on your desktop?

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Yes I did get to that part.... I went trough external to retrive itunes folder... When I selected the folder, it said that it was locked, choose another folder... I then went to my external again to my itunes folder and and used command I to see if folder was locked and it wasn't.... it was suggested on another forum to reboot.. which I did and still same problem... All I want to do is link my external hard drive that has my itunes playlist from another Mac to my new one.. and to also use the external as the main source for adding new songs to my playlist...

I would like to thank PlotinusVeritas for his or her advice on how to fix external hard drive. It worked. Many thanks!

I would like to thank PlotinusVeritas for his or her advice on how to fix external hard drive. It worked. Many thanks! I am new and may not be the right place to post my message here. But I am really grateful and want to express my appreciation to PlotinusVeritas.

Mickey,
Here is your original topic:
Need Help with my External Hard Drive
PV seldom if ever visits this forum as it is for Macs made before 1998.

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How to decrypt external hard drive on lion filevault

To do this, follow these steps:
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diskutil cs list
The output of this command will look like a hierarchical tree. Locate the long alphanumeric code next to the words "Logical Volume Group" (this code is called a "UUID"), and copy this code to the clipboard by highlighting it and then pressing Command-C.
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Hi, I am relatively new to iMac and time capsule. I am a novice computer and Mac user so things have to be simple. I have been reading a number of threads in the forums gleaning as much information as I can. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
My iMac is running OS 10.6.4 with a 313 GB HD and my time capsule is 500 GB. I purchased my first iMac 2 years ago. Shortly thereafter I decided that I needed to be backing up files that I have been creating and building especially my photos and music files so I purchased a time capsule which I have been using as an external hard drive not as a wireless router. It is hard wired to my Mac. I use another wireless network. I have used Time Machine a few times and it has worked well for me. So far this simple set up has met my needs.
Just recently I got two error messages, one that "Your startup disk is full." and "The disk containing your iPhoto library is running low on space.
While I was exploring my memory capacities and possible ways of freeing up space on my computer my Time Capsule croaked. Apparently all hardware has an expiry date. It has since been replaced under an extended warranty and the new one reinstalled. I have done a complete back of my hard drive and deleted some useless stuff on my computer's hard drive to create 17 free GB. I am pondering what further steps I should take to safeguard my data. I hopefully will be building a much more extensive photo library both in iPhoto and Aperture. I wonder whether I should be looking at an additional external hard drive which seems to be the easiest thing to do. My Time Capsule (500 GB) is not quite twice the size of my computer's hard drive. Maybe it is too soon to invest in an external hard drive seeing that it may have a shot life span such as my first Time Capsule did.
Does Time Machine only work with Time Capsule or will it work with other external hard drives? The folks at my Apple store tell me that Time Capsule can be used just to store data but I have heard otherwise in the forums. How would an additional external hard drive will work with Time Capsule? What is the difference is between USB and firewire? Is it possible to open files stored on the Time Capsule to see exactly what they are?
I do realize that Time Capsule only backs up new files and any changes so I wonder how long I can continue with this arrangement.

curious r wrote:
Does Time Machine only work with Time Capsule or will it work with other external hard drives?
Yes, Time Machine works with external HDs. That's how most folks back up. Connecting directly via USB or FireWire is much faster then Ethernet, but you're right -- all disk drives fail, sooner or later.
The folks at my Apple store tell me that Time Capsule can be used just to store data but I have heard otherwise in the forums.
It can be used for Time Machine backups and other things, but trying to use the same one for both presents problems, because of the way Time Machine works (filling-up all the available space before deleting the oldest backups) and the fact that you can't partition a Time Capsule's internal HD to separate your backups from the other data. Plus, you can't back up the other data.
How would an additional external hard drive will work with Time Capsule?
It won't extend the TC's internal HD -- backups can't "span" the two. In your setup, you'd be much better off connecting an external HD directly to your iMac. The advantage of a TC is, since it includes a wireless router, you can use it to make a wireless network and do backups wirelessly. That's what a lot of laptop owners do.
What is the difference is between USB and firewire?
FireWire is faster and more reliable for large amounts of data transfer. It also requires less use of your Mac's CPU, since the FireWire chipset does some of the work that your CPU has to do with USB.
Is it possible to open files stored on the Time Capsule to see exactly what they are?
Yes. Files you put there (other than Time Machine backups) are just like files on any other disk.
I do realize that Time Capsule only backs up new files and any changes so I wonder how long I can continue with this arrangement.
Yes, that's a concern. It varies greatly depending on how you use your Mac, but our general "rule of thumb" is that it needs 2-3 times the size of the data it's backing-up.
There's another consideration: Time Machine can back up FROM your internal HD and external HDs that are directly connected via USB or FireWire (if they're formatted for a Mac), but it cannot back up from any network drive, including a TC's internal HD or a USB drive connected to it. So if you move some data from your internal HD to an external HD connected to the TC, you'll need some other way to back it up.
Forgive me, but I'm not sure why you have a Time Capsule in your setup, if I understand it correctly. You have one iMac, no laptops or other computers, and you use a different router for your network, right?
Your best bet may be to get one external HD for the "overflow" of things you don't have room for on your iMac's internal HD, and another, much larger one, for Time Machine backups of both.
I'll press my luck here and also suggest yet another external HD, perhaps a portable, for "secondary" backups. With a portable, you can take it to a secure off-site location, such as your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, etc., and also be protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] for more.

How to backup external hard drive to another external hard drive using time machine ?

Hello,
i have an external hard drive which i store all my drum samples and sound library on and files are contantly changing, adding new sounds, deleting old ones etc ..
So my method of back up as of now is to just copy all the edited files and click and drag to the back up disk.
Now, my question is, how do i back up my external hard drive to another external hard drive using time machine ? I read somewhere that you can do this, i cant find the post however. It would be nice to automate the back up process rather than manually finding the files to copy over.
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The question you pose is conditional, in that you should have more than an exact
capacity replacement for a clone, if the drive you are going from (or one going to)
has insufficient free space and that has a bootable clone on the drive; any space
tied up in a partition for Time Machine backup, takes away from the running space
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be a good match. It could work, but you'd need a reasonable size partition or hard
disk drive for a system. Snow Leopard and all its associated applications, can do
OK in a 100GB HDD. (My computers have more storage capacity than is used; so
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make duplicates of works-in-progress, for each change in an open file; that adds up.
{This question (& my reply) should've been in their own thread & not at the end
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So I guess I don't have a direct answer to your question; having just returned from
a few hundred miles and automobile issues, too. I'm not really thinking on-topic...
The clone should be on its own separate drive, and up to 3TB drive dedicated to
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http://osxdaily.com/2012/01/04/format-an-external-hard-drive-or-usb-flash-drive- for-mac-os-x/
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57600320-263/using-external-drives-to-save- space-on-your-mac-format-them-first/
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I am sure if I spent the time reading those pages, I would lose more time than I would save with a Firewire drive if I ever had to do a complete restore. If you ever have to do a complete restore, just run it overnight. Do like I do, save your money, maybe buy some Apple stock, and you will make more than enough to compensate yourself for the extra time it might take.
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macjack wrote:
Bruce De Benedictis wrote:
USB2 ... It may be a touch slower if you should ever have to recover a volume
Please check your information...
http://www.lyberty.com/tech/terms/usb.html
http://www.firewire-1394.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm
These were my first 2 hits on Google, there are pages more you can read at your leisure.

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Hi.
I have just about completed converting my life from PC to Mac. I am very excited. I have three Macs at home and they are all blue tooth, etc. I am easily able to share a printer hooked to one of them, but can not find a way to find, share or use an external hard drive attached to another. How would one begin looking for that device in order to read from or write to it?
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I have 3 Macs Airport networked at home; one G4 has an extrnal hard drive attached. If that hard drive is on, when I log into the particular G4 computer from my iMac Duo2Core (Go>Connect to Server) I get the option of logging into the G4 "Macintosh HD" or to the attached "External Hard Drive." The User Accounts at home do not have Admin privileges to the other computers, except my iMac Duo2Core which has admin privileges to the other 2. I did nothing special in setting up the network. I don't know if I can log into the external from the other G4 which does not have admin privileges to the G4 with the hard drive - never had occasion to test.
So, you might first try a set up like mine, (one admin computer for the whole network, and if you can't access the hard drive from non-admin computers, then (and if safe) give all computers admin privilegs across your network (System Preferences>Accounts - check the box that says "Allow user to administrate this computer" - for each user account). If you have young kids or folks who shouldn't have admin privileges, I'd think long and hard about doing it the second way though.
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Hello:
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For deleting backups from Time Machine: http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
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How to "choose" external hard drive

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