I need to upgrade my external hard drive, any suggestions

I have an iMac i5 quad core (2010 model), I have been using a Seagate Barracuda 250 GB 7200 RPM from an older iMac 20" G5 in an OWC Mercury Elite Pro Firewire 400/USB 2.0/1.1 enclosure as my backup external HD. The enclosure has the Oxford 911 chipset and says that it supports up to 750GB.
Since I have been using Snow Leopard only I have used time machine to backup to this HD. Now, that I have installed Lion, and partitioned my HD on my computer to have both Lion and Snow Leopard OS, I need to get a larger external HD to install in my OWC enclosure to save money.
I was looking on the OWC website and found a SeaGate 2.0TB Barracuda Green SATA 6Gb/s 64MB, 5900 RPM for $90.00, or the 7200 RPM for $158.00.
I am not sure if my enclosure with the Oxford 911 chipset will support this drive, and also the specs for my enclosure says up to 750GB, and that probably rules out these drives anyway.
I could just keep what I have and use it as a back up of my Lion partition currently using 134 GB. Snow Leopard using 127 GB on my internal 1TB hard drive. Then, I could purchase the OWC Mercury Elite Pro 2.0 TB Firewire 400/USB 2.0/1.1 with the Oxford 934 chipset, 5900 RPM, and 64 MB for $150.00. Even thought this would be a little slower, is it worth paying $40.00 more for the 7200 RPM speed?
On my hard drive now I am only using 261 GB, so after I first back up both partitions on the 2.0 TB external HD, any other backups would not take as long to do. I have Super Duper, but right now it is not recognizing my Lion HD, and I have not backed up Lion to my current external HD yet since I want to get a larger external HD. When I get the new HD, I can partition it so that I can backup either Lion partition or SL partition using time machine, it that right? My current external HD is bootable, but I am confused about Carbon Copy or Super Duper, will that be saved on my external HD?
Thanks,
DaisyMay

DaisyMay wrote:
Firewire 400/USB 2.0/1.1
I would recommend not settling for less then USB 3 or hold out for Thunderbolt, if your machine is capable. Firewire 800 minimum.
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), 2.4GHz IntelCore i5 320 HD 8GB RAM ParallelsDesktop6.0

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Looking to purchased a external hard drive, any suggestions?????

Hello My name is john...
I got a powerbook G4(500 Mhz) 15-inch screen, 30GB internal hard drive. I`m looking for an external hard drive to store my files( and to add more storage space)I looking for external hard drive like no more than $69.99 dollars....Something else....could anybody tell me the difference in getting a USB 2.0 port & FireWire????
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Passport-External-WDXMS600TN/dp/tech-data/ B000HZD2XK/ref=deasmtd/105-4949246-1849227?ie=UTF8&qid=1181576487&sr=8-6 Could anybody advised me If this is a good external HDD...pelase I would like it..If a lot of people could participate in this forum/discussion....to bring new ideas and suggestions and comments....
Cheers,
John

I know, that when it comes for asking the same questionnaire in all my forums all over again..its get a little bothersome, right???
Yes it does. Once is enough.
Your Tibook only has USB 1.1 ports, not USB 2 ports. You would be insane to buy a USB drive to use with it, unless you also buy a USB 2 adapter card for your CardBus slot. But we've already been all through that with you, in one of the dozen or more threads you've started while spinning your wheels and repeating yourself for the last three weeks.
If you can only find one drive for $69.99, and $69.99 is the most you're willing to spend, then your choice is already made, and you don't need any other recommendations.
There aren't a lot of people reading or responding to questions in the Tibook Discussions any more. If you look through the forums, you'll see that it's fairly unusual for more than three or four different people to post in any given thread lately. The likelihood that you will get a wide variety of responses to any question posted here is pretty small. That's too bad, perhaps, but that's the way it is.

HT201250 Do I need to partition my external hard drive if I'm using Time Machine and other storage?

I never used Time Machine before. I was storing select files on my external hard drive as well as using my libraries (IPhoto, ITune, IMovies) directly off of the external hard drive. That hard drive is giving me problems, so I bought a new one. I want to set up Time Machine on this one, but I also want to keep my active libraries on it. Do I need to partition the external hard drive?

You can partition the new drive, just don't make one of the partitons a TimeMachine drive, save a TM for a entire drive with more space than the boot drive as it saves "states" thus requires more room than most people expect.
I highly advise one drive to one drive for backups, and not placing too many backup eggs in one vulnerable hardware basket basically.
Drives are cheap, data is not. Hardware can fail just as often as software, so you need a multiple backup and storage stragedy to protect even against theft and fire.
Most commonly used backup methods

Do I need to keep my external hard drive connected at all times for time capsule?

Do I need to keep my external hard drive connected at all times for time capsule?

Hi,
I have a similar question. I have backed up my external hard drive through my computer, onto my TC. When I go into TM, it doesn't show the external hard drive unless it is connected to the computer. Can I access the info from the external hard drive that is on the TC if I don't have the hard drive plugged in? If so, how can I do that?
Thanks,
Bernadette

Want to add a 2TB internal hard drive, any suggestions?

Want to add a 2TB internal hard drive, any suggestions?

Hi bgardnerG5, and a warm welcome to the forums!
WD Caviar Black 2 TB Internal hard drive...
http://tinyurl.com/2bywnvz
A WD Caviar Bue would do also, but only has a 3 year warranty, the Black has a 5 year warranty.
The "Green" drives aren't really suited for a Boot drive.

Cannot uninstall cs6 bad hard drive, any suggestions?

Cannot uninstall cs6 bad hard drive, any suggestions?
THank you

Thank you for the Adobe contact. They connected me to the chat link and the Adobe tech Support rep sent me a License Recovery download link (attached) http://download.macromedia.com/pub/support/tools/LicenseRecovery111.dmg.
I have 10.10.1 Yosemite. When I open the download folder and click on the LicenseRecovery.app it shows up on the dock but it nothing happens. I cannot quit the app only Force Quit. I have restarted the mac and that did't help.
Adobe chat suggested I uninstall CS5.5/6 and re-install but why would that have anything to do with the app opening?
Any suggestion is greatly appreciated, again.
Thank you

Time Capsule - OS Upgrade and External Hard Drive

Hi, This is my first request and am happy to have found this community helpful so far. It has answered many of my previous questions because somebody else had already asked. However, this time I’m not able to get all the answers since I have specific questions. Please help.
I have a Macbook (late 2008 Aluminum) with 2GB memory, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GHz running Leopard. I just went and bought these to start an upgrade project–
a. CD for Snow Leopard
b. Time Capsule
c. 4 GB memory (2*2GB)
d. 1 External Hard Drive – 1 TB Seagate GoFlex (running out of space in 160GB macbook)
I will buy these applications via Mac App Store after I have the OS upgrade:
e. iPhoto ‘11
f. iMovie ‘11
I have successfully connected time capsule and configured it as my router and have set it up as the time machine backup device (what a breeze!). Also, I have taken the first full backup of macbook and am ready to go. Before I go ahead with next steps, I have few questions:
Should I install the new memory first and then Snow Leopard or doesn’t matter?
Any advice for my memory upgrade? I found the instruction manual in Apple’s site and am planning to do it myself.
Any advice for my Snow Leopard upgrade or anything to be cautious about? I believe the instructions after I pop in the CD will be self-explanatory.
After I have done the Snow Leopard Upgrade, I believe I will still have access to my files in the time machine backup in TC from before the OS upgrade? The reason I ask is I am planning to delete/move files after the OS upgrade.
FYI – After the Snow Leopard Upgrade, I will upgrade to iPhoto ’11 and iMovie ’11 from ’08. I have the latest iTunes.
After I have Snow Leopard, iPhoto/iMovie ’11, I will connect the EHD to the TC USB port and am planning to move the iTunes Media and iMovie project/events to the EHD (found the instructions on this) and delete the media from the macbook internal drive to relieve space. Say, just in case my EHD crashes in the next 2 days after I do this, will I still be able to recover the previous media/project files from Time Capsule? Or do I need to copy the iTunes Media and iMovie project/events into the Time Capsule manually before I move it into EHD? Basically, I want to make sure I have 2 copies of my media, 1 in TC and 1 in EHD, since I am deleting it from mac’s IHD.
Now say I have the EHD connected to TC via USB and have moved my all media and movie projects into the EHD. So macbook is accessing the EDH wirelessly, as the source for iTunes and iMovie media. For performance or portability, if I plug my EHD directly into the macbook, can it seamlessly recognize it as the media source for iTunes and iMovie or are there any settings involved? I am just wondering since via the TC it was a shared drive, and now it’s a plugged-in EHD.
I know that Time Machine does incremental backups. Is there an explanation on this as to what is meant by hourly, daily and weekly backups and what are the copies made? I heard the hourly are replaced by daily backups and the daily are replaced by weekly, what does that mean?
This may not impact me now, but may be soon. Is it true that once TC is full, time machine will delete copies of the oldest backup? My concern is that I want to somehow conserve today’s backup for good. Is that do able?
Should I be concerned that time machine backs up every hour, since it may reduce my macbook’s performance during the backups? I know a way to reduce the backup frequency, am just trying to understand if it’s necessary to do so?
How do I use my time capsule as an external hard drive? The reason is I have another PC from which I want to copy files and store in TC as a backup.
I know I have many questions, but am hoping to get your expert advice. Thank you.

Hello, seems like you wanted to do pretty much what i wanted to do. that is free up space on lap top. But still have instant access to your itunes stuff. I found a solution that works for me.
I have a portable WD hdd attached to my time capsule via usb, i then access both through the capsules wireless connection, using the TC for time machine.
The Apple tv then accesses my itunes lib through my MBP via TC's wireless. I did however connect the WD Hdd directly to my MBP for the initial transfer to the apple tv, but itunes seems to find the lib as long as its there, doesnt matter if its connected to MBPs usb or the TCs usb. Sometimes it might revert to the default location, but i've found that if you click on a song it still plays, then if you close then reopen itunes every thing goes back to your external hdd...
Which means if you go away or want your itunes lib on the move you just need a little WD hdd.
I'm not totally sure if its worked yet but i connected my WD hdd to my MBP vie usb and told the TC to back up that too by going to options in TM preferences, seems to have worked, not sure if it would work while connected to the TC usb connection, doesnt seem to.
NB:Before you do this do a back up of everything in you Itunes Lib on your TC incase you screw up.
(For easy transfer of your itunes lib go to preferences on itunes and create a folder called iTunes Music on your Hdd then close preferences and allow itunes to do its thing, then in itunes go to
file - library - consolidate library, itunes. Itunes then makes a copy of all music on your new hdd. I then deleted the tunes off my MBP)
Just make sure you open your finder and click on the TC to wake the drive before you open Itunes other wise you'll have to go in to preferences and keep altering the location for your itunes folder. which can take i tunes a while.
This method seems to cope with video and music just fine.
Well hope that wasn't too confusing, as i confuse myself at times.
Good Luck.........

After upgrade, my external hard drive will not back up

I upgraded to Mavericks.
I use a WD elements External hard drive for Time Machine. Since upgrade, it will not back up. I begin the process and the back up just hangs up. It says, preparing for back up. I have let it run for hours, and nothing occurs.

I just purchased 2 external hardrives. a LaCie Minimus and a G Drive. Each 1 TB. The guy at Apple told me that would provide 2 good TM backups for me. My internal HD has 750 GB capacity, of which I'm using 700 GB. Perhaps the ratio is not great enough. I do wish they would have told me this before I purchased the two Bummmmer! I even had them format and get the first back-ups going because of issues I've had in the past. I also just bought a 750 GB for photos.
So, I won't be able to buy another bigger external since I've just purchased 3. Ugh. Well, I'll just exclude some files and divide things up. Eventually, I just want my 20,000 iphotos on one of the 1TB externals, and a TM back-up on another so that iphoto will function once more. It really hates how many photos I have and is brutally punishing me for it.I seriously need to do some housecleaning!
Thanks for the advice. Just moved from US to Australia last week and was hoping to upload a few photos and the domino effect has lead me to this. Just went to Genius Bar in Perth today and they told me how to reformat drive to transfer iphoto library over, but I got stuck at trying to back-up my TM.

Do I need to have an external hard drive that has a certain spindle speed, like 7200?

In the past, when I did audio or video editing, the specs on the software required a certain rotational speed if I were using an external hard drive. Most of the time it was 7200. Do I need to use a specific spindle rotational speed for Final Cut Pro, or will drive 5400 or above do fine?

That still applies today as well. Helps to also use faster connection ports like Firewire 400 or 800, USB 3.0, or Thunderbolt rather than USB 2.0.

I need to buy an external hard drive for my MacBook Air as it is almost full. Which one should I buy?

Do I need to buy an Apple external Hard Drive for my MacBook Air?

There is no such thing as an Apple hard drive, ...Apples doesnt make same.
avoid western digital if possible.
Yes, having an external HD is necessary for data backups and keeping large media files for packing around etc.
you need data redundancy.
best options for the price, and high quality HD:
Quality 1TB drives are $50 per TB on 3.5" or $65 per TB on 2.5"
Perfect 1TB for $68
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B005J7YA3W/ref=sr_1_ 1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379452568&sr=8-1&keywords=1tb+toshiba
Nice 500gig for $50. ultraslim perfect for use with a notebook
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B009F1CXI2/ref=s r_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1377642728&sr=1-1&keywords=toshiba+slim+500gb
Best small HD for the money:
2.5" USB portable High quality BEST FOR THE COST, Toshiba "tiny giant" 2TB drive (have several of them, LOT of storage in a SMALL package) $117
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Connect-Portable-HDTC720XK3C1/dp/B00CGUMS48 /ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1379182740&sr=1-4&keywords=2tb+toshiba
*This one is the BEST portable external HD available that money can buy:
HGST Touro Mobile 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive $88
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Mobile-Portable-External-0S03559/dp/B009GE6JI8/ref=sr _1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383238934&sr=8-1&keywords=HGST+Touro+Mobile+Pro+1TB+USB+3.0+7 2 00+RPM
Most storage experts agree on the Hitachi 2.5"
Hitachi is the winner in hard drive reliability survey:
Hitachi manufacturers the safest and most reliable hard drives, according to the Storelab study. Of the hundreds of Hitachi hard drives received, not a single one had failed due to manufacturing or design errors. Adding the highest average lifespans and the best relationship between failures and market share, Hitachi can be regarded as the winner.

HT1284 Do I need to reformat my external hard drive before I backup to it? It shows very little free space when in fact it is empty.

I am new to Imac. I want to use an external hard drive to backup to but the drive shows very little free space when in fact it is empty. Do I need to reformat it and, if so How? Thanks

What is the external disk?
Is it new? If so, maybe it has a Windows file system on it (FAT, exFAT, or NTFS). If so then reformat to "HFS+ Journaled".
What backup utility are you using? TimeMachine, Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, etc...? If the external is suppose to be bootable because you are using a cloning backup (CCC or SuperDuper), then it is also important that the disk partition table be GUID.
You can find out this information via Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility, select the disk (not volume on the disk) and the partition time will be shown at the botton of the window. Now Select the volume and it will tell you how the file system on the disk is formatted.
Also do you want to leave room for a recovery partition on the external disk? Then repartition it with a small (2GB) partition that can hold a bootable recovery partition that you can setup via the Apple "Recovery Disk Assistant" which can be downloaded from Apple.

Do I need to partition my external hard drive for a bootable backup

Hi - First, I apologize for asking a question that's already been discussed so much. I did try to read everything I could, but I remain confused. Here is my precise situation:
I have an iMac, and I purchased a year's worth of Carbonite's online backup and breathed a sigh of relief. Then I read some people have problems with Carbonite, and the best advice was to buy an external hard drive, which I did. It just arrived, I plugged it in, and Time Machine backed up my computer on it...so I breathed another sigh of relief.
Then I read that my wonderful new 2T external hard drive isn't good enough, that I should partition it so as to have one backup, and one "bootable backup." Is this really necessary? And what is the difference between a backup, and a bootable backup? If it is necessary, how do I do it? Is it a problem that I've already used it to create a backup on Time Machine?
I use my computer for things like email, Facebook, pictures, eBay, stuff like that. I have no unusual needs. My computer is an iMac OS X 10.6.8.
Thank you in advance for any help you can offer!

I prefer a clone/bootable backup ovver Time Machine myself.
For TM you need a running OS, then time to restore, with a clone you can boot from that & keep working while doing the other when time is better. And you can test a clone before you need it.
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
You would need to Partition your drive though.
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html

I need to locate my external hard drive

For days I have been trying to find my external hard drive on my new mac!!!! Why is this so hard? I really need documents off of my hard drive by tonight!!!!!!!

Is it plugged in and turned on? You don't tell us anything really, so I'll start by guessing you mean you cannot see it on the Desktop. Remember we are not there and cannot read your mind so you have to describe what you are doing so we get a picture. I'd recommend starting by openign Finder - Preferences - General and ensure you have EHD checked where it indicates what you can see on your desktop.

Files Disappeared on Wall Street , Need Advice, And on External Hard Drives

My memory was low so I was in the process of archiving files when some of the folders in my Desktop documents folder disappeared. I had begun transferring files into Toast when it happened. The computer had previously been in sleep mode during the night.
When I searched for the contents using Find File. it listed them in the same place or as unavailable. I restarted, turned off extensions I didn't need, transferred some of the files still showing on my HD onto my USB JumpDrive for temp storage and rebuilt the desktop. When I ran Norton Disk Doctor, it found problems with the Catalog B-tree, which makes sense since it's the "data structure where files are stored on your disk." Norton was able to fix some of the issues, but not all, and was not able to finish scanning the disk. I ran it again, with the same results and also checked out UnErase.
When I rebooted without the Norton Disk, some of the missing files reappeared, with the exception of the folder I was trying to copy at the time. My tech repair guy says that due to corruption, I should wipe my HD to zero and reinstall everything, with additional GB hard drive space, of course. What do you guys think? Is this the best course of action? And if so, how pressing is it to do so immediately, since my computer had been running for quite some time without trouble on less than optimum memory space. Any tips on external hard drives that are compatible with the Wall Street?
I currently have 247 MB available. Luckily, I had previously made a backup of everything except my Outlook Express identity folder, for my e-mail, which is too large to back up to CD. So I'm hoping this will not crash in the interim!
Your replies are much appreciated!

Hi Leslie,
It would be helpful to know a bit more about the computer, such as the size of the drive you have and the OS you are running. I believe general guidelines are to not fill your drive to more than 90% capacity.
Norton Utilities receives some bad rap on this forum, but sometimes it's all you have (Diskwarrior and TechTool are usually recommended). With NU you particularly have to be careful to use versions that are at least the same generation as the OS you are using. I usually go with Disk First Aid as a first shot since it's made by the people who made the computer.
Assuming you're okay with the situation about the recovered files then I'd say starting with a clean drive would be good. Keep in mind though that the files will be gone for good. I don't know if you need to really zero the drive, just reinitialize ("erase") it. I'd also run some utility to check the integrity of the drive to see whether the problem was due to the drive starting to fail. You might be able to continue to work with it as-is but it would be nice to know why your drive got corrupted in the first place. At least clear up some room. You might also want to check on the fragmentation status and at least do a clean OS install just in case some of those files are on their way out too.
I don't know the Wall Street model myself, but I see it is a G3 powerbook. If it has USB or Firewire capability then I'd get an external Firewire drive (USB would be very slow but would still work). My backup procedure is to have an external HD the same size as my internal one. Then I can just drag the internal to the external once a week and let it copy overnight. That way I don't have to be bothered with copying select files and if the OS files get messed up I don't have to re-customize my preferences, control panels and extensions (I'm still an OS 9 man!)
Brian

Do I need a 250 gig external hard drive to back up my 250 gig computer?

Hi,
I was wondering If I need as big of a external hard drive as my computer to back it up. Can I chose to back up everything but applications? I also Have my itunes and iPhoto library mapped on and external hard drive. Can I Back those up too? One more thing. Can I store stuff on the same hard drive that backs my computer up if it has enough room?
Thank you,
Caleb

{quote:}You have to remember that fundamentally thats all TM really is, a backup utility.{quote}
Please don't be like someone we both know very well and telling me what I HAVE TO remember and what I DO NOT have to use etc.
Going back in the past is a feature, it's even more than a feature, it's almost the main reason to use TM imo, as otherwise there already are some other backup utilities available that work very well.
It's very fine by me how you use TM, so that you don't need a huge HD (or several) because you care only of the current state of your files.
But please, do not begin a kind of campaign that may lead Mac users in general, to more and more neglect the time part of TM, using only the backup part, until Developers more or less begin to stop developing this part as "commonly useless".
Time Machine is MORE than just another backup utility.
Please do not influence in a sense where it would become less than what it is.
Enhancements ideas already:
We need it to be able to split its folder (automatically or manually), so we can assign it several separate drives where it manages to room its thing.
Because HDs are eventually going to die, backing up on several drives (not one huge one) is a better way, but TM must be able to recover even if one of the drives is missing.
See, this kind of evolution concerning time aspects, that may be neglected if we begin to set everyone's mind to the "just another backup tool" mode?

I need to upgrade my external hard drive, any suggestions

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