ILife with both internal and external hard drives?

I've been considering switching from a homebrew, multi-boot desktop to a MacBook for my primary computer, in part so I can hang out with my family in the living room rather than be exiled to the home office when I want to compute.
But here's my concern: I have media. We have about 50 GB of iTunes; maybe 30 GB of iPhoto; and tons and tons of digital video that would be stored in iMovie. Obviously the libraries are all interlinked. And it's all growing. I also like to rip DVDs and re-encode them for my iPod and AppleTV. Right now, my desktop has 480 GB of internal storage and that's just about enough.
I have discovered that the MacBook only comes with an option up to 250 GB. I absolutely need AppleCare, so I can't get an aftermarket hard drive. (All my Macs break - this one from the office that I'm on right now has a bum DVD drive, and my wife's has needed both fan and logic board replacements.)
While I'm aware of the existence of external hard drives, I'm concerned about Apple's non-external-hard-drive-friendly way of storing iLife data. If I wanted to keep more recent or useful music and photos on the internal drive but older stuff on an external, and still be able to use iLife seamlessly, would that be possible? (I see myself editing recent video in the living room, but then hooking back into the external HD in the office if I need older stuff.)
What solutions are out there for integrating data stores on both internal and external hard drives into an iLifestyle?
Thanks!

Sascha Segan1 wrote:
.. What solutions are out there for integrating data stores on both internal and external hard drives into an iLifestyle?
all iApps (iPhoto, iTunes, iM08) support usage of external drives as 'mass storage' devices.. you can tell all apps which drive to use for the Libraries.. there some tools out there, which even allow the usage of 2/many different Libraries in iTunes/iPhoto..
for iM in detail: the Projects are small files, and should stay internal (allthough I'm discribing a 'hack' on my site: http://karsten.schluter.googlepages.com/im08tricks Project Library (and Events) on External Harddrive); the Events (=GBs) could be located on as much ext. HDDs as you want..
but ...
all iApps are single-user .. you can NOT 'share' Libraries to 2/many different users; the idea of a 'media server' which hosts/shares all kind of data to all kind of users is not 'on concept' of iLife ..

Similar Messages

  • Using files on both internal and external hard drive

    Hi,
    Could someone help me with (or point me to help on) the following questions:
    - i would like to use itunes where some of the music files are stored on my internal PC drive, and some are on an external drive. do you know how to have the library work with both, without copying over the ones on the external drive to the internal drive?
    - and on the external drive, what happens if the PC gives the external drive a different address (e.g. "G:/" instead of "H:/", since i have a couple of different external drives)?
    - lastly, can i move the files into different folders in windows, without itunes losing where the file is?
    With thanks in advance

    If you go to your iTunes preferences: Edit >>Preferences>>Advanced>>General and uncheck the box "Copy to iTunes music folder when adding to library", then you can add files to iTunes from your external drive without copying them across. I am assuming your have your iTunes Music folder on your c: drive.
    Note that any files you download from the store or rip from CD will automatically go into the iTunes Music folder. If you want files ripped from CD on the external drive, it is easier to rip them with another program. Then add to iTunes when they are in the correct location.
    If you want to have files on an extrenal drive, you must ensure that the drive letter does not change or iTunes will lose the files. Also you must not move files in your iTunes library with windows explorer or iTunes will loose them.

  • Backup internal and external hard drives-TC and offsite

    I now have Mavericks 10.9.3 on my iMac with a 2TB (1.25 TB used) internal hard drive.
    I also have some external drives attached to my iMac with older iPhoto libraries and other files (total file sizes 940 GB and 505 GB).  I primarily use Aperture now on my internal hard drive, but still access those iPhoto libraries on my external drives on occasion.  I have Time Machine backup my iMac internal hard drive on my 2TB Time Capsule regularly.
    My primary question is in regards to getting another copy onto a larger external drive that covers my internal and external drives so I can have a backup off-site.  Online backup services seem to always exclude external drives.  So a physical drive I can have offsite seems to be the best option.
    A year ago I changed the destination of my Time Machine backup to be on a 3TB external drive (backed up iMac internal hard drive and the two externals).  However, when I changed the destination of the backup back to the Time Capsule, the TM initiated a brand new backup (it did not recall that I had backed up prior to that on my Time Capsule).
    I want to backup monthly, if not quarterly for my off-site storage.  But, if every time I change the destination drive for TM, a new backup profile is created, it will overwork my drives unnecessarily.
    Is there a backup program or a process on "disk utility" I could run parallel to TM that I just use quarterly capturing only the changes/additions in those few months for both the internal and external hard drives?  Also, is there a way to add an external drive to my Time Capsule that is solely used to wirelessly backup the two externals on a regular basis (i.e. keep the internal 2TB drive backing up to the Time Capsule; and the external hard drive attached to Time Capsule via USB used as the backup drive for the external hard drives)?
    Summary:  I need to backup regularly to the local Time Capsule/additional external hard drive.  The data will come from my internal hard drive and my two external hard drives.  I also want to do quarterly backups of the additions/changes to all three drives to have on an offsite external drive that I manually backup to quarterly.  Any help is greatly appreciated.

    Carbon Copy Cloner is not on the App store.
    Correct.. it is not approved because Apple do not like the fact that CCC (and most likely superduper) which are the most popular backup software for Mac because it makes a bootable clone. Apple will never approve of that. But let me assure you that is the genius of it. If the internal disk fails, you simply boot from the external. It is $40 but you can use on all the computers in your home.
    CCC is a clone.. ie when it does the backup, any changes on the drive are changed on the clone. It does not work like Time Machine which simply piles up incrementals until the drive fills up. The idea of CCC is a backup of the drive as it exists at any point in time. TM btw is also not a reliable archive, ie it thins backups constantly.. so you should never rely on it to archive old versions.. but in the middle of a project it does a good job to keep various versions of your files. That is why I specifically said in my last post do not stop using it.
    and you can keep using the TC just for the internal drive.
    Keep TM running to the TC.. that will then keep a current hourly incremental of your drive. You can set CCC in a way which is a lot more flexible. ie backup just at the end of the day. There is no need for constant hourly backups. So to answer the second question.. you are still using your TC and TM.. but I suggest you only backup the internal drive.
    Please read a bit from forum expert Pondini on the value of clones and TM.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html
    That's why many folks use both Time Machine and a bootable clone, to have two separate, independent backups, with the advantages of both.  If one fails, the other remains.
    Now the ports issue.
    You can of course continue to use USB2. Just that moving large volumes around will be slow.. as doubtless you already know.
    On your particular Mac since you missed out on USB3 which is a pain.. you can buy a Thunderbolt to USB3 adapter like the belkin.
    http://www.belkin.com/au/p/P-F4U055/
    I suggested the Thunderbolt to Esata (it is an older interface and the adapter is rather cheaper but I hear more reliable.. check reviews for both).
    http://store.apple.com/au/product/H8875ZM/A/lacie-esata-hub-thunderbolt-series
    Sata is the interface of the hard disk.. Esata just means external sata.. so it is native and without conversion.
    I was merely suggesting ways to speed things up. But as long as you don't run CCC on more than daily basis then I think you will be fine just with USB 2. It will take a while on the day you do the swap over for the archive volume, but if you turn off the power saving in the Mac and leave it run overnight it should be able to do most of it.. you need to realise it will have to deep scan both the disks.. to compare files.. but CCC is based on Rsync and it is extremely fast and efficient. I am just not sure I know how long it will take to do. Anyway.. there is a plan.. tweak and adapt as you see fits your needs.

  • Cisco ISE with both internal and External RADIUS Server

    Hi
    I have ISE 1.2 , I configured it as management monitor and PSN and it work fine
    I would like to know if I can integrate an external radius server and work with both internal and External RADIUS Server simultanously
    So some computer (groupe_A in active directory ) will continu to made radius authentication on the ISE internal radius and other computer (groupe_B in active directory) will made radius authentication on an external radius server
    I will like to know if it is possible to configure it and how I can do it ?
    Thanks in advance for your help
    Regards
    Blaise

    Cisco ISE can function both as a RADIUS server and as a RADIUS proxy server. When it acts as a proxy server, Cisco ISE receives authentication and accounting requests from the network access server (NAS) and forwards them to the external RADIUS server. Cisco ISE accepts the results of the requests and returns them to the NAS.
    Cisco ISE can simultaneously act as a proxy server to multiple external RADIUS servers. You can use the external RADIUS servers that you configure here in RADIUS server sequences. The External RADIUS Server page lists all the external RADIUS servers that you have defined in Cisco ISE. You can use the filter option to search for specific RADIUS servers based on the name or description, or both. In both simple and rule-based authentication policies, you can use the RADIUS server sequences to proxy the requests to a RADIUS server.
    The RADIUS server sequence strips the domain name from the RADIUS-Username attribute for RADIUS authentications. This domain stripping is not applicable for EAP authentications, which use the EAP-Identity attribute. The RADIUS proxy server obtains the username from the RADIUS-Username attribute and strips it from the character that you specify when you configure the RADIUS server sequence. For EAP authentications, the RADIUS proxy server obtains the username from the EAP-Identity attribute. EAP authentications that use the RADIUS server sequence will succeed only if the EAP-Identity and RADIUS-Username values are the same.

  • Can I split my itunes music library between and internal and external hard drive?

    Is it possible to have music on the two different drives and still be able to make playlists from both drives to put on my ipod?  Here's my situation:  I'm using a Dell 32 bit computer running Vista Home Premium SP2 which I share with other users.  I have a large itunes library (40g+ of music only) that's starting to hog the hard disk space from other users. If possible, I would like to split off part of my itunes library to an external hard drive while still having access to the entire library for my ipod. Ideally I would like to have all my downloaded songs on both the internal and external drives so I'll have backups in case a drive fails, while putting all the music I have hard copies of solely on the external drive. Any help on how this can be done would be appreciated.

    If you manually manage your itues library, you can store parts of it on an external drive, or on an internal drive.  Just keep in mind that in iTunes that you must set a default location for iTunes to manage it's files, and that will be the default location for iTunes to store anything it downloads.  You would need to manuay manage moving things from there if tht is not where you want them stored.
    Perhaps a "better" solution would be for you to invest a little mone into 2 external drives.  One to hold your entire iTunes library, and the second to be your off-line backup of the first.  This is the method I have gone with and I like how it works for me.  My entire iTunes library is on an external (portable) 320GB drive.  Then, when iTunes is not running, I will clone my external drive onto a second drive I happen to have, this way if I have any failure of my primary drive, I lose at most about a weeks worth of content.  For me, I purchase little content during a week, but I do move a fairly large volume of podcasts.  With the entire library being on the external drive, if I ever have to swap to using my backup drive iTunes wil just think that it hasn't run and downloaded anything for a week, and all the "lost" content will be re-downloaded automatically.  This won't work for apps or purchased content, but for subscribed podcasts, it is great.

  • Problems with time machine and external hard drive

    Hi all
    In 2009 with my imac I bought a WD external hard drive which the computer says is 148GB formatted. I recall that the hard drive contained folders with files for the running of the hard drive when I bought it - and after it had been plugged in to a mac and used as a time machine, it no longer worked on windows computers.
    Now I have used 195 GB on my computer's internal hard drive and wish to stop using the external hard drive as a time machine and instead use it for swapping files between computers and the like.
    How can I wipe the time machine back ups and start using it as per usual again? do i need to obtain the WD files from somewhere?
    thanks in advance
    Nick

    Hi Nick,
    Avoid the WD files completely, not needed & often a problem.
    You need to erase the Drive, & to use it on both Format it MS-DOS/FAT32, on the Mac or PC, but will have a 4 GB filesize limit, as well as other limitations.
    One option not mentioned yet is MacDrive for your PCs... allows them to Read/Write  & Format HFS+, so no need to reformat it...
    http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

  • HT201250 Time Machine backup of internal AND external hard drive

    I have an iMac with an internal hard drive for everything BUT photos and music and an external hard drive for only photos and music. If I hook up a second external hard drive will Time MAchine back up both my external (music/photos) hard drive AND my internal hard drive?

    You will be able to back up the external drive, but you will have to modify settings. Time Machine only makes backups of your OS X partition by default.
    Open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and remove the external drive from excluded items, so it will be backed up. I recommend ot have your external drive formatted in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"

  • Problems with itunes 10 and external hard drive

    Hi
    I was recently forced to change the internal hard drive on my G5 Tower, and the external hard drive where I keep my music library.
    The new external drive had all my music files copied to it. I reloaded my itunes library files (that I had backed up from old computer) into my music folder and I named the new external drive as the media folder in Itunes preferences. The first time I used itunes it asked me if I wanted it to locate all files to which I pressed OK. itunes quickly found the majority of files and I cleaned up / organized the small mess left behind.
    Trouble is a few problems have occurred. Firstly, itunes seems slow – there’s a sluggish pause flicking between tracks – where as before it used to snap into response. Occasionally I’m asked to locate files which I thought was a task it had already done - and every now and again when I check the external hard drive music library I find files have been moved from there album locations to ‘untitled’ folders, etc. I can only assume itunes is doing this. I’ve also noticed I can’t remove the external hard drive from the desktop without closing itunes first which never happened before.
    This is getting somewhat frustrating. Can anybody advise?
    Much appreciated.
    K

    Hi Nick,
    Avoid the WD files completely, not needed & often a problem.
    You need to erase the Drive, & to use it on both Format it MS-DOS/FAT32, on the Mac or PC, but will have a 4 GB filesize limit, as well as other limitations.
    One option not mentioned yet is MacDrive for your PCs... allows them to Read/Write  & Format HFS+, so no need to reformat it...
    http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

  • Help With Airport Extreme and External Hard Drive

    I just purchased the Airport Extreme and I couldn't have been happier. I have attached my western digital external hard drive, but I have run into a slight problem/dilemma which I'm hoping someone who is apple savvy can help me out.
    I live in a house with a couple of other guys and so I put all of my movies and media onto the hard drive so we can stream it throughout the house, but how do I make sure that someone won't accidently delete the files (The copies on the hard drive are the only ones I have)? I have tried to right click "get info" and change the sharing & permissions properties on the folders that I don't want deleted, but it doesn't save the changes or even allow me to select another option other than Read & Write. I formated the hard drive with the disk utility before I connected it to the AirPort so I know that it has nothing to do with the format of the drive. I also tried to create different user accounts for each roomate so that they could view the files (Read Only) but I get an error message explaining that if I continue, the contents of the hard drive will not be accessible. I'm sure its something simple but I'm obviously missing it.
    Thanks!

    Airport Utility under Disks/File Sharing has guest access rights.

  • Help with itunes librairy and external hard drive

    My question is that , when I buy an external hard drive to save my movies, music, shows, etc off of itunes store, then how do I save them to the external drive automatically? When I download the itunes store, or librairy, on my computer should it be downloaded to my computer, or the external hard drive? I'm confused.

    This article should help...
    iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
    Patrick

  • 12" won't read Cds, DVDs OK both internal and external optical drives WEIRD

    Very strange one.
    12" 1Ghz, 1.25gb RAM - Combo drive - 10.5.4; Great condition.
    No CDs mount, Audio, CDR all dyes. No mounto at all.
    DVDs mount and play fine, shop bought films data on DVD-/+R, all OK
    The above is true for the internal Matshita combo drive and for two other external Lacie d2s
    One Firewire and one USB both exhibit the same behaviour.
    Finder Preferences are ticked to mount both DVD and CD.
    Please solve this one, I am going slightly mad. It doesn't make sense to my mind
    Cheers all!

    Hello HankMossop,
    I would recommend taking a look through the following article for some useful troubleshooting steps that can help get your SuperDrive working.
    Apple Computers: Troubleshooting the slot-loading SuperDrive
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2801
    Cheers,
    Allen

  • Pictures on both internal and external HDs

    Hi -My iphoto libray pulls pictures from both my internal and external hard drives.  When the external is turned off or disconnected, I get a lot of outline/exclamation point errors.  I'd like to pull all the external photos onto the internal hard drive, have all the pictures in one place, and ensure the whole set is backed up in time machine.  But I can't tell which pictures need to be imported without going one at a time...through 30000 pictures.  Sigh.  Is there a better way to do this?  Thanks!

    If you use iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ -  to rebuild the library while the photos are available and the preference is checked it will create a new managed library - the old one will be intact in case you are not happy with the results of the rebuild
    LN

  • My laptop and external hard drive both failed and got corrupter.

    My laptop and external hard drive both failed and got corrupter. I've lost my quick time pro 7 and all my music, I still have my Ipod with the music on, How can I get it back on to Itunes and quick time pro back on to my PC? Many thanks.

    Since your current editing workflow is based around Virtual Copies there are no actual files containing the edit data. Therefore, you'll need to use the 'Import from another catalog' option ( see File menu).

  • I use only two channels, have plenty of memory in my hard disk, and external hard drive, no effects, and still having problems with Garage band. Giving messages as you have too many live channels

    I'm frustrated, I am doing everything you recommend, I use only two channels, have plenty of memory in my hard disk, and external hard drive, no effects, and still having problems with Garage band. Giving messages as you ave too many live channels, the disk is slow prepare...can you help?

    Quote from: Richard on 15-November-07, 20:33:05
    tornado2003,
    What you need to do is boot into Safe Mode. Then delete the VGA Drivers.
    After that boot normally and install the latest nVidia ForceWare Drivers
    Take Care,
    Richard
    i guess you missed that:
    Quote from: tornado2003 on 15-November-07, 17:26:52
    ive tryed booting xp in safe mode but it just freezes after it loads up a couple of needed files .
    ive even formatted my hard drive and tryed installing a fresh xp on it but it just keeps locking up when it gets to the "starting windows setup" .(this is just after it loads all the drivers from the xp cd)

  • How to scan my computer and external hard drives for pictures with out importing duplicates.

    how do i scan my computer and external hard drives for pictures with out importing duplicates.

    iPhoto doesn't scan anywhere. It imports files offered to it. If it spots a duplicate it will warn you.

Maybe you are looking for