Macbook as external drive?

Can I use my Macbook (white) as an external drive for my macbook pro. I dropped the macbook pro on the corner where the cd drive is and it is bent out of shape. The Apple store want to charge me to start ie. just look at it $650.00. I don't want to pay this since I just bought a secondhand case for $54.00. But then I found out it takes more than just changing the case.....And I want to update to iLife 09 but I can't get a cd in because it is bent. So my question is can I use my macbook or imac as an external drive for the macbook pro....

You can install software from your white MB onto your MBP by booting the MBP with the broken drive in Firewire Target Disk Mode, so it is mounted as an external hard drive on the white MB. Then, insert the iLife Install DVD and choose the MBP as the destination for the install.
See this linked thread and a brody's related User Tip for more details.

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How can I boot my (OS Lion) Macbook (using external drive) to run Leopard

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Verify that your external drive was formatted as GUID, it won't be bootable otherwise.

HT3275 New macbook, old external drive for time machine

I got a new macbook pro a few weeks ago and set it up using my last backup from time machine. I want to use the same external drive for backups but there is no room. Can I delete all of the old files from the old computer or do I need to keep them?

kat.hayes wrote:
I want to use a 3 TB external drive for Time Machine to backup multiple 500GB hard drives in my Macpro. I have lots of large video files from HD cameras.
1. Will Time Machine backup all of the hard drives in the Macpro?
As long as they're formatted HFS+, yes. Be sure there's enough room, though -- Time Machine needs considerably more room than the data it's backing-up. See #1 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Help! -Transferring content problem - Macbook to External Drive

Hello,
I am trying to transfer and backup my entire user account content from my macbook pro to my external drive. However it wont allow me to do it and comes up with the message:
'The operation can't be completed because you dont have permission to access some of the items'
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Just exactly how are you trying ti do the transfer...?
Have you considered using something like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner, so that you can have a Bootable backup...?
SuperDuper http://www.shirt-pocket.com/
CCC http://www.bombich.com/

Starting a 10.6 MacBook from external drive

I'm trying to run disk utility on a 10.6 macBook ...
I also have a MacPro desktop running 10.8.2
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w

Erase and Install Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard 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 Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your 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. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
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MacBook Pro, external drive, FileVault and TimeCapsule

So, I've got a MacBook Pro with FileVault configured. It had an external drive attached to it. The external drive was backed up with Time Machine to the Time Capsule. I am confident it was backed up because when I first plugged in the drive, TimeMachine found 80 GB of new material to back up, and proceeded to do so (yes, it took a long time). Subsequently, when I added new material to the external disk, TimeMachine would add new material, too.
Now, the external drive has apparently failed (still hoping it can be fixed, but let's assume the worst). Naturally enough, I'd like to be able to get to the backed up contents of the external HD.
Is it possible to access this backup through the Time Machine interface? Since I can't plug the external drive into the computer (it doesn't show up), how can I see the backups for that drive in the Time Machine interface?
When I look at the Time Capsule HD, I see a 'sparse bundle' file that appears to correspond to my laptop. When I click on it to open it, it appears to take a long time (so far, it has been running over an hour). Is the whole file being transferred to a temporary location on my HD?

you can do it via TM interface. the easiest would be to plug in another external and give it the same name as the old on. if you can't do it's still possible but less convenient. in finder preferences-.sidebar check the box to show the entire computer. start TM and click on the whole computer in the sidebar. go back to the time when the external was plugged in. you'll see it listed in the computer section among available drives. navigate to what you want to restore and click restore. it will prompt you for a restore location and you'll be able to restore.

My admin password stopped working. Can't restart in recovery and tried terminal but need more specific guidance there. Am operating macbook from external drive

My macbook pro admin password has stopped working. Can't start it in recovery mode and am having no success with terminal command although I could do with more in depth instruction on that. Have been operating it from an external drive (Yosemite) for 3 months after a stuck reinstall of mavericks and it was working fine till last week. I am currently downloading another copy of Yosemite with a view to trying to install it on my internal hard drive which has been erased. Help

Hey JustSomeGuy,
Thanks for the response. It is the external drive that has the data I need to keep. Reboot did not do it...
What I did get done just now is going into Safe Mode and delete the problematic files there and Empty Trash. That worked - so one step closer hopefully. I did not do the .DS Store files (will do that after done writing this).
How do I do a copy with cp rather than the finder?
Repair permissions is grayed out in DiskUtil - I did do a Disk Repair in Safe Mode and that turned up without error. However, now back in normal mode - Disk Repair gives an error again saying that the drive cannot be unmounted.
Thanks for the help so far.
Cheers

How do I move Iphoto from macbook to external drive

Can I move Iphoto from my Macbook to an external drive?

Greetings,
If by "move iPhoto" you mean move your library of images, yes you can.
Go to Your User (little house) > Pictures > iPhoto Library.
Drag the library to your external drive.
-- NOTE: Before you move your iPhoto Library to your external drive make sure:
Its not being used for TimeMachine
The drive is Mac formated.
Cheers.

10.4 Server on Macbook Pro external drive

Hey all,
I just got a new macbook pro 17". I'm trying to install 10.4 Server (universal) on an external drive. But it doesn't seem like this version and doesn't let you install 10.4 on a secondary drive like the previous version (powerpc) did on laptops. Just using the macbook pro as a test server before I make changes to the main server. Anyone else come across this issue?

Hi SU
I'm trying to install 10.4 Server (universal) <
on an external drive <</div>
Perhaps its me, but the above tells me you are trying to install 10.4 – no mention of which revision of 10.4 – without being able to read your mind then all I can assume from the information provided is you are attempting to install a version of 10.4 that wont work on your MacBook. Now that I have more information from you I can perhaps in assist you or try to come close to answering your question.
You have an external drive, correct? It has to be a firewire drive, but perhaps you already know that? Clone your MacBook on to that, this will effectively give you a back up of your existing computer. Now insert the OSX Server Installer Disk and instead of booting from it just run the package installer for installing OSX Server. Point it at the external drive and it will upgrade the client version of 10.4.x OSX to OSX Server 10.4.7. After the installation you’ll be prompted to restart and the Server Setup Assistant will launch and walk you through the initial Server configuration.
Does this answer your question?

Transfer files to MacBook from external drives & MacPro without FireWire

I just realized my Macbook (13 inch aluminum) doesn't have a FireWire port. WHY? I can't believe I didn't notice when I bought the thing. I assumed that a FireWrire port was standard like USB. I know that I can transfer files from my MacPro Desktop using migration assistant. However, it doesn't let me pick and choose which files to transfer. Is the best plan to transfer everything all at once and then delete what I don't want from the MacBook? I've also got a lot of individual files & folders on external FireWire drives that I'd like to copy to my MacBook. Is there a way to hook up an external FireWire hard drive to my MacBook? Are there FireWire to USB adapters? Am I going to have to transfer these files via USB memory sticks, CD-R's & DVD-R's? Or maybe it would be a better idea to dump them on my MacPro, use Migration assistant to copy it all at once and then pick and choose what to keep on my MacBook.
I know I've got a lot of questions. Any info or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I assumed that a FireWrire port was standard like USB.
It is, just not on the aluminum Macbook.
It can be done with USB, but it is slower and less reliable.
The hard drive is fairly easy to remove on the aluminum Macbook. I would remove it and install it in an external Firewire enclosure temporarily to transfer your files quickly and reliably, then put the drive back in the Macbook.
Firewire allows two operating modes. One is asynchronous, like USB which suffers from latency, bus contention and collisions.
The other is isochronous mode, and it lets a device carve out a certain dedicated amount of bandwidth that other devices can't touch. It gets a certain number of time slices each second all its own. The advantages for audio/video should be obvious: that stream of data can just keep on flowing, and as long as there isn't more bandwidth demand than the wire can handle, nothing will interfere with it. No collisions, no glitches.

Date issue while transfering pics from macbook to external drive

Hello
I am transferring pictures from my Macbook to an external hard drive and my issue is that the date of the picture (date of creation/modified) is being replaced by the date of the transfer… So let say that all my 2013 pictures have now the date of today – 19th June 2014. I tried to drag the pics as well as to export them but I am getting the same issue. I am doing transfers regularly and it is the first time I encounter this issue. Funnily enough it works when I drag one picture at a time but not for more than 3 pictures – very weird. Your help will be very appreciated !

There are two kinds of metadata involved when you consider jpeg or other image file.
One is the file data. This is what the Finder shows. This tells you nothing about the contents of the file, just the File itself.
The problem with File metadata is that it can easily change as the file is moved from place to place or exported, e-mailed, uploaded etc.
Photographs have also got both Exif and IPTC metadata. The date and time that your camera snapped the Photograph is recorded in the Exif metadata. Regardless if what the file date says, this is the actual time recorded by the camera.
Photo applications like iPhoto, Aperture, Lightroom, Picasa, Photoshop etc get their date and time from the Exif metadata.
When you export from iPhoto to the Finder new file is created containing your Photo (and its Exif). The File date is - quite accurately - reported as the date of Export.
However, the Photo Date doesn't change.
The problem is that the Finder doesn't work with Exif.
So, your photo has the correct date, and so does the file, but they are different things. To sort on the Photo date you'll need to use a photo app.

Using Black Macbook as External Drive

My Black Macbook's display died on me in April. After repeated attempts to fix it myself, I gave in and bought a new unibody Macbook two weeks later. School doesn't stop because my laptop's broken!
I don't want to get rid of my first Mac - call me sentimental - especially since everything else works and all I have to do is hook up an external display to use it.
What I want to do is hook them both up and use my black one as an external hard drive via Time Machine on my new one. Is this possible or am I better off just buying an external hard drive?
My old black MacBook runs on Tiger 10.4.11, and my current MacBook is running Snow Leopard 10.6.4.

I hate to think of it as a demotion, but the BlackBook is the slower and older of the two, and I need a backup solution. Not having my BlackBook threw me into all sorts of school-related problems for a week until I could get a mini DVI to HDMI converter; it would have been nice had I stored my files in another accessible location.
I plan on getting an external display (I'm using my large TV for now) so I can use it as a desktop of sorts, but its most useful function right now would be as a backup hard drive. Plus, using Time Machine vs. doing it manually has advantages, so the caddy is my best option.
Also, my husband suggested selling my BlackBook so I have to have SOME good reason to keep it around.
Message was edited by: MangoFruit

MacBook + USB External Drive (enclosure)

Hi there!
I'm new to Mac, and new to this forum. I've tried searching through previous posts and couldn't seem to find anything to match my case exactly, so forgive me if this is a duplication.
I currently have a 2.0 GHz MacBook (white). No upgrades, except 1GB of RAM.
Coming from PC, I decided to make use of some of my old HDDs. I bought an external USB2 HDD enclosure. I put my 40GB ATA133 Maxtor in it and attached it to my MB. It seemed to work.
I backed up all of my old PC data properly. Since it was in NTFS format, I decided to reformat into Mac. In Disk Utility, I chose to "Zero Out" the disk. After some time of "writing zeros to disk" (status bar almost complete), I suddenly got a message saying "erase/format failed. input/output error."
Now, I cannot seem to find the drive in either Win explorer of Mac Finder. Both my PC and Mac, however, detect it as a local drive, with proper brand and size specs, in Device Manager (Win) and Disk Utility (Mac).
The activity light on the HDD enclosure only lights up when I fire up the unit. Then, it stays off. Now, I cannot seem to format it in my Mac. All I get is "input/output error." On my PC, the option (format) doesn't even seem to exist for this drive.
I'm afraid that, if I try the same procedure with my remaining 2 HDDs (Maxtor 80GB and 20GB), I will get the same result.
Any feedback on what might have happened?
What did I do wrong?
Is there still hope for this HDD unit?
Is it possible that my HDDs simply cannot work with Mac?
What should I do to get a proper result the next time?
Thanks!
MacBook 2.0GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Thanks for the tip, Michael.
I will certainly give this a try, probably over the coming weekend. And I do hope that it works.
Now, whether it does work or not, I do want to know what you guys think: did I do nything wrong? Skip any step? Choose any option wrong?
I'd like to be able to still use my 2 remaining HDDs, but I want to avoid the hassle of something similar happening when I reformat.
Thanks again!

Time Machine to back up MacBook AND External Drive?

I have a MacBook and a 1TB G Drive which holds all of my photographs and iTunes library (none of which is on my MacBook, since I ran out of space long ago), and where I have backed up my Documents folder by simply copying and pasting.
I bought another 1TB G Drive to use as a back up, but I have no idea what I'm doing. The first time I backed anything up I just copied and pasted again, from both the first drive and my MacBook, which is ridiculous and took hours and is pathetic.
I want to set up Time Machine so all of my applications and settings are backed up, in addition to my files which are in two separate places right now. I'm not sure how to set up the second drive to take care of both.
After looking at the FAQs at the top of this forum, I'm afraid that any partitions I set up may re-format the drives and thus wipe out everything I have. Any advice on how to set this up without losing my data would be appreciated. Thank you!

1980qt50 wrote:
I have a MacBook and a 1TB G Drive which holds all of my photographs and iTunes library (none of which is on my MacBook, since I ran out of space long ago), and where I have backed up my Documents folder by simply copying and pasting.
I bought another 1TB G Drive to use as a back up
That may not be large enough. It varies greatly depending on how you use your Mac, but Time Machine usually requires 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up. So add-up the space used on your MacBook's internal HD and the amount used on the other drive. If that's less than 500 GB, you'll probably be fine. If it's between 500 GB and about 750 GB, it might work, at least for a while.
I want to set up Time Machine so all of my applications and settings are backed up, in addition to my files which are in two separate places right now. I'm not sure how to set up the second drive to take care of both.
Most likely, piece of cake.
After looking at the FAQs at the top of this forum, I'm afraid that any partitions I set up may re-format the drives and thus wipe out everything I have.
No, Time Machine won't wipe out your data.
First check the Format of the media drive. You can do that via +Get Info+ in the Finder. In the General area of the Info panel it will show Format. If it's any variation of +Mac OS Extended,+ then Time Machine can back it up. If not, your best bet will be to switch drives -- format the new one for your Mac, copy the data to it, then erase and reformat the old one to be used for your backups. Post back for instructions if you need to do that.
You should erase and format the Time Machine drive with a single partition, per #5 in the FAQ.
When you're ready to start Time Machine, click the Options button in Time Machine > Preferences. See if the media drive is listed in the exclusions box; if it is, select it and click the minus sign. Then Time Machine will back it up.
You might want to review the Time Machine Tutorial

How can i eject a bad cd from macbook air external drive?

I have a Macbook Air and an external superdrive. On the mac keyboard doesn't have an eject button.. how to eject a bad cd?
Thanks in advance!

On the late 2010, there is an eject button. You might have a newer model. Either way:
(1) Minimize any open programs you have up and running.
(2) Drag the SuperDrive icon to the trashcan and it will eject
(3) If the icon isn't on the desktop, find it by opening finder and right-click select eject or drag it to the trashcan
Sly

Macbook as external drive?

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