MacBook- External- Back to MacBook

I had to wipe out my MacBook because of some issues with 10.4.10.
Wiped everything out fine. I backed up all my music the correct way onto an external hard-drive by following the directions here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748/
Now, I'm trying to take all of the music from my external hard-drive and put the music, playlists, amount of times that I've played each song, album art, and put it back on my MacBook.
However, these (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748/) directions don't make much sense in this given situation.
I think this problem is fairly common, please help!
Thank you!

On a Windows machine all you would have to do is transfer the entire iTunes folder to other drive. Have no idea how to do this on a Mac. Finder maybe? This is posted in iTunes for Windows forum so most here will not be able to help.

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Macbook pro OS 10.7.5, what is the best external back up drive to use with it?

Hi
I have a Macbook pro OS 10.7.5 and am looking for an external back up drive. What external back up drives do people recommend?

T4444 wrote:
Hi
I have a Macbook pro OS 10.7.5 and am looking for an external back up drive. What external back up drives do people recommend?
We don't know which MBP you have so start by establishing what ports you have on the MBP that you can connect an external drive to. It'll have USB ports, but if they're USB 2.0, a full, bootable backup could take a very long time. If it's USB 3.0, backups can go a lot quicker. The USB external HD's are common and relatively inexpensive. If you have a Thunderbolt port, that's very fast but the externals compatible with it tend to be more expensive.
If it's just USB 2.0 and Firewire, Firewire is faster but is being phased out. USB 2.0 is backward compatible with USB 3.0 so when you upgrade to a newer MBP, a USB 3.0 external can plug right in.
Also, unless the external must be really portable, look for one that has a separate power source rather than drawing power from the connection to the Mac, since some externals need more power than the Mac is able or willing to supply.

Externally backing up photos

Hi
What are peoples suggestions for externally backing up the photos on my MacBook.
I guess it's a choice between an external hard drive and something on the web?
Web wise has anyone got any suggestions? I get the impression I can do this using .Mac but it's all very vague so I'm not sure what I get, how much it is? Plus i haven't herad great things about it? Are there any
alternatives out there?
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I do it on external HD. Also on DVD. .Mac will cost you money,because you'll have 1 Gb and for extra,up till 4 Gb,you'll need to pay extra for each Gig,every year...
Doesn't look like a good idea for bucking up photos...
.Mac additional service payment

Installed new harddrive and I am trying to restore from time machine external back up. I restarted the computer and held the Command key and the R and the restore utility does not appear. what can I do

I installed new hard drive and I am trying to restore from time machine external back up. I restarted the computer and held the Command key and the R and the restore utility does not appear. what can I do

Command + R keys are for Macbooks running Lion and Mountian Lion only. ( i could be wrong on this)
you have a couple of options:
Do a clean install of Snow Leopard via Install DVD.
Clone your old hard drive to your new hard drive via Carbon Copy Cloner
Or click on the link below to give you a better idea.
Hope you get it sorted out.
http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

How do I get iTunes songs which were downloaded from external back-up drive to play on new computer and is there a way to get my play lists back?

When I try to play a song from my re-installed iTunes library, I get the error message: "Song xxx could not be played because original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" > "Locate" or "Cancel." When I click on "Locate" I can't figure out how to get the song to play from any of the places that were "located." The path is C:\users\Janet\libraries\music\iTunes
However, iTunes songs chosen from my library will play in iTunes (current version) when I have the external back-up drive plugged in! I recently copied my backed-up iTunes library from my external back-up drive to a new computer.
Most of the songs, but not all, magically appear in Windows Media Player and I can play those just fine.
I can see my iTunes library in the newest version of iTunes, recently downloaded to new computer, but can't play songs without connecting to the external back-up drive - so maybe there is something else on that external drive that needs to be on my C: drive?
I am using an HP Pavillion Notebook, Windows 7, 64-bit. My previous computer was Windows Vista. Before Vista, I had XP.
Back when I had XP, I wanted to purchase some songs to download to my computer. Because iTunes had the ability, I used it to create a massive library of songs, most of which were ripped from my CDs. I don't have an iPod and iTunes worked fine for creating playlists and then burning them to CDs.
Also, I'd like to know if there is a way to get back my playlists.
And another thing - in the older version of iTunes, there was a folder in the lists on the left-hand side of the screen where I could click to see all the songs I had purchased. I'd like to get that ability back if possible.
In hindsight, iTunes was probably not the best choice for me to build my music library in a Windows operating system, but it seemed to be the best choice at the time. I really wish I could convert all the songs to mp3 format.
I have been working with computers since the days of DOS, black and white screens, and no mice. The first computer I bought for my own use at home was a Mac and it had "Flying Toasters" as a screensaver. (I miss that screensaver.) It did not have a tower and I believe they called it a laptop, even though the thing was as big as a suitcase and probably weighed around 30 pounds. However, I am by no means a computer expert. In other words, pretend you're trying to tell your mother how to do what I am asking. =)
Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.

I copied the iTunes file from the external drive and it's in both places. I thought all I would need is the iTunes program (which I downloaded to new computer) and my iTunes library file. There must be something else that's missing. My iTunes library looks the same on the new computer as it does when I open it on the external drive. If I click on an iTunes library song from my new computer, it will only play if I have the external drive plugged in.
My back-up drive is a mess. I have multiple copies of music, video, photo, and document files and I don't know how that happened. ={ Obviously, I don't know how to back up stuff properly and there are back-up files extending over a 6- to 8-year period. I think all I did was just drag and drop the main folders from the back-up drive to the same main folders on the C: drive. Also (and I'm kind of fuzzy on this) Windows used to automatically save music files in a folder within my document files (which makes no sense to me). As my Jewish friends would say, "Oy Vey!"

My partner deleted my itunes (10) library. I use a WD external back-up and retrieved my itunes library, but when i try to play a song i get the message 'could not be used because the original file could not be found Would you like to locate it?'

My partner deleted, by accident my itunes library. I have an iMac 10.6.7, Itunes 10. I use an WD passport as an external back up and retrieved my itunes library but now get the message "could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" so itunes is not recognised the exclamation marked songs, how do i get the retrieved files recognised. At times I get fed-up with Apple blocking files being used, although I like the product its restrictions are so silly!

You not only have to retrieve the library file from the backup drive but the actual music files (usually stored within the "iTunes Media" folder) as well.

HT201250 Time Machine cannot find my external back-up drive when I click on the "select disk" button. No drive is found. I have run a Time Machine back-up to this external drive in the past. I'm on the latest version of Snow Leopard. Thank you!

Time Machine cannot find my external back-up drive when I click on the "select disk" button. No drive is listed. I have run a Time Machine back-up to this external drive in the past. Any suggestions

Does the disk appear in Disk Utility?

I have a external back-up that my iMac (10.6.8) won't mount. Is there a way to mount without intializing and losing back-up data?

I have a external back-up that my iMac (10.6.8) won't mount. Is there a way to mount without intializing and losing back-up data? I used time machine to back-up to a Seagate Go-flex hard drive. I get a message from my iMac that says it doesn't recognize this drive and wants to initialize. Hope someone can help.

Try connecting the drive to a Windows machine, then ejecting. If it won't eject properly, restart the Windows machine, and try again. Then try connecting it to the Mac.

How to remove hard drive to create external back-up drive

All,
I have an old Powerbook G4 that has seen better days... I'd like to take the hard drive out of it an make myself an external back up drive.
Has anyone done this?
Lindsay

That should function just fine, with one possible exception. Some very old 2.5" HD's were up to 12.5mm tall (and now at least one of the newest high capacity/300GB drives is over 10, but you don't have to worry about that in your case), and as the specs for this particular case state, it can accept a max height of 10mm. I don't know if Apple ever used 12mm drives in TiBooks, but I don't think so. Even my older Pismo HD is 9 or 9.5mm.
And from your OP, it sounds like you're retiring the TiBook and using its HD as backup for your new MB, which has USB2, so as you say, speed shouldn't be a concern in that situation.

What is the best external back up for maverick Mac

I would like to purchase external back up for my mac. What is the best to buy?

Do you mean best external hard drive to use for a backup? If so it's difficult to beat OWC's offerings, www.macsales.com. I prefer Mercury Elite Pro series.

Adding external back-up hard drive?

Im relatively new to iMac and still finding my way around it. Likewise, I've looked around the discussion forum but unable to find the key words to my problem but Im sure it has been discussed before. If so I apologise.
I have a Toshiba External (Back Up) Hard Drive which was a back up to my Windows Based PC and therefore has numerous images on there. Anyway, how do I get this set up on my iMac without loosing any of the info on the Back Up hard drive, also wish to use this as a back up for images from my IMac too. Do I also need to reconfig my images as I used Adobe photoshop in the first instance or will it change automatically to iPhoto?
Any info / assistance will appreciated but please keep advise / explanations simple as I sometimes tend to throw dummy out of the pram when I get frustrated. Just like now!! LOL.

Here's the problem, in my attempt to explain it a little more clearly. There are a number of different ways data can be written to a drive, called "partition schemes"... think of them like languages used when printing a book. Like languages, some systems cannot understand some drive partition schemes. Unlike languages in a book, however, a system may be able to read a partition scheme, but be unable to write to it.
In the case of a Mac, it can read/write APM (Apple Partition Map), GUID and FAT (an old MS-DOS scheme) drives. However, it can only read NTFS drives, and NTFS is what Windows typically uses. Most likely, this drive of yours is NTFS. (You can tell for sure by selecting the drive in Disk Utility - not the volume, with the familiar name, the drive, right above it with a name that includes the size - and looking in the info at the bottom of the DU window.)
So, your Mac can't write to that drive at all, even though it can read it. Although there is software that can give your Mac the ability to write to that drive, it will never work with the Mac's built-in backup software (Time Machine), which requires that the backup drive be GUID. That may not be an issue, as TM is far from the only backup software out there. Something like [Carbon Copy Cloner|http://www.bombich.com> or SuperDuper may be able to work with that drive, given software that lets you write to NTFS.
Whether or not you ultimately end up making this drive work for backup of your Mac, note that it is important that you have multiple backups of any data you don't want to lose. So, those images need to be stored in at least one other place (preferably two or more). That given, you may want to repartition that drive with a more Mac-friendly scheme after you've gotten some backups of those images made. (Assuming, of course, that you're no longer working with Windows... if that's not the case, keeping a Windows backup on that drive would probably be wise.)
See my [Mac Backup Guide|http://www.reedcorner.net/guides/backups> for more on backup strategies in general.

Back-up to an external Back-up drive

Thanks for your helpful questions and posts. I'm trying to backup my IPod to an external back-up hard drive. I cannot change the option from back up to CD or DVD. Has anyone completed a back-up to an external back up hard drive? My external back-up drive is a Western Digital external Hardrive. Thanks for your help.

In the Advanced section of the iTunes preferences, set the music library's location to the internal drive, consolidate the library, and then copy the music folder over outside of iTunes. If there isn't enough space on the internal drive to store the library, the external drive needs to be plugged in.
(29630)

Does anyone know how I can copy photo and video files from the Photo's app on my Macbook, to a USB stick or other external back-up?

I've updated the software on my Macbook to the most recent version; regretting it now; and iPhoto has now become the Photo's app.
The problem is I can no longer back up my photo and video files taken on my phone, saved to my mac, by copying them and saving them on a USB stick or other external hard drive.
I could easily do this with iPhoto, but now Photos app does not let me copy the files when I select them.
Does anyone know if there's a way to save, copy or back-up my photo's and video files: prefreably one that doesn't involve iCloud, as I don't feel like paying for more storage; there must be some way to access those photos/videos from my iPhone to save on another source?

The problem is I can no longer back up my photo and video files taken on my phone, saved to my mac, by copying them and saving them on a USB stick or other external hard drive.
Select the photos and videos in Photos and use the command "File > Export" and select a folder on your USB stick to save the photos to.

External back up won't work on Yosemite Macbook Pro

I downloaded OS X Yosemite a couple of days ago, works well. I went to back up my Macbook Pro on the external hard drive I have always used and it won't work, it just keeps saying preparing back up. It is a WD My Passport hard drive. I tried removing the hard drive and selecting it to use a a back up but still wouldn't work. It has worked fine every time before downloading Yosemite. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I know that no one has replied yet, but figured out the issue. I called Applecare and they couldn't figure it out, so sent me to a genuis at the Apple store. They too couldn't figure it out and told me that it was a firmware issue with the Toshiba dvd external drive. When I got home, I thought I would try one more thing. I hooked it up to a powered hub and it works perfectly. I'm not sure why no one else thought of it, but glad that I did.

ITunes Lib On MacBook To External Back To MacBook

How do I accomplish this?
I just bought Leopard and I wish to retain my iTunes library and my ratings and playlists and I wish to delete everything on this computer and do a fresh install of this new OS.
How may I transfer my current iTunes library to the external and back onto the MacBook?
Thank you in advance,
Mike!

On a Windows machine all you would have to do is transfer the entire iTunes folder to other drive. Have no idea how to do this on a Mac. Finder maybe? This is posted in iTunes for Windows forum so most here will not be able to help.

MacBook- External- Back to MacBook

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