Managing a large library across multiple external HDDs (advice needed)

Here's the rundown. I have an extensive media library, and I've found that satisfying my storage, editing, and convenience needs at the same time is difficult.
Setup:
Mac Mini - 120GB
Mini Stack - Partitioned 500GB (120 backing up main drive, 380 for iTunes Music and misc.)
FreeAgent - 320GB (backup for Music)
2x MyBook 1.5TB - iTunes Movies (1 backs up to the other)
2x MyBook 750 - iTunes TV Shows (1 backs up to the other)
I'm operating right now with about 160GBs of music, music videos, and podcasts, about 950GBs of Movies, and about 500GBs of TV Shows and other misc Video that I organize in the "TV Shows" section of iTunes.
I have all of my content nested within iTunes folders on each drive, and when adding or editing content I change the preferences to point to the appropriate folder.
The problems I'm running into are that iTunes keeps wanting to update my library each time, and if a edit a file that is not in the currently selected iTunes folder the edits are only reflected in iTunes (not to the file itself).
This comes up most frequently when I'm adding ripped TV Shows, as iTunes always adds them first as Movies, which I then change. I also rename the files and add artwork. If I'm pointing to the correct folder the files will move from a Movies folder to a TV Shows folder, reflect new names, and retain episode and other info. If not they don't update.
So I want to know if there is a way to set my itunes folder permanently to the music location, add movies and tv shows from locations without copying to main folder AND retain the same editing abilities that you have by selecting "keep iTunes folder organized."
Thanks for any suggestions.
-Ryan

iTunes hasn't really caught up with Apple's seeming trend towards devices that are smaller and smaller and the glut of media that requires large storage. I guess in the end it might be expected one goes to cloud storage of some sort.
I have never bought anything from iTunes Store but I guess it will still download to someplace indicated in preferences for your media folder location even if you have turned off copy to for other methods of adding media. Two options then. Either make that place your internal drive and move files to the external as you download them, or make it the external drive and work with special handling of music files on the internal. You can override iTunes copying items if you hold down the option key while dragging the item to itunes.

Similar Messages

IBook and external HDD - Advice needed

Hi all,
I am using an old G3 white dual USB iBook with OS X 10.2.8. The backlight cable broke a year ago, and I finally worked up the nerve to replace it myself...and while I'm in there, I'd like to drop in a new 120GB Seagate hard drive to replace the practically full 30GB in there now. Now before I do all this, I really want to back everything up to an external hard disk.
I have an old Western Digital Caviar 60GB disk that I put into an external enclosure (an AcomData 509), but so far I've had no luck getting Disk Utility to reformat it. Disk Utility sees the hardware and reports it as "0,00 Bytes DMI" and gives the correct model number for the disk, however DU simply won't reformat.
When I tried to put an Apple Extended partition on there, it popped up a progress window saying "Setting up partition map" with a blue candy cane progress bar and then just sits there doing nothing. CPU usage doesn't go up, the drive light never flickers, and right clicking DU in the Dock never reports that the app isn't responding. If I try to quit, it just beeps and won't quit. The console has the following lines:
May 19 13:00:18 c<edited IP address out> kextd[507]: a link/load error occured for kernel extension (null)
/System/Library/Filesystems/msdos.fs/msdos.util: device safe_read error @ 0, Device not configured
The same thing happens even if the option to zero the disk is selected. In either case, DU must be force quit.
So, with no success there, I decided to try to format it as an MS-DOS File System. Clicking Erase makes a progress window with the candy cane bar very quickly pop up and then disappear with no indication that anything happened at all. The console had the following lines after that:
/System/Library/Filesystems/msdos.fs/msdos.util: device safe_read error @ 0, Device not configured
/sbin/newfs_msdos: warning: /dev/disk2 is not a character device
/sbin/newfs_msdos: meta data exceeds file system size
If I select the zero disk option, the progress window pops up flashing "Remounting Volume" then "Writing zeros" and then DU abruptly crashes. If anyone needs the crashdump log, I'll be happy to post it, but it is very long.
Typing "diskutil list" in the terminal shows:
/dev/disk2
#: type name size identifier
0: *0.0 B disk2
1: 0.0 B disk2
Typing "diskutil info /dev/disk2" reports
Device Node: /dev/disk2
Device Identifier: disk2
Mount Point:
Volume Name:
can't open: /dev/disk2 (Permission denied)
File System:
Partition Type:
Media Type: Generic
Protocol: USB
Total Size: 0.0 B
Free Space: 0.0 B
Read Only: No
Ejectable: No
I thought it might be interesting to try the eraseDisk for diskutil, but here's what happened:
sudo diskutil eraseDisk HFS+ BackupDisk /dev/disk2
Password:
error -5344 making new partition
Unmount old disk
Erasing disk2
/sbin/newfs_hfs: write (sector 0, 45568 bytes): Device not configured
Remounting volume
Could not mount disk
I'm not very familiar with using fdisk, but when I tried to run it with "sudo fdisk" it told me it must be run as root...ok?
This drive originally had Redhat Linux 7 with one large ext2 partition if I remember right. Clearly something happened to it, but I don't know what.
Since I really need this data backed up, I tried using my 3rd gen 20GB iPod, but unfortunately, when I try to copy over my home directory I routinely get an error -50. This happens on specific files, but even when I try to copy one at a time, I still get a message that certain files or folders couldn't be copied. The iPod is formatted FAT32, if that makes any difference.
So, I need some advice. Should I go buy a new had drive to put in the enclosure and hope this one works? Would it be better to find a NAS, and if so, what's a good model? Should I get a 2.5" external enclosure and put the old iBook hard drive in there and try to mount that once I've installed Tiger on the new Seagate? (I know there are bound to be permission issues with getting into my home directory like that...)
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance.
iBook dual USB, 600MHz G3, 30GB HD Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Thank you for the suggestions.
I tried the repartitioning, but DU stalled out with the message "Preparing drives ... unmounting old volumes." It still didn't report any higher cpu usage, the drive light never flashed, and DU wouldn't quit normally. I tried using diskutil partitionDisk at the command line, and that returned an "error -5344 making new partition" and "You have specified partition sizes which will not fit on the device." I tried 60G as the size, and when that didn't work, I tried all the way down to 30G, still with the same result. (Interestingly, DU no longer says the disk is a WD600 as before - it just says "DMI" under the description.) What could I be doing wrong?
Oh, with the iPod I was trying to copy only a few folders, like a "School" folder, from my home directory, not the whole thing at once. It copied fine for a while, then it returned the error -50 and stopped. The message dialog with the error -50 stayed up there and would never go away, and if I tried to log out or restart, I'd be told the Finder couldn't quit because some operation was still in progress.
If I tried to copy a different folder, or copy smaller batches of files, I'd either still get that error, or the Finder would say that it couldn't copy a file, and ask if I wanted to stop or continue. Whichever choice I made, the message dialog wouldn't go away, even if the rest of the copy completed successfully. Trying to log out or restart would again tell me the Finder couldn't quit as before.
I should mention that the exact same thing happens when I try to copy some things out to my USB drive (a SanDisk Cruzer Micro). A few years ago, when I tried to copy some school files from the iBook onto a Windows 2000 (NTFS) machine over a network, I had a similar problem with the error -50. I got around that by going to the Win machine and using it to do the copy. Copying onto the iBook from either machine worked just fine, though.
Anywho, those other drive enclosures are very nice, but they're so expensive, and if I had to get a new drive, too, I might have to not eat for the rest of the month, lol. And I doubt I could get one shipped and get this little machine all fixed up before school starts next week (and I'll definitely be needing it for school, unfortunately).
So barring a good enclosure, do you think I'd have better luck with a MyBook external or something similar? Or a NAS? What worries me is that if I'm already having trouble copying onto the iPod and the USB drive, what are the chances it'll be any better with one of those? Could it just be some issue with FAT32?
Would it be possible for me to get a 2.5" enclosure and put the iBook's current disk in there, do my repairs, install Tiger on the new Seagate, and then mount the old disk over Firewire and move my files to the new disk that way? How would I make my files public so the new install will let me read them? In Windows, making the folder shared was enough...any suggestions for something equivalent in OS X (Jaguar)?
Again, thanks for your help, very much appreciated. ~:o)
iBook dual USB, 600MHz G3, 30GB HD Mac OS X (10.2.x)
iBook dual USB, 600MHz G3, 30GB HD Mac OS X (10.2.x)

How do i manage 1 iphoto library on 2 external drives?

I'm trying to find the most efficient way to manage 1 iphoto library across 2 external drives. In case one of my external drives dies, I'll have a backup.
I know how to copy my iphoto library onto another drive, but my question is how to manage the 2 drives when i add photos/videos to them from my iphone.
Currently, I import photos/vids from iphone onto 1 drive. Then unmount the external drive and hook up another drive. I direct iphoto to use the new drive as it's library and then import the photos/vids again onto the second drive. I make sure the event is named the same, so I have the same iphoto setup across both drives. Then i delete the photos/vids from my iphone.
Is there a more efficient way to do this? Or software that can do this in one step?
Thanks in advance for any help!

You want to have a backup of your working library on your MacBook Pro on each of two external HDs, correct?
If yes then use a backup application like Synk or Synk Pro that can incrementally backup the library, i.e. copy only those new of modified files. If you go to MacUpdate.com and do a search for "backup" you'll get a list of potential candidates.
Then all you need to do is connect EHD#1 and run the backup app to update the library then connect EHD#2 and do the same. It only takes several seconds to make the incremental backup. Synk Pro can be configured to automically start the backup when the external drives are connected. I'm not sure but believe some of the other backup apps could do the same.
OT

Spreading your Aperture Library across multiple volumes/drives/disks

I recall reading posts elsewhere by others (on an Adobe Lightroom forum) on how one's Aperture Library had to sit on one volume, meaning that it could not span multiple disks. At the time I figured I would be fine for a while since I had about 150 GB of free space on my main disk, yet kept the topic at the back of my mind.
Today, as I do regularly, I was backing up my (Aperture) library to my iPod, (not through the "vault" mechanism but simply using Finder,) when I noticed it was copying (many) individual files, rather than one large file! Being familiar with Unix, including how certain items in Mac OSX are treated, such as "Applications" that appear to be one object in the GUI, yet are merely a folder structure behind the scene, it occurred to me that the Aperture Library, rather than being some sort of single-file database format, just might be a folder instead.
I checked, and it is. Mind you, that doesn't prevent Aperture from keeping proprietary files within those folders, however, it would seem to me that one could easily use symbolic links to throw some of the files, perhaps at the project level, onto other disks, and thus span your library across multiple volumes even if Aperture does not yet offer or manage this ability.
iMac G5 2.1 HGz, 1.5 GB RAM, 20" Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Perhaps this article will help shed light on Aperture's library organization:
http://homepage.mac.com/bagelturf/aparticles/library/libinside/libinside.html
Enjoy!
-- Jim

Sharing one iTunes library across multiple accounts on the same Mac

Hello, I've poked around at some of the posts dealing with sharing one iTunes music library across multiple accounts on the same Mac but it seems like this can only be done if the libary is moved to a shared folder. I realize this can be done but I was trying to share it the way it is described in a post on Apple support (See link below.). That post seemed to imply that you don't have to move the library from its original location (owned by account A, e.g.), rather just make a couple preference changes in the accounts, use fast user switching and voila. That doesn't seem to work. So my question is this: Is the only way to share one iTunes music library across multiple accounts on the same Mac to move it to a shared folder? I'm running 10.4.8 on an Intel iMac. Thanks in advance!
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93195

After reading this and several other related threads, I am becoming thoroughly confused about all of this. I have a situation similar to the one that pokerpal described in the post dated January 7 at 8:06 pm, except that the music files on my system are located on an external hard drive. Everything else is pretty much the same though - I am the admin user (and the main iTunes user and maintainer) and my girlfriend is a standard user who has no music in her own iTunes library. She can see and listen to and make playlists from and sync her iPod with the music in this library from her account, and I can do the same thing, independent of her, from my account. And if I make a change to information within a song, she doesn't see it, and vice versa, and I understand that. What I don't understand is why when I add a song or an album to the music files by importing a CD or downloading something from the iTunes Music Store, she has no way of knowing that unless I tell her, and then she can add it to her library by using the "Add to Library" function. Is there no way of automatically updating her library files to add the new song(s)? We have almost 15,000 songs and videos in that library, and I don't even want to think about what might have to happen if the answer to my question is "no." Interestingly enough, if I put an update to a Word document in the same exact location (on the hard drive), we can update that and pass it back and forth all day - why is that such a difficult task for iTunes to accomplish?
Sorry I went on so long, but this has been building up for some time, and none of the solutions I've read about here have really been of any help, so I'm a bit frustrated and, as I said at the beginning, confused.
iMac G5, MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Using ONE iTunes library on an external HDD with TWO Separate Macs

I have been battling for some time to run one iTunes library on my 160GB Passport between both my 12" iBook G4 and my 15" Macbook Pro.
While I understand the concept of using the SHIFT-key when booting iTunes to Choose the Library it does not appear to work the way I imagine it should.
The Library is managed on the Macbook Pro and merely used on the iBook.
Updates done on the Macbook Pro do not carry across without doing a full consolidation with the Library.
Please Help.

*While I understand the concept of using the SHIFT-key when booting iTunes to Choose the Library it does not appear to work the way I imagine it should.*
On a Mac you hold down the Option key:
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file
iLounge - Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive

Sharing an iTunes Library across multiple user account and a network.

Sharing an iTunes Music Library across multiple user accounts.
Hello Everybody!
Firstly, this was designed to be run in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. It will not work with earlier versions of Mac OS X! Sorry.
Here's a handy tip for keeping your hard drive neat and tidy, it also saves space, what in effect will be done is an iTunes music library will be shared amongst multiple users on the same machine. There are advantages and disadvantages to using this method.
• Firstly I think it might be worthwhile to state the advantages and disadvantages to using this approach.
The advantages include:
- Space will be saved, as no duplicate files will occur.
- The administrator will be able to have complete control over the content of the iTunes library, this may be useful for restricting the content of the Library; particularly for example if computer is being used at and education institution, business or any other sort of institution where things such as explicit content would be less favorable.
- The machine will not be slowed by the fact that every user has lots of files.
The disadvantages to this system include.
- The fact that the account storing the music will have to be logged in, and iTunes will have to be active in that account.
- If the account housing the music is not active then nobody can use the iTunes library.
- There is a certain degree of risk present when an administrator account must be continually active.
- Fast User Switching must be enabled.
Overview:
A central account controls all music on the machine/network, this is achieved by storing iTunes files in a public location as opposed to in the user's directory. In effect the system will give all users across the machine/network access to the same music/files without the possibility of files 'doubling up' because two different users like the same types of music. This approach saves valuable disk space in this regard and may therefore prove to be useful in some situations.
This is a hearty process to undertake, so only follow this tutorial if you're willing to go all the way to the end of it.
Process:
Step 1:
Firstly, we need to organize the host library, I tidied mine up, removing excess playlists, random files, things like that. this will make thing a bit easier in the later stages of this process.
Once the library is tidied up, move the entire "iTunes" folder from your Home directory to the "//localhost" directory (The Macintosh HD) and ensure that files are on the same level as the "Applications", "Users", "Library" and "System" directories; this will ensure that the files in the library are available to all users on the machine (this also works for networks)
Optionally you can set the ownership of the folder to the 'administrator' account (the user who will be hosting the library.), you may also like to set the permissions of 'you can' to "Read & Write" (assuming that you are doing this through the user who will host the library); secondly you should set the "Owner" to the administrator who will be hosting the library and set their "access" to "Read & Write" (this will ensure that the administrator has full access to the folder). The final part of this step involves setting access for the "Others" tab to "Read Only" this will ensure that the other users can view but not modify the contents on the folder.
Overview:
So far we have done the following steps:
1. Organized the host library.
2. Placed the iTunes directory into a 'public' directory so that other users may use it. (this step is essential if you plan on sharing the library across multiple accounts on the same machine. NOTE: this step is only necessary if you are wanting to share you library across multiple accounts on the same machine, if you simply want to share the music across a network, use the iTunes sharing facility.
3. set ownership and permissions for the iTunes music folder.
Step 2:
Currently the administrator is the only user who can use this library, however we will address this soon. In this step we will enable iTunes music sharing in the administrator's account, this will enable other users to access the files in the library.
If you are not logged in as the administrator, do so; secondly, open iTunes and select "Preferences" from the "iTunes" menu, now click the "Sharing" tab, if "share my library on my local network" is not checked, the radio buttons below this will now become active, you may choose to share the entire libraries contents, or share only selected content.
Sharing only selected content may be useful if their is explicit content in the library and minors use the network or machine that the library is connected to.
If you have selected "share entire library" go to Step 3, if you have selected share "share selected playlists" read on.
After clicking "share selected playlists" you must then select the playlists that you intend to share across your accounts and network. Once you have finished selecting the playlists, click "OK" to save the settings.
Overview:
In this step we:
1. Enabled iTunes sharing in the administrator's account, now, users on the local network may access the iTunes library, however, users on the same machine may not.
Step 3:
Now we will enable users on the same machine to access the library on the machine. This is achieved by logging in as each user, opening iTunes, opening iTunes preferences, and clicking "look for shared music". now all users on the machine may also access the library that the administrator controls.
This in effect will mean that the user will not need to use their user library, it will be provided to them via a pseudo network connection.
As a secondary measure, I have chosen to write a generic login script that will move any content from the user's "Music/iTunes/iTunes Music" directory to the trash and then empties the user's trash.
This is done through the use of an Automator Application: this application does the following actions.
1. Uses the "Finder" action "Get Specified Finder Items"
1a. The user's "~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music" folder
2. Uses the "Finder" action "Get Folder Contents"
3. Uses the "Finder" action "Move to Trash"
4. Uses the "Automator" action "Run AppleScript"
4a. with the following:
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Finder"
empty trash
end tell
return input
end run
IMPORTANT: Once the script is adapted to the user account it must be set as a login item. in order to keep the script out of the way i have placed it in the user's "Library" directory, in "Application Support" under "iTunes".
Overview:
Here we:
1. Enabled iTunes sharing in the user accounts on the host machine, in effect allowing all users of the machine to view a single iTunes library.
2. (Optional) I have created a login application that will remove any content that has been added to user iTunes libraries, this in effect stops other users of the machine from adding music and files to iTunes.
Step 4:
If it is not already enabled, open system preferences and enable Fast User Switching in Accounts Options.
Summary:
We have shared a single iTunes library across multiple user account, while still allowing for network sharing. This method is designed to save space on machines, particularly those with smaller hard drives.
I hope that this hint proves to be helpful and I hope everybody will give me feedback on my process.
regards,
Pete.
iBook G4; 60GB Hard Drive, 512MB RAM, Airport Extreme Mac OS X (10.4.6) iWork & iLife '06, Adobe CS2, Final Cut Pro. Anything and Everything!!!

how to share music between different accounts on a single computer

How can I migrate an Aperture library from an external HDD with Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) format?

How can I migrate an Aperture library from an external HDD with Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) format?
I used to store my pictures on an external hard drive using the latest version of Aperture. Now I tried migrating my Aperture library to Photos. However, after a short moment an error message popped up telling me that "Photos was unable to make a copy of your library before preparing it. Photos does not have the necessary permissions...".
My external HDD doesn't need any permission repairs nor is the system prohibited to read from or write to it.
Thanks for any advice in advance!
Gohtac

My guess is that the encryption is the problem for the new app.

Itunes and all my movies have disappeared,i can no longer add to library from my external hdd which ive always used and can only add from the laptops own hard drive,any ideas what the issue could be?

ive recently updated, itunes and all my movies have disappeared,i can no longer add to library from my external hdd which ive always used and can only add from the laptops own hard drive,any ideas what the issue could be?if i transfer the movies from the external to the laptop they will add to the library without any problem so theres no issue with the laptop but when i go to add file in itunes i can path to the external but as soon as i select the file nothing happens, just goes back to itunes

This happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout,or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
tt2

My Macbook Pro 2014 ran out of battery while mid-slideshow. Now the slideshow won't skip through photos and I can't figure out why? Macbook Pro 2014 13-inch Intel i5 8GB RAM 128GB flash, iPhoto library is on external HDD

Macbook Pro 2014
13-inch
Intel i5
8GB RAM
128GB flash SSD,
Integrated Graphics
iPhoto library is on external HDD
I was in a slideshow, with around 1,911 photos in it. About halfway through, my Macbook ran out of battery. Now when I restarted and charged the Macbook and reopened iPhoto, the slideshow won't advance through photos, and I can't figure out any reason why it would do this.
I thought it may be corrupted, so I deleted and reinstalled iPhoto library, iPhoto itself, and disconnected and reconnected my external HDD.
This didn't work, the photos still won't advance.
I don't know any reason why this would be happening, and there is ample space on my internal drive.
I'm happy to provide more information if needed!
Many Thanks,
James

Make a few tests, James, to narrow down the problem and find out, if the slideshow is corrupted, your iPhoto Library, or settings in your account.
To test, if only your slideshow has a problem, create a new slideshow, just for testing. Just use "File > New Slideshow" and add a few photos. Does this slideshow play correctly?
If the test slideshow does not play either, create a new iPhoto Library. Use the File menu in iPhoto: File > Switch to library > Create New. Import a few photos and create a slideshow. Does it play?
If even a new library does not solve the problem, test in a different user account (see this document: Isolating an issue by using another user account - Apple Support):
This process involves creating a new user account, logging in to it, and testing for the issue.
Create a new standard or admin user account in Users & Groups preferences.
Use these instructions for OS X Mavericks.
See these instructions for OS X Mountain Lion.
See this video, or these instructions for OS X Lion.
Optional: If you have any specific files you wish to test with, copy (don't move) those items to the /Users/Shared folder in the Finder.
Log out of your current user account by choosing Log Out from the Apple () menu.
Log in with the new account you created.
Attempt to reproduce the issue you were seeing in your regular user account.
After you have completed testing, log out of the test account by choosing Log Out from the Apple () menu.
Log in as your regular account.
After you have completed all testing with the test user account, you may want to delete it. You can delete an account in the Users & Groups pane of System Preferences.
Note: Prior to deleting a test account, make sure you are completely done with it. If you have files in the Guest User you wish to keep, you should copy them to the /Users/Shared folder .
If you should find, that slideshows only play in a new user account, post back.

Unable to copy very large file to eSATA external HDD

I am trying to copy a VMWare Fusion virtual machine, 57 GB, from my Macbook Pro's laptop hard drive to an external, eSATA hard drive, which is attached through an ExpressPort adapter. VMWare Fusion is not running and the external drive has lots of room. The disk utility finds no problems with either drive. I have excluded both the external disk and the folder on my laptop hard drive that contains my virtual machine from my Time Machihne backups. At about the 42 GB mark, an error message appears:
The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "Windows1-Snapshot6.vmem" could not be read or written. (Error code -36)
After I press OK to remove the dialog, the copy does not continue, and I cannot cancel the copy. I have to force-quit the Finder to make the copy dialog go away before I can attempt the copy again. I've tried rebooting between attempts, still no luck. I have tried a total of 4 times now, exact same result at the exact same place, 42 GB / 57 GB.
Any ideas?

Still no breakthrough from Apple. They're telling me to terminate the VMWare processes before attempting the copy, but had they actually read my description of the problem first, they would have known that I already tried this. Hopefully they'll continue to investigate.
From a correspondence with Tim, a support representative at Apple:
Hi Tim,
Thank you for getting back to me, I got your message. Although it is true that at the time I ran the Capture Data program there were some VMWare-related processes running (PID's 105, 106, 107 and 108), this was not the case when the issue occurred earlier. After initially experiencing the problem, this possibility had occurred to me so I took the time to terminate all VMWare processes using the activity monitor before again attempting to copy the files, including the processes mentioned by your engineering department. I documented this in my posting to apple's forum as follows: (quote is from my post of Feb 19, 2008, 1:28pm, to the thread "Unable to copy very large file to eSATA external HDD", relevant section in >bold print<)
Thanks for the suggestions. I have since tried this operation with 3 different drives through two different interface types. Two of the drives are identical - 3.5" 7200 RPM 1TB Western Digital WD10EACS (WD Caviar SE16) in external hard drive enclosures, and the other is a smaller USB2 100GB Western Digital WD1200U0170-001 external drive. I tried the two 1TB drives through eSATA - ExpressPort and also over USB2. I have tried the 100GB drive only over USB2 since that is the only interface on the drive. In all cases the result is the same. All 3 drives are formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
I know the files work on my laptop's hard drive. They are a VMWare virtual machine that works just fine when I use it every day. >Before attempting the copy, I shut down VMWare and terminated all VMWare processes using the Activity Monitor for good measure.< I have tried the copy operation both through the finder and through the Unix command prompt using the drive's mount point of /Volumes/jfinney-ext-3.
Any more ideas?
Furthermore, to prove that there were no file locks present on the affected files, I moved them to a different location on my laptop's HDD and renamed them, which would not have been possible if there had been interference from vmware-related processes. So, that's not it.
Your suggested workaround, to compress the files before copying them to the external drive, may serve as a temporary workaround but it is not a solution. This VM will grow over time to the point where even the compressed version is larger than the 42GB maximum, and compressing and uncompressing the files will take me a lot of time for files of this size. Could you please continue to pursue this issue and identify the underlying cause?
Thank you,
- Jeremy

If i move my iPhoto library to an external hdd, will Time Machine backup these photos as well?

I've moved my iPhoto library to an external HDD, I was wondering if now it has been moved outside of my iMac whether Timemachine will still back up my photos, or do I have to change any timemachine preferences to accomodate such a change, any responses will be welcomed-thankyou!

Thanks, Linc, you are the greatest!
So I moved my iTunes library to my external disk. When I checked Time Machine's Excluded list it was not there. Then I entered TM and saw that the library had been backed up from the external disk. So all is well and apparently the OS guys stopped adding external drives to the Excluded list.

Can I store the apps in my iTunes library on an external hdd but keep my music on my mac

can I store the apps in my iTunes library on an external hdd but keep my music on my mac?
thanks

I don't know if this is me adding files to iTunes when the external wasn't connected
it is.
is it OK to just keep deleting that library on the Air?
i wouldn't - at least not until i
mount the external
point iTunes media folder location back to the external via preferences > advanced
consolidate my library via file > library > organize library
The ntfs hasn't seem to be causing any problems, but I've always wanted to know.
in order for your Mac to write to NTFS drives, it needs some help by installing e.g. the NTFS 3G driver. apparently that or something similar is installed on your Mac already. preferably, it would be formatted for Mac but then windows machines would need to have e.g. MacDrive installed to recognize the drive.

Managing large iTunes library across multiple storage devices

Greetings,
I'm trying to find a way to manage a very large library of about 1 TB, which obviously won't fit on my MBP hard drive. I want my movies and tv shows on an external drive, but would like my music, podcasts, etc on my internal drive. I would like to ability to see all items when in iTunes, and would like the ability synch any of the items when synching my iPods, iPhone, or iPad.
I know I can go into the preferences and select the advanced tab and deselect the Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library and then put my media on an external storage device.
My question is this... when I download new movie or tv shows from iTunes, where will it put them? Will it put them in my iTunes media folder, or will it put them on the external drive, or someplace else?
Wouldn't it be easier if Apple would allow you to designate where you wanted to put your videos versus or audo content? it just seems so "unintuitive" for a company that prides themselves on being easy to use, and of course, "just working"
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance... Scott

iTunes hasn't really caught up with Apple's seeming trend towards devices that are smaller and smaller and the glut of media that requires large storage. I guess in the end it might be expected one goes to cloud storage of some sort.
I have never bought anything from iTunes Store but I guess it will still download to someplace indicated in preferences for your media folder location even if you have turned off copy to for other methods of adding media. Two options then. Either make that place your internal drive and move files to the external as you download them, or make it the external drive and work with special handling of music files on the internal. You can override iTunes copying items if you hold down the option key while dragging the item to itunes.

Best way to change Iphoto library referenced across multiple external drives

Hello,
I am relatively new to mac and I think I've gotten myself into trouble with my large collection of photos. I have a single iphoto library which references photos on multiple external drives. However, iphoto is now very slow to launch and I believe this is due to the number of photos (~160k+, I think) in the library. How should I reconfigure my iphoto library for better performance? I would still prefer to have a single library if possible, am willing to have multiple if necessary.
Is the best approach to destroy my iphoto library and recreate multiple libraries, one for each drive with the libraries being located on the external drives with the photos? Any negatives to this? I am really worried about losing photos.
From searching the forums I believe I have an approach but I am uncertain if it is the best way. Is the best approach to destroy my iphoto library and recreate multiple libraries, one for each drive with the libraries being located on the external drives with the photos? Any negatives to this? I am really worried about losing photos.
The library itself is on the main hard drive while the photos are spread across 3 external drives, with some on the main drive as well. I have been manually importing the photos through finder, then adding them to iphoto. I am using Iphoto 11.
Any tips, pointers, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

1 - a referenced library is extremely problematic and is strongly not recommended - especially one spread accross several volumes
2 - iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - can convert to a managed library - check the option to copy imported items to the iPhoto library and rebuil using IPLM
3 - this is likely to cure the slowness too
4 - multiple libraries are not necessary or desireable
5 - the only protection against losing photos is a great backup scheme - I run Time Machine giving me hourly backups and do a daily bootable clone giving a second backup - plus do an occasional off site backup
LN

Managing a large library across multiple external HDDs (advice needed)

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