Maximizing external hard drive performance

I just purchased a new 300 GB external hard drive for my intel Mac mini. Since I´m new to the Mac world, I was wondering what I can do in order to maximize its performance. I´ll use it for storege and its current format is FAT32.
Should I reformat it to GUID? Should I partition it?
Many thanks for your help.
Mac Mini Intel core duo   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   Mac mini 1.66 GHz Intel core duo Mac OS X (10.4.7) 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM

If you really need maximum performance for audio/video you should consider
-Mac OS Extended (without "journaled")-.
But for storage and backups select -Mac OS Extended (Journaled)- for safety reasons and you would not recognize less speed.
I partitioned my external in two.
One for CarbonCoppyCloner backups of my Powerbook drive.
One for backing up iPhoto librarys etc. and as EyeTV archive and buffer.

Similar Messages

  • Best compatible external hard drives

    iTunes is using up all of my memory - I want a portable external hard drive - what is the best model for my system in terms of ease of use, price etc
    I have an old Power Pc G3 w/ OS 10.4.11 and use a 4th gen ipod 8GB

    Unless you have a USB 2.0 PCI card installed, you only have the USB 1.1 plugs on the back of your Mac. USB 1.1 is much, much slower than USB 2.0.
    How Fast Does A USB 2.0 Drive Go On The Newest Macs? How Does It Compare To FireWire?
    http://www.barefeats.com/usb2.html
    USB: Transfer Speed Compared to Other Technologies
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24531
    USB Compared with FireWire
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UniversalSerial_Bus#USB_compared_withFireWire
    External Hard drive Performance (Firewire vs USB)
    http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/external-hard-drive-charts/Average-Read-Trans fer-Performance,694.html
     Cheers, Tom

  • Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation it gives me an input/output error and stops. Any tips?

    Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation and after having selected both my destination and source drives, the operation begins but soon fails due to input/output error. If I try to create an image of the drive it gives me the same error message. Any help would be much appreciated.

    Disk Utility only creates a image of the drive, so it's no help getting exactly what you want, which is your files. If the file structure is messed up or the drive is failing then it's no help.
    If you have a external boot drive and you can't access the internal non-booting drive though the typical Finder and windows to transfer your files via drag and drop methods, then you need to install Data Rescue on the external boot drive and it will do as best as it can to recover your files. (works on non-encrypted/non-Filevaulted drives only)
    .Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
    Are you sure you have hard drive failure, or that OS X isn't merely not booting?
    Because if the drive is working physically, then there is a host of fixes
    ..Step by Step to fix your Mac
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/

  • When I plug a LaCie external hard drive into my new Mac mini, [os 10.9.1], to use with Time Machine it effects the performance of my internet and email. Turn off Time Machine and unplug the hard drive and the internet and email are working normally again

    When I plug a LaCie external hard drive to work with Time Machine into my new Mac mini, [OS 10.9.1] it drastically effects the performance of the internet and email, turn off Time Machine, unplug the hard drive, internet and email go back to normal. Why?

    Maybe:
    http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/usb-3.0-hard-drives-can-cause-wi-fi-inter ference

  • How can i perform a search on my external hard drive on my mac pro os x 10.9.2 ?

    how can i perform a search on my external hard drive on my mac pro os x 10.9.2 ?

    Mac OS X 10.9.2 is 12 years newer than 9.2.x.    You need to make sure that Spotlight has indexed the external hard drive by adding it and removing it from Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy.   Check the menu for it:
    to determine if indexing is still going on, as it will say indexing.
    Alternatively, you can use a non-Spotlight tool, such as:
    http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/
    http://www.devontechnologies.com/products/freeware/ - EasyFind
    http://www.osxbytes.com/ - iFileX (note the MacUpdate link provided on osxbytes page has a Malware advertisement for MacKeeper, do not download).
    http://www.barebones.com/ Textwrangler has a Search file for content, which works on any Text file.

  • Extremely poor performance on Seagate USB 3.0 External Hard Drive?

    Hi,
    I just recently bought a Macbook Pro Retina. I have a larger than normal iTunes library so I decided a external hard drive was in order. I wanted a Thunderbold one but they were all out of my price range. So I went with a 1tb Seagate USB 3.0 drive. The problem is though is that it has terrible performance! I mean hours to copy a few hundred megabytes and almost unusable when running iTunes. I do keep the iTunes library file on the extermal hard drive. Could that be it? I am running a disk speed test right now and will post the results when I finish.
    Cheers
    Frank

    is it a 2.5" hd. or a 3.5".  drive.........????
    air cannot power a 3.5"
    also.    does the hd have a junker hd enclosure??
    did you have a hd that. you bought a hd enclosure for??.
    if so.  THAT is the problem.     allllll commercial ( nearly all) are utter junk and cause this issue. 
    they have junk SATA connector boards

  • I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

    I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

    In the Mac side of things, backups usually come in two flavors: clones or incrementals.
    A bootable clone is a bit-for-bit copy of all essential files in the startup volume. If using the Lions, clones can be made using CarbonCopyCloner or just plain old Disk Utility. These backups represent the safest protection of your info, but take the longest to do. Recovery is an inverse process: you copy the clone back into the internal drive.
    Incremental backups start with a complete backup of the startup volume and only copy whatever changed from the previous run. OS X includes the fully integrated Time Machine backup utility to do this. It is extremely easy to do and takes the least amount of time. Recovery is another matter altogether since you have to start with a freshly installed instance of the OS and have to apply all intervening backups to bring the result to the latest saved version.
    As for where the backup takes place, the recommended media is an external dedicated drive or drives connected via the fastest interface available on your Mac: Thunderbolt, USB3, Firewire, or USB2. Network-based backups, wired or wireless, are attractive but may not offer the same performance and hence take longer. Also important to note that the entire drive need not be completely dedicated to a single backup. The Mac's EFI firmware infrastructure allows for an unlimited number of partitions on a hard drive and each can be used for either type of backups.
    Holler if you need specifics on how to do each. This was just an executive summary.

  • Time Capsule - OS Upgrade and External Hard Drive

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

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

  • Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented.  is it wise to do this or should i not??

    just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented.  is it wise to do this or should i not??

    Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd.
    Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set.
    1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price.
    I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there.
    Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB?
    Best would be to ask in the TimeMachine section Snow Leopard
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009
    where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.

  • I transferred data from my external hard drive to my restored Mac Book Pro via migration assistant and now my external hard drive in time capsule has red minus signs. How do I get rid of that without getting rid of any of my data?

    I used Migration Assistant to transfer my data from my external hard drive via Time Capsule to my restored Mac Book Pro. When I now go into Time Capsule I there are red minus signs in the corner of all the folders that are contained in my back up. How do I get rid of this and access my previous back-ups?

    Select the drive and Finder > Get info and at the bottom "ignore permissions on this volume"
    You can copy the files, but the ownership on the files still belongs to the other user account, once your done copying, then perform a #6 Reset Users Permissions and that will set all the ownership to that account.
    ..Step by Step to fix your Mac
    Another method is to copy the entire folder, then change it's permissions.

  • How to restore my computer from external hard drive

    I recently had to re install a new hard drive and I'm trying to restore my computer from my external hard drive... how do I do that?

    S_Higg wrote:
    I recently had to re install a new hard drive and I'm trying to restore my computer from my external hard drive... how do I do that?
    hold c boot from the 10.6 disk, Erase the drive with Security option > Zero: Partition Option: GUID Format: OS X extended J, quit install 10.6, reboot
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3251
    Next you'll be in setup assistant,
    If the external drive is a TimeMachine drive you can restore, your done. 
    If TM is corrupt your screwed and need to perform data recovery options. Stop.
    If the external drive is a clone, hold the option key and boot from it, setup the internal drive and reverse clone.
    or
    If the external drive a clone then set the new machine up with either the same or a different user name depending if the clone is good or bad.
    Use the same name if the clone is bad, install your programs from fresh sources on the new drive, transfer files manually from the bad clone.
    Use a setup different name if the clone is good, use Utilities > Migration Assistant program on the clone drive to transfer everything over.
    You can use a same name with a good clone and chose to reinstall programs fresh and just transfer files you want from the good clone.
    If the external drive a storage drive (just files) then set the machine up with the same user name as before and transfer files manually.

  • Error code 36 when copying files to external hard drive!

    I keep getting this error when I try to copy files to my external hard drives. It is the same error no matter what drive I use. It says it cannot perform the operation because the data cannot be written - like there is a permissions problem, but I checked all the files, and there is no permission problems. The file sizes are small .iff and .jpg --- There is not more than 10 characters in the naming, so what is going on? I have folders inside of folders, and it will not copy - but if I go into the folders and copy each file one at a time, by itself, it works. I don't get it? Anybody have any thoughts?

    a very common issue caused by a bug in snow leopard finder when dealing with FAT formatted drives. see this link for details and a fix
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11122044&#11122044

  • Time Machine Not Backing Up to an External Hard Drive - Error 11

    Hi!
    I am unable to backup my MacBook with my external Hard Drive. My Mac is a fairly new machine (September 2009) and I have backed up since upgrading to Snow Leopard previously but I cannot backup at all at the moment.
    I have run disk utility and repair completed without any issues, in fact it told me that the drive was running ok. I have also reformatted my drive (mac os extended (journaled) ) and made sure the partition is GUID. The following is the message that appears when the backup fails:
    "The backup was not performed because an error occured while copying the files to the backup disk. The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use disk utility to repair your backup disk."
    I have had a look at the log using the Time Machine Widget and the following is what has been generated:
    Starting standard backup
    Backing up to: /Volumes/MAC/Backups.backupdb
    Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
    Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
    Backup content size: 100.2 GB excluded items size: 85.9 GB for volume Macintosh HD
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 17.11 GB requested (including padding), 148.45 GB available
    Waiting for index to be ready (101)
    Indexing a file failed. Returned 200 for: /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/crox3tbo.pcf.gz, /Volumes/MAC/Backups.backupdb/Eric O'Mahony’s MacBook/2010-05-02-210743.inProgress/E450C379-52F6-48A3-99D7-F45043074122/Macin tosh HD/usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/crox3tbo.pcf.gz
    Aborting backup because indexing of file failed.
    Stopping backup.
    Copied 158300 files (12.5 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Copy stage failed with error:11
    Backup failed with error: 11
    The problems seems to be with indexing a file....a font?? Can anyone help me? It is driving me crazy and I need to backup my files.
    Thank you for your help!

    ericomahony wrote:
    Indexing a file failed. Returned 200 for: /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/crox3tbo.pcf.gz,
    The problems seems to be with indexing a file....a font??
    Yes, indeed. Start by just excluding it, per the blue box in #C3 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
    If the backup then runs ok, you'll need to figure out what's wrong with that file.
    If you get another error, see the rest of #C3.

  • My External hard drive keeps ejecting randomly in Snow Leopard. How do I stop this, and prevent it from happening?

    I'm currently running a clean install of Snow Leopard version 10.6.8, and I have done nothing but attempt to mount my external hard drive, which is a Fantom 2 TB Greendrive connected via eSATA through an ExpressCard.
    It performed flawlessly in Leopard, and I had no issues with it whatsoever. Then, I performed a clean install of Snow Leopard (erased the drive, and installed via DVD), and when everything had finished, I brought up a finder window, mounted my External Hard drive, and attempted to drag a folder to the desktop. It got to about 15%, and froze. Then, a few seconds later, it told me that I had removed it without ejecting it safely.
    It continues to do this every time I try to move a large file to my cleanly installed internal hard drive. It varies on the amount of time it takes to 'eject'. Sometimes the file will get almost halfway there, and then the progress freezes, the 'eject' error is thrown, and my drive dismounts.
    The file is about 6.2 GB, and it's vitally important to my livelihood to get this drive working reliably. (It contains CS5 (legitimate copy), as well as extremely important personal files, and i'm a freelance Web Designer and Developer, as well as writer and blogger.)
    Short Version:
    OS: 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard, clean install)
    External: 2TB Fantom Greendrive (eSATA through ExpressCard)
    Issue: Randomly ejects drive while transferring larger files.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!
    Taylor Daughtry

    I have the same issues, The drivers are not great for eSATA right now. I think apple is puting all there effort into Thunderbolt. Ther should be a Thunderbolt to eSATA adaptor soon, untiull then you might want to get a firewire enclosure for you drive as I have had to do.
    Maybe you can blog about my app? www.BeautifulClockRadio.com
    Mark

  • Issues with using my iPhoto library on my external hard drive.  Very slow to open and pictures disappear in thumbnail view.

    I have recently transferred my iPhoto Library to my external hard drive (WD MyBook Live) and have some questions.  Since I have done this and used the "alt + option" to select it as my default library I have been having some issues.  When using the library on the external drive as my default drive it takes a very long time to load compared to when it was on my macbook's hard drive. Is this normal?  Also, once it does load the thumbnails are only viewable when scrolling quickly through the photos and they are very blurry.  However, if I were to select one randomly (because of this problem I have no way of knowing which one I'm selecting) it brings it up in the edit view and it is a crystal clear picture.
    Is there a way to fix these issues?  I'd love to be able to use the iPhoto Library off the external drive to free up space on my macbook but if it isn't going to work as streamlined as it would on my macbook hard drive.  I have not yet deleted the original iPhoto Library from my macbook because I did not want to do so until I knew the new iPhoto library on the external drive was working properly.  Does this make a difference?
    Please help!

    The problem lies with occasional dropouts that can corrupt the library's database files if they are being written to as the time of dropout.  It's the nature of wireless networks.  If you have a very strong signal throughout and are willing to take a chance then go for it.
    But as for the speed, it must be iPhoto 11 and it's complexity causing the slowness. I had tried using a library on an EHD connected to my iMac from my laptop wirelessly with iPhoto 7 or 8 and it was pretty fast.  I think it was 7 before faces and places came into being.
    Send a feature request to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html to improve wireless performance, etc.
    OT

Maybe you are looking for