Mini Pal

I just purchased a Mini Pal w/ 160GB. It looks and feels almost exactly like the mini jus a little thinner. I have programs such as Protools, Dreamweaver, Reason, and Photoshop. My computer was running slow with these programs and I had more thann half of my internal HD filled. Now that I have this extrnal HD, how do I use it to expand my performance? Do I jus move those applications over to the external or do i have to reinstall them? Or should i boot from the external HD? If so, how do I do that? Someone help me out. Thanks

There are many discussions here on this. Definitely boot from the external. Almost everyone recommends (and I concur) using Carbon Copy Cloner.
I used it - the only two things that needed their installations tweaked were Quark and RealBasic. For Quark, I was told that I had exceeded my hardware change limit and needed to contact them for reactivation. I merely copied the preferences from a backup DVD I made of the internal soon after installing Quark to the external and Quark was cool, although I have no doubt that their service would have provided reactivation - my way is just quicker. Real Basic needed its serialisation data re-entered. If your Photoshop is CS 2, it MIGHT require that the internal installation has its activation transferred. My Photoshop is CS 1 so activation was not an issue.
But definitely use Carbon Copy Cloner - at least half the activation stuff will be taken care of and no need to reinstall.

Similar Messages

Mini Pal External Drive

I just purchased a MiniPal external Drive. I work wit a lot of music and images so and I needed more space. Everyone is telling me to boot from the external but I dont think that is possible because of the one button backup on the device. I already tried to Carbon Copy the Mac HD to the external and that didnt work fully. What are my other options with this thing?

It is up to you how you wish to set your system up.
You could make a partition that matches the size of your internal and do a clone backup from your internal hard drive to your external partition of the same size.
Then partition the rest of the drive for your other use.
Or maybe you just want to backup your users folder, in which case depending on the size of all the documents you store in your user folder you may not even want to split up the external drive but just store a copy of the user folder on a single partition on the external along with everything else.
As you see there is no right or wrong way. Each way will have its merits which will be more appealing on a case by case basis with each persons situation.
You will probably get lots of backup recommendations. My vote by far over the rest would be for new users who want a piece of software they will use all the time because it makes it fun and enjoyable to backup would be Super Duper. You get a free version to play with as a trial and you cannot beat the low price if you want it permanently with all the goodies. You have a daily script that will automatically backup every day your system pre-made for you and best off all the interface and menus and terminology are all written in layman's terms so you won't have to go through the confusion of learning backup terminology if you are not already familiar with it.
You have a very powerful piece of backup software in that you can clone your entire hard drive and selective restore/rollback specific portions of your OS or the entire system if you wish in case of something catastrophic happening to your main drive.
It truly puts some creative backup and restoration tricks in the hands of your typical Mac user. No offence to everyone =)
Jan J.

Skirts and Stands for Mac Mini

Can i place a skirt between a Mac Mini and a Mini Pal(external stackable drive) to miniminze the heat? Or should i get two of the stand and lay them both on the side?

H,
You could get a skirt and put it between the two but it will not get rid of the heat as much as you may like. The plastic is ok when it comes to heat transfer but it will just hold the heat in there. It will not hurt you and it may help a little. My ministack is under my mini and there is no problem with the heat. The heat from the ministack escapes through the heatsink on the bottom of the enclosure. It is all about what you like. I love my mini just sitting on my entertainment center. No bling, just looks like a little silver box with a light.
I think that this skirt is more a fashion accessory more than anything. I mean it lights up. I guess that is important
blake

My brand new Mac Mini won't start up

the light comes on, but thats it. No sound, no program. It did work for about an hour. What happened? I tried everything...Take it back.
Opinions please.
SP

Having the same issue with my brand new Intel Mac Mini. Happened earlier this week for the first time it went into sleep mode and wouldn't wake up (the light came on, but no chime, no video) - even after shutting it down and trying to boot it up again.
I called tech support and they had me reboot the bios by unplugging it, pressing and holding the power button and plugging the power back in then releasing the button. After that I pressed the button and it came on - when I turned it on again the fan came on full tilt. I called tech support again they had me unplug it for 3 minutes then it came back on again and seemed fine.
Today it happened again - I was able to get it rebooted it but called tech support anyway. I am very concerned that a brand new machine is acting this way. While working with tech support it again became unresponsive. After trying a few things I was connected with another product specialist that agreed that their was a problem and has arranged to get me a new machine.
I am very disappointed as this is my first Mac experience, but hoping it is an isolated issue. Tech support seemed very responsive and I am happy with Apple's response thus far - although it would be nice if they would send the new Mac overnight!
Anyway since others are having a similiar issue I was curious if there are any common threads to our experiences? If you have a chance list your specs - might see something interesting.
Ok here are mine:
- Mac Mini Intel Solo Core
- Upgraded the RAM to 1 Gig (Ordered it this way)
- Upgraded to the SuperDrive (DVD Burner)
- Using a KVM (Also have a PC on the same KVM)
- Acomdata 160 GB Mini Pal Hard Drive / Ports
- iPod dock connected
- USB Camera cable connected
- Keyboard and mouse are USB wireless PC based
Anyway post your specs if you are having an issue - maybe we will see a trend.
Guy
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.5)
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Mini/Leopard: Suddenly not chiming or recognizing ext FW HD

My 512 MB DDR SDRAM Mac Mini (1.5GHz PowerPC G4) has worked fine for 2 years hooked into a "Mini Pal" external HD (has the same exact footprint, sits directly under the Apple Mini, but is made by Acomdata), which is hooked to the Mini via FireWire (along with a USB plug). Whenever I would boot the Mini, it would give its characteristic CHIME directly from the Mini rather than from the ext speakers I had hooked up to the earphone output. It would then mount the two partitions of the "MiniPal" and life was good.
Then I added a new iMac to my LAN and cloned all the Mini's data onto the iMac, and the Mini took on its future role of being just a server with its own internal HD, its external HD(s), and its hardwire-connected printers. The Mini still booted normally (with CHIME) and showed the two Mini Pal HD partitions as before.
Earlier today I added a .5 TB LaCie external drive, whose new role is to back up that new iMac's HD over WiFi, to the .5-TB LaCie attached via FW to the Mini acting as a server.
I hooked the LaCie drive into the Mini by plugging its FW I/O into a spare FW socket on the Acomdata "Mini Pal" drive. In doing so I was extremely careful to do the hooking up with all power off, and never jarring the Mini Pal.
Upon rebooting, I expected to see the Mini Pal's two existing partitions self-mount, along with the icon for the newly-daisy-chained LaCie HD.
Imagine my surprise to hear the Mini NOT emit its characteristic CHIME upon being rebooted. "Hmmm..." I thought.
What was worse was that I did NOT see the "Mini Pal"'s two HD partitions show up in the Finder. However, I DID see the LaCie's new ~.5TB external HD show up! This seemed odd to me because the LaCie's FW connection goes THROUGH the "Mini Pal" FW sockets and thence to the Mini itself. Another of the Mini Pal's FW sockets is connected to the Mini (along with a USB plug).
No amount of unconnecting, reconnecting, powering up or down the HDs or complete rebooting seems to wake up the Mini Pal, which (while it remains perfectly happy to pass daisies through itself to and from the LaCie) does not seem very pal-ish anymore because while doing this, it doesn't disclose or mount its contents.
I don't think the Mini Pal has crashed physically because I do hear its drive spinning up, softly vibrating, and making a track-seeking noise or two... especially so because I was fanatically careful of it while hooking in the new LaCie drive... Disk Utility doesn't seem to see anything related to the Mini Pal either. It seems too much of a coincidence that the thing should crash NOW or otherwise cause my problem, but the problem still just cropped up.
Interestingly, even when the Mini Pal is powered down, I apparently can "look through its FW plugs" and see/mount the LaCie downstream.
Anyone have any thoughts on how to revive the Mini Pal? And what happened to my Mini's boot-up CHIME sound? Are these two problems related? Tnx for any advice...

Tnx Boece. Turns out that AppleCare helped me decide that the ext MiniPal HD had simply died. Also, if you last left a Mini in "muted" mode (as I did), it WON'T chime on reboot. (blush)
Now I have "just" an ext .5TB LaCie HD hooked up by FireWire to my Mini. It's visible when I look for it on the Mini, which BTW (irrelevant when looking for it on the Mini itself) has been set to Personal File Sharing ON.
However, strangely enough, when I look for the Mini from an Ethernet-connected PB in the "My Network" list of the Finder of that PBG4, I can find and access the internal HD of the Mini "next door" -- but NOT the newly-connected LaCie ext HD of the Mini.
This ability to access ext HDs of the Mini from across the LAN used to work fine, when the Mini was using the previous, now-dead MiniPal (which had two partitions, both of which were accessible across the LAN). But now, with the new LaCie in the same role and with the same connectivity, not.
Might this have been caused by the PMU reset I did while troubleshooting the Mini? If so, is there a workaround?
I think I'll post this as its own question elsewhere hereabouts. Sorry for the duplication...

Multiple user accounts, multiple Ipods, One computer, One Itunes library

Here's my problem, I have my main music library on my Mac Mini (Intel 1.5 solo) its too big to fit on the hard drive with everything else, so I added a Mini pal drive. This has my music, photos and all the other junk I cant fit on the mini's hard drive. I want to create multiple accounts so my kids can each have their own, but we all have Ipods that we want connected to our own accounts. I want to keep all the music in one library, and share it accross all the accounts. I dont want to have to log on when my kids want a song from my library. Itunes dosent seam to like the library being on the seperate drive. Mabe I am just dooing something wrong.
Ps: I'm running Itunes 7.3 on all my machines

Apple really doesn't quite do multi-user well yet, at least as far as the iPod goes (IMHO.)
We've taken your approach. 3 users with iTunes for each pointing to a single library on an external storage device. That way there's no problem with having to go to other libraries to import (and not question about 'copying files'... big waste of space.)
Our problem is having multiple iPods plugged into the same machine. I'm about to buy one of the new models for wife and daughter, but I'm not sure how we all can be plugged in (as I'm sure will happen.)
Right now, when I plug in just my own Nano, it appears in iTunes for each of the other users. In fact I sometimes can't even eject because iTunes for another user thinks the iPod its attached to it.
To expand this thread, anyone have pointers on use of multiple iPods on the same machine with multiple users? The existing links to Apple support articles are not relevant.

How do I best compress a multi file project in Encore CS5 to fit a standard DVD?

Hello,
I have created a series of small films in Final Cut Pro X, they have been exported as seperate audio and video tracks, ac3 audio and mpeg video from the presets in FCPX.
I want to use Encore CS5 to create DVDs out of them and I have used it before but only know the basics. The problem is that after I import all the media files, that I want on the first DVD, as assets and put them on the timeline it adds up to 7.23 GB, even though the time is just under 2 hours. I know that that might be pushing it a little bit in regards to the amount of time that I can fit on a regular 4.7 GB DVD, but it should't take up that much space. I removed a bunch of files from the timeline to see what I could fit and only got just under 1 hour. I can see that it is possible to decrease the file sizes, for instance by going to 'file'-'edit quality presets' and doing stuff there, but 'm not sure of the best way to do that.
In other posts I have seen mentions of encore compressing files to fit automatically, but what i want is a way to fit all the video files, not the audio i guess, to a dvd with minimum quality loss. does anyone know the best way to do this?
the only thing i can think off is either to use more DVDs than I feel that I should have to, or to burn a 7.23 GB image and then shrink that using soomething like DVD shrink, but that seems unecessary.
So I have a feeling that there is a smart way to do this and would appreciate any help.
Thanks. Nik

hello,
Firstly: John, if I export as a .mov and then import to Encore and transcode there will that mean that the file will be shrunk with minimum quality loss? because the .mov file i get using a simple movie export is massive.
below follows my findings and more questions. I suppose I should maybe be moving over to a FCPX & Compressor 4 forum. I think I need to do some studies on Bitrate here.
I tried the option of automatic transcoding in Encore to fit all files on a DVD and the results weren't terrible, in fact they are almost good enough, but not quite. it's sequences with fast movement that really are affected. So Stan, not much difference.
the problem is that the footage i am working with is pretty poor quality to start with. I am working with a bunch of Super 8 family films that have been scanned on to DVDs.
In FCPX a film that is 32 Min Pal SD 25p surround sound keeps coming out way to big. Below are some examples:
-When I export directly from FCPX as a movie (.mov) with the simple export settings and 'keep current settings' the file ends up being a massive 11.16 GB! With all other setting options the file is also expected to be very big ranging from something like 2.3 GB to 23GB.
-When I send it to Compressor 4 and choose the 'SD video sharing' option for uploading online it ends up at 1 GB. These are the settings and summary:
Name: SD Video Sharing
Description: SD for upload to web sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo
File Extension: mov
Estimated size: 783.36 MB/hour of source
Audio Encoder
    AAC, Stereo (L R), 48.000 kHz
Video Encoder
    Width and Height: Up to 640 x 360
    Pixel aspect ratio: Default
    Crop: None
    Padding: None
    Frame rate: (100% of source)
    Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off
    Codec Type: H.264
    Multi-pass: On, frame reorder: On
    Pixel depth: 24
    Spatial quality: 75
    Min. Spatial quality: 25
    Temporal quality: 50
    Min. temporal quality: 25
    Average data rate: 1.741 (Mbps)
-When I export the film under the standard DVD export settings I get two files and sizes, one for audio (.ac3) 108.4 mb and one for video .m2v 1.89 GB. The general video setting summary follows:
Name: MPEG-2 for DVD
Description: MPEG-2 elementary stream for DVD Authoring
File Extension: m2v
Estimated size: 1.89 GB
Type: MPEG-2 video elementary stream
    Usage:SD DVD
Video Encoder
    Width and Height: Automatic
        Selected: 720 x 576
    Pixel aspect ratio: PAL CCIR 601
    Crop: None
    Padding: None
    Frame rate: (100% of source)
        Selected: 25
    Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off
    Start timecode from source
    Aspect ratio: Automatic
        Selected 4:3
    Field dominance: Automatic:
         Selected Progressive
    Average bit rate automatic,
        selected: 7.826087 (Mbps)
    1 Pass VBR enabled
        Maximum bit rate: 9 (Mbps)
    High quality
    Best motion estimation
    Closed GOP Size: 12, Structure: IBBP
    DVD Studio Pro meta-data enabled
well thanks for the help both of you. it seems that outputting way too big files might be one of the many annoying bugs of FCPX.

.m2v plays fine in QT but JERKY on DVD

I've been posting this on the FCP group but nobody seems to know, so I'm hoping someone here has more specialist knowledge.
1) I have an 80 min PAL DV movie which plays beautifully on DVD.
2) In FCP I convert it to NTSC using the Nattress G Coverter
(Result: Excellent)
3) Export using Compressor 2 - to .m2v file
(Result: Excellent when played on QT app)
4) Burn to DVD via DVDSP 4
(Result: Appears Jerky when there's action or panning)
On close (frame by frame) inspection on the set top DVD player, I notice that every 12th frame goes BACK (not stopped - but backwards one frame)
Frame by frame inspection of the .m2v file in QT shows every 6th frame to be a duplication of the 5th (Presumably this is to bring the frame rate up to NTSC from PAL)?
Any ideas?
G5 Quad. 8 GB. 250 & 500 GB Int'l Drives. G-Tech G-Raid 1 TB. FCP 5.0.4 (Studio) Mac OS X (10.4.6) Sony HVR-Z1E . . . I mark my questions Solved or Helpful - Please Don't Beg.

If the problem corrects itself with using progressive, that would work as long as the final venue is DVD. TV, as in broadcast, I don't know what broadcasters like. What is this exactly? Does it have a film look? If it has a film look, then I'd go with the progressive. My theory is that, if I'm not mistaken, you've got that natress filter doing whatever it does to deinterlace and/or convert it for NTSC. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but I would think that somehow if it's going from PAL to NTSC, it has to be getting those added frames from somewhere 25 converts to 30 or 29.97. But then the interlacing is dropped, or some of it anyway, and you're making it 24 frames if you give it a film look with most filters. Also, there's 24p advanced and 24p progressive. I believe advanced is actually 30P that looks like 24.
I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but I am making an educated guess that it lies somewhere in this area. Maybe post a subject that says "Converting Pal to NTSC Film Look for DVD" and see if anyone in this area knows the proper way to do this.
I wish I could help more.
AK

Color missing

Hi All
Searched this forum for - getting a Black and White DVD when doing
as I always do.
movie 2 x 51 min PAL
iMovie 5.0.2
iDVD 5.0.1
QT 6.5.2
OS X.3.9
D2GHz Mac
3Gb RAM
enough free space - I thought 10 - 20 Gb.
iMovie set to PAL, iDVD set to PAL
Result:
Disc Image - Plays OK on Mac - via Toast -> Black&White on TV (PAL)
DVD burned with iDVD: same result OK on Mac, BW on TV
I am confused: (I thought I had a stable world)
Which .plist-files can I trash ? (Where are they ?)
only difference I know I made is that instead of opening each project
icon and locating the QT-ref.mov I dropped the icon into iDVD.
Can that be the problem ?
Yours most in need Bengt W

To narrow down the problem I consulted a friend and found out that
there can occur a wrong bit in a pref file /.plist-files
This doesn't show in iMovie or in iDVD (except as a lower quality
and as Black&White when played back on a stand alone (PAL) DVD.
Actions taken:
+ Start a new account
+ Start on another theme in iDVD
+ Using another brand of discs
+ Securing 20Gb free disc space
RESULT: pending
Will be cont.

1 Frame off

Working in FCP 6, and notice that when I move my cursor and set an out point on my timeline, it is always 1 frame off/over the point of where my cursor is, so it's always gives me 1 additional frame. very annoying.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Chopper

if you park the playhead on a frame and hit in and out you have a 1 frame duration
Exactly. Not sure how that is not what I said. You don't have to move the played to get 1 frame cause the In-Point is the Start of the Frame and the Out-Point is the Start of the last frame (in this case the current frame).
If you want a 10 min clip, things could look like this (as you already know)
(PAL)
In: 10:00:00:00
Out 10:09:59:24
Duration: 10 mins
(PAL)
In: 10:00:00:00
Out 10:10:00:00
Duration: 10 mins 1 frame
I guess I should have said the playhead displays the start of the last frame but the actual Out is the end of that Frame, right?
I'll stop cause everyone gets it now so there is no real point in this

Sharing an Attached USB drive on Network

I have an intel Mac Mini on a network. I would like other machines in the same subnet to see the Mini Pal USB drive I have attached to it. All I have managed to access from the other PCs is the main drive via the home folder.
This is trivially easy to do this on my XP machine. Am I just dense or is it not possible on the Mac?
Thanks for any guidance you can lend.
- Dave -

I hate mysteries, so sooner or later I'd like to find out how to set those attributes "manually".
Sharepoints is a GUI and you can see how it manipulates the netinfo database when adding new sharepoints.
You can also see what it writes to the windows sharing config file /etc/smb.conf
This will give you an understanding of how to this manually. However it is by far easier just to use sharepoints. Or if you invest in professional server software you can use the workgroup manager.
BTW could you mark this thread as solved as it helps other users who search the forum find specific answers. Thanks.

Adding a nas drive

hello, if i am in the wrong forum i am sorry and please direct me to the correct one. i have a question about what nas drive would be best for my setup. i have a mac mini, 500gig acomodata mini pal, 250gig hd in enclosure (used for time machine), airport extreme, and a windows based pc & laptop (still trying to get Gates out of my life!!) all on the same network. i would like to know what nas (network) drive would be the most compatable and user friendly to get? I would like to get a 1tb but if they are too expensive i can get 500gig now and 500gig later. i have alot of music and movies and i plan on turning my mini into a media center when i get an iMac. thanks for reading and your replies.
percyg23

Alfredo Jahn wrote:
When using a NAS drive, do you have to do something special to see it form Snow Leopard (and Leopard -- on other mac)?
If you have the Finder's preferences set right it should appear in the sidebar of a Finder window.
Do you have to mount it?
Yes
Does it auto-mount when you re-boot your mac?
It will if you add it to the login items of your account. This will cause a Finder window to open for that volume. There are some quirky ways around that. You might find discussions of those if you search this discussion board.

Airport extreme wont accept latest update

hello I have a mac mini and accomadata mini pal connected to my vizio 47in hdtv my airport extreme is networked with a winxp pro laptop and pc. lately when i switch to my mini i get a message that there is an update for my airport extreme my current version is ( 5.3.2 ) I would like to keep all of my equipment updated, does anyone know what i need to do in order to get the update.... when i click on update the update window pops up and looks for any apple update then comes back and said that there are no updates available. thanks for reading and your help.

I am running into the same problem.
My setup was working fine until a few days ago when I noticed the flashing amber.
My setup is/was:
iMac 2GHz Intel Core2Duo
OS X 10.5.2
Airport Extreme Gigabit
Comcast Cable: Modem to AE via ethernet - AE to iMac via Ethernet - AE wireless to powerbooks.
(This setup was working fine for the last 2 months when i bought the AE - I was not using Airport on the imac since i was connecting via ethernet.
Now using that setup, I get a green light on the AE, Network status via System Pref all seem OK, but cannot connect.
Right now, I can only connect directly via ethernet to my modem. I turned on the iMac Airport, it recognized the AE and downloaded a firmware update. But this did not change the situation. I did do a reset a couple of times, as well as just left the AE off all day.
Not sure what to do next. I am currently using internet sharing sparingly in the house via iMac airport.
HELP

Mini DVI-to-Composite (PAL): Video sync problems

Hi all,
I have a rather awkward-to-explain specific question and I'm wondering if anyone knows enough about video to explain it...
I've recently been using my MacBook to play back video through the DVI port to my PAL TV (UK). I have the Mini DVI to video adapter.
The problem I am having is with video frame rates. If I play a PAL video through the MacBook (25fps), it seems to play it back on the TV with no problems. However, if I try to play any video that has a rate of 24fps, it *starts off* okay for maybe 5-10 minutes, but then the picture becomes really juddery and difficult to watch. If I am using video mirroring I notice that on the LCD screen, the video has started updating frames midway through a screen refresh (you can see a "ripple" running through the picture).
I do have a way round this problem at the moment... I burn them all to DVD using Toast. Unfortunately though this means about 12 hours of encoding for each DVD, not to mention that I'm getting through so many discs!!
The result of converting the videos to DVD is that every second there is a slight pause, but this is still miles better than the output from the MacBook directly to the TV.
Does any of the above make sense? Any ideas on how I can solve this little problem? Anyone? Thanks!
:-Joe

Yes it's PAL... I've tried all resolutions, both PAL and NTSC. Obviously all the colours are washed out on NTSC but both have the flicker problem
Like I say it's fine when running a PAL video - but if I play one recorded in 24fps (ie HD content, DVD content) then I get the flicker problem after a few minutes. Maybe it's something to do with the processing power? Although I can watch the videos fine on the LCD screen.
I've used Quicktime Player, VLC and Wide Screen Movie Player, all give me the same problem.
Maybe I should use this as an excuse to get an HDTV

Mac Mini and DVI-Video PAL Adapter no picture

Hello,
I have a mac mini g4 (late 2005) and the pal video-adapter to connect this thing to my tv however I don't get a picture out of this on the tv. In the system preferences I don't have the choice to a pal setting but just 800x600 in different colors and 1024x768.
When the mac boots with tv connected (s-video cable) I see some flickering but nothing comes out of it.
Any hints how to proceed here?
konstantin

After rebooting the mac mini with a vga-monitor connected, then unplugging that monitor and plugging in the tv adapter it is working.
If somebody could shed some light, what has happened there I would really be interested..
Konstantin

Mini Pal

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