Moving files to external drive - need Mac and PC compatibility in future

Hello -
I'm moving a client's video files to an external drive so they have the original files. I'm moving both the DV files (always usable with program that accepts DV files) and the Mac project files in a separate folder (in case they ever work on them in a mac - includes all the referenced files). I know they won't be able to open the latter on a PC but I'd still like to include.
BUT, can they get any external drive? If I plug it into my computer and move files, are they going to run into problems if they use then on a PC? Thinking about getting this one for them (they are paying but want a good price for them):
http://www.buy.com/prod/western-digital-500gb-my-book-essential-usb-2-0-external -hard-drive/q/loc/101/206409667.html
Thanks for your help -
Alexa

Don't have a solution for you, but I did encounter a very similar bug.
I was moving files from one iMac's external drive to another's internal drive, using a drag'n'drop move command on a directory. The move generated an error message, maybe the same as what you saw (I'm not sure), then aborted the move. Only one small file had been moved, and the source directory was gone! Not in the trash. Mac OS X 10.4.8 on both systems, an iMac DV and an iMac 24. The external drive was formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)."
This sure seems to be a basic programming mistake. So, for me, it's back to doing 3 steps: copy, verify, delete. It's lousy not to be able to rely on proper execution of a basic command, but I've never won an argument with a computer.

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How to format an external drive for mac AND pc use

i want to format my external drive so i can use it on my mac and on pc's as well. i've gathered that the MS-DOS format is the way to go. my question is this: would this create any problems for my mac then?
can i partion one part for ms-dos and part for macos extended?
cheers
-j-

MS-DOS format (or FAT32) will be fine for both Mac and PC. However there is a 4GB file size limit with FAT32.
You could use a dual partition, however the HFS+ partition would not be readable by the PC unless you installed the third party MacDrive.
Look at this page for more information on a dual partition drive for Mac and Windows.
http://macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812
iFelix

Error -36 when trying to copy AVI files from External Drive to Mac

Hi
Hoping for some help with a problem I appreciate others have faced.
I bought a new video camera recently and have just tried to copy the AVI files from the first few videos to my mac but am getting the error code 36 that states the files cannot be read or written.
The format of the camera is MS-DOS (FAT 32) but when I tried changing it to MAC OS Extended it did something to the camera so the mac could then not recognise it when I tried to re-connect it via the USB port.
I've been able to copy the files onto my friends Windows laptop no problem so don't believe them to be corrupt.
Have also tried the dot_clean fix but this didn't work.
Could there be another reason for the error? Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks

BDAqua wrote:
I hear 3rd Party, or HW Raid 0/1/5/10 are OK, but 6 months is the absolute most I got out of my many screaming RAID setups before they completely lost it!
Bummer. I'm not really doing this for speed though, just for total storage volume and constant, worry-free, no-brainer back-up. I guess RIAD in general is something I need to study up on. Would a simple mirror of one 500GB drive to another (back-up) - and do that twice - be a better, more reliable way to go?
I've used Tri-Backup3/4 for years for Backups, it's fast, automatic, reliable, works in the background if you wish...
Back-up software always seemed to have some kind of a hiccup to it, but I'll certainly look into Tri-Backup3/4. I used to Retrospect years ago, a rather fussy thing if I recall.
Now, on the Safe Mode boot - not a success BUT a different result!
I got the -36 again, but this time it was the external drive FILE that errored, not the OS-resident drive.
In other words, pre-Safe Mode the error said "...because some data in "ZillaHAL" could not be read or written." (ZillaHAL is my OS-X drive).
In Safe, it read, "...because some data in "WinXP Pro.vmem" could not be read or written."
"WinXP Pro.vmem" is the virtual machine file - which basically is a simple Mac volume (folder) containing all of the files to run my XP virtual machine.
Also, this time, a file* did manage to remain on the external drive whereas before, after the error, no file at all remained.
* a generic icon appears, but it shows a size of 16+GBs. The actual file is 18.13GB - I did manage to shrink it down the other day (from it's previous 25GB).
Well, that's it for now. I'll be away for three days, so don't mind me if I cannot reply back for a spell.
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mp

How to format external drive for mac AND pc use

hi
i want to format my external drive so i can use it on my mac and on pc's as well. i've gathered that the MS-DOS format is the way to go. my question is this: would this create any problems for my mac then?
can i partion one part for ms-dos and part for macos extended?
cheers
-j-

There are a couple of disadvantages with formatting a
disk as FAT32. Firstly, there is a limit on the file
size for FAT32. I think it like 2 GB so if you
capturing video the results will probably not fit
into this file limit. Secondly FAT32 will not be
bootable. I alway clone my system to a backup disk as
bootable. That way if anything goes wrong with my
system, I can just boot from my backup disk and fix
it.
The problem with doing this though is that the drive will not be usable with Windows (which was in the original posting) unless you use the third party MacDrive software on the PC.
iFelix

External drive for MAC and PC?

My client wants to be able to view all the .mov files I've shot for them and due to file sizes, I need to deliver them all on a hard drive.
Is there any easy fix on my end or their end to facilitate this?
Thanks!

I was assuming that with Quicktime they'd be able to view full size .mov files
QuickTime .mov is a container, the video inside could have been made with any one of a number of codecs. If they do not have that particular codec, they won't be able to play the video. Not even all Macs have the same codecs, many are installed by FCP and unavailable elsewhere.
Also - do you know someone that has had success with MacDrive 8 on a PC?
It goes exactly what it says on the tin. Another alternative is for you to install the MacFuse/NTFS 3G package, which will enable your Mac to write files to a Windows NTFS formatted drive.

Moved files from external drive to internal, now can't delete duplicates

I had my music on an external drive, but then I got a new Mac with plenty of space and I copied the files onto the internal hard disk. Now two copies of every song show up, which is annoying. How do I remove all the old ones? There are thousands I cannot do it one at a time... I don't see any way to sort on the field that shows the exclamation point, so I could select them all together.

from the horse's mouth: _*How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library*_.
also, there are 3rd party apps that can help:
TuneRanger (commercial)
_*http://www.araxis.com/find-duplicate-files/*_ (free trial)
_*http://dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/dupin.php*_ (commercial)
JGG

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Can I format an external Drive to have 1 partition for OS X and another for my wife to use with her PC?
thanks!
ray

Yes, just use Disk Utility under OS X to create two volumes on it, one Mac OS Ext, the other FAT. Use a Master Boot Record partition scheme (also known as “fdisk”).

New external drive for mac and windows

Hello,
I am looking to buy a 500gb maxtor external drive. Partition it 250gb for winxp and 250gb for my imac. I am really looking to make these drives as backup drives. I currently have an old 250gb (not all used) formatted as os x entended. I use it for all my itunes, photos, movies... photoshop, you get the picture... I just want to drag and drop to that drive. The same for my windows.
Does this sound correct? Has anyone done it this way?
Another way, would be to have it formatted for windows and drop and drag into two different folders : win and imac. But then I will be losing the naming conventions from the os x? isn't that why and want to use os x extended?
Thanks for all ideas,
Charlie

Piece of cake!
For those who want to know:
usb connection to imac first. I started disk utility. Split the partition to two parts and formated only one partition as OS X extended. After done, copied my directories as a bkup.
usb connection to windows. I started computer management and saw that the usb disk had two partitions: the first was healthy but unknown. That was ok, I wanted the second partition to be NTFS and formated. Then copied my directories to that drive as well.
Connected back the imac and saw both partitions, imacbkup and winbkup. I forgot, just like what I do with the imac and winxp, I can see the c: drive via the mac.
Very cool and easy. Maxtor drives are very reliable and easy to use.
Thanks,
Charlie Cooperman
If anyone wants more detail info, you can email me at [email protected]

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If you only need the Mac to read from the drive, you can use either FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS.
If you need the Mac to be able to write to it, use FAT32 or exFAT.
If you're going to put an actual iPhoto library on the drive and not unorganized photos, you must use Mac OS Extended. This drive format isn't readable by Windows unless it has software such as MacDrive installed or the drive is being made available as a network share from a Mac or AirPort base station.
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Paragon even has non-destriuctive conversion utility if you do want to change drive.
Hard to imagine using 3TB that isn't NTFS. Mac uses GPT for default partition type as well as HFS+
www.paragon-software.com
Some general Apple Help www.apple.com/support/
Also,
Mac OS X Help
http://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/
Isolating Issues in Mac OS
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1388
https://www.apple.com/support/osx/
https://www.apple.com/support/quickassist/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/tour/
Get Help with your Product
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304725
Apple Mac App Store
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_app_store/using_mac_apple_store
How to Buy Mac OS X Mountain Lion/Lion
http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/
TimeMachine 101
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine
Mac OS X Community
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os

Need help moving photos to external drive

Hi, all--here's hoping one or more of you Aperture veterans can help.
Here's my situation: I'm not new to photography, but I'm new to Aperture. Just bought 3.3 and still getting to know what it can do. I'm an emigre from iPhoto, and one of the reasons I upgraded within Apple is that I was tired of the non-intuitive nature of PS Elements. I like to take pictures, not spend endless time in the dim glow of a screen digging through sub-menus for stuff, and from what I read, Aperture seemed more intuitive.
But now I've got a seemingly very basic problem that hours of poring over discussion threads and searching through the hundreds of pages of the manual has done little to address with any clarity:
How do I move (not just copy) older photos in projects to external drives, but in such a way that Aperture still keeps track of them, even when the drives are not connected? (The Aperture marketing I read/viewed clearly said Aperture could do this, and I'm running out of space on my MacBook Pro (15" from about 2008, running Lion) with lots of CF cards piling up.)
Info that may help:
-I need to move not just original (imported into iPhoto directly from the camera) photos, but also those I've adjusted in Elements, then re-exported into iPhoto (I would say "and now into Aperture," but as you know, there's no longer an import process b/w iPhoto and Aperture).
-I shoot mostly RAW.
-I have no idea whether the pictures are "Referenced" or "Managed" (for space reasons, I have yet to import any files directly into Aperture; all existing photos are from iPhoto, and if I was given an option when I set up Aperture, I don't now recall it).
-I have external drives with plenty of space to move older pix to (I also have multiple backups, including Time Machine, additional external hard drives, and DVDs)
Can somebody who knows how to do this safely please explain in clear language how to move photos as projects onto external hard drives so that Aperture keeps track of them via viewable thumbnails, even when the photo files themselves live on a hard drive that is not connected at the time?
Thanks in advance!

First things first:
You can easily check if an image is managed or referenced by ctrl-clicking on an image version and selecting "Locate referenced files...". If Aperture says "No Referenced Files", your originals are managed by Aperture and stored within the library itself, otherwise it should show you the location of the original, and give you some options to verify the references and so on. I don't know which method is used when importing from iPhoto.
Now, here's something you need to ask yourself:
Does it make more sense for you to keep the library on your laptop and the originals on an external drive, or does it make more sense to move both the library and the originals to the external drives?
In the first case, you can open and look at the thumbnails, but there's not a whole lot else you can do with your images when the external drive is off line.
If you have vast amounts of originals, spread across multiple drives, it might make sense to keep the library on your laptop and connect whichever external drive you need at the time. However, it might also make more sense to split such a huge library into mutiple libraries, stored with their respective originals (which could be either managed or referenced).
In my case, it makes sense to keep multiple libraries, with managed originals, but your mileage may vary.
Here's a tip that might help you decide: A small library is quicker to navigate and work with than a huge one, although performance has improved vastly with later versions of Aperture.
Once you have decided on the appropriate organization, you can start moving things around (after you've created the appropriate backups):
If your library contains all managed originals already, and you want to move the entire library off to the external drive:Simply drag and drop the library itself (using Finder) to the new location.
If your library use referenced originals, and you want to keep it that way, or your library manages your originals, and you want to start using referenced originals:
Select all your images
Click on the File menu and select Relocate Originals...
Locate the destination for your originals, and pay special attention to the "Subfolder Format" and "Name Format". I'd suggest choosing "Project Name" and "Original File Name" for the two.
Click on Relocate Originals, and twiddle your thumbs while Aperure moves all your originals to the new location.
If your library uses referenced originals, and you wish to let your library manage the originals:
Select all your images
Click on the File menu and select Consolidate Originals...
Decide if you want to Copy or Move the originals into the library. If you're running out of space, it might be best to Move.
Click Ok, and wait for the operation to complete.
(Optional) If you wish to move your entire library to the external drive, drag and drop the library to the new location.
I hope that answers your question.
Message was edited by: KluZz (oops, premature submission)

External Hard Drive using MAC and PC

I recently formatted my 250gb hard drive to MS-DOS (FAT32) so I can use the drive with Mac and PC. When I came to plug in my external hard drive in the other day with another mac PC it said I could only read only under get info.
Why is this?
I couldnt save only open documents
Many thanks

kevin_ wrote:
Henry,
You should format the external drive as exFAT rather than FAT32. exFAT handles larger files than FAT32 would and is both Mac and Windows friendly.
And when he does, he should do it connected to the PC. There have been reports that while the Mac can format a drive in exFAT, it doesn't do as compatible a job as a PC will.

Moving iTunes library from PC to Mac and running through an external HD?

I recently made the switch from a PC to my beautiful Macbook pro and I'm having some issues with my external hard drive. For the past few years I've been running my large iTunes library through an external hard drive, even switching hard drives and everything's worked perfectly. However I can't work out if it's possible or how to load the same library on my mac, I've just tried to open the library file but it says it is locked.
I feel I am missing a vital step... I'm just not sure what it is! Any help would be fantastic, losing my playlists and play counts after so long is just not an option!
I'm not sure if this is relevant, but the external hard drive is also ridiculously slow on the mac.

videoguyonline wrote:
No I am not sure about those two but am sure about Ethernet.
i'm not even certain a direct ethernet connection works - @ least not without some deeper knowledge of networking Macs and PCs.
connected by ethernet cable to the same network, on the other hand, will work.
I have been working with a large library on external drives myself and have run into numerous challenges with file format conversion, album artwork, import & export... etc.
i keep my library on a 2 TB external firewire drive and it works rather well. what kind of challenges do you mean ?
I am wondering if there is a way for him to use his PC library on the Mac and preserve all the information that is so valuable.
the reads i linked above may be helpful.
That is why I suggested the FAT 32 partition as I know it works on both.
true, but FAT32 has a +4 GB-per-file+ limit. a HD movie can easily exceed that limit and thus won't be copied. instead, one could format the drive for Mac and install MacDrive on the PC. or, format the drive NTFS and install the _*NTFS 3G*_ driver on the Mac.
JGG

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format flash drive in Exfat for transferring files between Mac and Pc.
FORMAT TYPES
FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
Maximum file size: 4GB.
Maximum volume size: 2TB
You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.
NTFS (Windows NT File System)
Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion)
Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
Maximum file size: 16 TB
Maximum volume size: 256TB
You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.
HFS+ ((((MAC FORMAT)))) (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)
Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! backups of Mac internal hard drive.
To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
Maximum file size: 8EiB
Maximum volume size: 8EiB
You can use this format if you only use the drive with Mac OS X, or use it for backups of your Mac OS X internal drive, or if you only share it with one Windows PC (with MacDrive installed on the PC)
EXFAT (FAT64)
Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
Not all Windows versions support exFAT.
exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
Maximum file size: 16 EiB
Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.

Best way to move files to external drive in LR 5. Drag and drop or export, if drag and drop

Best way to move files to external drive in LR 5. Drag and drop or export, if drag and drop can I put all the dated folders into one single folder

Drag and drop should do the job. Or move the files (or folders) in your operating system and then re-link via http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm
Yes, you can put all the dated folders into a single folder (but if you plan to do this, then don't try move the files using your operating system and re-link)
Export most definitely isn't the solution.

Moving files to external drive - need Mac and PC compatibility in future

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