Moving Windows from external drive to a new internal partition

I have Windows 7 installed on an external drive connected to my Mac Pro, which I access by rebooting into Windows. I am transitioning from the Mac Pro to a new MacBook Pro and want to copy the Windows disk (with all its installed applications and data) onto the laptop's internal drive. Without creating a partition with Boot Camp and reinstalling Windows, how can I do this?
Thanks, Eric

Hilal Malawi wrote:
Thanks, but that site doesn't have a clear answer.
Correct. As it clearly states, there are too many variables to have detailed solutions for every possible situation.
In the 'pink' box, which best matches my situation, the instructions begin with: "•You must be logged on to the account being moved...".
That's not clear at all. How do I log in to an account that doesn't exist yet? Connecting a hard disk that has a home folder to a new Mac doesn't allow me to 'log on' to that home folder's account, because it doesn't yet exist on the new Mac.
You may have to set up user accounts "from scratch." Then change the ownership and permissions on the old home folders so you can copy the contents of the sub-folders from the old home folders to the new ones.
If you're comfortable with permissions and Terminal, this may help: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20013630-263.html

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Move Users folders from external drive to a new internal drive

Hi All,
I have a white Intel iMac running Snow Leopard. I have kept the Users folder (4 users) on an external hard disk (too many photos and movies). The internal hard disk recently died, but since all user data was on the external, I wasn't too worried.
The iMac now has a new hard disk, and I've installed the system back, starting from the original System Install DVD so that all the iApps are also reinstalled.
What I want to do now is to move the user folders to the internal drive, and use the external for backups. It seems that I can't use Migration Assistant because it only works when moving data from another Mac or another startup drive. I've looked around the forums and on the web, and the only thing I found was a post on TUAW in which the writer talked about eventually having to do this but without giving much info about how to do it (http://www.tuaw.com/2009/05/14/tuaw-tip-moving-your-home-folder-to-another-disk- or-moving-it).
Does anyone have any experience moving the user folders from an external drive to an internal drive, (or even just having a Mac recognize user folders on an external drive from another machine)?

Hilal Malawi wrote:
Thanks, but that site doesn't have a clear answer.
Correct. As it clearly states, there are too many variables to have detailed solutions for every possible situation.
In the 'pink' box, which best matches my situation, the instructions begin with: "•You must be logged on to the account being moved...".
That's not clear at all. How do I log in to an account that doesn't exist yet? Connecting a hard disk that has a home folder to a new Mac doesn't allow me to 'log on' to that home folder's account, because it doesn't yet exist on the new Mac.
You may have to set up user accounts "from scratch." Then change the ownership and permissions on the old home folders so you can copy the contents of the sub-folders from the old home folders to the new ones.
If you're comfortable with permissions and Terminal, this may help: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20013630-263.html

My Mac crashed. I got a new hard drive. I reinstalled Lightroom. Fortunately ircats are stored on an external drive. How do I import all of the old catalogues from external drive into a new LR catalogue. I have done it before. It has just been many years

My Mac crashed. I got a new hard drive. I reinstalled Lightroom. Fortunately ircats are stored on an external drive. How do I import all of the old catalogues from external drive into a new LR catalogue. I have done it before. It has just been many years and I can't recall how.

If you had stored your catalog files on an external drive, then all you have to do is double-click on them to open them and use them.
Or you could move them to the internal drive and double-click on them once the move is completed.
To create a single catalog file from multiple ones, you could use File->Import from Another Catalog

Moving music from external drive to new computer, not showing music

Hello,
I was running iTunes 7 or 8 on Windows XP on a laptop. I ran out of room on the laptop and followed Apple's doc to move library to external drive and point iTunes to the new location. It's been working that way for over a year.
Old laptop crashed and I purchased a new laptop running Windows 7. The external drive is fine, and I was able to restore info and pics backed up to that drive on my new laptop. I installed iTunes 9 on the new laptop and tried several things to get it to see the music folder on the external drive, but it doesn't see the music at all. I even copied everything to the iTunes Media folder on the new laptop, but nothing shows up at all. I assume it has to do with what library files are available and where they're located. There are no library files on external drive, only a My New Music Folder. The old laptop can be on for about 10 minutes before it crashes, so I could try to retrieve the old library files if I knew what I needed and where to find them, but I hope I can do it without having to turn on old laptop. Any help is much appreciated. Are my playlists gone? Help!

If everything on the external drive is in WMA format then that method would work, otherwise you are likely to get duplicates, which is why I suggested you work with the Not Added folder.
Different audio formats have different ways of compressing and storing the information from the original source. Most software and hardware will only work with a limited range of formats. iTunes cannot play WMA directly, but can convert it to one of the formats it will play. Given this is a clean install of iTunes that format is likely to be AAC if you haven't changed it. MP3 may be a better choice if you might want to put the media on some non-Apple device in future, otherwise ACC is supposedly slight more efficient, i.e. a smaller file for the same quality.
The main factor affecting file size is bit rate. The more original data that is kept, the larger the file and the more closely the reproduced music will match the original source. WMA is a lossy format typical bit rates are 128kbs and 256kbs. Conveting a 128kbs file to, for example, a 256k AAC file results in a file larger than the original, but no better quality.
If you put Windows Explorer in details view you should be able to enable a bitrate column and scan through to see what the current values are. You can adjust your import settings as given. You may want to import in more than one batch if there is a mix of bitrates.
tt2

HT204318 moving library from external drive to new computer

I have an HP laptop, running Windows 8- I have loaded all of my music into the "automatically add to itunes" folder, and by everything I have read, it should evaluate and load automatically, but it isnt doing it. How do I get it to load the music into iTunes?

If everything on the external drive is in WMA format then that method would work, otherwise you are likely to get duplicates, which is why I suggested you work with the Not Added folder.
Different audio formats have different ways of compressing and storing the information from the original source. Most software and hardware will only work with a limited range of formats. iTunes cannot play WMA directly, but can convert it to one of the formats it will play. Given this is a clean install of iTunes that format is likely to be AAC if you haven't changed it. MP3 may be a better choice if you might want to put the media on some non-Apple device in future, otherwise ACC is supposedly slight more efficient, i.e. a smaller file for the same quality.
The main factor affecting file size is bit rate. The more original data that is kept, the larger the file and the more closely the reproduced music will match the original source. WMA is a lossy format typical bit rates are 128kbs and 256kbs. Conveting a 128kbs file to, for example, a 256k AAC file results in a file larger than the original, but no better quality.
If you put Windows Explorer in details view you should be able to enable a bitrate column and scan through to see what the current values are. You can adjust your import settings as given. You may want to import in more than one batch if there is a mix of bitrates.
tt2

Moving iTunes from external drive to new computer

I have my itunes stored on an external drive lettered "E". How can I move them to my new computer. The external drive letter "E" is not available on the new computer but the hard drive is plenty large enough to hold my whole collection and I would like to install them on it. I have already copied my itunes music folder and libraries to the new computer.
Thanks for any input.

This did not work. I signed into the iTunes store as the same user and I can still not play the music I purchased or the music I am authorized to play that others purchased. Can anyone help out with this question?

Moving photos from external drive to iPhoto '11

OK. I'm going nuts. I recently purchased an iMac and I migrated all of the photos from my old G5 with no problems. All of my photos and their Album structures came along. Now, I also have a lot of different photos on a MacBook that is also running 10.6.6 and iPhoto '11. The MacBook is backed up onto an external drive which I am trying to use to move the photos to the iMac. I have tried what Terrence Devlin suggests. I tried to drag the MacBook iPhoto library into the iMac Pictures folder, but it asks me if I want to replace the existing iPhoto library. I most certainly do not. I don't want to lose anything that is already on the iMac.
I tried manually exporting folders from the external drive by clicking individual albums in iPhoto and "exporting" them to the iMac desktop, but not all of the photos come in the export, no matter which folder I try to export.
Yesterday, before I updated the laptop to iPhoto '11, I created a new iPhoto Library on the iMac and dragged the entire iPhoto Library from the MacBook into that new Library. It worked, however it all came over into one big album and my previous album structure was gone. There are waaaaay too many photos for me to go back through and sort them again. Did that happen because I was going from an older version of iPhoto to a newer version or will it happen again if I drag the MacBook iPhoto Library into a NEW library on the iMac? (I only ask before I try because it took several hours the first time.)
So what do I do? I want all of my photos on the iMac with my existing Album structure. If I have to do it Album by Album fine, but how? Selecting every photo from an album and dragging it to a folder on the desktop doesn't work either. I can always take every photo minus one. Weird.
Thanks,
John

What you want to do is merge the two Libraries? The only way to do this is to use the paid ($20) version of iPhoto Library Manager
I created a new iPhoto Library on the iMac and dragged the entire iPhoto Library from the MacBook into that new Library. It worked, however it all came over into one big album and my previous album structure was gone
Never import one Library to another. Every version and thumbnail is imported like a distinct photo, you lose all your Albums, Keywords etc., the link between Original and Previews is destroyed, the non-destructive editing feature is ruined and so on. In summary: it's mess.
Regards
TD

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

Booting Windows from external drive

Hi all. I recently got an external Firewire 400 drive for backups, and it's just occurred to me that I could possibly run Windows off of it and reclaim some 60GB of internal hard drive space. I would like to know if this is possible. Yes, I know that Windows supposedly cannot boot from an external drive, but I have read reports of people booting it off of USB drives, and wonder if a similar tact can be tried for Firewire for greater I/O speed. I also know that OS X can be booted from Firewire, so it seems it should be possibly for Windows.
My guess as to how to do this would be to. . .
- use dd to do a bit-by-bit copy of the Windows partition on my internal drive to a partition on the external drive
- modify the boot.ini on the external so that it points to the correct location
- modify a .cfg file to load Firewire drivers earlier in the boot process (?)
The first step is trivial, and the second will be easy since the Firewire drive will appear in the same place unless I have another external or CD attached. What I'm not sure how to go about doing is the third - which .cfg? I can probably figure out the drivers otherwise.
Finally: has anyone else done something like this? If so, links/hints? Thanks.

i recommend looking into rEFIt:
I've looked at rEFIt before (because I really didn't want to go through all that hacking), but I think the problem still exists: Windows XP does not support EFI (and neither will Vista), so there's still the problem of USB/Firewire drivers loading at boot time. From
http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-224050.html
some people got rEFIt on the external drive, and that helped to dual boot on that drive, but it still required hacking the Windows CD (it's the registry, that I think goes into the installation itself, that's hacked). It's a Window's problem.
you should be able to do this using esata external
drives with a esata express card for native speeds.
If the expresscard includes drivers that support booting, it may work (hence the mention of the Nitro AV card). I know that not all cards do, and I haven't heard anyone had success with it. But, it would be cool if someone decides to get such cards and try ; )

Moving iTunes from external drive on PC to external drive on Mac

Hi can anyone help getting totally confused with all the different help topics!
My iTunes currently runs of an external hard drive (I://) via Windows 7.
I've changed to an iMac and want to move my iTunes to here using a new PC & Mac compatible external HD (J:// via the PC/Samsung via the Mac).
I've followed the instructions on here but iTunes doesn't seem to be picking up the library or playlists, and not sure where I've gone wrong.
Can anyone help at all please?

Those instructions tell you how to move media (as they say). A library is more than just media. For people using regular iTunes settings it is everything in the iTunes folder which includes the critical iTunes Library.itl file. This file generates the structure you see in the iTunes application. You need - Moving a library: Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its sub-folders and files) intact to the other drive. Hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) and open iTunes. At the prompt to create or choose a library choose the copied iTunes folder.
Note, I am leery about your "PC & Mac" compatible drive, whatever that is. While it is possible to use a FAT formatted drive with a Mac you have to realize that it has file size limitations and cannot be repaired with any Mac based tools.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/message/26404702#26404702
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 and making an iTunes library portable.

Trouble Booting from External Drives - MBA 2012

Hello,
I have a brand new 13" MBA which I'm working on building an image to use for deployment using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.5. For whatever reason, I can't boot the new 2012 MBA from an external LaCie FW800 or Thunderbolt 1TB Little Big Disk that is running either 10.7.2 or 10.7.4. As soon as I select the drive to boot from when holding the Options key or from selecting the partition from Startup Disk in System Preferences, I get the do not enter icon(circle with the diagonal slash). I tried both plugged in through a Cinema Display and plugging the Thunderbolt drive directly to the laptop. I confirmed both LaCie drives boot properly on an iMac and the last gen MBP/MBA.
Laptop Specs:
13"
1.8GHz Dual-core i5
8GB
128 SSD
10.7.4
Curious if anyone has run into any problems booting from external drives on the new 2012 MBA.
Thanks,
Paolo

Please be sure you have prepped these external drives correctly:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
My suggestion for cloning is to use Disk Utility. This will also automatically clone the Recovery HD, as well:
Clone Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue button.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

I have just purchased an iMac which has no CD Drive, when I downloaded my Elements 8 from my external drive onto my new iMac I just get Error Code 150.30 does this mean that I have no way of retreiving my existing software?

I have just purchased an iMac which has no CD Drive, when I downloaded my Elements 8 from my external drive onto my new iMac I just get Error Code 150.30 does this mean that I have no way of retrieving my existing software?

According to Adobe instructions installation files are not available for Elements 8?
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Problems playing iTunes purchases from external drive on new computer.

My computer recently died and I had to get a new one. Luckily I had copied all of my iTunes purchases onto an external drive. However, when I connect the external drive to the new computer I can see the purchases but cannot see them in iTunes-I try adding the files in iTunes, but this doesn't work. I have authorised the computer, so it should be able to play the purchases but I have tried dragging them all into iTunes, copying them to the computer but no joy.
Any help would be appreciated.

In Windows Explorer, right-click on your media folder and click Properties, then go to the Security tab and click Advanced. If necessary grant your account and SYSTEM full control of this folder, subfolders and files, then tick the option to replace permissions on child objects which will repair permissions throughout the library. This is the XP dialog but Windows 7 shouldn't be too different.
If it won't let you change the permissions use the Owner tab to take ownneship from an account with administror privileges.
tt2

I recently purchased a new iMac with an external drive. I want to transfer my files from my old iMac to the external drive, but I'm afraid that doing that will compromise the use of the external drive on my new iMac. Comments? Help?

I recently purchased a new iMac with an 1 Terrabyte external drive. I want to transfer my files from my old iMac to the external drive, but I'm afraid that doing that will compromise the use of the external drive on my new iMac. I have not downloaded the external drive's software onto my old Mac because of this concern. May I simply "drag and drop" the contents I want transferred to the external drive, then set up my new Mac with the drive and download there? or is there a better procedure? Comments? Help?

If your intention is to copy a just documents and data (word processing files and music for example) then yes, you can use drag and drop. If you want to transfer data and applications and permissions, it would actually be easiest to connect the drive to your old computer and turn on TimeMachine. Once TM is finished, connect the drive to your new computer and restart it holding the option key to get into Recovery mode. Then you can use the restore from TM option to transfer your data and programs to the new computer.

I just had a new hard drive installed. After loading everything back on my computer from external drive, i came to the "select wireless network screen. I've misplaced the WEP password for my internet. Is there anyway to find it on another computer?

i just had a new hard drive installed. After loading everything back on my computer from external drive, i came to the "select wireless network screen. I've misplaced the WEP password for my internet. Is there anyway to find it on another computer?

Maybe. What kind of other computer are you talking about? What operating system is it running? What kind of wireless router are you using?
Your best bet may be to just reset the router and set it up again.
Just so you know, WEP is a very old security system for wireless and is considered insecure. If you have it available, use WPA2.

Moving Windows from external drive to a new internal partition

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