Need advice on purchasing an external hard drive

Greetings, oh wise Apple users. It has been suggested that I purchase an external hard drive to store my iDVD projects on. Can anyone give me a checklist of what to look for? My Mac is a G4 flat panel with 800 MHz and 512 MB. I'm currently using OS X (10.2.8) but am upgrading to 10.4 soon. Many thanks in advance for your help.

Firewire and an 'Oxford' chipset are a must for Macs with USB1.1 like yours. Here's some examples:http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
Personally I'd go for one with a built in USB and Firewire hub as I'm always running out of ports (like the mini stack V2).
If you think an new Intel iMac or MacBook Pro could feature in your computer line up in the next year so, go for one with FW800.
mrtotes

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Need advice on purchasing an external hard drive for video editing

Hi,
I looking for advice on which external hard drive to get. The main purpose for the hard drive will be storing video files on for use with Final Cut Pro. I have the 12 inch powerbook G4 so I plan to use the FireWire (400) port to connect the drive. I'm interested in getting comment from others who use their external hard drives for video editing.
Thanks!

Firstly your decision to use FireWire is a good one, as not only will it free up the USB it performs much better on sustained transfers.
That said you're still limited by the FireWire interface, so opt for a drive with a big cache (16MB would be good) and fast spindle speed (7200rpm+).
Some of the newer enclosures are compatible with SATA drives. While these are easier to install and theoretically will perform better, I'm not sure that the performance would justify the extra cost.
Matt

I need recommendations in purchasing an external hard drive, to back up everything in my computer. What brand and Size?

I have a mid 2010 iMac, version 10.8.2, memory 4GB, 1TB sata disk.
Apple sent me an e-mail last year stating that my imac maybe affected to a recall. They said I have to back up my computer before sending it in to them. So its a great excuse to purchase an external hard drive.
But I am clueless. I would like to know what brand and size of memory is recommened for my imac and my needs. I will be mostly be backing up homevideos and alot of pictures, music, and some documents.
If someone could also explain about time machine? I guess its a whole separte thing from your media. I also would like to keep it affordable. I just purchased an external hard drive from www.macmall.com Seagate Backup Plus 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Drive - Black (STBU1000100).
But I don't know if that was a really great choice because for it to work with time machine I have to reformat certain things, and Im not sure if I would like to have that hassle.
I also wanted to know whats the difference between usb 3.0 and firewire. I read some forums saying that if you are to transfer videos you need to use firewire, and some agreed disagreed. Is that true?
Please help!?
I definitely would like to know what brands of external hard drives are highly recommended and good at price. The one I purchased is it any good?
Thank you!
-wjrlelidepaula

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10554
http://www.newertech.com/storage/

My macbook pro's memory is full and I purchased an external hard drive. I am using timemachine, but need to earse/free up some memory on my laptop. How do I do this?

My macbook pro's memory is full and I purchased an external hard drive. I am using timemachine, but need to earse/free up some memory on my laptop. How do I do this?

Christinag1317 wrote:
My macbook pro's memory is full and I purchased an external hard drive. I am using timemachine, but need to earse/free up some memory on my laptop. How do I do this?
Ok when you refer to "memory" that is the Random Access Memory which is temporary memory the processor (worker) uses to store stuff while it's using it. Power goes off whats in the memory is gone.
Your storage drive is where data is pernamnetly stored if the power is on/off.
So what you really mean to say is your storage drive is filled up and you need to make some room.
You have a TimeMachine drive, what this does is makes a image of your internal storage drive as a backup method, it also allows some "back in time" restoration of your previous deleted files depending how much space is on that drive. The more space, the less data you have, the more days you can go back in time to retrieve something.
Unfortunatly the TimeMachine drive is not a extra space storage drive, it automatically rotates what appears on your internal storage drive. So if you delete something from the internal drive, it eventually gets deleted from the TimeMachine drive.
So you need to make some more room on your internal drive, this is rather easy, all you need is ANOTHER external drive and connect it to the Mac. Give it a name like ExtraStorage#1 and thenyou will have to decide which of your User files you really don't need on the internal drive.
For instance the best choice would be to move some movies out of your Movies folder to another MoviesExtra folder on the ExtraStorage#1 drive.
Movies take a LOT of drive space and you can always copy them on or off, or watch them from the ExtraStorage#1 drive as well. But if your going to do this a lot, you should consider getting a Firewire 800/400, USB 3,2,1 combination drive as Firewire 800 is fastest and decently priced (Thunderbolt is very high priced and overkill at this time)
The other things like Documents are quite small, Pictures can take a lot of space if you have a lot, but if you need them on the internal drive then that's better. Music one tends to use a lot or manage playlists and such, but perhaps some music you may which to move off or "prune", I suggest always burning data DVD's of music especially for extra backups.
Once you have freed some room on the internal drive, this liitle neat program will show you what is taking the largest amount of space on your internal drive.
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/
After a scan, right click on the big squares to "revel in Finder" to show you what's taking the largest amount of space, be warned it also opens up hidden system files and folders, which you won't be able to move. So concentrate on what's inthe Users folder.
Likely if you have a lot of Movies this is the biggest culprit on most standard internal hard drives. Also if you have something in iTunes that's auto-downloading something like PodCasts and not deleting the older ones and you forget. So go there and fix things and that can free up drive space.
If you bought a small SSD with your new Mac, then the price of that SSD has come back to haunt you with low storage space, you will have to think carefully what you can live without on the internal drive.
Once you have slimmed things down, TimeMachine will update to reflect your slimmer internal drive. What this means is there is only one copy of your data on the ExtraStorage#1 drive.
You need to maintain two copies of your data at all times on seperate hardware, so now you need ANOTHER storage drive (ExtraStorage#2) to copy everythinng of ExtraStorage#1, or else if you drop or have a mechanical problem with ES#1 all that data will be gone!
If you wish to learn more then I suggest reading these two links
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

I need to back up my imac running Tiger (no time machine) so that we can upgrade OS. It is set up for multiple accounts. How do I capture all files in each account using newly purchased USB external hard drive?

I need to back up my imac running Tiger (no time machine) so that we can upgrade OS. It is set up for multiple accounts. How do I capture all files in each account using newly purchased USB external hard drive? Thanks!

Backup Software Recommendations
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
Synk Pro
Tri-Backup
Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Or you can simply use the Restore option of Disk Utility to clone the drive to the backup:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
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 a macbook air late 2010 and keep getting a warning that my hard drive is full and to delete things so I purchased a external hard drive (1TB) but I'm just not sure what the correct way to transfer and store files to the external drive is. First MAC

I purchased a macbook air about 5 months ago and lately i keep recieving a warning that the hard drive or disk is full and that I will need to move items to trash in order to free up space on it. I purchased a external hard drive 1 TB but I'm very new to mac and ios and unsure as to how I'm suppose to transfer my files (video, pics, music etc.) from my mac over to the external hard drive in the correct way so I won't end up deleting them permenately or screwing anything up with my mac as far as the applications and programs being able to run. Am I supposed to just copy to the external hard drive and then move to and empty the trash? That's pretty much all I could come up with, but then what if i need or want to access that file again at a later time. Also, I have an i Phone and i pad so with i cloud it automatically syncs all my purcheses and if i delete something from itunes on my mac it deletes from my ipad.
I'd appreciate any kind of input i think im just a little lost here. I have to say i love my Mac and wouldn't trade it for anything (except maybe a macbook pro w/more memory)... Is there something I'm missing???

To free up hard drive space the best bet is to move data files that you don't need access to all the time. Likely candidates are music, video, and photos. Things like word processing and spreadsheet files can also be moved but they tend not to be very large and so don't free up much space. The problem with moving the above mentioned files is that iTunes and iPhoto need to know where the files are stored.
Here's an article explaining how to move the iTunes folder. You can move the iPhoto library using the Finder but there is a slight complication. Start iPhoto, open the Preferences and click on the Advanced tab. The first option is "Copy items to the iPhoto Library". If this option is checked, copy the iPhoto library to your external folder (drag it from the Pictures folder to your external drive) and then delete it from your Picture folder. If this option is not checked, it is a bit more complicated and we'll need to talk a bit.

Need backup software for Seagate external hard drive

I need a little handholding here. I have an iBook G4 running 10.4.10. My husband bought me a Seagate external hard drive to use to back up the hard drive on my iBook. The only problem is that I don't think the external hard drive came with any software. I'm looking for something that I can set once that will automatically back up my hard drive periodically. Does such a thing exist?
Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Hi there-
Most good backup software allows you to schedule backups. I've tried a number of programs and the two best I've found are SuperDuper and Synk.
Both are very user-friendly--good for simple folks like me.
http://www.decimus.net/
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
SuperDuper is my favorite because it easily allows you to "clone" your hard drive, giving you a bootable backup in case the worst happens to your computer and you need to restore everything. It's MUCH faster than reinstalling everything. You need to make sure your external hard drive is capable of being booted from, however.
Synk is also very user friendly and you can try it for 30 days for free. I would highly recommend either of these.
Hope this helps.

Purchasing an external hard drive

Hey, I am looking into purchasing an external hard drive (preferably aone thats firewire 800 capable). I've looked into mainly the maxtor one touch II and the Lacie d2. The lacies seem to be getting relatively bad reviews with a lot of them saying that they crash after a little while. The maxtors (firewire 800 edition) seem not to break down as much but they are a bit more expensive. I wanted to wee if i could get advice from anybody who is more educated on the reliability of certain hard drive companies. I dont mind to spend a little more money if i know it will be worth it because I really do not wnat to end up with a faulty hard drive that will just break down after having it for only a year or so. Please let me know which of the two is worth it to buy, or if there are any other brands that are recommended. Thanks so much!

As far as internal drives go I have been impressed with Samsung Spinpoints, they seem to run quite cool and from the experience I have had are pretty speedy as well. Plus they seem quite quiet, which is always a good thing. Go for 7200rpm drives with an 8Mb cache.
As for FireWire and USB adaters I know Wiebetech make some good ones, take a look here:
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/superdrivedockplus.php
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/ComboDock.php
Otherwise try googling "FireWire Hard Drive Enclosures" and see what you come up with.
Phil

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

You'll get better performance if you use a Firewire hard drive (especially if you buy a 7200 RPM drive). Firewire's IO speed is significantly faster than USB 2. USB 2 has a theoretical max speed of 480 Mbps except that it has extremely high over-head. The fastest speeds you can typically get are about 300 Mbps. Firewire, on the other hand, has very little overhead. The fastest speeds you can get are very nearly 800 Mbps. You will typically be constrained by the maximum read/write speed of the drive, not the speed of the I/O on the Firewire bus. Now if you had one of those nice shiny new Macs with the Thunderbolt I/O and a Thunderbolt drive (Light Peak) ... I think they alter space and time so that your data arrives before you know you want it.
Also... unless you want to buy a solid state drive (very expensive), try to keep your hard drives from becoming much more than about 60% full if you want great performance. A nearly "full" hard drive is, on average, only about half as fast as the same hard drive when nearly empty.
USB 2 will work perfectly fine... just not as fast.
Also... it's much safer to move the entire Aperture library than to "relocate masters". Your images must be managed. You can Aperture manage them, or you can manage them. But someone has to manage them. If you "relocate" them so that they are no longer stored inside the Aperture library then you'll need to work out a system of how you decide to organize things and it's critically important that you don't start moving files around or deleting things without Aperture's knowledge. If you do, you'll break the links to your masters and start having problems with missing masters. If you have Aperture manage the library then you don't need to worry about any of that stuff.... it's safer.
Do make backups (use the Aperture Vault or use some other backup program, but make sure you back up your work if you care about it.) There are only two kinds of hard drives in the world: (1) those that have failed and (2) those that are going to fail. There are no exceptions to this rule. Hard drives are cheap. Backup software is built into Aperture and into your Mac.

I need to move the iTunes library to an External Hard Drive to free up space on iMac. Need suggestions on type of External Hard Drive to use. A Multimedia Hard Drive like LaCie LaCinema Classic HD Multimedia Hard Drive OR a Large Desktop Hard Drive?

I need to move an iTunes library to an External Hard Drive to free up space on iMac. I Need suggestions on type of External Hard Drive to use. Should you use a Multimedia Hard Drive like LaCie LaCinema Classic HD Multimedia Hard Drive OR a standard Large Desktop Hard Drive like Western Digital/Seagate/LaCie?

There is no benefit to the multi-media feature on the first drive you mentioned. If you are going to look at differences between certain drives, I'd look at the differences in reliability first.

I recently purchased an external hard drive to back up my iMovies. When I try to open the movies on the backup I get a message "you may not have permission to modify that folder" How do I change permissions on the backup?

I recently purchased an external hard drive to back up my iMovies. When I try to open the movies on the backup I get a message "you may not have permission to modify that folder" How do I change permissions on the backup?

Hi
One Must NEVER move or alter any folders named
• iMovie Event's - or -
• iMovie Projects - or - alike
on DESKTOP/FINDER - Ever ! - ONLY Within the iMovie Program ! else all connections are broken and hard to impossibly to mend !
but rather do as described here under
Moving Event's and Project's
Connection - Either connect one Mac in Target mode to the other via FireWire. Or use an external hard disk !
(Target-Mode - Start one Mac e.g. laptop - BUT keep T-key down during full up-start - Now a FW-symbol is jumping around the screen and it will work as an external hard disk when connected to the other Mac)
A. The External Hard Disk - MUST BE - Mac OS Extended (hfs) formatted to work for Video. UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange works for most other things but not for Video whatever program is used (iMovie or FinalCut)
B. Should be a FireWire one as USB/USB2 performs badly to me and especially when filling up
C. Do never Move or Alter any folder named
• iMovie Event's - or -
• iMovie Project's
on DeskTop/Finder - as this will result in iMovie losing connections to them and repair can be anything from hard to impossibly
D. Moving and Copying must be done within iMovie application and Events to Events - and - Project's to Project's.
E. Moving Project's to Event's - Do not work for me - I have to export project as a QuickTime movie then Import this into Events.
Event's window can show two faces
Like this
or like this
from one hard disk Event - You can move it to the other hard disk
You can not (at least not me) move Event to Project or other way around only
Event to Event and Project to Project
Yours Bengt W

I just purchased a macbook air, and because of the limited memory (256 gb) and my HUGE music library, I need aomne form of external storage. i am considering either using iCloud for iTunes, or purchasing an external hard drive. suggestions or opinions?

hi! just purchased a macbook air, and because of the limited storage (256 gb) and my massive music library, I am going to find an alternative storage method. I am debating between an external hard drive and utilizing iCloud. icloud makes me a little nervous....having my entire library in "the cloud" and deleted off of my desktop - do most of you who use icloud for music and photos have a backup on external hard drive anyway? So....iCloud vs. external hard drive for storage. Thoughts? opinions? thanks!

iTunes Match allows you to put 25,000 songs in the Cloud. At present it isn't possible to add more storage but I wouldn be surprised if that isn't an option offered in the future. With iTunes Match you allow Apple to match your songs (purchased from Apple, ripped from your own CDs are purchased elsewhere). When Apple cannot match a song a copy of yours is uploaded.
Once the match process is complete (for my 24,000+ collection it took a couple days) the fun begins. Since my MBA can't hanle all my music, I use iTunes Match to download a small selection of my music every couple of weeks. My music remains in the cloud even when I delete them from my computer and if I have WiFi accesss I can get new songs. It is a great service and much more convenient than keeping your MBA's music on an external drive.

Open thread for new purchase of external hard drive

I have 4x 500 GB drives and 2x 250GB drives that I want to consolidate to one drive. I have trusted LaCie and recently (in the past 2 years) have been happy with the G-Drives as well.
To my suprise (and shock really) the Mac geniuses I spoke to at the Calgary Apple Store said their techs use the WD 500GB Passport drives all the time. Super durable etc etc. but I was in need of 2 TB. I was torn between the G-Drive and the WD My Book Studio. The difference in cost was about $70. Historically, I've had the "don't trust western digital for Macs" running through my head ever since I heard it.
However, I was convinced to go with the Western Digital My Book Studio 2TB (it's not a "new" company), but I've found that every time I boot up the drive, it runs the proprietary software which I don't intend to use. So far, I'm not finding any luck on how to get around this as I'm told it's "built into the firmware". Also, after my iMac goes to sleep, the drive disappears and I have to shut it off and turn it back on to bring it back.
What would you recommend for an external hard drive for long term storage (not to be used for time machine or iPhoto or iTunes)?
Would you recommend I take the WD drive back and get my head checked?
Purchased this:
http://store.apple.com/ca/product/TX880ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0Nw&mco=MTY5NDk2NzI&s=a lpha
Was looking at this:
http://store.apple.com/ca/product/TX538VC/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0Nw&mco=MTM3NjM5NTg&s=a lpha
Thanks.
Message was edited by: Middleborn

I'd return it for something else or a refund, but that's just me.
I too was shocked upon a recent visit to an Apple Store when I saw WD external drives for sale. One salesperson told me she was shocked that they were carrying them but that other staff member had told her that the WDs were now performing well for Mac users. I don't know what to make of it.
I find the external drive market to be confusing. I'll just say that I've been happy with an Iomega 250 GB triple interface drive that I bought 4 or 5 years ago and am happy with a 1 TB OWC Mercury Elite triple interface drive that I bought a couple of months ago.
Both these drives came WITHOUT any of the proprietary software so I didn't have to face the hassle of removing any of it.
Regards,
Steve M.

Help! Need two profiles on an external hard drive for two ipods

Hi,
The issue is that I have a very outdated labtop with limited storage space. Wanting to expand my music collection, I downloaded music. However, I soon ran out of hard drive space so I purchased a large external hard drive. To add to the complication, I then purchased a new ipod. The problem is that I am unable to get itunes to work with this configuration. I contacted technical support but recieved no helpful advice.
So, my question to you is how do I recieve the intended results?
To clarify, I want the capability to have two seperate "profiles" of sorts, one for one ipod one for the other with the music stored on an external hard drive.
Any assistance you could offer would be GREATLY appreciated as this has caused nothing but problems.
Thank you in advance.

You don't have to use 2 profiles, I certainly don't.
But it's personal preference....here is an article on that
Using Multiple iPods With One Computer
I like method 2, because then you don't have to hassle with iTunes not dealing with Windows fast user switching properly.
Fast user switching in Windows XP is not supported

I need help to repair my external hard drive

(1) My External Hard Drive finally stopped working. Whenever I tried to use it, I would only get variants of, "Time Machine couldn't complete the Backup to "My Passport for Mac", or "The backup disc is not available".
(2) "No problem," I thought. "There is no problem with my computer, so I'll just buy another external hard drive," and I did.
(3) About this time, I partitioned my computer hard drive to enable me to run both Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion. I did this with step-by-step instructions by Apple technicians.
(4) I now find that I have lost a considerable number of files, including those that I value most highly.
(5) I now find that I need the files in my old, abandoned external hard drive, and it seems to me that the easiest way to access those files is simply to repair it.
(Here's what I've tried so far: (1) Disc Utility Repair. Didn't help. (2) COMMAND-R start. This produced a window with the following entries: Restore from Time Machine Backup, Reinstall OSX, Get Help online, Disk Utility. It seemed to offer hope, but I couldn't highlight any of them, and the "continue" command was dimned out. Where do I go from here? Data recovery is the solution usually offered, and I've alwys wondered why. It seems to me that fixing the external hard drive should always be the first thing to be considered. Data recovery is expensive, and fixing the external hard drive might be cheap.

baltwo wrote:
I don't think the HD's broken. More likely, since you used it for TM, that's what causing your issues. However, since I don't use TM or ever use WD's crappy HDs, all I can suggest is to peruse Pondini's TM FAQs for starters. Then, check out his troubleshooting steps.
What is "WD"?

Need advice on purchasing an external hard drive

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