Partition Scheme advice for external HDD & Missing HDD

I have two single partitioned external WD My Book HDDs and I've just noticed they have different setups on the single partition - this is unintentional.
1.GUID Partition Table
2.Master Boot Record
3.Apple Partition Map
From the list above one is 2. the other is 3. What should they be? One is HFS+ Journaled while the other is HFS+. Reading the notes against the partition types I can't decide what they should be as it's not a boot disc for the iMac.
This problem may be related to the above?
I installed 10.4.8 yesterday (after the iLife update the day before) then having earlier formatted one of the external My Book's I ran SuperDuper to create a backup of User files. This morning I found I couldn't launch any apps from the dock or directly.
So I rebooted and all seemed well except I couldn't sleep or shut down the Backup My Book, the other My Book was fine and they're both on the same fw hub. It unmounted OK but wouldn't power down manually until I pulled the PSU. So an hour later I tried switching it on and it powers up OK but isn't mounting.
Any ideas? Dusk Utility reports OK and unmounted so it can be seen by OS X.
iMac Core Duo 1GB Mac OS X (10.4.7) iBook G3-800 & Airport §

Why just one?
Shopping list I can think of:
Vista: NTFS for backups and storage. Can be read by, but not written, Mac OS.
MacDrive 7: can access HFS+ from within Windows (but not x64 versions)
WinClone 1.5: to make backups of Windows from within Mac OS (requires disk image or partition to hold volume image)
SuperDuper: essential for OS X backups and bootable clone.
A drive that is used for emergency only and maybe backup partition, separate from your OS X and windows clone drive.
You can create large partitions with Disk Utility to be FAT32. Read and write in both, but not the best file system and limited to files less than 4GB.
FW800 would be fast and efficient interface. Also, eSATA if possible.

Similar Messages

Favoring FireWire interface over USB for external HDD

I have my iMac hooked up to an external HDD via both USB and FireWire 800 as it is triple-interfaced (USB, FW 400 & FW 800).
Lately, as I turn on the external HDD (pretty much always once the iMac is up & running), the HDD icon shows in the Finder with the USB symbol.
It requires me to eject the HDD in the Finder and then disconnect the USB cable for the iMac to detect the external HDD again but now through FireWire.
The reason I use both interfaces is to handle HDD read/write communication via FW whereas USB only as hub (the external HDD comes with 3 USB ports).
Is there anything I can do to make sure the primary interface is FireWire and not otherwise?
Thanks!

In a recent phone call with OWC's tech support I asked the same question. Answer was "Do not connect both interfaces at the same time". There is no way to arbitrate the connection the Mac will use, and strange things will happen.
If you think about it, there is no way to specify a preference in the Mac for what ports to connect with, so it does what it wants, not what you'd like.
I can only imaging what happens on Windows machines. I suspect corruption ahead

Airport Extreme REQUIRES powered USB hub for external HDDs

Just bought an Airport Extreme Wireless dual-band N router (January 2012). It works very well and having the separate 2.5 and 5 GHz bands is a fantastic feature. Setup was really easy and it essentially worked 'out of the box'. The one issue I had is attaching a USB Western Digital 1 TB HDD to share on the network and use for Time Machine backups from multiple MacBook Pro laptops.
The drive would appear in the Aiport Utility's "Share Hard Drive" tab, but it was listed as zero bytes and wasn't available to actually share out over the network. I formatted it as a single volume to make sure there wasn't an issue with the drive itself (although it should support multiple partitions on a drive), and it mounted to my Mac just fine, but it still would not work with the Airport Extreme.
After reading several posts on these Apple forums I picked up the fact that the only way most people get their hard drives to work is by purchasing a powered USB hub and connecting that between the Extreme and the hard drive. Some hard drives do appear to work plugged directly into the Airport Extreme, but that seems to be more of the exception than the rule.
The reason given is that the USB port on the Airport Extreme was originally designed for printers and is basically underpowered for proper HDD connections. Adding a powered USB hub not only allows USB hard drives to work, but you can connect multiple USB devices (hard drives and printers) to share over the Airport Extreme through the powered hub, so you do get that added feature.
So if you have plans to upgrade to the incredibly fast and efficient Airport Extreme and plan to do your Time Machine Backups wirelessly (which works very well), add a powered USB hub to your purchase to avoid some frustration. I picked up a four-port powered USB hub at Staples for $30.
It's a great purchase otherwise. Four out of five stars in my review.

For anyone else who reads this post, the respondents are correct. I cannot find anything directly from Apple that states explicity the support for Time Machine backups to a USB drive on a second generation Apple Airport Extreme. I would love to see their detailed case studies and latest tests that demonstrate the backup corruption isues, and more recent tests conducted with the latest Airport Extreme, running the latest firmware with Lion 10.7.2.
Having said that, each person who is interested in this as a backup solution should consider more than one source before making a final decision:
http://gizmodo.com/369973/apple-time-machine-now-works-with-airport-disk
http://stephanfassmann.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-setup-time-machine-on-airport .html
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=881757
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9070282/Time_Machine_now_works_with_AirPo rt_Extreme_drives_say_users
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/03/finally-airport-extreme-usb-disk-time- machine-backup.ars
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Time-Machine-Update-Back-Up-on-AirPort-Extreme-Ad ded-81256.shtml
The Apple Support articles referenced that explicity state TS does not work with Airport Extreme mounted USB drives are for older OS X 10.5 and 10.6. I cannot find anything for 10.7 that states the same thing:
Older Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
http://Pondini.org/TM/Airport.html
The other thing you can do is on the Time Machine menu, hold down the "Option" key and use the 'verify backups' option to help ensure that your TS backups are valid.
Hopefully Apple will come out with an official statement soon that speaks directly to the 2nd generation Airport Extreme on the latest firmware running TS backups from OS X Lion 10.7.
My statement about the need for a powered USB hub to have much better success with USB attached hard drives still stands.

Will the PB G4 USB-ports provide sufficient power for external HDD ?

I am in the market for a 2,5in external HDD, preferably powered through the USB-ports of my PB G4. However, I have read that in many cases, Apple's laptops provide insufficient power for such devices. Is this a fact?
The drive I'm currently looking at: Western Digital Passport 120GB USB2.0 (WD Passport WDXML1200UE)

Dear Thosen, yep this can be a problem with the 12' models, I think that there are adaptors, that use both USB ports, one of power and one for data transfer. The other option is to try a firewire drive - this has the added advantage of being bootable.
bw
Andrew Platt

Best format for external HDD for compatibility with Windows and Mac?

I have a couple of USB HDDs formatted as MS-DOS (FAT32) which I use on both my iMac and Toshiba laptop .
This week I discovered that I could have used exFAT which would have avoided the 4GB file limitation.
Apart from this, are there any other pros or cons associated with exFAT and would it be advisable to use this formatting in future?

I am cross using extern HDD and USB Stick's. Win7 64 and OSX 10.9. I had the best results when i format the drive with OSX (best cluster size by automatic). I am using small 16GB USB Stick's and large 2TB HDD.
Some Windows Programs does not work if they are not installed on NTFS and you also have no security on both systems in filesystem because exFat has no security. Could be also a bad idea to use a exFat drive for iPhoto Library but not tested.
I use exFat for Data like Music, Pictures, and Movies. To share home made things with friends and family.
If you use "active" Files like programs or databases use the "OS Native" filesystem, you have less problems :-)

Advice on External HDD for Mac & Windows

Hello
I am looking for advice regarding using a external HHD for Mac & Windows.
I searched the forum, but failed to find a updated thread on this subject matter.
I will be using the drive on both platforms regularly.
Should i use HFS+ with a small FAT32 partition to keep MacDrive on?
What is a good way to approach this?
Im not sure what would be optimal for both platforms.
Thanks in advance for your input.

Why just one?
Shopping list I can think of:
Vista: NTFS for backups and storage. Can be read by, but not written, Mac OS.
MacDrive 7: can access HFS+ from within Windows (but not x64 versions)
WinClone 1.5: to make backups of Windows from within Mac OS (requires disk image or partition to hold volume image)
SuperDuper: essential for OS X backups and bootable clone.
A drive that is used for emergency only and maybe backup partition, separate from your OS X and windows clone drive.
You can create large partitions with Disk Utility to be FAT32. Read and write in both, but not the best file system and limited to files less than 4GB.
FW800 would be fast and efficient interface. Also, eSATA if possible.

Help, I messed up permissions for external HDD

Hi people.
Here's the deal. My external 160 GB LaCie-drive (same type of drive that Emmet posted about recently) is divided into two partitions; one that I want to keep public and one that I back-up my private things to.
Now I had a whim about permissions and realized that if I would change permissions on "group" to exclude "everyone" yet still keeping myself set to "read and write", maybe I could keep other users from being able to read the files on that partition when logged in.
Well, it didn't quite work the way I wanted. Couldn't read any file on that partition (each folder claimed to be empty) and I couldn't change back the permissions. So I removed it from my desktop and now when I plug it back in, only the first partition shows up.
In Disk Utilities both drives show up, but the second one (the one I manipulated) has the standard unidentified file icon, and claims to be empty (when I click "Info"). There is nothing wrong with the drive itself, obviously, since the repaircheck says the drive is without errors.
So my question is What do I do? Is there like a UNIX-command for fixing the permissions or something?
Would appreciate help.
Sebastian
iMac G5, 1,8 mHz, 20", 160 GB HDD Mac OS X (10.4.3) 1 GB RAM, external LaCie 160 GB, additional LaCie 40 GB
iMac G5, 1,8 mHz 20", 160 GB HDD, 1 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.3) AirPort Express, external LaCie 160 GB, additional LaCie 40 GB

enigma
Not that bad I think. Start the terminal and type the following:
sudo chown -R youruser_name:your_username /Volumes/Florenz
substitute the "yourusername" part of the above with your actual user name. Press return, key in your password and press return again. Then type:
sudo chmod -R u=rwx /Volumes/Florenz
Press return and then:
sudo chmod -R go=--- /Volumes/Florenz
Press return. This should return the ownership of the drive to you with read, write and execute privileges but nothing to group and others.
You messed things up by changing the group to "everyone".

Drivers for external HDD?

I just got a 500gb 2.5" external USB Store Art HDD. I plugged it into my desktop PC which had XP SP3 loaded. The pop-up tells me that there is new devise. Windows then continues looking for drivers and then says that hardware has not been installed. In Device Manager it shows as "unknown device" and I can not do anything to it.
I've tried it on other computers and they all do the same.

Okay, my problem are solved. This is how the process went on.
Bought drive and tried to use it at work. Only one very short USB cable were in the box so I decided to use an extension cable. This only brought up the "unknown device" problem.
At home I plugged it into the laptop WITHOUT the extension cable and it worked 100%.
Wanted to use iPod at work. Plugged it in WITH the extension cable and it did not work. Removed extension cable and it worked 100%. So I realised it was not operating system but extension cable.
Got a new PC but seeing that USB cable that were supplied with HDD is so short, I decided to use the one that came with my digicam. It did not work. The little light is shining and I can feel the drive spinning so it is getting power but nothing else happened. I saw that the cable was not very secure into the HDD but it was as far as it could go. I used an art knife (Stanley knife) to trimmed back some of the plastic on the plug. It now fits very snug and it works 100% on both home and work PCs.

Need new powercable for external HDD

Would be great if somebody could help me out. I need a new power cabel for my Toshiba 320GB external usb hard drive.
I can not find a serial nr on the HDD nor on the box.
The specs of the HDD are: 7200 RPM, read seek 8.9 ms, data buffer 8mb. Sofar I was not able to find a shop or an online store where I can order just the power cable.
Thanks for your help in advance, Nick.

I am afraid nobody here will be able to help. Such info you can get from someone who has access to Toshiba data base. In my opinion you should visit your local dealer or some shop with the same product and pick up info about this cable.
you didnt even offer the part number of this HDD. How to identify this product?

Need advice for external display for my retina Macbook Pro.

I got my 15-inch retina Macbook Pro (Mid 2014) two months ago. It’s a fantastic machine but I am having some regrets concerning screen size. I want to be able to enjoy movies on my computer but 15-inch is just too small. So I am considering purchasing an external display for my Macbook Pro. I am thinking about a 25’’+ monitor (or TV) which can offer me closest experience to the retina one on my Macbook. I don’t want 4K monitors though, as most of the contents I consume are full HD 1080P. But I do care about PPI a lot (for browsing).
What kind of display can help me obtain this similar experience I get on my Mac? Any recommendations? Thanks.

I have the 15" MacBook Pro, Retina, Mid 2012 also, same exact model. Kind of the same thing is happening with me. I will intermitentyl get a flickering on the bottom 1/3 of the screen, all the way across. It flickers/flashes on and off on the bottom half or third of the screen, when I am typing or when I am perfectly stil, doen't really matterl. Only happens for a split second, but can do it multiple times, or sometimes not at all. I can go tens of minutes without i hapenning, but I can also go tens of seconds with it happening multiple times.
It never goes black or grey or "out" at all, just randomly flickers throughout the day.
I do get burned-in images all the time, but they disappear within seconds. But this flickering is definitely worrysome. I did get the the Apple Care, so I am not too worried as Apple is usually good about this kind of thing, but I do have a similar problem to you and wanted to document this. I didnt find many other people oiut there with this problem, so let me know what has gone on since your post on the New Year. Any solution? Did you call Apple?
Thanks webrian.
2012 Retina MacBook Pro
15"
500GB Flash Drive, 16GB memory
2.6 Ghz Intel Core i7

★advice for external HD, best 500 GB/1TB HD you will recommend for backup

Using TimeMachine, I will like to backup my data on a external drive. Not happy with my LaCie 250 and 500 GB external drive, (the power supply need to be replace every years!!!) I will like to buy something reliable at a good price. What will be my best option?
Thank you,
BigBlaze
http://jeannichols.com/

Hi! OWC drives are found HERE. I've used this model drive for several years and have found it to be rock solid myself. I always want an instantly recoverable backup system so I use one of these to backup automatically. I always have a bootable backup because I don't want to spend the hours it takes to restore from time machine. Tom

Schema advice for huge csv file

Guys, I need an advice: Huge csv file (500 millions rows) to load in a table and I did. But now I need to alter the columns (they came all as varchar(50)). I'm just change one column and it's taking age...what kind of schema should I adopt? So far I applied
a simple data flow but I am wondering if I should do something like:
drop table
create table (all varchar)
data flow
alter table
No sure about

Is this a once off/ad-hoc load or something that'll be ongoing/BAU?
If it's ongoing then Arthur's post is the standard approach.
create a staging table with varchar(50s) or whatever. Load into that, then from that staging table go into your 'normal' table that has the correct column types.
If it's a once off, what I'd do is create a new table with the correct data types. Do a bulk insert from your table with 500mil rows.
then drop the old table and rename the new table.
Converting the columns in your 500mil table one by one is going to take a very long time, it'll be faster to do one bulk insert into a table with the correct schema
Jakub @ Adelaide, Australia Blog

Upgrading to Snow Leopard when startup disk is already an external HDD

Hi All,
Am just in the process of upgrading to Snow Leopard (currently running Leopard) on my Mac Mini. When originally setting up the Mini, I created an external HDD as the "startup" disk.
Now when attempting to upgrade, I only have the option to upgrade on to the Macintosh HDD as the upgrade disk tells me that the external HDD can't be used because it doesn't use the GUID Partition Table scheme.
I know I can use the Disk Utility to change the partition scheme on the external HDD, however will doing this erase the existing data on the HDD and potentially leave me with a Macintosh HDD that isn't the startup disk and an external HDD without an operating system?
Any advice on how to properly partition the external HDD and effectively upgrade to Snow Leopard when I'm already running Leopard OS X from an external HDD would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Lee

leemathers wrote:
I know I can use the Disk Utility to change the partition scheme on the external HDD, however will doing this erase the existing data on the HDD and potentially leave me with a Macintosh HDD that isn't the startup disk and an external HDD without an operating system?
Any advice on how to properly partition the external HDD and effectively upgrade to Snow Leopard when I'm already running Leopard OS X from an external HDD would be greatly appreciated.
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
I don't see any alternative other than making a complete backup of that external drive, redeclaring the partition scheme, then restoring the backed-up data to it. A side benefit is that you'll now have a backup of everything in case something goes wrong with the upgrade, which is an excellent idea anyway.

Lost partition on external HDD

Hi there,
I recently partitioned my Time Machine external HDD so I'd have half of it for spare storage (500 GB Time Machine, 500 GB spare storage).
I then was having issues backing up my Time Machine, and went to remove the spare partition. My MBA died overnight, while it was removing the partition, I believe, and now, only the 500 GB of the Time Machine partition is showing up in Disk Utility, with no hint of the other 500 GB. I've also tried using TechTool, but no bad sectors or anything of the sort are turning up, and I'd like to not have to reformat the whole drive, (and lose my Time Machine data) especially in case it doesn't fix it, either.
Any tips? I'm about to try DiskWarrior, but we'll see what happens.
Thanks guys...

I solved my own problem. Plugged it into my PC (Win7) and used Disk Management on there, which immediately displayed the unallocated space, which I allocated into a partition, which then showed up in OSX and was deleteable so as to make the disk one whole partition again.

Recommended external HDD for MacBook Pro 2011 15"?

Hello,
I'm looking for external HDD for new MacBook Pro 2011 15". Is there any external HDD available with Thunderbolt port? Any recommended HDD using FireWire 800 port?
Since this is m first Mac, I'm not much familiar with Mac Accessories. Any further info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

That's a good drive, but not as great as those based on 3.5" hard drives. The nice thing about buying that drive is you can swap your hard drive in your MacBook Pro with the one in that case. 3.5" hard drives as desktop hard drives typically are faster, and are more suited to a desk environment. 2.5" hard drives are great for portable use. Be sure to get the DC in adapter for it to plug in the wall. There may be times you don't have enough power on the computer to keep it up.

Partition Scheme advice for external HDD & Missing HDD

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for