Question about external drives

Hi
I currently have all my mp3s in a USB Western Digital hard drive
So when I open Itunes there is a little slowness in opening Itunes and getting the whole library in there?
Would it all be faster if I put the mp3 on a Firewire drive?

When you open iTunes, it is not loading every song and video you have. It is only loading the iTunes library file, which is the database that tracks all of you iTunes media. And that library is usually located on your internal drive, in your user hold folder, at
/Music/iTunes/
It is only your +iTunes Music+ or +iTunes Media+ folder that has been moved.
So no, I don't think it will make a noticeable difference. iTunes may need to briefly hit the external drive to confirm it is accessible, when it starts up. So the actual delay may be caused by the external drive being in sleep mode. The delay is from the drive needing to spin up.
You can try a test. Run iTunes. Immediately quit. Then immediately run iTunes again. Does you iTunes library come up faster the second time?

Similar Messages

####a question about jdbc driver

A question about jdbc driver: for Oracle JDBC drivers which will not allow O/R
tools to access columns over 4 kb. This affects some of the functionality of my
application.A workaround is to use the my JDBC driver that acts as a wrapper to
ensure that columns over 4 kb read and persist properly. my JDBC driver determines
which actual driver to load based on the connection URL. If you pass in a URL
that contains the string jdbc:oracle:thin, it will know to load oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver.
If the URL contains the string jdbc:db2, it will know to load COM.ibm.db2.jdbc.net.DB2Driver,
and so on.
now i have set CLASSPATH for my jdbc wapper,when I Creating and Configuring a
JDBC Connection Pool,i have to input my driver name such com.lawrence.driver.....then
i did,all
is well,then i restart my WLS,when load config.xml,some errors such as "No registered
driver accept URL:jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:lawrence",if i set driver name
is oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver,all is good,no any errors.
I find some questions like:
1.for WLS8.1 ,it is only find some registed driver?
2.why it cannot load my driver wapper when it is loading jdbc Connection Pool,but
when the WLS start is finished, i Creating and Configuring a JDBC Connection Pool
then it is right?

my JDBC driver like this:
public class myDriver implements Driver {
     public static String DB2_DRIVER = "COM.ibm.db2.jdbc.net.DB2Driver";
     public static String DB2_URL = "jdbc:db2:";
     public static String HYPERSONIC_DRIVER = "org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver";
     public static String HYPERSONIC_URL = "jdbc:hsqldb:";
     public static String MYSQL_DRIVER = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver";
     public static String MYSQL_URL = "jdbc:mysql:";
     public static String ORACLE_DRIVER = "oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver";
     public static String ORACLE_URL = "jdbc:oracle:";
     public static String POSTGRESQL_DRIVER = "org.postgresql.Driver";
     public static String POSTGRESQL_URL = "jdbc:postgresql:";
     public static String SQLSERVER_DRIVER =
          "com.microsoft.jdbc.sqlserver.SQLServerDriver";
     public static String SQLSERVER_URL = "jdbc:microsoft:";
     public boolean acceptsURL(String url) throws SQLException {
          return true;
     public synchronized Connection connect(String url, Properties props)
          throws SQLException {
          if (_driver == null) {
               Class driverClass = null;
               try {
                    if (url.startsWith(DB2_URL)) {
                         driverClass = Class.forName(DB2_DRIVER);
                    else if (url.startsWith(HYPERSONIC_URL)) {
                         driverClass = Class.forName(HYPERSONIC_DRIVER);
                    else if (url.startsWith(MYSQL_URL)) {
                         driverClass = Class.forName(MYSQL_DRIVER);
                    else if (url.startsWith(ORACLE_URL)) {
                         driverClass = Class.forName(ORACLE_DRIVER);
                    else if (url.startsWith(POSTGRESQL_URL)) {
                         driverClass = Class.forName(POSTGRESQL_DRIVER);
                    else if (url.startsWith(SQLSERVER_URL)) {
                         driverClass = Class.forName(SQLSERVER_DRIVER);
                    _driver = (Driver)driverClass.newInstance();
               catch (Exception e) {
                    throw new SQLException(e.getMessage());
          Connection con = _driver.connect(url, props);
          return new myConnection(con);
     public int getMajorVersion() {
          return _driver.getMajorVersion();
     public int getMinorVersion() {
          return _driver.getMinorVersion();
     public DriverPropertyInfo[] getPropertyInfo(String url, Properties props)
          throws SQLException {
          return _driver.getPropertyInfo(url, props);
     public boolean jdbcCompliant() {
          return _driver.jdbcCompliant();
     private Driver _driver;

Need help reinstalling Yosemite/Question about external hard drive

I have an early MacBook Pro and I have to reinstall Yosemite because I've been getting nothing but spinning beach balls, slow loading, lag in type showing up, and wi-fi issues. I took the laptop to the Genius Bar at the Apple store last week and they ran diagnostics on everything and all was perfectly OK. No hardware issues, no memory issue and he said my laptop was very clean. He saw the spinning beach ball many times while he was working on my laptop and suggested that I turn off File Vault as that could be causing the slowdown. He said if that didn't work (it didn't) to buy an external hard drive (which I received today) and to back up everything through Time Machine then reinstall Yosemite. I specifically bought an external HD that says "for Mac" and as soon as I connected it Time Machine opened and did the backup.
Now these are my questions. Are all my photos on iPhoto, and my Word for Mac documents backed up so that when I reinstall Yosemite, everything is going to be right where I left it? Will I lose Word for Mac and have to reinstall it? Isn't Word for Mac a one time use/install and will I have trouble and have to call Microsoft to input my authentication key in again and will they let me? I know silly questions but I'm really worried about losing stuff.
Also step-by-step detailed instruction on how to reinstall Yosemite would really be appreciated. Thank you!

YoJoLo wrote:
Are all my photos on iPhoto, and my Word for Mac documents backed up so that when I reinstall Yosemite, everything is going to be right where I left it?
If you have taken the backup using the Time machine then there is nothing to worry as all your photos from iPhotos and Word for mac documents are backup safely by your time machine.
Only keep one thing in mind that the external HDD which you use for the time machine backup should have the capacity size of about 3-4 times that of your backup data size. Or else, the time machine external drive will start deleting the files if the external drive is about to be full.
YoJoLo wrote:
Will I lose Word for Mac and have to reinstall it? Isn't Word for Mac a one time use/install and will I have trouble and have to call Microsoft to input my authentication key in again and will they let me?
You absolutely don’t have to reinstall the Word for mac if its install in the first place because Time machine will backup the system installed files of your MS Word which you had installed.
Word for mac is a one time install and you don’t have to call Microsoft for any authentication key after you have restored your Word backup files from the time machine drive. As I said before the time machine will backup your Word system installed files leaving you no chance to reinstall it again.
YoJoLo wrote:
Also step-by-step detailed instruction on how to reinstall Yosemite would really be appreciated. Thank you!
Here, Yosemite reinstall procedure......
Important: To reinstall OS X, you must be connected to the Internet. Make sure your power adapter is plugged in. Reinstall OS X using the built-in recovery disk.
In the menu bar, choose Apple menu > Restart. Once your Mac restarts (and the gray screen appears), hold down the Command and R keys.
Select Disk Utility, then click Continue.
Select your startup disk on the left, then click the Erase tab.
Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the Format menu, enter a name, then click Erase.
Important: Erasing the disk removes all the information from the disk. Be sure to back up the information you want to keep to an external device.
After the disk is erased, choose Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.
Select Reinstall OS X, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.
Hope this helps.....

Thunderbolt / USB3 questions about external backup drives for my new MacBook Pro

I have a new MacBook Pro retina 13". It has two USB3 and two Thunderbolt2 ports.
Until now on my iMac I've kept two backups on two WD USB2 drives. I have never had any problems with any of my WD Passport drives. One for Time Machine and one for CCC (a complete bootable clone incrementally created at 3:30 am every day).
I'd like to get new portable drives for my MBP for these backups going forward and have a few very basic questions, since this is the first time to have a device with a USB3 port, and the first time I even heard about Thunderbolt.
If I get a USB3 drive and need to use it to restore things on my older iMac, which just has USB2, will it generally connect and run with USB2 at a slower speed? Or would I have to get a drive with both USB2 and USB3 ports?
Is Thunderbolt just an Apple thing? Or is it a new standard widely used by peripherals now? I just never heard of it before. Is it faster than USB3?
Is it common for drives to have both Thunderbolt and USB2 connections?
Are there "hubs" for Thunderbolt like there are for USB? Considering the limited number of ports, I'm wondering the best way to connect 2 external drives. My iMac has 4 USB2 ports on the back, and I connect one drive separate to each of those ports, rather than going through a hub.
Is USB3 like USB2 in that if you have even 1 USB2 device (e.g. my Logitech headset) connected to a USB3 hub it will slow down everything on that hub to USB2?
Any recommendations for good, portable backup drives?
Thanks,
Doug

Hi Doug,
Lets see if we can address some of these:
If I get a USB3 drive and need to use it to restore things on my older iMac, which just has USB2, will it generally connect and run with USB2 at a slower speed? Or would I have to get a drive with both USB2 and USB3 ports?
USB3 is "backwards compatible" with USB2 so plugging a USB3 drive into a USB2 port should work, but at USB2 speeds.
Is it common for drives to have both Thunderbolt and USB2 connections?
Drives sold as Thunderbolt often (not always) have USB as well, drives sold as USB never (in my experience) have Thunderbolt connections.
Are there "hubs" for Thunderbolt like there are for USB? Considering the limited number of ports, I'm wondering the best way to connect 2 external drives. My iMac has 4 USB2 ports on the back, and I connect one drive separate to each of those ports, rather than going through a hub.
Yes there are (but don't expect them to be comparable in price to a USB hub) e.g. see here: http://www.belkin.com/uk/p/P-F4U055/
Is Thunderbolt just an Apple thing? Or is it a new standard widely used by peripherals now? I just never heard of it before. Is it faster than USB3?
I'ts an Apple technology (like firewire) and is far from widely used on peripherals. There ARE Thunderbolt drives etc by companies such as LaCie, WD etc but they are still very expensive (3 or 4x the price of an equivalent sized USB drive). For some this was a worthwhile expense since Thunderbolt is many times faster than USB2. But the arrival of USB3 has, in my opinion, changed the landscape. Yes, Thunderbolt is theoretically faster than USB3 (up to twice as fast) but benchmark tests have shown that in real world situations, the speed difference varies from no difference to Thunderbolt being 25 or 30% faster. When you take into account that USB3 drives are more common than Thunderbolt and are only a little more expensive than USB2 drives at present, then it's a "no brainer" as far as I am concerned.
Hope this helps.
Jon

A simple question about external hard drives.

hi. this may be a stupid question but i kinda need to know the answer.
can you use any external hard drive on a mac mini?
also does the mac mini come with a wireless card?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
can you use any external hard drive on a mac mini?
Nearly any, but not necessarily all. Some bus-powered hard drives will not function at all, or may function inconsistently, and not all external drives will satisfactorily daisy chain, but by and large any mains-powered USB or Firewire drive will work. If intended for use to boot an Intel-based Mac (or to be bootable for such a system in case of problems with the internal), it will need to be partitioned in the GUID scheme (achieved easily via Disk Utility).
Firewire is better than USB if you have the option, simply because FW is more consistent in data transfer performance. USB drives are typically cheaper if cost is a significant factor.
In some ways, choice of drive may be affected by intended use. For example, if you intend to boot the system with it, a fast (meaning 7200rpm) drive with Firewire interface would be a good choice, while if being used for storing an iTunes library, a slower 5400 rpm drive with USB2.0 interface would be perfectly adequate.
also does the mac mini come with a wireless card?
All current Mac minis come with 'Airport' wifi already installed, though the original entry-level mini did not have wifi as standard. If your mini is one of these earlier ones, wifi can be added in a number of ways. If it's a later model, an Airport icon is normally set to show on the menu bar. It looks like a fan and if switched off, the fan will be blank, in on but not connected to a network, it'll show 4 grey arcs, and if on and connected, the arcs will be black.

Questions about external hard drive

I'm running out of space on my macbook and am going to get an external hard drive, at least 500Gb. I see all kinds of different prices here and at places like circuit city, best buy, etc. I was wondering if just any external drive that uses USB will be fine, in which case I'd look for the best deal. But I play a lot of video files on my macbook, which is what the new drive will mostly hold. Will accessing/playing video files on the external drive be slower than it is on the macbook itself?

Any external drive would likely be OK. Firewire would be faster than USB, so preferable. You can also make your own external drive.
Although you can buy a complete FireWire or USB drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

Question about external HD DVD (Blue Ray) players with Tecra M5

I have a TECRA M5 laptop (running XP) although this question could be relevant to other laptop users with no internal HD DVD players.
Is there an external (e.g. USB) HD DVD that I could connect to my laptop? So to watch HD movies on my laptop?
If such a thing exists would it also plug directly to a HD TV (as my laptop has no HDMI)?
Is there any way I could swap my existing internal DVD for a HD one?

Oh man,
I will show you why you _shouldnt_ think about buying an external drive for your machine.
1. Yes, there are PLENTY of external HD DVD drives, mostly of them are connected trough USB
2. You could plug it in your notebook, yes, and probably you could play HD DVD movies on your machine but NOT in HD since your display only supports a maximum resolution of 1024x768 pixels, but HD movies need at least a resolution of 1280x720. Any sufficiently fast computer with a 1280x720 or higher resolution display is capable of displaying HD video, even though computers are generally not advertised as such.
3. No, you cannot plug it directly into a HD TV, I mean why dont you buy then a HD DVD player???
4. Yes you could, but are you familiar enough with computers systems to exchange a drive which is built in your machine?? If you really would spend the money for the drive you should ask then spend some extra money for an technician. ;)
Cheers

Very basic questions about hard drives

I'm upgrading from vintage Beige G3, so much of the jargon about internal drives is new to me.
My MacPro will come with an OEM 160 GB drive. I will use this for my primary boot drive -- OS and Apps. All my data, photo files etc. will be kept on my second/third drives. I do not plan any sort of RAID setup. Windows is going nowhere near my Mac.
For the extra drives --
1) SATA? SATA II? What's the difference and is it critical?
1a) What is a "raptor" drive?
2) Does size matter (we're talking about GBs here, guys...)
3) Reliability is more important to me than speed or noise. We're a long long way from any technical help or even UPS.
4) Do new drives need to be formatted before using them internally?
5) If I partition one of the extra drives so I can keep a clean, backup OS boot partition, I need to format it as GUID, correct? Or does that just apply to external firewire boot drives? Does it matter which partition will be the boot partition?
6) I've read discussions about firmware requirements for some drives. What's that all about?
I was leaning toward MaxLine Pro 500 GB drives, but have been reading (reading too much, perhaps?) and now have all the above questions/concerns. (Whatever happened to the good ol' days of "buy an IDE drive, insert, play"?)
Thanks for your patience with these questions. I need to get it right the first time because of our remoteness!

1. SATA 1 interface speed rated at 1.5 Gb/s; SATA II interface speed rated at 3.0 Gb/s.
2. Drive ratings/performance is determined by many factors. You can best find out about individual drive performance by visiting http://www.storagereview.com/ to see their benchmark results on various drives. You will also find some helpful comparisons at http://www.barefeats.com/.
3. As for drive specs see previous answer. Generally speaking within any manufacturer's category of drive models for a given size the fastest drive will be the most expensive. Manufacturer specs usually do not provide any idea about drive performance in real world situations. Only benchmark comparisons are really useful, and even those can be confusing.
4. Yes, you can boot an Intel Mac from an APM partitioned drive. You simply cannot install OS X from the installer disc because it will refuse to install on a drive that has not been GUID partitioned.
5. Some older Seagate 750 GB models were not working properly when installed in a RAID configuration on Mac Pro computers. Seagate provided a firmware update to fix the problem for those who already owned the affected drives.
I don't know where you got the idea that Intel Macs were "picky about such things." Nor that installing drives in a beige G3 was a no-brainer. The old beige G3 required a lot of mechanical effort to mount a new drive internally. You not only had to connect all the various cables, but if you had two drives on the same ribbon cable each drive had to be jumpered properly - one as MASTER and one as SLAVE. Some older ATA hard drives had two different jumper settings for a MASTER - MASTER solo and MASTER w/SLAVE. Some beige G3 models wouldn't even boot OS X unless it was installed on a MASTER drive. And, you could not install OS X on a large drive except by partitioning the drive with an 8 GB partition for OS X that had to be the first partition on the drive. RAIDs may work or not depending on if you ran OS 9 or OS X. At least to me that wasn't the "good old days" unless you were comparing installing ATA drives to dealing with SCSI. I would say that in your particular case you were lucky, and you never tried putting two drives on the same ribbon cable. Oh, and I forgot about the size limiting jumper on most ATA large drives to limit capacity to 32 GBs because that's all that was supported by FAT32. Oh, yes, and the beige G3's disk controller did not support drives larger than 128 GBs.

Two basic, related questions about external HDs and trashing/erasing

I have a couple of questions about using an external hard drive that I can't seem to get answered by surfing around. They'll probably seem stupid and basic, but ... Here they are:
1. When you drag a file from your external hard drive to the trash, does that file actually transfer to the main hard drive's trash, and thus the main hard drive? For instance, say I'm deleting a 4 GIG file. Will I temporarily add 4 GIGs to my main drive in the process of deleting it?
2. With a multipartitioned ext. drive, can you erase the contents of a single partition with the disk utility, thus bypassing having to drag-trash everything on that partition?
Thanks.
G5 iMac Mac OS X (10.4.2) Powerbook (10.4.6)

1. No. The files are moved to an invisible .Trash directory on the external volume. No copying of data takes place between volumes when you move stuff to the trash.
2. Yes. You can use Disk Utility to erase or securely erase just a single Volume on a disk, leaving the other volumes unaffected. Simply click on the name of the Volume in the left pane of Disk Utilitly, click on the Erase tab in the right pane, and choose the options you want for erasing the volume.

Question about external displays.

Just curious about external display use with the macbook.
I want to link up using DVI to DVI but I recently read that my external display will only show the same as the macbook display, and that i cant use the macbook display, and the external display as two seperate screens? but i read its possible to do on the macbook pro. Is this correct?

I don't normally use my macbook with my primary display, but I have tried it out.
I hooked it up via vga, rather than dvi though.
It worked fine, but defaulted to mirrored. There is an option in the settings to disable mirroring, and use the macbook as the primary and the external as the secondary.
I haven't found any way to swap them, and have the macbook as the secondary display.
The management of the screens was pretty cool though. You can drag and drop the screens so their relative position is set up how you want it (over/under, left/right, etc).
hope that this helps...
-jamie
MacBook 2.0GHz (white) Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Question about hard drive space used

If I run OmniDiskSweeper to sweep my 15" G4 laptop hard drive, the total file size calculated is 31.3 GB. Likewise, if I clone the hard drive to an external drive using SuperDuper!, the total size used on the external drive is 31.3 GB.
However, if I "Get Info" on the laptop hard drive, the Used size listed is 41.9 GB. Likewise, 41.6 GB is listed as "used" in the OmniDiskSweeper Drive List window, as well as in another utility. I suspect that the 41.6 value is picked up from the Finder.
What could be the reason that Get Info lists the space used on the hard drive as 10 GB larger than the total size of the files?
1.5 GHZ PowerPC G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)
Dual 2 GHz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hmm, I think I have a possible answer. I had to download OmniDiskSweeper and open the help from its Help menu to get this answer.
It says in the help for OmniDiskSweeper:
"OmniDiskSweeper only displays files that you have access to from the user account you are logged into. Files in restricted folders are not available and their sizes are not included in the total file sizes you see."
So, if you have other user accounts, then those files won't necessarily be readable and hence not counted in OmniDiskSweeper. There may also be a few system files and folders that might be unreadable and hence not counted. That should be fine since you probably shouldn't be randomly deleting system files.
I've also noticed that OmniDiskSweeper shows slight variations of total sizes in its different windows, so it's not too precise. That probably comes from the dynamic nature of hard drive use by the computer, and OmniDiskSweeper trying not to use too many cpu cycles updating incessantly. Just guessing on that part though.
The 10GB is most likely other user accounts or something else not readable from your own account. The Finder lets you know of course, but OmniDiskSweeper only presents to you what you have permission to access. That doesn't necessarily mean you'll also have permission to delete those things.

Yet Another Question About External Hard Drives

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone could recommend any good external hard drives. I'm confused on what to get considering there never seems to ever be a good one from reviews I've read! Western Digital and Lacie being probably the main culprits.
I'm looking for at least a 500gb with a fire wire connection (as I'll probably do some editing with it too).
Cheers!

Let's demystify external hard drives. It consist of two parts- hard drive itself, which is called internal hard drive- either 2.5 (available for laptops as an internal ) or 3.5 inch. There some other for factor, but these 2 are most common. 2.5 inch (external hard drive) usually doesn't require power source (draws power from usb), so it is very good for using on the go. However they are available only till 320GB (there will be 500GB version soon on a market). 3.5 on the other hand are less portable, but available in bigger sizes- 1TB so far (correct me if I am wrong and there is bigger internal HD than 1TB). If you put in enclosure more than one internal hard drive, then you get more than 1TB. There are some enclosures with fan and without. Ones with fan inside tends to run more loud, because you hear not only spinning hard drive, but also fan. Advantage is that your fan is cooler and supposedly you get better performance. There are only one commonly used internal connection inside external hard drive- SATA( others are less common because they tend to cost more and hd cost more too). There are much more connections to a computer FROM a HD. Firewire 400/800, usb, e-sata. There are hd enclosures with one or two or even all connections on them. Most common is usb, but it is the slowest.
Things to consider are these- buy brand name enclosure or assemble one by yourself. Brand name external hard drives might be cheaper, but carry only 1-(2?) year warranty. Also you don't know WHAT brand hard drive is inside. Especially it is notable for no brand hard drives (seagate, western digital, maxtor probably would shoot themselves before they will put some other brand hard drive).
When you assemble enclosure yourself you know what you get- what components you used and what warranty you will get. There is bigger choice of external enclosures than external hard drives. I used brand name external hard drives and assembled myself and can say that there is no difference in performance- hard drives doesn't last because they are brand name or they don't fail if you assembled yourself (assuming that you used antistatic band and assembled correctly).

RAID 1 question for external drives...

Hope this is the right category for this question...
I have a 2-dock external hard drive (Icy Dock with eSATA and USB) and just put in two 2TB drives to handle all my video. When I plug it into my MBP (via USB), the LED indicators - from Icy Dock's shoddy online "manual" - tell me that one drive is "rebuilding" the other.
It is taking a VERY long time - now at about 24 hours, and the lights on the drive are still blinking. My questions:
- When the computer went to sleep, the rebuilding on the hard drive stopped. When I woke up the computer, it began again. Did it start the whole process over?
- The drive shows up on the desktop, and small files copy onto it fine. Can I go ahead and start the big copy of all my movie files before the rebuild is complete, and it'll make the RAID happen when it happens?
much obliged!

Hope this is the right category for this question...
I have a 2-dock external hard drive (Icy Dock with eSATA and USB) and just put in two 2TB drives to handle all my video. When I plug it into my MBP (via USB), the LED indicators - from Icy Dock's shoddy online "manual" - tell me that one drive is "rebuilding" the other.
It is taking a VERY long time - now at about 24 hours, and the lights on the drive are still blinking. My questions:
- When the computer went to sleep, the rebuilding on the hard drive stopped. When I woke up the computer, it began again. Did it start the whole process over?
- The drive shows up on the desktop, and small files copy onto it fine. Can I go ahead and start the big copy of all my movie files before the rebuild is complete, and it'll make the RAID happen when it happens?
much obliged!

Question about Raptor drives

I have a Mac Pro, obviously, and am considering using a Raptor drive for my boot drive.
I am new to Raptor drives, so can someone explain a few of my questions so I can determine if it is worth my money and time?
Basically, I am a photographer, shooting RAW, using Aperture and CS3. That is my main use of rthe computer. The files I shoot are from the Canon 1Ds Mark III and are huge (21 megapixel each).
If I use a Raptor drive as my boot drive with my OS and apps on it, how will this affect my red write speed on my other 3 internal drives (which are all Seagate 1 terabytes).
I also have an external RAID system for my ever growing library from Aperture as well. I shoot about 3 terabytes of images per year.
Is a raptor drive going to help me? Or because I won't sroe much on the main boot drive, is this silly?
Please, when explaining, or asking me for more information, try not to use TOO much tech speak. I know very little about this stuff.
I am learning ...

KevShootz wrote:
Please, when explaining, or asking me for more information, try not to use TOO much tech speak. I know very little about this stuff.
Then let me caution you against getting sucked into the speed-demon vortex. The minute you say Raptor, you immediately attract users who typically pay closer attention to their stop-watches than they do their retouching skills. Most don't even use Photoshop, which is why I recommend every photographer consult with MacGurus.com. The owners are photographers.
My new MacPro is FAST, especially when compared to my G4 MDD. Would I notice the millisecond differences if I had a Raptor for boot? No. I don't own a stop-watch. I sold my Raptor on eBay.
For photographers, memory seems to be the first key to speed. You may be better off budgeting for memory than trying to figure out how to put your OS safely on a Raptor so you can (not) see how much faster your system boots. Certainly, the more storage, the better. Be certain you understand the risks with RAID.
MacGurus has some great literature for photographer workstations. Don't hesitate to give them a call and speak to Rick or Brian if you need detailed answers. They are one helpful business, probably the best resource for photographers in the marketplace.

Question about hard drive, need help lol.

Hey I'm kinda new to the MacBook world and have a stupid question. I am getting a late 2009 MacBook unibody (white polycarbonate, model MacBook 6.1... I believe) I am switching the original 250gb 5400 rpm hard drive out for a Seagate Momentus XT 750gb 7400 rpm hybrid hard drive. I want to keep everything on the original hard drive and just pop the new hard drive and start fresh with Snow Leopard. I'm going to purchase the SL cd from apple but I do not have the original grey start up cd that came with it (my girlfriends little sister lost it). Do I need to call apple for that cd in order to start fresh on my new hard drive or is everything I need on the SL cd?
Also how do I go about wiping the whole computer when I put the hard drive in and use SL? I want to essentially have a completely clean laptop with a new hard drive.
Thanks for your help in advance.

The SL disc you get from Apple will do everything you need. When you nstall the new hard drive there will be nothing to wipe, the drive is the only piece of that Mac hat stores anything so you don't need to worry about that. Post back and let me know how that hybrid drive works out....I'm interested.

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