Re: Leone's post May 2014 about how to best use an external drive with Aperture

Question

I am trying to find Leone who had a great post May 2014 to Diane. I posted tho same message as a 'Reply' to the Leone/Diane posts but then was worried it would not show up since that was some time ago so I decided I should post it as new.  Apologies if it comes through twice.   I am having trouble as indicated below:
I found this response to the question about Aperture and external hard drives from last May.  I bought a WD My Book 4TB and need to back up photos I have in Aperture (many!) to free up space.  I am a photographer and need to be able to plug the external drive in as needed, pull a photo out from the WD and back into Aperture to work on it if needed.
I read your directions to Diane and have the external drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).  I read the two ways you suggest to move part or all of my library to an external drive and still be able to use it in Aperture with all the metadata saved, as I need to continue to work with the images.  I am not completely clear about the advantage of the 'referenced' method but decided to go with the Split Library because it sounded like the Referenced method would still keep originals (and take space) in Aperture.  I'm not sure about this, but that was what I chose.
I have backed up my computer, formatted the drive then went to Aperture to begin.  I do the 'Export' and it shows the external drive it will go to but when I click 'OK', it says "EXPORT LIBRARY FAILED - Library could not be create because the file system of the destination volume is not supported."  I doubled checked to be sure the drive was Journaled which it was.  I did call WD and talk to them but they told me this was outside their area.
Also, in Aperture, I have my photos in Projects by yymmdd.  Is it possible to transfer Projects into the ext. drive without having to break them out of the Projects?
Any direction anyone might give would be greatly appreciated, Sandy

Answer 1

Hi Sandy,
I suggest taking a week or two to get to know Aperture better before proceeding.  Aperture can do many things, and can do what you want.  It's important to be specific about what you want, however.  From what you've said, it appears that you don't yet know.
bybeeler wrote:
[1] I found this response to the question about Aperture and external hard drives from last May.  I bought a WD My Book 4TB and need to back up photos I have in Aperture (many!) to free up space.
[2] I am a photographer and need to be able to plug the external drive in as needed, pull a photo out from the WD and back into Aperture to work on it if needed.
[1] A back-up is a copy of digital files stores on a separate device.  A back-up is recommended because drives fail, and humans make mistakes.  A back-up is not used to free up storage space.
[2] Aperture can be set up in many equally-usable ways.  The program files reside (almost always) on your system drive.  The data files can be anywhere you want them, as long as they are on locally-mounted drive(s).  The main data file is your Library.  The best place for it is on the drive that has the fastest throughput to your logic board.  This is, in nearly 100% of machines, the system drive.  But Aperture functions well with Libraries of secondary drives — internal or external — with sufficient throughput.  USB-3 and Thunderbolt I (& II) provide sufficient throughput for using an Aperture Library on a secondary drive.
Nearly all photographers will fill whatever storage space is available (making data is what photographers do).  The question is: what do you do when your Library no longer fits on your system drive?  (And remember, you should leave at least 10% (I recommend 20% for heavy users of Aperture) of your system drive free.)  The answer depends, primarily, on whether your computer is portable or fixed in location. 
If fixed, just buy a more-than-large-enough secondary drive of USB-3 or faster throughput, mount it permanently, and move (using Finder) your Library to it.
If your computer is portable (and you can't increase the on-board storage), you have to select the best from several confusing alternatives:
• Put your Library on an external drive with throughput at least as fast as USB-3
— Pros:  Easy to maintain and back-up.
— Cons:  Must have drive with you in order to use your Library.
• Leave your Library on your system drive, but relocate your Images' Originals to an external drive.
— Pros:  You can work on your Library without having the external drive available.
— Cons:  You can't export (except Previews), Print, or make adjustments until your external drive is mounted.  Significantly more difficult to administer, especially importing and backing-up.
• Leave your Library and and _some_ of your Images' Originals on your system drive, and relocate most of your Image's Originals to an external drive.
— Pros: You can do any work on those Images whose Originals are stored in the Library regardless of where the external drive is.
— Cons: Yet another level more difficult to administer.
If you are comfortable with the administrative overhead, the third set-up will be the most rewarding.  Keep all _current_ Images Originals inside your Library, and routinely relocate the Originals of Images no longer current to the external drive.
In no case is it recommended that you at any time remove from your Library an Image (not the Original — the Image in Aperture) that you expect to ever use again.
HTH,
—Kirby.