Recommended setup of External drives

Currently I have an iMac, MacBook Pro, MacMini and an AppleTV all networked using an AEBSn. The advice that I need is that I'm thinking of purchasing two external hard dives, one to use for time machine that will be connected to the AEBSn via USB so that all of the computers can be backed up. The other will be connected to the iMac which is the main computer (via firewire) and be used for my iTunes and iPhoto libraries which are getting rather large. Is this the best configuration or should I be doing something else? Cost is not a big issue, however I would like to keep it as low as possible.

The networked Time Machine backup drive, if it's backing up three Macs, would need to be fairly large. To work effectively, it should be at least twice as large as the data to be backed up. If that data includes the data on the iMac's new FireWire drive, it may be more cost effective to get a separate Time Machine drive and connect it to your main iMac. This will also allow the hourly Time Machine backup (as well as the initial complete backup) to complete much faster and provide a longer backup history for data recovery.
So that's one USB drive for general network storage and Time Machine backups (for the MacBook Pro and Mac mini); one USB or FireWire drive for Time Machine backup of the iMac (including data on the FireWire drive); and one FireWire drive for the iMac's additional storage.
For the FireWire drive(s), I think you should get one with both FireWire and USB 2.0. Apple took FireWire off the newest MacBook, so if that's a trend, having both interfaces will allow for the best long-term usefulness of the drive.

Similar Messages

Video capture setup to external drive

hi guys, I'm a new FCP user, my Canon XL2 is about to arrive any day and I understand I'll need an external drive to prevent screwing up my internal drive. Maxtor has been recommended and has been reliable I see so I'm looking at one of those, but I'm just a little confused about how to capture to an external drive if I only have one FW400 port. I'll use the FW400 to capture video from the camera. But to get it to the external drive, does that mean I have to purchase a USB 2.0 external drive for my MBP 15"? What are my options to have an optimized performing system? Anybody with a MBP15 out there with the ideal setup for running FCP with an external drive (corporate video work, 2GHZ, 2G RAM) and how best to optimize it?
Thanks.

quick clarification please? After some research I've netted it down to this...
For optimum speed when video editing, I'll can utilize FW800 support using my ExpressCard/34 slot:
Get an eSATA drive(Seagate 500mb? however no FW connect ports on it? some have FW400 and FW800 ports I understand?)
Purchase Express/34 FW800 adapter. This gives me optimum external drive transfer speed into my MBP.
Connect eSATA drive to adapter and I have FW800 external drive capability.
My camera is limited to FW400 for output so I can use my FW400 port to capture through to the faster external drive. Caputuring will always be limited to FW400 anyway (by camera default), however I will take advantage of FW800 external connection when editing the digitized captured material.
I think I got it! Any compatibility problems I should be aware of specifically? Brands? Sounds like a good reliable setup. However, no EC/34 dealers up in here in Canada yet. Any internet recommendations?
Thanks for your help.
macbook pro intel Mac OS X (10.4.7) 2gig ram, 2GHZ, MBP15", FW400, 2 USB ports,

HT1338 I am trying to setup my external drive, but when I do, I get a box that pops up that says You can't open the application "LaCie Setup Assistant" because PowerPC applications are no longer supported".

When trying to setup my external hard drive, I get this box that pops up and says this:
You can’t open the application “LaCie Setup Assistant” because PowerPC applications are no longer supported.

PowerPC was a type of processor used in Mac systems before Apple switched to Intel-based processors. These older chips required applications to be coded differently, to the extent that they will not run on the Intel processors in newer Macs. Apple used to include a translator that allowed these programs to at least run, but this translator is no longer available so if you run into an older PowerPC-based program then OS X will give you this error.

Best setup for external drives and backup

I'm using Aperture to organize several thousand photos. I've gotten good advice her before about how to get started on this. I'm not a professional and I'm not an experienced user of Aperture, so don't assume a lot of knowledge when you answer. I'm wondering what the best way to set up the file storage would be. I use a MacBook Pro, so obviously that's out for storage, and financially, purchasing a more powerful desktop is out for the time being. I was thinking of purchasing a mirror drive system, like this: http://www.newertech.com/products/gmax.php
But then, there still remains the problem of backing up the photos in case of a fire or theft, etc. I have many of them on DVD, but not with all the metadata that I've added. Can I back the external drives up to a cloud-based storage system through the wireless on the MacBook?
Or, is the answer none of the above? What recommendations do you folks have for managing this?

more:
Paula-
Mirror drives are very much less than ideal for images backup. Mirroring occurs in real-time, so errors, breaks, etc. simply get copied. With images work (unlike fanancial work, for instance) we do not need real-time backup we just need regular accurate backup. Just have 2-3 external drives and rotate them regularly, always having one drive off-site (could be in your car or whatever). Back up manually rather than automatically so that you can be reasonably certain that the backup is not backing up something that just broke.
I suggest the below workflow. Note that most important is that original images from the camera card are copied to two locations before reformatting the card and before importing into Aperture or any other images management application.
Original images never change, so I prefer to manually copy them to two locations asap after capture: one location is the computer drive and the other is an external backup HD that itself gets backed up off site regularly. That assures me that "the pic is in the can." Until two digital files exist on different media I do not consider the pic in the can.
Then reformat the card in-camera, not before.
The Masters then get imported into Aperture from the Mac internal drive by reference (i.e. "Storing Files: in their current location" on the Mac internal drive). After editing is complete (may take weeks or months), from within Aperture I relocate the referenced Masters to an external hard drive for long-term storage.
I do use Time Machine routinely on the MBP, but for the daily-volatile activities going of the MBP. I prefer not to have TM be my backup-of-originals protocol. Instead TM backs up the Mac internal drive on the TM schedule and I back up original images asap based on my shooting schedule. Also the TM drive is a different drive than the drives used for long-term original image files archiving.
TM does back up my Library because the Library lives on the Mac internal drive but I do not assume that TM works for Library backup. I back the Library up to Vaults (on the same drives I put archives of Masters on) independent of TM. IMO one should back up image files and back up Vaults manually after verifying that what is being backed up is not broken, because automatic backup will just back up a broken Library or whatever.
Note that Masters need only be backed up once (but to multiple backup locations) and that backup should happen immediately after copying to the hard drive from the camera card, before involving Aperture or any other images management app.
Sorry for the redundant verbosity above but some was copied from previous posts. Also, I reinforce what Léonie said about DVDs. DVDs are way too slow, unreliable, etc. Instead rotate multiple hard drives to achieve redundancy.
HTH
-Allen

Need a good recommendation on an external drive

Digitizing DVCProHD footage. Our internal 3TB Raid keeps getting filled up. Wanted to capture straight to an external Drive. Was going to use LaCie bigdisk quadra via FW800 but FCP kept dropping frames during capture and would bust the capture. Currently capturing to Internal Raid (using Apple Pro Rez(HQ)) Then transferring files to external drives. Would like to skip this step.
If I use the eSATA connection with this drive can I capture straight to it or is there another external drive that would be fast enough to capture directly?

Why are you capturing DVCPRO HD as ProRes HQ? That is a HUGE waste of space. Capture DVCPRO HD as DVCPRO HD...zero quality loss. You gain nothing by going to ProRes from DVCPRO HD.
And ProRes HQ is for 2K workflows...all you are gaining over regular ProRes are files twice the size.
http://forums.creativecow.net/faq/applefinalcutpro#75
You are wasting a lot of space needlessly. And the ONLY external drives that can play back HQ are eSATA, Fibre and miniSAS. Firewire won't cut it.
Shane

Recommend a quiet external drive?

I have a Newer Technologies miniStack - at 250 GB, small by today's standards, but it's big enough for my needs. However, compared to my nearly-silent iMac, it is annoying. It seems like the fan runs a lot more than it used to, even when it has no reason to be doing anything. Can anyone suggest a very quiet external drive? I'd like to spend $150 or less, although I can be flexible about that.
Thanks,
Faye

I bought a Mercury Elite-AL Pro from OWC. It is pretty quiet. $150 would get you a 320 GB FW 400 + USB.

Bought retina Mbp yesterday couldn't afford biggest hard drive, recommendations for future external drive?

I bought a retina Mbp yesterday. I bought the 8 RAM. It is the middle model. I couldn't afford the top model with more RAM and bigger hard drive. I have been told that in the future, I will probably need an external hard drive. Any recommendations on external hard drives?

If you wanna save some money, go to an internet retailer/local computer store and buy an external enclosure. Then after that, buy a notebook/desktop hard drive (whatever fits, 3.5in = desktop, 2.5in= notebook). I reccomend getting a hard drive over 500gb, with 7200rpm, sata 6gbs (if desktop HDD) and at least 8mb cache. If your Mac supports it, do RAID 1, which basically sets the opposite disk as a backup. You can also buy an SSD, which is much more expensive, but up to 3x faster than a HDD. You can buy them at the same store and can format the drive to your liking. They usually come in 2.5 inch, are extremely light, have a large data cache, and are the future of memory storage.
Also, while you are over there buy 1600mhz 8gb memory. Get the single stick and replace only 1 of the already installed sticks. I personally think 12gb is enough, but if you want more, buy another stick of the same RAM.
I hope this helped!
PJ Bianchetta- Computer Enthusiast

Recommend External Drive?

So I finally got my MBP and am going to be using the machine primarily for Logic and on the go music related stuff. I need to get an external firewire drive to store all my samples so that paths can remain consistent between my G5 tower and my new MBP when transferring Logic files back and forth.
Any recommendations on what external drive to get? I want to go with a bus-powered drive for less crap in my travel bag, but I have heard of people burning out ports with these types of drives. Is that something to worry about? Also, 7200 rpm spin speed will be most efficient since I'll be working with audio files. Will a drive rated with that spin speed be able to draw enough power from the MBP's firewire port? Also, no less than 100GB of storage.
Basic questions, I know, but I haven't been in the laptop game for a while (about 5 years) and would like to make the best decision I can.
Thanks in advance!
G5 Dual 1.8 (Rev. A), 20 Cinema (x2), Logic 7.1.1, MBP Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hello,
I just got one of these drives and put it inside of one of these enclosures. Spent about $160 & couldn't be happier.
Firewire bus powers it. Haven't tried USB though. The enclosure has a power switch. It's nice & small. The LED is super-bright. If you read the reviews on newegg.com you'll see that that is the main issue have with the enclosure. Personally I don't mind it so much....
So far, I'm loving it. I'm rendering After Effects comps to it right now. I feel good recommending this setup to anyone.

Can I use Time Machine to backup ONLY an external drive?

I am having problems with the internal HD on my iMac and Disk Utility is telling me I need to reformat the drive and restore from backup. Only problem is that my 3TB Lacie Thunderbolt drive I was using for Time Machine recently failed (think it may have happened during an electrical storm brownout). Yep, I know, ***** to be me
The issues with the internal HD are preventing the iMac from booting and I would prefer not to have to purchase various repair software to find one that really works such as Disk Warrior or similar ((despite it getting very good reviews). I suspect it make be HFS corruption but no way to really tell that I am aware of.
I have setup an external drive with Yosemite and booted from that so now my old internal drive is seen as an "external drive".
I am using Disk Utility to make an image copy to a new 3TB external drive I purchased. Writing the DMG is going to take some time.
What I would like to do is to set up Time Machine to backup to a separate external 3TB hard drive (the second one I purchased) and have TM create a backup of ONLY the old internal drive - not the new system as well as the old internal unit.
Is this possible and if so can anyone advise how to do this. Does not seem I can exclude the system drive I am now booted from so that it is not backed up. (This makes sense that TM would be designed this way given its primary purpose is to backup a system).
If TM cannot be configured in this way, is there another option I can use?
Thanks
Andrew

Thanks for that advice. I have heard of it but a friend who does IT support at a University nearby suggested using Disk Utility to save an image - hence this is currently underway at present. Once this is finished I will try Carbon Copy Cloner.
I have another friend who has an older version of CCC - do you know if an old version will work ok or if only the latest supports Yosemite?
Also once I have the clone completed from CCC, is the process then to reformat the old internal drive and then clone from the CCC external drive back to the internal and then reboot and trust all is well?
Appreciate your help Csound1.
Regards
Andrew

Upgrading to a clone on an external drive

I want to try out Mavericks. I am currently running Snow Leopard. I was thinking about cloning my internal drive to an exteral firewire drive. Can I use the clone to install Mavericks and test it? How exactly would that work? Do I boot on the cloned drive, then go to the App Store and get the Mavericks update?
My biggest concern is making sure my versions of Logic Express, Final Cut Pro X, etc., still work. Also, I have a lot of Apple loops installed and the original DVDs that came with the loops uses Rosetta, so I know I can't install again in Mavericks.
Anyway, if anyone knows if this will work, let me know.
Thanks

Niel wrote:
You install Mavericks on the external drive; this can be done with or without cloning your existing system to it. If you choose not to clone Snow Leopard, specify the external drive when setting up the Mavericks installation.
(98293)
Are you saying I just need to setup an external drive, go to App Store, click on the Mavericks update and then what? I don't want it to overwite my Snow Leopard. Does it give you an option of where to install? Will it mess with my Snow Leopard internal drive? The reason I wnated to clone it was that my Apple loops are on my internal and I thought having them on the clone would let me just see that (if I boot to it). Can you point me to any KBs on doing this?
Thank you

SHaring external drive with WinXP

Hello,
I have a 1.25Ghz Mac Mini, with a 120GB external drive connecting via firewire.
That stores all my music videos and home movies.
How can I setup that external drive to be shared and accessible to my winXP laptop that is wirelessly connecting to the same home network?
I can only go as far as allowing sharing for my own username folder.... and I dont want to copy all those movies onto that location.
Any advice please?

As a long-time Windows user, I struggled with this on my MacBook, too.
It's so easy in XP to arbitrarily share a folder, but on OSX, it's for some reason, not possible to share anything but your home folder.
Get SharePoints from http://www.hornware.com/sharepoints/ . It'll let you share any folder on your Mac.
It worked for me.

Is there a problem with my external drive?

I recently bought a WD "My Passport" drive - 500GB USB2/3 including WD's own Smartware software. I had to replace it. This is what happened.
I reformatted the VOLUME not the drive, in Disk Utility, from MS DOS FAT32 to Mac OS X Extended (Journalled)
I created 3 partitions
I used two partitions to copy the contents of the 2 partitions of my ancient Wiebetech FW drive
I named the third partition Time Machine
I spent a whole day creating an encrypted disk image the size of my PB G4's HD in the TM partition
Though very slow, it seemed to do everything. The next day it took forever to recognise the partitions, and the drive kept making a metallic tapping sound. Of the first two partitions, it would show either or both, but trying to switch between them in a Finder window caused Finder to freeze and the computer needed a hard reboot. It didn't show the TM partition, except in Disk Utility.
In the end, I phoned Amazon to say the drive was defective and they sent an identical replacement. This time I :
Deleted the WD software first
Reformatted the drive to Mac OS X Extended (Journalled)
Copied my Wiebetech HD to FOLDERS not partitions
Set up Time Machine to use the remaining space (plenty of room left)
So far, it seems to have behaved itself. HOWEVER, when I go into Disk Utility, the top level still shows the drive to be MS DOS FAT32. Yet the VOLUME (which is the same size as the whole drive) is Mac OS X Extended (Journalled). Does this mean the replacement drive is also faulty?

The WD My Books have had far less than glowing reviews for Macs...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1543028
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2191614&tstart=0
http://x704.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3219&p=42023&hilit=western+digital#p420 23
http://x704.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2939&p=34120&hilit=western+digital#p3412 0
The following external hard drives are bootable on Intel-based Macintosh computers systems through USB:
• My Book Essential Edition
• My Book Essential Edition 2.0
• My Book Home Edition
• My Book Mirror Edition
• My Book Office Edition
• My Book Premium Edition
• My Book Premium Edition II
• My Book Premium ES Edition
• My Book Pro Edition
• My Book Pro Edition II
• My Book Studio Edition
• My Book Studio Edition II
• My Passport Studio
The following external hard drives are bootable on Intel-based Macintosh computers systems through FireWire (1394a/b):
• My Book Home Edition
• My Book Mirror Edition
• My Book Office Edition
• My Book Premium Edition
• My Book Premium Edition II
• My Book Pro Edition
• My Book Pro Edition II
• My Book Studio Edition
• My Book Studio Edition II
• My Passport Studio
The following external hard drives are bootable on Power PC based Macintosh computers systems through FireWire (1394a/b):
• WD My Book Premium Edition
• WD My Book Pro Edition
The following external hard drives are not bootable on Power PC based Macintosh computers systems through USB/FireWire 1394(a/b):
• My Book Essential Edition
• My Book Essential Edition 2.0
• My Book Home Edition
• My Book Mirror Edition
• My Book Office Edition
• My Book Premium Edition II
• My Book Pro Edition II
• My Book Studio Edition
• My Book Studio Edition II
• My Passport Studio
• My Passport Elite
• My Passport Essential
• WD Passport
• WD Passport (Silver)
My recommendation for an external drive...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

Apple tv content from External drive

Is there any way to setup an external drive with all of my content and itunes on it so that I don't have to have my coomputer on all the time? It's really annoying the the Apple tv has to find a computer that's always on vs an external drive. Can't I just have an external drive plugged in to the router with itunes installed on the external and the Apple tv will just see that library? vs leaving my actual computer on all the time.

nice. pretty simple answer. thanks!

External Drive to play DVDs on Macbook Air

Does anyone have a recommendation of which external drive to purchase for my Macbook air so I can play my DVDs and load Microsoft Office onto my Macbook Air?

It's a subjective questions since each user will have preferences that vary from one to another. I have an Apple External Superdrive for the MacBook Air. I tend to favor the matching asthetics and support. Many "generic" external drives will work just fine. I have a Toshiba external for one of my netbooks, and it works too.
Realize that the Apple unit will not function on any other computer, if that is important to you. It runs $79.00, which is a tad more pricey than your "run-of-the-mill" external DVD.

My Airport Extreme always needs a reboot for it to see an external drive plugged into it. Is this normal?

The title pretty much sums it up. Every few days I have to reboot my AE in order for it to recognize the external drive (iOmega Prestige 500gb) I have plugged into it. Needless to say, it's pretty frustrating. I was hoping to setup the external drive so all of my computers could use it as a central device, but needing to reboot all the time kind of kills the convenience. Wondering if I'm doing something wrong?

Relax. It's normal for an iOS device to turn on when it is plugged in and charging. You didn't hurt anything. As long as it has a charge, you can use it and it should come with a sufficient charge to use it right out of the box.
Your phone will be fine. Charge it when you need to charge it. You didn't damage anything.

Recommended setup of External drives

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