Running Apple TV off of an external drive?

Can you run the Apple TV off of an external drive with out having to run you itunes? I have a laptop that I am trying to keep all of my music and video on an external drive instead of the laptop harddrive.

Buzz.
External drives can be connected and used in a number of ways.
Connection can be achieved either as an external device to your mac/pc or as a network drive, which can be achieved either through an extreme, a genuine network drive or even I believe with a direct connection to the ethernet port on the tv (with hacks).
Consensus seems to favour keeping the itunes database files in their default location.
If you choose to copy files to your itunes folder in your itunes prefs and let itunes organise your library for you, you will use the external HD for all your media and when it is unavailable so will all your media. You could also organise the library yourself and choose just to keep large movie files on your ext HD, this would mean you can still play non movie files in itunes on your laptop when it is used on it's own, but need to connect the drive for your movies.

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I think the DVD player reader on my Mac is going bad. Is there a way to copy the files off of an Apple Install DVD onto an external drive and then do theinstall from the external drive?

I think the DVD player reader on my Mac is going bad. Until I get it fixed Is there a way to copy the files off of an Apple Install DVD onto an external drive and then do theinstall from the external drive? It's ILife 11 if that makes a difference. Finder won't let me see the files to copy. I know - dumb question.
Thanks.
Bob

Adding an SSD is not a simple endeavour like adding additional memory or adding another hard drive to a Mac Pro. That's probably why the option is only offered as an option at the time of purchase. Even if your Apple store was willing to install the necessary parts you will probably be paying for 1-2 hours of labor plus the cost of purchasing the necessary service parts (SSD, bracket, cables, etc) which I suspect will make the upgrade cost much higher than what it costs to add the SSD option when purchasing a new system.
I use my system for business and need it to work reliably. Even though I'm fairly handy with tools I would not be willing to risk damaging my system and voiding my warranty by opening my system and removing the logic board and several other parts in order to squeeze in an SSD option and attach the appropriate cables and brackets. I'm also not prepared to deal with the hassles of explaining why my system has unauthorized parts installed in the event I experience issues and need to make use of my Apple warranty. My time is valuable, so I would probably investigate external storage options, or if I needed the speed of an SSD, I would consider selling my existing system and then purchase a new system configured with an SSD.
If you haven't already done so I suggest doing a search on 'iMac SSD installation' to see what's involved. It might help you understand why the SSD option is not offered post purchase.

Is it possible to run my iTunes solely from an external drive?

I'm a college student and don't have my own computer anymore, and I currently use campus computers and library computers (No admin priviledges).
I currently have all my previous iTunes music backed up on my external drive, and I have the iTunes package (The install package you download from Apple) also on there as well.
I'm basically wondering if I can install iTunes onto my external drive, open it from there, and also be able to access my music from there as well?
To give more clarification, I want to be able to go to a college or library computer (These computers are running on Windows XP or 7), be able to open iTunes from my external drive, and be able to manage and use my library from there.
With college and library computers, you don't have the admin rights to install iTunes. However, I do have friends that will let me use their computer to install iTunes onto my external drive (If that is possible). So not being able to install iTunes because of lack of admin priviledges is a barrier I can get through.
How ever I don't know if it's possible to run, and open iTunes from an external drive, and be able to open and use my iTunes library from there.
And help would be great.
Thanks in advance!

how would I go about putting my iTunes library on an external drive?
It depends on where your library is now and how it's organized. If you have all your content and library files in a single iTunes folder, drag the entire iTunes folder (the _entire_ folder, _not_ just the iTunes Music folder) to your desired location. Then hold down the Shift key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location. Note that this procedure assumes that all of your tracks are contained in the iTunes Music folder. If they're scattered around your volumes, moving them becomes much more complex. Don't delete the tracks from the old location until you've confirmed that they're working correctly from the external drive
Also is it possible to get past administrator rights, to install iTunes and delete iTunes each time I use a computer that I don't have administrator rights to? That way I can still use iTunes.
No, it's not possible. As with most applications, you need administrator rights to install iTunes.
Regards.

Running Apple Hardware Test from a cloned drive partition

So I remember someone suggested perhaps running Apple Hardware Test from a hard drive partition, in order to speed things up.
So far all I have are three partitions, with one (9GB partition) cloned from Install Disk 1 that came with my (Santa Rosa) MacBook - on my WD MyBook Home (FW/USB) using FW. If I hold down the option key during startup, I get the option to boot from the clone of Install Disk 1. I tried that, but only got a query whether I wanted to install Leopard on one of my partitions.
I know for standard Apple Hardware Test I'm supposed to hold down D while it starts up with Install Disk 1 inside. I tried this after selecting the hard drive, but got nothing. Any suggestions how to proceed?

Douglas McLaughlin wrote:
I've never heard of being able to extract the Apple Hardware Test application out of the install disk. I'm not sure it's possible since it doesn't appear in the Finder on the install disk in the first place. Do you remember where you saw that suggestion? Since he hardware tests are supposed to be running as completely removed from the computer's own hardware as possible (except, of course, from your optical drive reading the install disk), I'm not sure running it from an external hard drive would give you valid results.
I looked it up. It was something else. Mort uses it to run Disk Utility (why'd I think it was Hardware Test?) instead of from the standard boot volume. I guess this would be a good idea if there's a complete restore using Time Machine?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6239918&#6239918
I still would prefer a separate Apple Hardware Test CD like I got with my iBook G3 600. It would be interesting if there was a way to run it out of a drive partition.

Can i install and run desktop version off an 8g jump drive?

Want to install and run full version off an 8g jump drive, the same way i would the portable versions. Does anyone know if this is possible?

This thread on Mac OS X Hints says that you can
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=73902
as long as that "Desktop G4" is not an upgraded beige Power Mac.

Can i run apple tv off a home network with no internet just iTunes library?

Can i Run apple Tv off a home network with no internet just itunes?

Yes you can use home sharing with just a local network. Obviously you won't have access to all the other content.

HT2494 Apple computer is not "feeling" external drive.

I have mackbook pro 13 with retina dispaly, Mavriek OX, I am using external drive 2TB as backup for time machaine. all were fince. I installed parallels and windows 8.1 preview to run some programs. The Apple stopped "feeling" the external drive although when I run diskutility, it's there fully accessable and fully functional. I erase the parallel SW and restart and the problem still exists. Pls help. Thanx

Try disconnecting the drive, turning off for a few second, then turn it back on. Restarting the computer might help also.
If you see the drive in Disk Utility, select it, and try using the mount button in the top menu.

How to recover files off unmountable seagate external drive

I have been using a Seagate Backup Plus external drive for several months on my iMac destop. The external drive runs off of USB no other power source. I unmounted it the other day to use on my mac power pc and transferred mp4 files onto drive without problems. Unmounted drive and plugged it back to iMac and I am getting prompt The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer choices of initialize, ignore, eject buttons. I have shut down and plugged it back in and reset the PRAM. I can see the unmounted device in disk utility and also I can see that it's plugged into the USB port. I have tried plugging the device into the mac power pc, macbook and pc all but pc give me the same response. On the PC I can't see the drive at all, though it has power and can be ejected. I would like to find out how to mount this drive to retrieve the files off of it. I am also wondering what to do with this drive, ie.e reformat it (if and when I retrieve files) or try to return it (bought it in Sept. 2012). Any help on this subject is greatly appreciated!

I did try Disk Utility Repair disk command, but when I ran it this is the report I received:
2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: Verify and Repair volume “disk1s3”
2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: Starting repair tool:
2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: Checking file system2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: Invalid node structure
2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: Invalid B-tree node size
2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: Invalid node structure
2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: Invalid B-tree node size
2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: The volume could not be verified completely.
2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: Volume repair complete.
2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.2013-03-07 17:02:52 -0500: Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
Disk Utility stopped repairing “disk1s3”: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
I was trying to recover data without purchasing software if at all possible.

Run Aperture and iPhoto on an external drive and edit from laptop?

Can I run iphoto and Aperture on an external hard drive, like a file server? Can I store pics on the external hard drive and edit using iphoto or aperture on the external hard drive from a laptop ? How do I make this work?
HELP! I'm maxed out!

Hello Laura,
what is it, that you want to achieve?
Move the Aperture Library to an external drive to free space on your laptop?
or do you want to share your Aperture Libray between your machines and access it in parallel on a network volume?
The option "1" is easy to achieve, the option "2" is not supported by Aperture; Aperture (and iPhoto) are single User programs, see this:
Aperture: Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library:http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3252
To move your library (or parts of your library) to an external drive you have two options:
move the complete libary using the finder to a local, external, MacOSX formatted drive,
or turn your library into a "referenced" library: relocate the master image files to the external drive, but keep the Library itself (much smaller now) on your laptop. This way you can browse your images and rate them, use them as screensaver, even if the external drive is not connected.
Regards
Léonie
P.S. the same (*** grano salis) holds for iPhoto; you can move the library, or your libraries, to an external drive using the Finder; you can make the iPhoto Library referenced, but referenced libraries are much better supported in Aperture, for Aperture has been designed in espacially to support huge, distributed libraries - in iPhoto I found it it safer to have several smaller libraries than to have one huge, referenced library - that was one of the reasons I moved from iPhoto to Aperture.

Apple TV, Time Machine and External Drives

I have an apple TV, A 1TB time capsule and a 1GB hard drive attached to the time capsule. My itunes library is too big for the apple TV. My itunes application is on my laptop and my library is on the storage drive, backed up by time machine.**
My question - Obviously any content I sync to apple TV is available to the whole family but am I right in thinking that all the other content that can't be synced because of size can only be accessed when I am at home with my laptop?
If so then it would appear that mac have invented a fantastic product but made the weird assumption that our home movies, audio and movie downloads will not exceed the maximum size of the ATV unless we buy a dedicated computer! I am not much better off than I was when I simply streamed music through airport or had my ipod connected to my stereo. Because I cant sync my whole library I have to sync only playlists so there is no cover flow, just a list to scroll through same as I had on my ipod!
It makes me wonder if the design and marketing department at apple have lost the plot and concentrated on media sales rather than customer satisfaction. If you take into account that the itunes movie rentals are more expensive and no more recent than those in Blockbuster (I just rented 5 blue ray for £10.00) then the ATV is looking like a temporary toy that already fails to meet the needs of the average consumer. I love apple products but at the moment I'm thinking I could have just plugged endless storage devices into my playstation and achieved much more.
Someone please tell me I'm wrong.......

flintonmac wrote:
Thats a rather ragged defence of a poor bit of design.
It's not a defence, it's an explanation. If you don't like the Apple tv model then fair enough but it's not bad design by any stretch of imagination. My point being that Apple tv deliberately moves away from the model you seem to want to follow, you have your right to your opinions but you need to accept this isn't what most people want and why you can now rent 5 disks for £ 10 from Blockbuster.
My main point. If you don't sync your whole itunes library then you have to scroll through a playlist which removes the convenient cover flow interface
Not at all, there is no cover flow and lets hope that if there ever is, it's an option only. Cover flow is very pretty but quite impractical for large libraries.
and leaves you in the same position as you would be scrolling through the content of external drives on any other media player.
Not at all, all the other media players I have reviewed have resulted in a chaotic interface when it comes to searching for media on attached drives.
It would not have been hard for apple to allow itunes to send a playlist that is seen by the apple tv as its entire content.
That's exactly what the Apple tv does. It strikes me that you haven't really taken the time to see how the Apple tv works properly or what it has to offer you.
My secondary point. Apple is behind most other service providers in terms of providing access to new releases and price.
Again that's incorrect, Apple offers similar content to some other online media providers but usually more than most. It's true that in comparison to traditional physical media, it's offerings are somewhat poorer but this is the result of protectionism applied by the movie studio to try to support a flagging physical medium industry, all online suppliers have the same issue with the movie studios.
While I am moaning...... The HDMI connection stays live even in standby so every user has to reach behind the TV when changing from apple to cable tv. Not a reasonable solution so it means that I use the AV outputs instead. If you link that to my second point then yes I can rent DVD's in HDMI but I have to change my cable set up before I do.........
If this is an issue with the Apple tv then it's something that does need resolving, but at this stage you can't say for sure it's not your tv, if it works fine on one port but not on another it sounds more like the tv to me. None of the 5 tv's we have that have an Apple tv connected to them display this behaviour.
Your points are very valid in your case, I'm not dismissing them, just pointing out the model you would seem to prefer is the model that most people are wanting to turn away from, so it isn't bad design, it's just that you don't like it.

[Guide] Install and run Windows 7/8 from an external drive without using bootcamp (works for late 2012 iMacs with 3TB drive)

This is a copy of a post from my blog, you can also Read it on my blog...
Introduction
After I received my new iMac with a 3 TB Fusion Drive, I was disappointed when I realized that Bootcamp was not running on this model and prevented me from installing Windows on it. I wanted to take advantage of the powerful iMac hardware to play games but I couldn't.
There are a few ways of working around this limitation, but I found most of them quite complex and most of the time they required formatting the internal hard drive or repartitioning it and go for a brand new installation of Mac OS X. I was not comfortable with that.
But there is another way, and that is to install Windows on an external hard drive, using either USB or Thunderbolt. Personally I used a Lacie Rugged 1 TB drive that has both USB3 and Thunderbolt connectors. Both work very well.
This guide may interest you if:
You have an internal hard drive of more than 2TB and you can't run bootcamp at all (like late 2012 iMacs with a 3TB drive)
You have limited space or you don't want to dedicate disk space on your internal hard disk drive to a Windows installation
What this guide will make you do:
It will make you erase all your data from your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
It will make you install Windows on your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
It will make you install bootcamp drivers
What this will not make you do:
It will not make you modify anything on your internal Mac hard drive
It will not make you use or install the bootcamp assistant
It will not activate the Preference Pane for the default boot drive. You have to boot by pressing the ALT key to manually select your boot drive each tome you want to boot Windows.
What you'll need
An external hard drive with a USB3 and/or Thunderbolt connector. This drive will be formatted so ensure you saved your files before going further. You can use either an SSD drive or a classic hard drive.
A Windows 7 or 8 install DVD or ISO (check whether to install 32 or 64 bits versions based on your Bootcamp drivers) and the corresponding Windows serial number.
One of the following:
Mac OS X with a Windows 7 or 8 Virtual Machine (use VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop for example. Note: VMWare Fusion seems to have some issues with Thunderbolt and USB3. Plug your drive to a USB2 enclosure or hub to work around this -it worked for me-, or use another VM software) → Read the important note below
A PC running Windows 7 or 8 → Read the important note below
Windows AIK (free) running on your Virtual Machine or on your PC, or just the imagex.exe file (the rest of the Windows AIK package is not needed)
Download imagex.exe
Download Windows AIK (this download and installation is not required if you have already downloaded imagex.exe)
Bootcamp drivers for your Mac. You can get these either by running bootcamp from your Mac (Applications > Utilities > Bootcamp) or, if like me you have a 3TB drive and can't run bootcamp at all, use the direct download links here.
A USB stick to store your bootcamp drivers
IMPORTANT: If your Mac has a 64 bits processor, your Windows Virtual Machine on OSX, your Windows installation on your PC and your Windows DVD/ISO must also be in 64 bits!
Step by Step guide
Step 1: Get the install.wim file
If you have a Windows ISO file:
Mount the ISO
If you're on OS X: double click on the ISO file
If you're on on Windows 7: Use a software like Virtual Clone Drive (free)
If you're on Windows 8: double click on the ISO file
Open the mounted drive, then go to the "sources" folder and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
If you have a Windows DVD: open the "sources" folder on the DVD and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
IMPORTANT: If instead of a "install.wim" file, you have "install.esd", you can not continue this step by step guide. And an ESD file can not be converted into a WIM file. So you must get a version of the Windows installation DVD/ISO that has an install.wim file.
Step 2: Clean, partition and format your external hard drive
On your Windows installation or virtual machine, plug in your external hard drive (can be plugged using USB2, USB3 or Thunderbolt at this stage)
Open the command prompt in administrator mode (cmd.exe). To run it in administrator mode, right click on cmd.exe > Run as admin.
Type the following and hit enter to open the disk partitioner utility:
diskpartType the following and hit enter to list your drives:
list disk
This will display a list of disks mounted on your computer or virtual machine. Make sure your drive is listed here before you continue.Identify the disk ID of your external hard drive. Replace # by your real external disk ID in the command below:
select disk #Clean all partitions by typing the following (warning: this will erase all data from your external drive!):
clean
Create the boot parition by typing the following followed by the enter key:
create partition primary size=350
This will create a 350MB partition on your external driveFormat the partition in FAT32 by typing the following:
format fs=fat32 quick
Set this partition to active by typing:
active
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter B in our example. If B is already used on your PC, replace B by any other available letter:
assign letter=b
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Create the Windows installation partition using all the remaining space available on the external drive by typing the following:
create partition primary
Format the new partition in NTFS:
format fs=ntfs quick
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter O in our example. If O is already used on your PC, replace O by any other available letter:
assign letter=o
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Exit the disk partitioner utility by typing:
exit
Step 3: Deploy the Windows installation image
Still using the command prompt in admin mode (you didn't close it, did you? ), locate the imagex.exe file mentioned in the "What you'll need" section and access its folder. In our example, we have put this file in C:\imagex\imagex.exe
Type the following and hit enter (remember to replace o: with the letter you have chosen in the previous step):
imagex.exe /apply C:\wim\install.wim 1 o:
This will take some time. The Windows installation image is being deployed to your external driveOnce done, type the following to create the boot section (remember to replace o: and b: with the letters you've chosen in the previous step):
o:\windows\system32\bcdboot o:\windows /f ALL /s b:
If you get an error message saying that you can't run this program on your PC, then most probably you are running on a 32 bits installation of windows and you're trying to deploy a 64 bits install. This means you did not read the important notes in the beginning of this guide
If you get an error message on the options that can be used with the BCDBOOT command, then it's because you're installing Windows 7, and the /f option is not supported. If that is the case, remove /f ALL from the command and retry.
Step 4: Boot from your external drive and install Windows
Plug in your external drive:
If you've done all the previous steps from a Windows PC, unplug your external drive from your PC and plug it to your Mac, either on a USB3 or a Thunderbolt port.
If you've done all the previous steps from your Mac using a Virtual Machine, ensure the external drive is plugged in to a USB3 or Thunderbolt port. Using USB2 should also work but you'll get very poor performance so I don't recommend doing that.
Reboot your Mac and once the bootup sound is over, immediately press the ALT (option) key and release it only when the boot drives selection screen appears. If you did not get the boot drives selection screen, reboot and try again. The timing to press the ALT (option) key is quite short. It must not be too early or too late.
On the boot selection screen, choose "Windows" using the arrow keys on your keyboard, then press enter.
The Windows installation starts. Follow the on-screen instructions as normal. The installation program will restart your computer one or 2 times. Don't forget to press ALT (option) right after the bootup sound, and boot on Windows again each time to continue the installation.
Step 5: Install bootcamp drivers
Once the Windows installation is complete, plug in the USB stick where you stored the bootcamp drivers (see "what you'll need" section), open it and right click on "setup.exe" and select "Run as admin". Follow the on-screen instructions.If you have an error saying that you can't run this program on this PC, obviously you have installed a 32 bits version of Windows and the bootcamp drivers for your Mac are made for a 64 bits version. You have to restart the whole guide and make sure to get a 64 bits version of Windows this time!
Once the bootcamp drivers are all installed, reboot and press ALT (option) after the bootup sound to boot on Windows again. And Voilà, you have Windows installed on your USB3/Thunderbolt drive running on your Mac.
Now each time you want to boot on Windows, press and hold the ALT (option) key after the startup sound and select "Windows", then press Enter.

Hi i'm trying to follow your guide, I installed windows 8 on bootcamp to do it planning to remove it after the operation is done, but i get stuck at part 3: every command i give to imagex i get a pop-up ftom windws asking how do I want to open this kind of file install.wim and imagex does nothing, what do i have to do to stop those pop-ups?

Running games and apps on an external drive?

I have a macbook pro with windows 7 using bootcamp and the hard drive partition is filling up. I can't really assign it any more space on the boot drive because I need it for what's running on the osx partition.
Is it possible to put some games or software on an external drive rather than on the boot drive and run them from there in order to save space on the boot drive?
I would use a 7200 rpm drive with a firewire 800 connection. Would this affect the performance of the games?
Thanks for any advice.

Hi Luis,
theat really depends on the games/apps you run.
During installation of these games/apps you might or might not get the oportunity to change the destination folder of where to install the game/app.
Some allow it to install them to a different folder/harddisk and some don't.
But there usually it still some parts that have to be installed on the Windows system partition (c:).
Also depending on the games/apps you might be able to move them after installation but most likely this will only work for a very few of them.
When using the external harddisk you might experience a slight decrease in speed, especially when large parts have to be read from that external HD, but it should be acceptable.
Regards
Stefan

Can I boot my new MacBook Pro running ML from SL on an external drive

I have a new MBP with Mountain Lion. I want to put Snow Leopard, I have the full install DVD, on an external drive. Can I boot from that drive so I can run a few old applications that won't run in Mountain Lion?

As per Mende1's suggestion: install your Snow Leopard (with Rosetta) into Parallels and run your PowerPC applications (which ones are they?):
[click on image to enlarge]
Full Snow Leopard installation instructions here

HT4818 Does anyone know if you can boot off of an external drive?

Im wondering if i can boot windows off an external drive

I'm not certain if it was changed recently or not, but BootCamp did not allow you to boot from an external drive. In fact, in a laptop, BootCamp would only let you boot from the primary internal drive. Since the Windows installer/bootloader wold need to know how to access an external drive, you would need to use a drive connection method that Windows supports natively at boot time, so I don't believe that you can use USB (without building a custom installer). You might be able to use a Thunderbolt drive if you happen to have one of those. Of course, there are those who would also tell you that anything less than a Tunderbolt drive performance would make the Windows OS painfully slow, so that is something to consider...

Can i run the adobe cloud from an external drive at internet cafes etc?

I'm travelling and I'd like to be able to leave my macbook behind sometimes, (such as in countries where I'd rather not carry such an expensive thing with me), however I use the adobe cloud suite on an educational subscription to process all my photographs..
My question is, can i keep the adobe suite on my external hard drive and run it off that at internet cafes etc?
I use Bridge, Lightroom, Photoshop and occasionally Premier for the most part.
Thanks,
Sarah Stackman

The Cloud is a delivery process... the programs still install on your local hard drive
Installing in Windows makes entries in the system registry... meaning the programs will not run away from the computer where they were installed
I do not know if a Mac has a similar process, where the drive must be with the computer where it was installed
This is an open forum with a mix of program users and Adobe staff, not Adobe support... you need Adobe support
Adobe contact information - http://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html may help
-Select your product and what you need help with
-Click on the blue box "Still need help? Contact us"

Running Apple TV off of an external drive?

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