Security : Protecting/Locking an External HDD

Hi, I realise this is probably the wrong category for this question but couldnt find an appropriate one.
Does anyone out there have an idea/suggestion of how I could protect contect on an external HDD?
Anyone can just plug it into their mac/pc and read it.
Is there a way I can 'lock' it with a password, wether it's the whole drive or just a folder.
This would be a great help.
Thxs,
me

Hi, Right Click on the HD icon ->Get Info -> then at the bottom of the open window you can select who has permission to read/write also ENSURE you Uncheck the Ignore Ownership box..
Hope this helps.....L

Similar Messages

Privacy with external HDD ?

I'm pretty new to macs -and I was wondering about privacy and security when using an external HDD. If the external HDD was loaded with OSX and you were using it to work on, would there be any way to tell on the main HDD that an external HDD was used or traces of what programs were used or documents/files were opened on the main HDD?

No. Except if you save things to the main HD. As far as the computer knows, the ext HD is running it.
Since you're a newcomer to the Mac, peruse Switching from Windows to Mac OS X and Basic Tutorials on using a Mac.

Since the last update yesterday to firefox 4.0.1 my program "asus security protect manager" doesn't work properly. That means, that the saved keys from several websites not remembered for lock in.

since the last update yesterday to firefox 4.0.1 my program “asus security protect manager” doesn’t work properly. That means, that the saved keys from several websites not remembered for lock in.

Sorry you are having problems. First of all try Fifrefox's safemode.
*[[Troubleshoot Firefox issues using Safe Mode]]
If that works post back for further advice.
Next step, if safe mode did not work.
First: Try a clean install, (you have had a none standard version installed previously) that involves deleting the program files. Then if necessary try troubleshooting by creating and using a clean empty Firefox profile.
See
* this recent post [/questions/940399#answer-377134]
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall
Second: try a New Profile
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager#Creating_a_new_profile
* this will be an additional profile, it is still worth backing up any existing or currently working profile on a regular basis
**[[Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles]]
* Until you are absolutely confident about the repercussions I suggest
** always use an empty folder when creating a new profile
** never delete or rename profiles, just disable or remove shortcuts
** after creating a new test profile open it and check for any addons or plugins that may be have been included by default

External HDD automatically locked by BitLocker

Hello,
I use Windows 8 on my laptop, and my external HDD got encrypted with BitLocker out of the blue.
I have never used BitLocker, I do not even have it on my laptop (Control Panel does not show any icon for BitLocker & forums say it is only available with Windows 8 Pro).
Therefore, I have no idea why Windows has locked my HDD, and I have no means of recovering this as I do not have any recovery key or password (since I have never used BitLocker in the
first place).
Please help.
Thanks,
Jignasha

Hi,
Was your issue resolved?
If no, please reply and tell us the current situation in order to provide further help.
Karen Hu
TechNet Community Support

External HDD locked, can't repair permissions or create folder at root

After having to do an archive and install as mac mini stuck in start-up, start-up not finished, start start-up again loop I am experiencing bizarre problem. Spend 3 days on this and now just 2 hours with Apple Support. Since the archive and install the 3 partitions of my external HDD all have a padlock on them. Tried many things including checking permissions from install disk or from usual start-up disk and even logged in as root user. At the root level it is not possible to create a new folder or trash items or to move anything to this level. At lower directory levels you can. Clicking on Get info for each partition shows the same thing. It says just above the name box that I can read only, yet by my name says I can read and write. However, selecting anything other than read and write does not stick, it ignores the request. At the sub directory level it says my privileges are custom. Logged in as a root user, I tried to move something to the root level of the HDD. It asked me to authenticate but even after doing that said I had insufficient privileges!
Please someone help. Apple support has had to escalate now. Their comment was "I've never heard of such a sever issue with permissions."
In the mean time I have limited control over my external HDD.
thanks
D

Hopefully you can help me out here as well V.K.
I had to reformat my Mac and now can only read my external drive. I have tried everything. Here is the response I get to running:
sudo chflags nouchg /My Book II
chflags: /Volumes/My Book II: Read-only file system.
I can read files, but when I try to delete them I get a error -67 code.I also cannot write to my external.
Thanks

How to get Time Machine write to TrueCrypt volume on external HDD.

Hi folks
I have an external HDD that I want to use as the destination for Time Machine's backed-up files.
I want to keep this backup data secure, so I have encrypted the entire HDD by creating a TrueCrypt volume on it (not a file container volume).
When I mount the TrueCrypt volume, Time Machine doesn't recognise it; within Time Machine, when I try to select a Backup Disk, my TrueCrypt volume in not listed.
I can, however, access the encrypted volume through Finder, so it seems to be a drawback of Time Machine, so it appears that TrueCrypt has successfully and correctly created the volume. The problem appears to be on Time Machine's part.
Has anyone successfully used a TrueCrypt volume as the destination for Time Machine backups?
I'm grateful for your help and advice.
Regards,
Ken.

Hi,
Pondini wrote:
I'm a bit confused . . . where is your iMac and where is the external HD? If you encrypt your backups, what about your iMac? Isn't it more likely to be stolen than an external HD?
Both co-located at my desk. iMac is secured with a cable lock, which, granted, is probably quite easy to cut for someone who is intent on taking the computer; somewhat of a deterrent for a burglar who might just grab whatever is easy to take. No slot for cable lock on HDD, so someone can just make off with that.
Do you really need to have all your backups encrypted?
No, not essential. However, the fact that anyone can connect a USB cable to the HDD and access all my files is a little worrying. I can password protect access to the iMac, but I have nothing similar for the HDD.
Also, I was just thinking that if I could write all the backups in an encrypted location, it would be done-and-dusted. No thinking about what files should be encrypted, which disk image do I save them to, no mounting/unmounting of the encrypted disk image when I need to access a sensitive file, etc. Just that little bit simpler—I'm a fan of no hassle.
An alternative would be to created an +encrypted disk image+ on your Mac, and put your sensitive documents in it. The backup of it will remain encrypted, so they're safe in both locations.
Will consider this option. Seems to be the most appropriate for what I'm trying to do.
See [Protecting confidential documents in a secure disk image|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/11.5/en/7102.html]. Note that the disk image will not be backed-up while it's mounted.
Duly noted. Thanks again for your help.
Message was edited by: SmoothBall

Installed OS X Snow Leopard on external HDD, now won't allow me to delete files from Mac internal drive

Hi,
I am stuck! My 1 TB iMac 27" decided to stop booting up and would only stay at the grey screen with the apple, gear turning and progress bar. When it got to a certain point on the progress bar it would shut down. Thanks to so many helpful people and their experiences I was able to try many different things including (Command + S, typing /sbin/mount -uw / enter , chmod 775 / enter, logout enter, then rebooting holding down Command + V) and (Reinstalling OS X and using Disk Utility to repair - came up with Disk can't be fixed).
Nothing worked until I read a couple of very wise answers who said "Your hard drive is not dead, but too full...keep at least 10% free at all times". I was down to about 1% (ooops!) Thankfully hubby had bought me an external HDD for Christmas, onto which I installed OS X and being connected to my iMac, it recognized my internal Macintosh HD and all my files are there. Phewww! But I don't want to use my external HDD as my startup disk, I wan't to keep my Macintosh HD for startup but it is too full to repair and select as startup.
My problem is that I cannot delete files from Macintosh HD, and I've tried to unlock files/folders but they don't seem to be locked. But when I drag them to the trash can it says "The item ... can't be moved to the Trash because it can't be deleted." Again, many helpful answers online, but nothing is working. I have 2 Finder windows open, one with external HDD (new startup disk), and old HDD (Macintosh HD) but all items in Macintosh HD can't be altered or deleted (right click doesn't highlight to change the name). So if I can't delete my files, I can't reinstall OS X and repair disk and select it as my startup disk. I'd be so thrilled if someone can help me. I have tried unlocking folders, and I downloaded 'Trashit'. Neither worked, so I figure because it has the little pencil crossed out on the menu bar that it is protected somehow...I just don't know how/what to do. Thanks

Ok, so I'll try set it out a bit clearer than my first post,
This is what I've done, and the results:
1. My son unplugged working iMac Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.2, 1TB with only 11GB available space
2. Turned it on and got the white screen, apple, turning gear and load-up bar
3. Turned Mac off and waited 1/2 a minute.
4. Turned Mac back on...(same as 3.), tried again many times
5. Began searching internet for answers (see original post)
6. Found answers and did the following:
               1.     Put OS X installation disk into drive
               2.     Attached External Hard Drive
               3.     Installed OS X onto External Hard Drive (With a different name & password to original HDD)
               4.     Found Macintosh HD still worked so tried to delete files only to get message saying                                           files couldn't be deleted (see original post)
I've tried changing the permissions in 'Get Info' and this is what happens:
1.Right click Macintosh HD - says "You can only read"
                                                  Name: System - Read & Write
                                                             Admin -   Read & Write
                                                             Everyone - Read only
2.Click on padlock to unlock - doesn't turn black to be able to change anything
3.Check the box "Ignore ownership on this volume" (someone else advised to do this)
4.Name changes to 'mydrive (Me)'
5.Lock padlock and Name still says mydrive (Me) but still 'You can only read'
I don't know what is wrong or what to do, but perhaps you are right LowLuster, that because I named them different names it is protected in some way.
My thought now is to copy all my files to the external HDD and then erase and install again on my internal HD, but I really need my calendar, emails etc from my old HD and not sure they can be found on the old HD to copy over.
Still stuck!

Permissions External HDD

Hey guys,
I have an external HDD with all my music on it. Now I leave it plugged into my iMac, butlet my house mate use my imac but with his account. How can I have it so he just doesnt enter the external drive with his account and copy music, that I have bought into his account and burn disc etc...
Thanks

Right click the external drive icon, and select Get Info. Under Ownership & Permissions, make sure the "Ignore ownership" box is not checked. Also make sure your house mate's account is not an admin account.
This allows only very limited security. It won't stop him from bring over his laptop, plugging your external drive into it, and accessing everything that way. Encryption is your only way to protect against that.

My disconnected external HDD is somehow writing itself to my internal HDD!

Ok, so the other night I got a notification from OS X that I was almost out of disk space, which I found very odd, because the last time this happened was when I had my external hard drive connected, and it was somehow writing itself onto my internal hard drive (it is formatted so that I can use it for both my MBP and the Windows machine at home). You can understand my puzzlement when I got the message, as I did not have my external connected at the time, and had not had it connected since the day before. I had, however, noticed some significant lagging in Safari and Adium, which I found very odd as being the only things affected. As of writing this, I will have cleaned off what has been written to my hard drive twice now (each time 50+ GB!), and I am starting to get very frustrated, with finals and projects coming due very fast now. It appears that the writing starts after I leave Safari/Adium idle for a while, which is very odd, as I can't imagine why either of these programs being idle would initiate this unexplained writing.
I have, however, noticed that there seems to be something invisible in the trash folder that will simply not delete, and has been there since I had the initial problem of my external writing to the internal drive. The Trash constantly tells me there is "1 item" in the trash, but nothing shows up. When I go to Secure Empty I get the little window that tells you the completion status on the emptying, and it always says "4 Items to delete." Even after showing all hidden files and folders, nothing shows up in the trash, despite there always being "1 Item" in there. My guess is that this could be what is causing the writes. What I don't understand is how in the world it managed to store my 100+ GB of stuff on my external in an invisible file that is taking up next to no space on my system, because when I do a scan using Grand Perspective, it doesn't show anything out of the ordinary files and folders that I know should be there. Certainly not 100+ GB of what I have on my external, as I know what I have where, and what are duplicates, and duplicates only show up after the external files have written themselves.
Some additional details for consideration:
Bootcamped hard drive, 15GB for my Windows partition, have only used it to play Roller Coaster Tycoon, and have only connected to the internet on Windows a total of 3 times, each time to download Firefox, iTunes, and Safari, no additional browsing.
External HDD is a LaCie Firewire 400 drive, 320GB formatted for both Windows and Mac (HFS+, right?), haven't connected it in at least two days. Last time this happened it was actually connected, but this time has not been connected when the files have magically appeared on my internal HDD.
There is an invisible file (or multiple files) somehow not showing up AT ALL that is hanging around in the trash. I believe this invisible file(s) to be the culprit, though I'm puzzled as to how. Each time the mysterious writes have happened, Safari/Adium have been idle and open.
If you're wondering how in the world this is happening, don't worry. The first time this happened when my drive was actually connected, I took my MBP to the Apple Store in Indianapolis and totally stumped three employees, including the store manager. If he thought that was odd, wait until I tell him its now writing to my HDD without being connected!

Each time the problem is in the /Volumes/LaCie folder, which is hidden. This leads me to believe its a ghost from my external HDD, rather than from my Bootcamp partition. The 50+ GB that it has written so far has not been duplicates of less than 10GB of information on my Windows partition, it is all files and folders from my approx. 130+GB of information on my external.
In talking with a friend on my floor last night, he thinks it might be a ghost image, as some people have evidently gotten this problem in their email accounts here at the school lately. This ghost image is on my OS X partition, and I'm almost 100% certain it isn't a problem with my Bootcamp partition, as nothing appears in my trash on the Windows side. I have also never used my external with my Windows partition. Like I said, everything being written is from my external hard drive.
Thanks for the link, checking it out now.

Problems with creating a Time Machine backup on external HDD

Hello!
I tried to make a new Time Machine backup file on my external harddrive today.
Unfortunately it stopt after about 6 or 7 gb with the popup:
''the backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk. The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk''
I'm certain that the HDD (Western Digital 1Tb) was correctly formatted (Mac Os Extended (Journaled)). It's the same type as my internal harddrive.
I also have a Time Machine Buddy logfile. Maybe that will help in finding the problem.
Also noticable is that after the backup failure, I can't seem to restore or format the external HDD. Once I connect it to a regular pcc and remove and reinstall the driver, I can use it again.
here is the logfile from the latest backup try:
Starting manual backup
Error determining directory contents for /Volumes/Time Machine: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 "The file “Time Machine” couldn’t be opened." UserInfo=0x7faa73422f70 {NSFilePath=/Volumes/Time Machine, NSUserStringVariant=(
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb
Error -36 applying backup protections to /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro van Rolf Perdok
Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.HostUUID path:/Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro van Rolf Perdok size:37
Error -36 applying backup protections to /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro van Rolf Perdok
Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.HostUUID path:/Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro van Rolf Perdok size:37
Backup failed with error: 2
Thanks in advance!

And I spoke too soon, backup just failed with:
22/10/2012 15:44:24.266 com.apple.backupd[555]: Stopping backup.
22/10/2012 15:44:24.267 com.apple.backupd[555]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Invalid argument
22/10/2012 15:44:24.267 com.apple.backupd[555]: Error: (-47) SrcErr:NO Copying /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Documentation/DocSets/com.apple.ADC_ Reference_Library.DeveloperTools.4_5.docset/Contents/Resources/Documents/recipes /xcode_help-project_editor/Art/BuildingTargetsintheCorrectOrder.m4v to /Volumes/Storage/Backups.backupdb/cizin/2012-10-22-152514.inProgress/ED608989-4 CF3-4713-8E62-3A32E8CC3917/Cizin/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Docum entation/DocSets/com.apple.ADC_Reference_Library.DeveloperTools.4_5.docset/Conte nts/Resources/Documents/recipes/xcode_help-project_editor/Art
22/10/2012 15:44:28.221 com.apple.backupd[555]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Invalid argument
22/10/2012 15:44:28.222 com.apple.backupd[555]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Invalid argument
22/10/2012 15:44:28.222 com.apple.backupd[555]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Invalid argument
22/10/2012 15:44:28.222 com.apple.backupd[555]: Copied 249786 files (10.64 GB) from volume Cizin.
22/10/2012 15:44:28.222 com.apple.backupd[555]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Invalid argument
22/10/2012 15:44:28.222 com.apple.backupd[555]: Copy stage failed with error:11
22/10/2012 15:44:31.231 com.apple.backupd[555]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Resource busy
22/10/2012 15:44:34.239 com.apple.backupd[555]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Resource busy
22/10/2012 15:44:34.239 com.apple.backupd[555]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Invalid argument
22/10/2012 15:44:34.358 com.apple.backupd[555]: Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.HostUUID path:/Volumes/Storage/Backups.backupdb/cizin size:37
22/10/2012 15:44:44.739 com.apple.backupd[555]: Backup failed with error: 11
Time fo a bug report.

The External HDD that causes the SystemUIserver to cripple Mac Mini

Hello all,
I have recently reinstalled my mac mini, starting with a secure delete of the Macintosh HD and complete DVD re-install with Mac OS X 10.6.4. I saved all of my data onto my external HDD which is a Western Digital 320GB. (Before i deleted and re-installed my mac i wiped this external HDD and formatted it to MS-DOS format using mac's disk utility software, so that i can move data between my HP Laptop (which i will be getting rid of soon and move to a mac book) and the mac mini with ease!)
Following the re-install i started to move all of my files and folders back to the mac when my mac became very very very sluggish. Taking 30-45 seconds to load safari (much longer for bigger programmes) and when i wanted to copy files across from my Ext HDD onto the mini it would copy at about 2-3MB/sec.
I subsequently went into the activity monitor and under the system memory tab saw that the SystemUIServer was using 3.14GB of real memory and was running the CPU at 80-90%. This was my problem. I then when onto the web to see why i was having such issues with speed and USB file transfer and forums talked about USB 1.0/1.1 selected or not having enough RAM which was not the problem here.
I then chose to force quit the SystemUIserver and my system started flying again, up to full speed, but it was only for 30 seconds until i saw the memory pie chart start to turn yellow once more as SystemUIserver started to eat up my real memory, (RAM).
I then turned off my Ext HDD, force quit systemUIserver and i once again had a stable system. So what is the problem??????
There is a communication error between my HDD and my mac which means that when i plug it in systemUIserver goes crazy, and slows the machine. What i do not know is how to get both my HDD and Mac talking without using up all of the RAM. Allowing me to transfer all of my documents back onto my mac. Why is this an issue???????.......Any help on this matter would be really kind as i did not have this issue on the previous install, but now i cannot stop this from happening.
Thank you

Hello again,
I have subsequently discovered that it is any external media that i plug in causes this fault. (my other external HDD, my 2.0 GB usb stick!)
Looks like that this issue is slightly bigger than i initially thought!
Thank you in advance

External HDD not getting detected?

My 250GB Transcend External HDD is not getting detected. Help please. Even yesterday, I had used it successfully. I don't have a clue what happened.
Last edited by armageddon09 (2009-10-14 12:49:39)

I have the sam issu with a Coolink USB2.0 external enclosure with a 320GB Hitachi HD.
The relevant informations are:
# uname -a
Linux arch.aneder.hu 2.6.31-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Oct 13 11:33:39 CEST 2009 x86_64 AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60 AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
# lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04f2:b028 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd VGA UVC Webcam
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 152d:2329 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
after ca. 5 second:
# lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04f2:b028 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd VGA UVC Webcam
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
# dmesg
usb 2-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
scsi6 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 2
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 312581808 512-byte logical blocks: (160 GB/149 GiB)
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 34 00 00 00
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
usb-storage: device scan complete
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sdb: sdb1
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
usb 2-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-3: device descriptor read/64, error -71
usb 2-3: device descriptor read/64, error -71
usb 2-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-3: device descriptor read/64, error -71
usb 2-3: device descriptor read/64, error -71
usb 2-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-3: device not accepting address 2, error -71
usb 2-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-3: device not accepting address 2, error -71
sd 6:0:0:0: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery
usb 2-3: USB disconnect, address 2
It wasn't any problem with 2.26.29-ARCH kernel.
Any hints?
TIA

Unable to copy very large file to eSATA external HDD

I am trying to copy a VMWare Fusion virtual machine, 57 GB, from my Macbook Pro's laptop hard drive to an external, eSATA hard drive, which is attached through an ExpressPort adapter. VMWare Fusion is not running and the external drive has lots of room. The disk utility finds no problems with either drive. I have excluded both the external disk and the folder on my laptop hard drive that contains my virtual machine from my Time Machihne backups. At about the 42 GB mark, an error message appears:
The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "Windows1-Snapshot6.vmem" could not be read or written. (Error code -36)
After I press OK to remove the dialog, the copy does not continue, and I cannot cancel the copy. I have to force-quit the Finder to make the copy dialog go away before I can attempt the copy again. I've tried rebooting between attempts, still no luck. I have tried a total of 4 times now, exact same result at the exact same place, 42 GB / 57 GB.
Any ideas?

Still no breakthrough from Apple. They're telling me to terminate the VMWare processes before attempting the copy, but had they actually read my description of the problem first, they would have known that I already tried this. Hopefully they'll continue to investigate.
From a correspondence with Tim, a support representative at Apple:
Hi Tim,
Thank you for getting back to me, I got your message. Although it is true that at the time I ran the Capture Data program there were some VMWare-related processes running (PID's 105, 106, 107 and 108), this was not the case when the issue occurred earlier. After initially experiencing the problem, this possibility had occurred to me so I took the time to terminate all VMWare processes using the activity monitor before again attempting to copy the files, including the processes mentioned by your engineering department. I documented this in my posting to apple's forum as follows: (quote is from my post of Feb 19, 2008, 1:28pm, to the thread "Unable to copy very large file to eSATA external HDD", relevant section in >bold print<)
Thanks for the suggestions. I have since tried this operation with 3 different drives through two different interface types. Two of the drives are identical - 3.5" 7200 RPM 1TB Western Digital WD10EACS (WD Caviar SE16) in external hard drive enclosures, and the other is a smaller USB2 100GB Western Digital WD1200U0170-001 external drive. I tried the two 1TB drives through eSATA - ExpressPort and also over USB2. I have tried the 100GB drive only over USB2 since that is the only interface on the drive. In all cases the result is the same. All 3 drives are formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
I know the files work on my laptop's hard drive. They are a VMWare virtual machine that works just fine when I use it every day. >Before attempting the copy, I shut down VMWare and terminated all VMWare processes using the Activity Monitor for good measure.< I have tried the copy operation both through the finder and through the Unix command prompt using the drive's mount point of /Volumes/jfinney-ext-3.
Any more ideas?
Furthermore, to prove that there were no file locks present on the affected files, I moved them to a different location on my laptop's HDD and renamed them, which would not have been possible if there had been interference from vmware-related processes. So, that's not it.
Your suggested workaround, to compress the files before copying them to the external drive, may serve as a temporary workaround but it is not a solution. This VM will grow over time to the point where even the compressed version is larger than the 42GB maximum, and compressing and uncompressing the files will take me a lot of time for files of this size. Could you please continue to pursue this issue and identify the underlying cause?
Thank you,
- Jeremy

Advice request - which external HDD for Adobe Lightroom?

Hi,
I'm going to buy myself an external hdd this week, and I would be very grateful for your advice.
1) I'm shooting with Nikon D70, Canon A520, and my mobile(;]).
2) After over 1 year of shooting I have ~130GB of photos taken with these cameras + I have some negative from analog times, which I'm going to scan (I estimate them to be next ~20GB)
3) I would like to keep all of above photos on external hdd and import them into Abobe Lightroom (tagging + developing), and and of course apply retouching to some of them in PS CS2.
4) My computers are : old PC desktop with XP, on which I will be only viewing these pictures, and IBM T43 with Vista on which I'm going to do all the developing. [Yes, I know that Apple is better, and I love Apple, but I can'tafford one yet].
Given above assumptions, which external hdd from the ones I've preselected should I choose ? I'm on the budget here, and the ones that I can afford are :
WD My Book Pro 250GB USB 2.0/FireWire400/FireWire800 16MB Cache
WD My Book Premium 320GB USB 2.0/FireWire400 8MB Cache
WD My Book Essential 500GB USB2.0 8MB Cache
LaCie Porsche 500GB USB 2.0 8MB Cache
I'm asking mainly because I don't have any idea about how fast should a drive be to work with Lightroom with decent speed.
Also : should I buy FireWire controller for my T43 laptop, or will USB 2.0 be enough for my purposes ?
Thanks in advance for sharing your experience.
Chris

>Yes, I know that Apple is better, and I love Apple, but I can't afford one yet
Either a PC or MAC is fine, but you've entered a field where affordability is proportional to the number of photos you manage, the type of processing you perform and the level of security you are comfortable with. This is entirely separate of your budget.
USB2 and/or Firewire Drives work fine. From your list, I've owned both the LaCie Porsche and a WD MyBook. They both failed for different reasons. All hard drives will eventually fail. If you can't afford to lose your photo library you need some sort of redundency. The reliability of that redundency (RAID) and or speed of retrieval determines what technology is the minimum you need to afford. Or, if you have more time than budget, you can archive on DVDs. Keep in mind that even DVD's will fail over time.
The faster the drive, the faster the backup (redundency), the faster the throughput, and the faster you have access to managing and processing your image library.
Did I answer your question: No. However, whatever you get, and assuming you value your photos, make sure you get two of them so you can build some redundency into your budget. If you're feeling lucky, get the largest drive you can afford and make sure you leave yourself a lot of time for those backups.
Welcome to "photo shoebox management" of the new millenium! It ain't cheap ... :-)

1.5TB external HDD not recognised on various laptops

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could help me.
I bought my toshiba 1.5 terrabyte external harddrive just over a year ago. It works fine on my other laptop and my boyfriend's laptop but when I connected it to four other new laptops (all different brands) recently it was not recognised on these laptops at all.
Is there something wrong with my external or is something on these computers blocking it from being recognised? Do you know how I can fix this problem?
Many Thanks!

Hello
And if you connect the external HDD to your and boyfriends notebook everything is still ok? You have only problems with new notebooks?
Well thats really strange Have you tested another USB cable and different USB ports?
Maybe on the new notebooks the antivirus or firewall program is blocking the access to external drive. Check your security software and allow external devices.

Security : Protecting/Locking an External HDD

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