Setting up an external hard drive

I've searched for a solution to my issue and I've been trolling for awhile but have not been able to find a straight answer.
I just purchased a G-Tech 2 TB external hard drive. It has FW-800 connections but my PowerPC iMac G5 is giving me the dreaded "error -36" when I am trying to copy files to the external drive. It inevitably drops the drive from the desktop. I am using a FW-800 to FW-400 cable that the drive came with.
In my research, I find that I should use Disk Utility and select the Partition menu. I know I shoudl Format it for Mac OS Extended (Journaled) but:
1) Now, with the "Volume Scheme" drop down, should I select 'Current' or '1 Partition'?
- I don't need this drive split, I will be suing the drive for long term storage of a library of edited videos.
2) In the options section, should I select 'GUID' or 'Apple Partition Map'?
If anyone has any other advice, that would be great. Many thanks.
Message was edited by: Middleborn

For anyone setting up a new external hard drive, I strongly suggest you use these instructions. I was setting up a 2TB drive and the zero-data erase process took 21 hours, but the drive no longer has issues with being disconnected. Link below, instructions from that link copied and pasted below the link. Special thanks to Kappy for the instructions.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2408147&tstart=0
*Extended Hard Drive Preparation*
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Message was edited by: Middleborn
Message was edited by: Middleborn

Similar Messages

How do I set up an external hard drive as startup disk?

How do I set up an external hard drive as startup disk?

Install OS X onto the external drive. Then:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the external disk's icon from which you want to boot.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.

Should I set up my external hard drive as HFS when copying PC files to MAC

I have just purchased an external hard drive and hooked it up to my PowerMac G5 running OS X. My Mac is networked to a PC via Wi-Fi. When using my Mac I can open/delete/save files to my PC and drag them to my Mac.
I would like to back up my whole PC onto the firewire external drive. I only have a firewire connection on my Mac, so I don't want to unplug it and set it up on the PC as well.
Are there any issues if I format the drive using Disc Utility and format it as HFS, then simply drag the files and applications from my PC to my external hard drive. If the PC fails, will I have any issues when I drag the files back to a networked PC via my Mac?

Backing up an entire hard drive via Wi-Fi would be very slow and perhaps unreliable. I would really look into getting a firewire interface for the PC to accomplish the back-up. These cards are not very expensive and it would be a good investment.
You may have trouble when returning files from an HFS drive to your PC. Some of the files may appear doubled as ._FILENAME and FILENAME. The ._ file is used by Mac OS and is hidden, but is not used by Windows and shows as a separate file. MacDrive6 from MediaFour (http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6//) can solve this problem, as well as allow an HFS+ formatted drive to appear in the Windows explorer when connected via Firewire, but there may still be problems with a backup procedure using drag and drop. It is probably best if you want to do this to format your drive as a Windows drive.
Also, backing up PC application and system files (or Mac ones for that matter) by dragging and dropping is a bad idea. Especially on the PC, but also occasionally on the Mac, applications install files in various system locations that are not easily accessable. It is best to restore applications and system files from the original software installation CD's or DVD's. If this is not possible, or inconvenient, look for a PC backup utility that is similar to Carbon Copy Cloner for the Mac (http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html). Utilities such as this can create an image of a hard disk for backup purposes on any drive recognized by the system. I am sure there are many good PC backup utilities available, many probably as freeware.

Setting Up New External Hard Drive to Backup Windows and OSX

I've just ordered a Western Digital My Book Home Edition 500GB external hard drive from Amazon for £79.17 (c/w 1m eSATA to eSATA cable and shipping in the UK). For the time being, I intend to use it mainly for backup. My MacBook3,1 has a 149.05GB internal drive, which is nearly full. I'd used PC's for more than twenty years before rare financial circumstances enabled me to take the plunge and migrate to the Intel-based MacBook last year. Although the migration process hasn't been without teething troubles, I'm glad I've got a Mac and pleased to say I now feel as comfortable using it as I used to feel with PC's. (But it has taken a year of concentrated effort.) The relevance of this is that I have an awful lot of work in old Windows-based programs, which I need to keep backed-up and accessible. The MacBook's internal hard drive currently has 87.88GB dedicated to the Macintosh HD and 60.86GB dedicated to Windows (Vista, Business edition).
Could you advise me, please: how should I set up the new hard drive with a view to using it to backup the Mac with Time Machine while dedicating a partition for Windows? Actually, I have another desktop with Windows XP, which I'd also like to back up. That hard drive (the XP machine's) is 80GB. Presumably, I'll need to set up partitions for: 1) Time Machine, 2) OSX.5.5 bootable, 3) Windows Vista (on the MacBook) and 4) Windows XP (on the old desktop). If I give 80GB to XP and 70GB to Vista, that leaves 350GB (probably closer to 320-or-soGB in reality) for the MacBook. I don't use virtual machines or any other software to access operating systems - just reboot through BootCamp. What's the best way to go about doing this?

Check out the following Apple Support article to see if it will help: AirPort: How to mount an AirPort Extreme USB hard disk volume in Mac OS X and Windows

Using Premier Pro CS5 can not set up an external hard drive using Mac osx 10.9.5

get an error message when I try to set up a scratch disk from an EXTERNAL hard drive 7200rpm .. using a Mac Book Pro OSX 10.9.5

Try posting in the MacBook Pro laptop forum. his is the Mac Pro desktop forum.

Backing Up Your System & Setting Configurations Using External Hard Drive.

We just purchase A external hard drive to back up our system. I believe the product name Is "Lacie" Anyway, the question is what is the best way to set up to an external hard drive so that my computer runs @ it's best speed. Recently I found out that I had about 5GB of hard drive space on my computer and this is why we made the purchase. Now is it wise to install logic on the new external or keep it on my internal drive. Basically for the best possible performance how should I set up everything and transfer data where I can keep a great work flow.

What's your goal? Do you want to back up your data or make a clone of your HD? These take two different approaches.
A clone of your HD is an exact copy which can be used to restore your main HD in case of drive failure/data corruption/severe data loss. Do a search for "Carbon Copy Cloner" to do this.
If you want to back up your data (Logic songs, etc.), use the HD just for this purpose and no other. And NEVER work on those backup copies. They're "safety" copies, not to be altered ever. If you need to work on a backup copy of a song, make a copy of the copy and work on that.
To make backup of Logic songs easier, always save your songs as projects and simply backup the project folders. Makes life easy.

Setting up an external hard drive via USB

Hi
I'm trying to set up my Iomega 500GB external hard drive to be accessible over my Time Capsule network. The Time Capsule is working properly, with full network connectivity. The Iomega hard drive works very well when connected via USB to my MacBook Air. However, as I understand it, I should be able to simply plug the hard drive into the Time Capsule via USB and it should then just appear under Time Capsule in shared devices. It is not doing this, nor is it being recognised as a connected disk in Airport Utility.
I'm working with Lion, Airport Utility 6.0 and version 7.6.1 on my Time Capsule. The hard drive is formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). There's currently about 99GB of data on the Iomega I'm trying to connect.
Does anybody have any advice or suggestions?
Thanks

With the new Airport 6.0, I cannot manual setup the TC and the external drive is not an option.
Suggest that you download and install the much more functional AirPort Utility 5.6 for Mac OS X Lion, which released on the same day as AirPort Utility 6.0.
You can always move "normal" files that are on the TC to another drive by using the Finder. Open up the Time Capsule drive and drag and drop the files that you want to the external hard drive.

How do I set up an external hard drive?

I purchased a Western Digital "My Book Essential" 3T external hard drive with a USB 2 connection to my laptop. I am running Lightroom 3 on my laptop and want to import my photos from various sources to a series of organizing folders on the new external drive.
I wanted to place my master LR catalog (Main LR Catalog) on the external drive as well. I created this catalog and it resides there as follows: My Book/Photo Library/Main LR Catalog/Main LR Catalog.
When I double click on this new catalog to open Lightroom, I get the message: "Cannot open the catalog named 'Main LR Catalog' located in network volume 'My Book' on psf (Z:) LR catalogs can not be opened on network volumes, removable storage, or read only volumes."
Any help regarding what's going on? Likely operator error, but I'm not sure how to deal with this and get Lightroom talking to my main catalog on the external drive.
Thanks --
Ralph

Parallels desktop may be causing a problem, since it treats external volumes as "networked drives:"
http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00U6xk
Try moving your catalog from the WDD external drive to your local C: drive on the Mac Powerbook:
Copy or move a catalog
Important: Before copying or moving a catalog and preview files, back them up.
Locate the folder that contains the catalog and preview files. In Lightroom, choose Edit > Catalog Settings (Windows) or Lightroom > Catalog Settings (Mac OS).
In the Information area of the General panel, click Show to go to the catalog in the Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac OS).
Copy or move the catalog.lrcat and Previews.lrdata files to the new location.
(Optional) Copy or move your image files to the new location.
Double-click the .lrcat file in the new location to open it in Lightroom.
(Optional) If Lightroom cannot find folders or photos in the copied or moved catalog, a question mark appears by folder names in the Folders panel or in photo thumbnails in the Grid view. To restore folder links, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a folder with a question-mark icon and choose Find Missing Folder. To relink individual photos, see Locate missing photos.

Setting up an external hard drive to back up my MacBook Pro?

I am currently using a 320GB Western Digital external hard drive to back up my MacBook Pro using Time Machine, soon however I am going to be putting Windows 7 onto my machine so I am trying to figure out how I am going to back up the Mac OS X and the Windows partition at the same time using this hard drive. I am thinking about completetly erasing the drive and putting 2 partitions on it in 2 different formats (one for Mac OS X and one for Windows). I am also thinking of using Carbon Copy Cloner instead of Time Machine because it creates bootable backups. However, now that I am thinking about using Carbon Copy Cloner I am wondering if FAT32 will work for both partitions? (I have been using Mac OS X extended (journaled) only because it works with Time machine). I need help though because I would not know how to go about completely erasing/resetting the drive etc.. then partitioning it and formatting it. I am also wondering if there is a windows equivalent of CCC or Super Duper to back up the Windows partition. Thanks for your help in advance.

I'm inferring from the way you wrote about using Windows that you plan on using it through Boot Camp. Have you considered using VMware Fusion (or Parallels) instead? Then Time Machine would back up the virtual machine along with everything else. You also have the advantage that you can use both Mac OS and Windows at the same time - you don't have to choose one or the other. There are two disadvantages. First, since both Mac OS and Windows are running simultaneously, you need more memory. I'd recommend no less than 8 GB if you run any serious software on either OS. You can get away with 4 GB, but at times the system will be really slow. Second, the virtual machine images are BIG - mine typically run over 20 GB - so you'll probably want a bigger backup drive if you go this way.

How do you set up an external hard drive?

how do you configure an external hard drive?

For TimeMachine? or for data, would be basically the same.
Open Disk Utility (located in the Utilities folder).
Connect the disk if it isn't already attached.
In the left side of the Disk Utility window, select the disk you want to use with Time Machine.
Optional: If you want to partition the disk, click the Partition tab and select a layout. Make sure "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" is selected in the Format menu for the partition that will be used for backups. Click Apply.
Click the Erase tab.
Optional: If you want to securely erase the disk, click Security Options to configure, then click OK.
Click Erase.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427 - TimeMachine Basics
The choice for an external drive, USB3 or not, the type of drive in the enclosure, probably the brand or make of the external drive (Western Digital, OWC, Seagate) is the most important choice and lot of options.

Needs help setting up an External hard-drive.

I received this external hard-drive and I need help with steps to be able store files on it, unfortunately it's not plug and play.
Stats and Errors I received:
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m153/LordKirkenMorder/Snapshot2009-11-1202-04-32.jpg

BDAqua wrote:
If you have the SW copied off it...
In Disk Utility
3. Click the Erase tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your external volume.
6. Highlight the drive, select Partition Tab, then Format type... MacOS Extended Journalled, select the Security Options button, choose Zero Out Data, Erase... after completion hopefully it'll partition.
Since thats shot was taken a Partiton was made which im not sure if it was fully made called Untitled 1, it wont mount and I'm in hour 4 of it verifying and repairing. how long should Checking HFS Plus volume take?

Setting up an External hard drive on Airport Extreme

I have a 10.4.11 Macbook. I have Wirelessly configured computer to my Airport Extreme. I am now out of space and need to add an external hard drive to my Airport. Can someone please help me understand how to do this? Do have to create another wireless connection through Airport? It would seem that I would go through the same network but just add on the USB funtion. The how to manual is not dumbed down enough for me.

Here's the basic AppleScript to mount (place) the shared drive on your OS X desktop. You will need to substitute the appropriate values for your network where I have placed the angled brackets in the script.
You will need to run the AppleScript Editor, which you will find in the /Applications/Utilities folder, to create the following script, and then, save as an application which you can run later. I would run it to verify that it actually works. If it does, then you can add it as one of your Login Items of your User Account so that it will run at startup.
try
mount volume "afp://<Base Station Name>/<Share Volume Name>" as user name "<You can enter anything here>" with password "<Enter either the Base Station Password or Disk Password, based on the Secure Shared Disks type you are using>"
end try

HT201250 I have an iMac with 2 external hardrives. Will the G Speed Q set up these external hard drives

My iMac has two external hard drives. I have the G Speed Q for backup . Will this automatically back up these two external hard drives ?

Time Machine will not automatically backup external drives unless you remove them from the Exclude list. However, if the drives are disconnected, then you will need to reconfigure Time Machine once again not to exclude them.
Time Machine is intended mainly to backup internal drives to external drives, not to backup external drives to other external drives.

How would I Set up an External Hard-drive for movies to share with AppleTV? and Also can I use the internal Itunes Library to the Ext HD1 then Ext HD2?

I have tried to set up an external HD but after following the directions the movies in Apple TV ( My Movies) showed a film strip with the note the location could not be found. I deleted the movie content under the internal movies in Itunes. I did notice a blue dot vs a grey dot net to the name of the movie. I appreciate if someone could poitn me to the correct step by step procedures. I would like to setup more than one Ext HD, as Ext HD1, Ext HD2 etc storing my movie collection. Any suggestions if the latest in ITUNES 10.5.2 and the AppleTV 1st and a 2nd generation are being used.

This forum is for questions from those managing sites on iTunes U, Apple's service for colleges and universities to post educational material in the iTunes Store. You'll be most likely to get help with this issue if you ask in the general iTunes forums.
Regards.

Best way to set up on external hard drive?

Hi,
when I got my macbook and logic pro 9 i was advised about having an external harddrive as this would take up some of the cpu load. I've just installed pro 9 on my macbook and it does seem to take up a lot of usage with the 'disk too slow' message appearing a lot.
I've got a firewire (only 400 i'm afraid but with a 7200 disk speed)external harddrive coming in the next day or two and the question I'm asking is how to best set up logic on the external card to minimise the load on the macbook.
Do I install the whole thing on the external harddrive or just set up a folder for the loops/completed projects?
Sorry if this has been asked a zillion times but I've searched through the previous threads and couldnt find a specific answer.
Thanks, Jim

mrjim65 wrote:
Do I install the whole thing on the external harddrive or just set up a folder for the loops/completed projects?
The easiest solution is the latter: save your projects to the external drive (with "Assets" checked).
CCT

Setting up an external hard drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for