Should I replace my MAC hard drive or buy a new MAC?

Recently, my hard drive crashed. I have been debating whether to replace it, which is the cheapest route to go. Or should I get a new MAC. I've had my MAC since 2008, and am constanly using it. But buying a new MAC is expensive, but I feel it may be the safest route to go to aviod any other problems with my MAC. So, should a just replace the hard drive or buy a new MAC?

It would help to know which one of the different 2008 models of MacBook you have. Is it the White one or the Auminum one?
A new hard drive and maxed out RAM would keep your MacBook running with the new ones for a couple of years. Unless you're doing heavily processor intensive work like high end video editing.
For a hard drive try Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Laptop-Hard-Dr ives&Order=PRICE
Or OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/
Or for top speed but expensive you could go with an SSD. http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=636&name=Internal-SSD&P age=2
And from OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/2.5
Here's the benchmarks http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/CS5BenchmarkPag e-MacBook.html

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Installing saved files from a hard drive on to a new mac!

My Mac Book Pro suffered damage and has been replaced. Everything had been saved via Time Machine on an external hard drive. This question may seem silly but before sinking it all across, do I have to re-install my programs such as Final Express or is that data part of what has been saved?

Have a read at the Time MAchine FAQs from our local TM guru Pondini http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html
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How to install WD hard drive 3TB onto my new mac?

Hi there,
I have purchased a 3TB WD external hard drive for my new mac:
Software OSx 10.8.2
Processor 2.6GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 8GB
After the first few steps of installing it, it bugs and the last window says:
I have tried to contact WD directly, and they are pretty much ignoring me.
Next i have looked around their website on their forums and F&Q and it seems that there is a need for some kind of formatting of my computer to be able to read a hard drive of more than 2 TB.
Can you help me out?

I'm not sure how it would have copied anything from your hard drive unless you told it to; in any case, if it did, then yes, the external hard drive will be erased if you use the erase tab. You will lose the content of the external drive, but since you have not backed it up, I would not worry about that. You do not need the software the drive came with.
The software on that external hard drive will occupy some of it; as I said, you do not need it. When I purchase a new hard drive, I immediately erase and format the drive. I usually choose the Partition tab, choose 1 or more partitions, name them, make sure they are Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID partition scheme (under Options) and hit apply. At that point, I get a popup telling me that this will erase the drive and I click ok.
After you have formatted it, you can then decide what/how you want to use for a backup.

How to migrate only some photos from external hard drive/Time Machine to new Mac?

I just bought a new MacBook Air, after my old Macbook died. Luckily I had everything from the old computer backed up on an external hard drive through time machine. However, when I tried to migrate everything to my new computer, I found I do not have enough room for all of the files. I would like to import just some of the photos/albums from my old Iphoto Library but it looks like I can only migrate the entire library, or else nothing at all? Since I don't have enough space on the new computer, it's not allowing me to import any photos. Is there a way around this?

With iPhoto it's all or nothing. Therefore get a second EHD to restore the library to. Then you can duplicate the library, open the duplicated and delete all of the photos you don't want in it. When that library is small enough to fit on your MBA copy it to the Pictures folder.
Then you can use the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager to copy new events from your MBA library to the library on the 2nd EHD to keep it up to date with all of your photo. There are portable EHDs that are not much bigger than a mouse (the computer kind ) that would work fine for this.

What make/model hard drive ships in the new Mac Pros?

Anyone know the make/model of the 500GB drive shipping with new Mac Pros?
Have a new compy on the way and would like to pick up a matching drive to set up a RAID 0 with. I know it's not strictly necessary to have the exact same drive, but what can I say, I like to be orderly like that.
Thanks!

If you want matching drives for RAID, buy a pair of Seagate or WD RE2. They may be the same size, but the drive Apple ships, I would have gotten the OEM 320 and used it for the backup/emergency system drive (and put in FireWire/SATA case.
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Can I partition my Mac hard drive to run two different Mac OS?

I signed up for beta testing for Apple's new OS, OS X Yosemite and I'm currently running OS X Mavericks. I know with every new OS on any device it needs to be beta tested to fix any bugs and I use my MacBook for quite a lot. Is it possible to partition my hard drive like you do when running Windows, and run OS X Mavericks AND OS X Yosemite? The reason I'm asking is because I don't want to be stuck with an OS that's going to prevent me from doing what I need to do.

Yes it is possible... here's a link with instructions on how to do it. Cheers.

How should I format an external hard drive to work with a Mac and a PC?

I need to transfer some video files from a PC to a Mac, and would like to know to best format the drive such that I can move files from the PC to the Mac.
Thanks,
Hal

MS-DOS/FAT32 if the drive doesn't need to contain files which are 4GB or larger. If it does, there's no solution which doesn't require third-party software; in this case, you may want to set up a network instead.
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What type of hard drive replacement should i use to replace the hard drive in my first generation mac min 2005 model a 1103?

what type of hard drive replacement should I use to replace the hard drive on my first generation mac mini model a 1103? G4 1.25 mhz 40 gb hd 1 gb. mem.

You'll need a 2.5" parallel ATA interface hard drive. Most are 5400RPM, forget 7200RPM drives and slower 4200rpm drives. You don't want a serial ATA (SATA) drive, as that has a different connector and won't work.
One source I've used for drives is Newegg, and their parallel ATA hard drives are at http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007605%2060000344 2&IsNodeId=1&name=IDE%20Ultra%20ATA100%20%2f%20ATA-6 . Newegg also has many user comments about the drives. Other sources are OWC at http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/ (Click on ATA on the left) . Look for at least a 3 year warranty.

HT1386 I had to replace the corrupted hard drive in my macbook pro recently, and after I did so I did a full factory software & application restore. Now my iTunes says my iPhone 5 is no longer an authorized device. What should I do?

I had to replace the corrupted hard drive in my macbook pro recently, and after I did so I did a full factory software & application restore. I had to rebuild my iTunes Library by dragging my music folders in my iTunes Media into the iTunes Application and rebuild my playlists manually. After plugging my iPhone 5 into the computer USB, it immediately recognized my iPhone 5, showing: last backups, space left on my iPhone & all options available. I then checked the box to manually manage music etc. The problem I am now having is that when I actually try to drag music from my iTunes to my phone a prompt comes up saying that my iPhone is not an authorized device. What should I do? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!!

jrmetzger,
iOS runs on iPads and iPhones; OS X runs on Macs.
Given your situation, I’d highly recommended that you purchase a SATA-to-USB adapter, so that you can test both your old disk and your new disk externally, since it might be that the problem is due to a faulty internal SATA cable rather than due to faulty disks.

What format i should use for my external hard drive that can be used interchangeably between mac and pc?

What format i should use for my external hard drive that can be used interchangeably between mac and pc?

Usually Fat32/MS-DOS as mentioned, but that has several limitatiuns, like 4GB filesize limit.
One option is MacDrive for you PCs... allows them to Read/Write HFS+...
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/
More options...
NTFS-3G Stable Read/Write Driver...
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
MacFUSE: Full Read-Write NTFS for Mac OS X, Among Others...
http://www.osnews.com/story/16930

I had to replace my hard drive twice in my power mac g5. Luckily, I had the foresight to install a backup drive the second time around. Has anybody had HD problems? Is it the Power Mac or I just lucked out on some bad drives.

I had to replace my hard drive twice in my power mac g5. Luckily, I had the foresight to install a backup drive the second time around. Has anybody had HD problems? Is it the Power Mac or I just lucked out on some bad drives.

Hi Leon,
There are many well known G5 problems, but being hard on Hard Drives is not one of them.
How old & what brand/model drives were they?

Can, and how do you restore from ipod back to recently replaced hard drive on a pc not mac?

can, and how do you restore music from ipod back to recently repaced harddrive on a pc not mac?

Note: The information below hasn't been updated since early 2013.
Some of the information below has subsequently appeared in a document by turingtest2: Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991
Your i-device was not designed for unique storage of your media. It is not a backup device and media transfer was planned with you maintaining a master copy of your media on a computer which is itself properly backed up against loss. Syncing is one way, computer to device, updating the device content to the content on the computer, not updating or restoring content on a computer. The exception is iTunes Store purchases which can be transferred to a computer.
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848 - only purchases from iTunes Store
For transferring other items from an i-device to a computer you will have to use third party commercial software. Examples (check the web for others; this is not an exhaustive listing, nor do I have any idea if they are any good):
- Expod (free) - http://www.headlightsoft.com/expod/ - Mac, universal for 104.+ (newer machines try de-Tune)
- deTune (free) - http://www.headlightsoft.com/detune/ - Mac, 10.5+
- Senuti - http://www.fadingred.com/senuti/
- Phoneview - http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/
- MusicRescue - http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/products/musicrescue/
- Sharepod (free) - http://download.cnet.com/SharePod/3000-2141_4-10794489.html?tag=mncol;2 - Windows
- Snowfox/iMedia - http://www.mac-videoconverter.com/imedia-transfer-mac.html - Mac & PC
- iexplorer (free) - http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/ - Mac&PC
- Yamipod (free) - http://www.yamipod.com/main/modules/downloads/ - PC, Linux, Mac [Still updated for use on newer devices? No edits to site since 2010.]
- 2010 Post by Zevoneer: iPod media recovery options - https://discussions.apple.com/message/11624224 - this is an older post and many of the links are also for old posts, so bear this in mind when reading them.
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3141

Migrating music to an external hard drive for access by Windows & Mac

Hey folks
I recently migrated my collection of music to an external hard drive by:
1) changing the iTunes music folder location from the default (Music/iTunes/iTunes Music) to my external hard drive through iTunes Preferences.
2) Selecting "Consolidate library" from the Advanced drop-down menu.
Afterwards, I moved my library file to the same parent directory I put my iTunes music folder in on the external (in fact, I moved my entire iTunes folder excl the music folder which was obviously already on the hard drive). When I restarted iTunes I held down OPTION and then chose the library file on my external as the iTunes library file to be used. This was all done on a Mac.
No problems - all swell. But... I moved the library file to the external because I want to be able to use the external with multiple computers from which I can import music that will automatically be copied to the same folder (the music folder on my external) and managed accordingly. When I tried to open the library from my Windows laptop at home nothing happened. The library file I copied from my Mac had no extension, so I renamed it .itl so the Windows version of iTunes would pick it up, but selecting it as the new library did nothing.
Q1: Are iTunes library files (I assume always .itl's?) interchangeable between Mac and Windows? If not this might explain why the library didn't load up.
Q2: Is my method wrong? Is there a different procedure for getting multiple copies of iTunes on different computers and operating systems to all use the same library, saved on an external hard drive, which itself references music from the same external hard drive? Is this goal even possible?
Q3: Is it possible to have 2 or more libraries for a given installation of iTunes?
Bonus Q4: How is the album artwork saved? When I consolidated my music on the external, did this move the artwork across with it (integrated with each music file?) or was it still sitting on my Mac hard drive in the Album Artwork directory? I have since moved this folder to my external as well, when I moved the entire directory including library file across, and album artwork is visible when the library is open on my Mac, but I don't know whether its getting the images from the hard drive or the external hard drive.
Okay last one - I swear! Q5: When I couldn't get the laptop version of Itunes to open my Mac library file, I imported all my music into the default laptop library which references the music files still all located on the external. Considering the 130GB of music I'm dealing with, this took a while, but what took even longer was "Processing album artwork", which dragged on for ages. What is actually happening during this procedure - is iTunes accessing an online database to find the artwork, or is it working with the artwork already processed and saved in the album on the external?
Thanks very much in advance! Sorry for all the questions but I'd like to crack this thing once and for all.

The procedure for sharing a library between a Mac and Wintel PC on an external drive is quite simple. I did this myself so that I would have my music available to me when I worked in my lab.
First before you transfer anything to your external hard drive, the music library on your Mac should already be consolidated. Once that is done, transfer the iTunes folder (./Music/iTunes) to the external drive. Unless your music files are in a folder outside the iTunes folder—for instance, my music files are on a separate, larger volume on my Mac from the iTunes folder that is on the boot volume—copying your iTunes folder will put everything that iTunes needs onto the external drive.
Now you have two options for using your library on two machines. The first, which I prefer, is to leave your Mac’s iTunes library in place and use the external strictly for the Wintel PC. In this instance, you would need to add the .itl extension to the iTunes Library database file. When you attach your external to the Wintel PC at work and choose the library, your should be taken into iTunes with your music library intact.
In this instance, your external drive can also serve as a backup of your iTunes library because it is highly improbable that both your external drive and Mac Pro’s iTunes folders will go bad simultaneously. For backup purposes, you will need to place another copy of your iTunes Library database file on the external drive, without the extension, for your Mac; I have had issues with Macs recognizing .itl files. Of note, the content of your library on the external drive will be the same if you need to recover from the external drive, but as the Wintel PC will not update the database file without the .itl extension, any settings you change or playlists you add in Windows will not be transferred to the Mac unless you recover the Mac’s library from the iTunes Music Library.xml file that the PC would have kept current.
In the second instance, if you wish to run your library off of the external drive for both your Mac and Wintel PC, you would follow the same procedure described above, but you would need to have both an iTunes Library (Mac) and iTunes Library.itl (Windows) database files. Effectively, this would mean that once a change is made on either system, it will not be reflected on the other. As you are most likely to add new songs via your home computer, you will need to replace the .itl file with a copy of the Mac database file whenever you add music, playlists, etc.
Given the storage capacity of my Power Mac G5 and the logistics involved in managing a library stored solely on an external volume going between a Mac and PC, I find the second option to be more trouble than it is worth. For me, it is easier to maintain my Mac’s iTunes library then copy the iTunes folder over to the external drive overnight when I wish to make any updates (e.g., new content, playlists, etc.) available to my work computer. In the morning, I just add the .itl extension to database file before disconnecting the external drive and taking it to work.
Now that your first two questions are answered, yes you can have more than one library, but doing so is poor database management. You should have all of your content in a single database and use iTunes to separate content. iTunes already separates music, movies, podcasts, audiobooks, etc., but further division of content is up to the user. iTunes has had playlists and folders for a few versions now, so it is quite easy to organize your library’s content in as simple or complex a folder/playlist structure as you please.
How album artwork is saved depends on how you acquired your music. Music you purchase from the iTunes Store has its artwork placed into a separate artwork database built in the Album Artwork folder in your iTunes folder. I believe that the same occurs if you allow iTunes to find and import album covers. If you rip CDs or acquire music from other sources, you manually add the artwork, in which case the images are stored in the music files.
Lastly, when iTunes has to build a library it can take a while. Your library is twice as large as mine and on a slow(er) laptop drive the time to built a library will be excessive. Unless iTunes is crashing or freezing, let it runs its course until the library build is completed. Also, if you have copied your music files to your laptop’s internal hard drive, you should not leave iTunes referencing the external drive. In the worst case, you would want to copy your iTunes folder from the external to the laptop’s internal drive’s default iTunes folder location. Remove the iTunes Library file and allow iTunes on your laptop to rebuild the library from the XML file.

I am attempting to replace a failed hard drive on a F500 Vista laptop. I have a home premium recover

I am attempting to replace a failed hard drive on a F500 Vista laptop. I have a home premium recovery DVD (1 of 1) and It runs the recovery after a while of loading, and it creates a 24GB partion and loads about 2.6Gb of information on it. the it ejects the disc and asks if I have any suplimental disks, which I don't have. Then it reboots it's self and cycles through reboots for 5 hours, yes I let it do this for 5 hours as the HP site says it could take several hours.
After this I finally shut down the computer and loaded the hard drive in an ext case and retrieved the above information. I also note that the 250GB drive is shown as a 24GB drive, so I guess it hasn't completed the partions?
I never get to a Vista window.
This hard drive does pass the laptop's Bios hard drive check (the former 80GB drive did NOT) and was used to store Old Time Radio shows, until I went to a larger drive.
The Laptop has a dual core Athlon TK-53 processor and the recovery disc is for 32 bit Vista (and the label in front and license on back don't state Vista 64, just Vista)
So, Do I need a Vista 64 recovery disc? Should I download the available driver on the HP site and slap in that disc when the Recovery disc finishes and asks for supplimental discs? Might thngs indicate other issues with the laptop?
I've loaded from scratch XP several times, but this is my 1st Vista experience. Thank you for any help!

Okay. So I was able to install, and format the new internal HD. Was able to install Lion then Mavericks. Next, is to try to retrieve my data from my failing old HD. I bought an enclosure (sled), and have my HD hooked up to my laptop, and it finally showed up in Finder. So. Now. What is next? I am seeing a screen that shows these folders: Applications (translate for the PC me = Programs), Library (I am assuming?? these are my various files such as docs, photos, music, etc.) System, opt, and Users. Should I just try to drag and drop some/all of the folders onto my desktop, then open up the folders and do something with the contents? Sorry to sound so vague and frankly, rather dumb-sounding, but the nomenclature with a Mac is a bit different than with a PC, and Finder is a little different looking to me than Windows Explorer. I am relieved to see that I was even able to get this failing drive to show up in the first place, so I feel a little like I could be on borrowed time with it. I think it may just be bad sectors, since I don't hear any clicking or other mechanical issues with the drive as it spins. But, any further help with retrieving the data would be VERY much appreciated!!

MacBook Pro - Finder Error Code 0 even though the external hard drive is setup as journaled Mac OS Extended

Hi guys
It's starting to irritate me that I still can't copy folders of more than 4GB to my external hard drives. I've checked some websites that told me that the external hard drive should be setup as "Mac OS Journaled", but when I check this via Disk Utility, I find out that they are. What is another solution for this problem, cause it takes a lot of time to select folders within folders within folders to copy to the external hard drive, instead of just copy and paste the main folder...
Thanks in advance!
Bob

Okay so today I've erased one of my external hard drives, and reformatted it as "Mac OS Journaled". If I copy a huge folder on it from my MacBook to the external HD, there's nothing wrong and it goes fine.
But then when I try to replace the folder with a more up-to-date version on my MacBook, the Error Code 0 shows up again.
So: reformatting didn't work out. Putting huge folders on it goes fine, but replace them with a newer version of the huge folder, doesn't work.
Any solutions? Please?
Thanks guys!

Should I replace my MAC hard drive or buy a new MAC?

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