Speeding Up An External Harddrive

I have a 250 GB western digital external harddrive that has been running really slowly lately. ie. taking far too long to simply navigate through the folders on the harddrive. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on how to improve the speed of the drive. It was not this slow when I first got it. Thanks for the help.
Nathan

Hi,
The fuller the drive is the slower it will access files. You may need to repair the directory though. Launch Disk Utility, highlight the drive on the left and then click Repair Disk.
John

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Speed looking pictures from an external harddrive

If I have my pictures on a external harddrive and want to look at them in iPhoto on my Air, have fast can I slide throwh the pictures? The external harddrive will be an USB 3,0

About the same as if they are on your internal disk.
As an FYI:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

Apple TV getting video or audio from external harddrive on wifi N

The only way i can get media to sync is to put it on my mac book pro's harddrive. The external is connected by the airport new N. Has anyone had this problem, this bothers me to have to move data from a wireless external harddrive to the powerbook, just to get it to sink. And yes, I have Itunes looking at the external harddrive. But when i point it local, it works fine. Help please.
Or apple work on a patch for this. Don't make me do this much longer..
roland

I keep my music and unviewed video on my MacBook Pro's hard drive. I have a master backup of my music and all videos, both viewed and unviewed, on an external hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme Base Station. I have a desktop PC connected by Ethernet to the AEBS and its iTunes Library points to the master copy of files stored on the external hard drive. I synched my local iTunes Library on my MacBook Pro with my AppleTV and, when I want to watch a video that is not synched to the AppleTV, I stream it from the remote iTunes Library on the external hard drive via my desktop. Since the external drive and PC are both hardwired to the AEBS, I assume I am getting n speed over the network to the AppleTV.

External HardDrive Compatible? help!

Hi guys i intend to get an external enclosure and a normal harddrive and convert it to an external harddrive myself. I want to know what harddrive should i get and what would i need to do to make it compatible with both mac and pc? how should i format it to be able to use freely on both windows and mac? thanks!!

Hello,
Hi thanks for the fantastic replies !! that is all
the info that i will be needing.
You're welcome. Glad you found our answers helpful.
One last question
mates ! i purchased my Imac G5 just weeks before they
introduced the intel duo processor Imac G5
(Grrrrrrrr) and i was wondering if it is possible to
change the processer to the intel processor?
Unfortunately, no.
The processor is not the only part that is different. Basically, they are two entirely different computers. The processor you use, determines the rest of the components used in a computer.
So, to use an Intel processor, you also need supporting hardware that recognizes that processor and can work with it. The supporting hardware must be familiar with, and know how to handle, that processors method of moving information around. And, the supporting hardware has to deliver information in a method that is expected by that processor. So, there are a lot of custom chips inside the computer that are specific to the processor being used.
The same is true even in the PC world. If you use an Intel processor, then you pick a chipset and other support chips that work with the Intel processor. If you use an AMD processor, then you pick a chipset and other supporting hardware that will work with the AMD processor.
So, even there you cannot usually swap processors of different brands.
Now, there have been exceptions among 3rd-party main board manufacturers. Some have specifically chosen components that will support any processor in previous years. So, there have been main boards that would support using your choice of AMD, Intel, IBM, Cyrix, etc. processors.
But, those processors all used the same socket style at the time, and were of similar technology.
These days each processor manufacturer is using their own socket type, and their designs are significantly different.
And, in your particular case, the difference between a PowerPC processor and an Intel processor is so significant that you simply cannot make that substitution. The rest of the supporting hardware would have to be changed as well. And, that just isn't possible on your system without starting at the beginning and redesigning the whole logic board again.
So, in your case, you do need to purchase a new computer if you want to move to the Intel processor.
My work requires me to use both windows and Mac so i
intend to upgrade to intel core and install bootcamp.
Any advises for me? will it be extremely expensive??
You could use Virtual PC on your current Mac. But, because it works through emulating the entire PC (including emulating an Intel processor) it works very slowly. It's still quite usable. But, more intensive tasks can take a while to complete. Simple tasks are executed almost as fast as a real PC.
But, if you want to run Windows at full speed, then you'll want a real Intel processor. In that case, it's not necessarily going to be too expensive. It all depends on your budget.
At the base-line, you can get a Mac Mini CoreSolo for around $600 (before upgrades are accounted for). And, the CoreDuo model starts around $800.
But, those will probably "feel" slower than your current system. So, you'll probably want either an iMac CoreDuo or a Mac Pro.
If you want a iMac CoreDuo, I'd wait a little bit for the upcoming improvement in processors and possibly other specs. Apple tends to keep the price pretty consistent. So, you can usually get them starting around $1300 before upgrades (such as memory).
And, if you are on a really tight budget, watch Apple's refurbished site. You can get refurbished Macs a lot cheaper than the new ones. They come with the same warranty, and you can save several hundred dollars.
I saved about $600 on my last refurb purchase. Of course, actual savings will depend on the model you choose, the timing of the purchase, and the specs you need.
I timed my refurb purchase with the introduction of a new model, so I got it a bit cheaper because it was a refurb version of a prior model instead of a refurb of a current model. That will affect the price a little bit.
You can find the refurb site by going to Apple's online store. Then, once it loads, you'll see a red tag in the lower-right of the page that says "Save".
You can also try this link:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/6294000/wo/7C4xZ 73Fpc983ZulJQOjoQ5aF0F/3.0.0.19.1.0.8.7.1.0.1.1
The machines available change by the hour (or minute sometimes). So, if the machine you want isn't there when you look, check back frequently and watch for it to become available. Remember, these are limited to actual supply, so the models available will change as they are sold.
I hope this helps.
Let us know if you have other questions.
P.S., if you'd like, go ahead and click the "Helpful" or "Solved" buttons on any of the posts / replies above if you feel they were helpful or adequately answered your question.

Which external harddrive best for huge FCP video project?

Hi,
i'm editing a massive film, pulling media off 3 1TG external harddrives. The drives I've been using are a Chinese brand that works smoothly with premiere but is way too slow for FCP (can't play through the timeline without getting dropped frame notices, even though I'm not daisy chaining them). I'm thinking I have to replace all the drives with better, faster ones. Sooo, wanted to ask you pros, what brand of harddrive is the best and most reliable for this workflow (and reasonable affordable- i have to buy a few!)? Any suggestions? Thanks a bunch! O

dropped frames, fyi, are on playback only. It doesn't mean you are losing frames in your files or in your sequences. It's not necessarily the drive speed causing the dropped frames. Sometimes it's just the inability for FCP to process the frames fast enough, which is processor based, not drive based, and has a lot to do with filters, transitions, and the like. You can turn off the dropped frames warning in the User Prefs.
That being said, if it IS drive speed, make sure that, not only are you using at least Firewire 800 drives, but also that the drives are 7200 RPM and not 5400 RPM. The reason you may think it works better with Premier is because Premier may not have a dropped frames warning.

Using iTunes with an EXTERNAL HARDDRIVE

In order for iTunes to work properly (no skipping, seemless playback, quick loading to the ipod) with a external harddrive, what specifications does the HD need to have? For example, is a 7200rpm harddrive necessary, or will a 5400rpm harddrive work sufficiently?
What about transfer rates? What connection must be present between the harddrive and iTunes, usb 2.0 or firewire 800?
thanks -
Chris

5400rpm should work. That is a common laptop hard drive speed. USB2 very helpful, much faster than USB1. Firewire 400 will work, 800 not needed.
My setup is currently a 7200rpm PATA 250GB drive in an external enclosure using Ethernet to my network. Most often I sync using wireless 802.11g but plug in to wire when downloading from store.

Which external harddrive?

I'm looking at buying an external harddrive for my macbook which and wanted to ask a couple of questions. firstly if i have a bus powered external harddrive will it become a drain on my macbook if the macbook itself is plugged in and secondly can anyone recommend a good external hardrive. i use mainly audio recording and producing software so i'd prefer a fast drive of 7200rpm, usb2 connected and if someone knows of one that can be both bus powered with the option of plugging it into the mains would be great. thanks in advance for anyone who can offer some good tips.

bus powered drives will only be 2.5" hard drives, which have a max capacity of 160GB, the tradeoff is the 5,400RPM. 2.5" drives only come in 100GB max for the 7,200RPM models.
Bus powered drives do drain the power out of your macbook, but if your computer is plugged in thats not an issue. theyre easier to travel with because its just one cable. since your macbook has firewire, its probably best to just go with that anyway, since it has better data transfer.
if youre looking for higher capacity and still have the 7,200RPM youll have to go with a 3.5" SATA drive. you arent obligated to get one of the prebuilt external drives. you can get a good drive enclosure from otherworldcomputing.com and get any 3.5" hard drive you wish to install. you can do likewise for 2.5" models.
i dont recall external drives that allow you to use both bus and AC power or either one. it may exist, but i dont think it does.
LaCie makes good external portable hard drives. they have both USB and Firewire versions and have a 7,200RPM spindle speed. but again youre only going to find 100GB as your max capacity. the Firelite external drive is pretty good too, and it too has USB. i think both are available in the apple store online. but you can find tons of other things on OtherWorldComputing.com

External Harddrive HELP

Hello Apple community,
I recently purcased a Macbook with 120 harddrive, and yes I'm an idiot. I'm doing alot of editing and suprise surprise have run out of room. I was wondering what would be the cheapest and best option in regards to a 1 terabyte external harddrive? Furthermore, does this act as extra harddrive space, or like a USB key so to speak. what I mean is, say if I need 50 Gb of video data off the external hard drive, will it take hours to transfer it from the external harddrive onto my macbook?
Anyone got any answers?

well there is a plethora of options for you.
just use as back up, or storage, or as a bootable disk, each has their own up and down sides. now on a macbook the fastest way to access the external drive will b via the firewire port.
i use mine to store my music files which will be extremely smaller than your video ones. when i want to use a file i transfer it to my mac (sometimes my imac and sometimes my macbook). this i find is the fastest way to work. also if while working i kill the file i know the original is still on the external so its no too bad.. transferring files back and forth is a pain but it helps as back up too. i try and keep all other file types off my macbooks hard drive (pics mp3 videos "these get stored on the external drive") so that there is plenty of space on it for my work.
50 gig will take about an hour to transfer to your hard drive working from the external drive will slow you down. its normally faster working on files that are on your internal drive thats y i transfer to there.
you can setup programs to read files from an external drive to use but if you are using alot of different files at once the transfer speeds may not keep up and your system will slow down.
hope this helps

Problem with mounting external harddrive

Today, I've installed Arch for the first time after two years with Ubuntu. It seems to be working pretty well, but I've got a problem while mounting my external harddrive. The disc is has to partition, one formatted as ext3 and one as NTFS. Both partition shows up at the desktop, but after a while I get an error message concerning that the NTFS-partition cannot be mounted. It still appears as mounted, but I can't get access to it. The ext3-partition seems to be working, but when I try to copy a folder, the whole system freezes, and I haven't found any other things to do than pressing te power off-button.
$ tail -f var/log/messages.log
gives the following output:
Jan 21 04:01:18 hauge logger: ACPI action undefined: ADP1
Jan 21 04:01:18 hauge logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Jan 21 04:01:18 hauge logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Jan 21 04:01:22 hauge usb 4-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
Jan 21 04:01:22 hauge usb 4-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Jan 21 04:01:22 hauge Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
Jan 21 04:01:22 hauge ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
Jan 21 04:01:22 hauge Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Jan 21 04:01:22 hauge scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jan 21 04:01:22 hauge usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Jan 21 04:01:22 hauge USB Mass Storage support registered.
Jan 21 04:01:27 hauge scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD 2500JB External 0107 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Jan 21 04:01:27 hauge sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 488397168 512-byte hardware sectors (250059 MB)
Jan 21 04:01:27 hauge sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Jan 21 04:01:27 hauge sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 488397168 512-byte hardware sectors (250059 MB)
Jan 21 04:01:27 hauge sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Jan 21 04:01:27 hauge sdb: sdb1 sdb2
Jan 21 04:01:27 hauge sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
Jan 21 04:01:27 hauge sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Jan 21 04:01:28 hauge kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
Jan 21 04:01:28 hauge EXT3 FS on sdb1, internal journal
Jan 21 04:01:28 hauge EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
Jan 21 04:01:28 hauge EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Jan 21 04:01:28 hauge hald: mounted /dev/sdb1 on behalf of uid 1000
Jan 21 04:01:29 hauge NTFS driver 2.1.28 [Flags: R/W MODULE].
Jan 21 04:01:29 hauge NTFS volume version 3.1.
My /etc/fstab looks like:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
#/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/dvd /mnt/dvd udf ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda4 /home ext2 defaults 0 1
Does anyone have an idea on what to do with this problem?

You do perhaps have to include the partitions in the fstab file. This could help you:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab
You want to mount /dev/sdb1 (ext3) and /dev/sdb2 (ntfs) to any folders preferably in /mnt. You will have to create them as root. Have a look at
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
Maybe you want to mount from there as this method is not dependent on the order and usb port number you plug it in. For ntfs you can choose
noauto,uid=1000,gid=100,umask=027
as mount options in fstab if your user-id is 1000.

Unable to boot Windows 7 Premium from an external harddrive

I recently gained an interest in playing microsoft based games, and just recently got my late 2013 macbook pro retina 15". I have been trying for several hours for the last two days to get bootcamp to boot Windows 7 Premium from a 500GB external harddrive without re-partiitioning my internal harddrive. I can get to the first screen of the Windows 7 Install asking about language, but neither my keyboard or mousepad respond with the windows installer. I assume this is because Windows 7 premium does not have USB 3.0 capability. Is there a workaround for this that doesn't involve partitioning my internal drive?

That's all fine and good, but I would strongly prefer not to have to use internal drive space for Windows. Even If I were to use the internal drive to install it, I would still run into the same problems of not having a keyboard or trackpad as I've seen other users having issues with. It stands to reason that if I had a working keyboard and mouse that I would be able to install it to an external hard drive, using a workaround method found here:
http://bleeptobleep.blogspot.fr/2013/02/mac-install-windows-7-or-8-on-external.h tml
If I had to partition my internal drive, what would be the absolute minimum amount of space I would need?

Keyboard, trackpad & external harddrive suddenly stopped responding but external mouse will work?

I have a 2007 MacBook, but the harddrive was replace begining on 2011. Ealier today mid-email my keyboard suddenly froze and my cursor dissappeared. The power button still worked so I was able to turn off my computer. When I restarted I had about 3 hours of normal functioning before the same thing happened again. The entire keyboard becomes unresponsive (including the caps lock light that does not light up) and the mouse is no longer visible. I tried connecting an external mouse and this seems to work fine, but I still can't type anything in.
I connected my external harddrive to copy over all my files (incase this was the begining of the end). About two minutes in the light started blinking on the harddrive and i was given the message from the computer saying the harddrive was unplugged... which it was not!
I have restarted the computer a few times, the keyboard and trackpad never come back on, the computer can no longer recongnize any external harddrive or thumbdrive but works fine with the external mouse.
Does anyone have any idea what is going on?
Thank you! I really appreciate your time and any advice you may have.

Make sure it's not something as simple as the battery bulging up and exerting upward pressure on the trackpad, keyboard, and USB / FW ports.
That's what happened to my Macbook and it showed similar symptoms.
I simply took out the battery and let the MacBook rest for a 48 hours. Then I ran it strictly on the power supply and it ran fine.
At that point I bought a replacement generic battery through Amazon for about $40 including shipping and taxes. I figured why waste money on the Apple original part if it was that very Apple original battery that went bad and bulged up like a toad?
MacBook has been running just fine for months now, maybe a year.

How to connect an external harddrive with firewire 800 to a macbook with firewire 400?

Hello,
I just got the external harddrive "Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex USB 3.0 1TB" with a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Kabel FireWire 800. I have neither a USB 3.0, nor a Firewire 800 on my white macbook (2008). I already know, that it's possible to use USB 3.0 with an USB 2.0 port, but I would like to use it with the firewire to spare the USB port for other devices. My question: Is there an adapter or cable to use the Seagate Firewire 800 with my Firewire 400 port? I don't know, where and what to look for.
I'm glad for any advice.

There are many adaptors, try here

I moved all my music from c: drive(because it was full) to an external harddrive and now itunes can't find any of my music. Is there a way to get Itunes to find music on external drive without having to place all the music back onto the c: drive? Thanks

I moved all my music from c: drive(because it was full) to an external harddrive and now itunes can't find any of my music. Is there a way to get Itunes to find music on external drive without having to place all the music back onto the c: drive? Thanks

Hopefully you moved the entire iTunes Media (or iTunes Music) folder to a new path on your external drive. Copy your iTunes library folder out to the root of the external drive, e.g. X:\iTunes (where X: is your external drive), then move the media folder inside it. Hold down shift as you start iTUnes and keep holding untila asked to choose or create a library. Choose the library at X:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl. Should all be good.
Failing that, download and run my FindTracks script and point it at the new location of your media folder.
tt2

HT1766 How do I back up my iphone5 to my ICloud account, when my restrictions password. My restrictions pass code has my icloud a account greyed out? Can i backup to a wd external harddrive, or try to backup to a new mini-mac, i jUst purchased?

How do I back up my iphone5 to my ICloud account, whqen iI have forgot my restrictions password. My restrictions pass code has my icloud a account greyed out? Can i backup to a wd external harddrive, or try to backup to a new mini-mac, I just purchased yesterday? This is my first iMac and IPhone5, so i am kinda out on my own, and can use some pointers!! My phone is full of pictures, and will not download anything, until i store my pictures somewhere!!

If you don't remember your restrictions passcode, you will have to force the phone into recovery mode and restore it using iTunes. Do NOT restore your backup. The restrictions passcode is part of the backup.
Everything on the phone will be lost.
You can extract the photos from the camera roll the same way you would from any other digital camera. Having a restriction passcode set should not prevent that. do that before you put the phone in recovery mode and restore it.

How do i copy files and folders from one external harddrive to another on the iMac?

For some reason when i drag the folder or file that i want to transfer or copy from one external harddrive to another, nothing happens when i drop it on the destination folder or drive. however, when i drag and drop to the desktop or any location on the Imac internal hardrive it works without any issue. The only problem is that i dont want to transfer or copy stuff to the computer. i want to copy it to an external harddrive. please help if your have answers to my question.
Thanks!

Check the formatting of the external hard drive. To do that, right click on the drive icon and select Get Info. (Or click once on the drive and type command +i ) The pane includes information about the drive format.
The drive should be formatted as Mac OS Extended. If it is not, run Disk Utility (App;ications / Utilities) and format the drive.

Speeding Up An External Harddrive

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