Using a wireless external drive to extend my iPad

I have just had a "chat" with an apple representative about a wirless hard drive as suggested by this forum yesterday and i was told that they don't work with iPads. I have been reading all the ads and reviews for them and they are all favourable. I tried WD helpline but they didn't manage to get to the phone! Please, what is right? I don' want to lay out a load of cash to find it won't do the job. Help!!

All of these new wireless, WiFi drives are tested and reviewed using the mobile industry standard, which is either the iPhone or iPad.
That stated, the HyperDrive, while it's storage size is great, it's also the most expensive and it has to be, physically, tethered to your iPad. If you want to watch content solely on the iPad it's fine, but if you have one of Apple's AV cables to watch iPad content on the TV, you won't be able to because you won't have access to the dock connector any more because it's being used by the connected drive.
The WD drive is great as it's wireless, but it looks to be about the same size as the regular My Book drives and, even though it works over WiFi, it's not very portable.
The Seagate drive works completely over WiFi , too, but, unlike the Hyper Drive, it's only has half the storage capacity.
It'll still take awhile to fill up, though, and by that time you may want to put new content and get rid of the old by that time. The plus is that it comes with lots of charging options and, like the Hyper Drive, it has a smaller, more portable size footprint for mobile use.
These drives are all designed to be easy to use and link to.
Here are two more links for more positive reviews of both the Seagate and WD drives
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=41740
http://www.popphoto.com/gear/2011/09/hands-western-digital-my-book-live-personal -cloud-drive-and-wd-2go-pro-app

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I have an iPod G2 with a firewire 400 lead. how can I attach it to my new 13 inch Mac book Pro, is there a 400 to 800 firewire converter. USB lead wont work with the Macbook Pro. iPod used as an external drive to archive memory cards on the go.

My G2 iPod that I use as an external drive to archive memory cards on the go cannot link with my new 13" Macbook Pro cause it uses a firewire 400 lead. It will not work with a USB lead. Is there a firewire 800 ipod lead or converter available? Can any one shed some light on this please?

As far as I know, if a harddrive works with a Macpro, it should work with the Macbook: if your Macbook is low on power, plug in the AC adapter
If your Macbook has a firewire port, then it should be fine. BUt i would do somemore research first.

HT201250 Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive? I'm trying to restore lost photo files and I see them listed in Time Machine (without use of an external drive), but when I try to restore I get a error code 36.

Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive? While I was transferring photos back and forth from a thumb drive something went haywire and my IPhoto was wiped clean! When I click on Time Machine I see all the dated pages (without an external storage drive connected), go back to a date where all my photo files are there, click "restore", and I get the message: "The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in file cant be read or written (error code - 36)"

Thanks so much Terence. I tried some of the fixes from that page, but then discovered the suggestion to compress the Time Machine Back up of the original library and transfer it as a zip back to my computer as detailed here:
http://pondini.org/TM/E9.html
That worked like a charm. I really appreciate it.

Can I use a 2tb external drive with Time Machine to backup my Mac Mini (256gbSSD + 2tbHDD)?

Can I use a 2tb external drive with Time Machine to backup what I have on my Mac Mini?
My Mac Mini has one 256 SSD and one 2tb HDD. I want to use Time Machine to do a backup of everything.
Would an external 2tb My Passport Drive by Western Digital work for the backup?
It seems like it would not work because the total storage on the Mac Mini is 2304 gigabytes (SSD + HDD).
And the external Western Digital drive is only 2048 in gigabytes versus 2304 gigabytes the Mac Mini has.

No. A Time Machine backup drive should have at least twice the capacity of the drive it backs up. You would need at least a 4 TB backup drive for Time Machine.
Might I suggest as an alternative that you not use Time Machine but a third-party backup utility that simply overwrites older files with new ones such that the backup drive can be the same capacity as the drive backed up.
Suggested Backup Software
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Others may be found at MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.

I recently purchased a new iMac with an external drive. I want to transfer my files from my old iMac to the external drive, but I'm afraid that doing that will compromise the use of the external drive on my new iMac. Comments? Help?

I recently purchased a new iMac with an 1 Terrabyte external drive. I want to transfer my files from my old iMac to the external drive, but I'm afraid that doing that will compromise the use of the external drive on my new iMac. I have not downloaded the external drive's software onto my old Mac because of this concern. May I simply "drag and drop" the contents I want transferred to the external drive, then set up my new Mac with the drive and download there? or is there a better procedure? Comments? Help?

If your intention is to copy a just documents and data (word processing files and music for example) then yes, you can use drag and drop. If you want to transfer data and applications and permissions, it would actually be easiest to connect the drive to your old computer and turn on TimeMachine. Once TM is finished, connect the drive to your new computer and restart it holding the option key to get into Recovery mode. Then you can use the restore from TM option to transfer your data and programs to the new computer.

Using only an External Drive

I bought an iomega external drive to hold my 900CD library on (160GB) so I would not use space on the internal drive. The problem is I keep ripping CD's and they keep going to the internal drive. Can anyone tell me how to use only the external drive for itunes and my ipod(30GB)?

See this link from MacMuse, follow his instructions EXACTLY & you should be good to go. Just think, once you get the EHD up & running, no more worries about losing your music due to a computer crash. The other thing I would recommend is a secondary backup such as burning data CD's or DVD's which is what I do. I only burn about once or twice a month now, but this is just extra insurance in case the EHD takes a hike for some reason.
MacMuse, "Computer Crashed" #4, 11:49pm Feb 7, 2005
EDIT:
I forgot, the one thing that was suggested to me when I put my EHD in is to regularly send backups of the .itl & .xml files which are the database files for your library, playlists, etc. to your EHD. I send copies of these 2 files to the EHD any time I add music, change playlists, etc. DO NOT MOVE the original files off your main HD, that is there "home." If you should happen to have bad luck & have a crash with these 2 files backed up, along with the iTunes music folder, you should be able to get iTunes up & running in a "jiffy".

Why is my iTunes so slow when used on an external drive

I have an late 2006 iMac Intel 2.0GHz w/ 512mb ram, Model MA200LL. It has a 250GB HD. 13.4GB of used space on the internal HD. The problem has occurred when it had Tiger and has persisted through Leopard 10.5.2.
I have 125GB of music on a Seagate Free Agent 250GB external hard drive. When I try to delete a song it takes 87 seconds to delete. When I scroll through the 22,222 songs I get a spinning wheel for 10 - 15 seconds. Switching songs works very good.
I used the same external drive on my Mac Pro (2.66GHz - 1GB Ram) and when I try the same actions it works instantly.
The same issues arises when I used a 500GB WD World Book external hard drive.
I have run Onyx which reported no problems with the internal hard drive.
Should I expect to delete files quicker on the iMac in iTunes? If there is a problem, what can I do so that I get iTunes to perform better using an external drive?
Thank you.

One thing that you can do in general to help overall performance is upgrade your RAM. The late 2006 iMacs should be able to take up to 3GB of RAM(some people install 4GB anyway) but even going up to 2GB should help your system a lot. Besides RAM is cheap these days: http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=288&type=Memory&TI=3454&shoup grds=Show+Upgrades
The Free Agent drives are USB only so for one thing USB will be slower than your internal drive by at least half, however it still shouldn't take 10-15 seconds to access unless something else is going on. What version of iTunes do you have? Did you try Repairing the Disk Permissions and Verifying your internal drive? Try resetting the SMC and see if that helps: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303446
Should I expect to delete files quicker on the iMac in iTunes? If there is a
problem, what can I do so that I get iTunes to perform better using an external
drive?
Yes. The internal drive inside your iMac has read/write speeds somewhere between 55-65MB/sec while your USB will max out at about 30MB/sec. This may not fix your problem but just as recommendation, next time purchase an external drive that has a Firewire connection. Firewire 400 maxes out at about 40MB/sec but overall performance is usually better than USB 2.0.
George

Using a 3TB external drive?

It appears that 10.5.8 will not support a 3TB external drive as a single unit? Hitachi has a patch for windows but they indicate that Mac Os X should support the 3TB drive. Do I have to upgrade to 10.6 ? The Drive is recognized as 768GB drive and the limitation seems to be 2.2Gb . Is there a workaround?

Some additional observations: I installed one of the HItachi 3TB (Green, variable speed) drives (yes, using GUID partition at initialization) in an older G5 Mac running 10.5, and it recognized the drive and would format it in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). However, the size was only 2.7TB, and when I tried using the G5 as an external drive in target disk mode with the 27" iMac (running 10.6), it would recognize the 150GB system HDD, but insisted on initializing the Hitachi 3TB drive as an 801.57GB drive in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
I also tried the tarket disk mode using a 13" MacBook Pro running Lion (10.7) and it did the exact same thing.
Note, it shows the S.M.A.R.T. status as "Unknown" when erroneously depicting the drive as 801.57GB, whereas it is "verified" when connecting with eSata cables where it shows the proper 3TB size and will format properly all day long? Again, eSata works great, but no easy way to have an eSata connection in the iMacs or smaller MacBook Pros.
Note I also installed one of these Hitachi 3TB drives in a 27" iMac (late 2009) and it ran so HOT (fans going wild, WAY too noisy) that I took it out an reinstalled the original factory 2TB drive. YES, I installeld the thermal sensor correctly, and YES I used the same manufacturer for the HDD, and YES I tried the various fan speed software, but the fans were running and it was noisy just because the drive runs HOT from what I can tell, even in an external enclosure.
This is going to be a real problem as the need for larger 3TB (and more) storage exists, so I hope someone figures out why

Can Time Capsule be used as an external drive but not a router

Greetings, I have a spare 1TB older Time Capsule that I would like to give to a friend who would like to use it as an external hard drive w/time machine. They currently have a current iMac with Comcast internet and router which they would prefer to continue using for internet access. My question is: can a time capsule be set up to be used as an external backup drive without using the router capability.Thanks for any advise.
Scotgt Lorigan

My question is: can a time capsule be set up to be used as an external backup drive without using the router capability
Yes
Connect the Time Capsule to the Comcast router using a wired Ethernet connection from a LAN port on the Comcast router to the WAN port on the Time Capsule and set it up to create a network.
Then, go back in using AirPort Utility and turn off the wireless function on the Time Capsule. The Time Capsule will operate as "bridge" in this type of setup, so it will not perform as a router.

Using a seagate external drive with multiple macs

i got a 1TB seagate external hard drive for backup and transfer purposes... it had a little program to help set it up and i set it up for use with mac and pc ( only onther option was stricty this computer.) it works on my computer and a pc but when i tried transfering files from another older mac i have it showed that i could only read on that computer...
how can i get it to work with multiple macs...?

I have the oldest macbook (1.83. 2 gigs ram, 60 gig internal hard drive)
I have all my logic content on my external maxtor firewire 400 drive (usb 2.0 is actually faster than firewire 400) and everything is fine. the good thing is if your external drive has 7200rpm, but the ones with 5600rpm should do as well.
Once you drag your apple loops to logic from your external drive, logic will remember for the next visit. And when you are opening a project which is on the external drive , just find it with logic finder and all should be fine.

Upgrading my intel iMac to internal SSD and running 1TB external drive from firewire 800 for mass storage while still using a second external drive for backups...my goal-speed with a SSD, to still have 1TB of room for everything i have now..possible?

I seem to kill HD's every two years...the last two i've installed were WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200rpm 3.5" drives. The speed gains over stock drives have been remarkable. I don't blame the drives for the failures, my machines are up and running 16 hours a day, every day, year round. They die from 'mileage' so to speak...i assume...there's no viral acvtivity or questionable downloads to gunk things up...just lots of work.
I have my third new drive ready to install in my intel based iMac...but i've had a thought...I want to install a SSD in my iMac for the speed gain (and recent price drops)...for standard storage i want to use this new WD Caviar Black 1TB in an external drive bay and connect via firewire 800 for storing everything except the OS and my most commonly used software...am i crazy? will the firewire 800 external drive negate the speed gained with an internal SSD??
I have four iMacs in my office, and one at home. I buy second hand and install new drives and boost memory. I'm going to do this on my 'home' machine...if it works out well i want to upgrade the other three this way...but first i need to know if i'm just dreaming, or will it really make a difference? or even possible??
Thanks!
2.66 intell core2duo
2009 iMac
8gig ram
1 gig hd
OSX ver. 10.8

The SSD gives great bootup and Application launch speed. I think it also speeds up the video rendering a bit, I do all that on the SSD and then move the finished project to the external drives. As far as the speed for the external drives they are quick enough for viewing video and the file transfer rate is good. I had initially put the SSD into an external cradle (FW800) and the system was faster than on the internal drive. I only got a 1.5GBs SATA drive, perhaps yours could benefit from the 3GBs. I know the 6GBs would be too fast and costs a lot more, even the MacPros need special hookups to make use of the 6GBs.

How do I use Itunes from external drive as main sync for Iphone 4

I apologize if this is obvious but I have searched for quite awhile without finding result.
I currently have my iTunes synced to my Macbook Pro. I purchased a Macbook Air for ease in travel. I would like to move sync of my material on iTunes to my Air as I carry it more with me.
I was told at an Apple Store to purchase a Time Machine and an external hard drive. Both I purchased. I then read for a few hours how to move my itunes to the external drive. The only way I could finally get it to work was to physically connect a USB between the MacBook Pro and the External Drive. Once my Pro recognized the External Drive I dragged my Itunes and watched it copy all the data.
Unfortunately, when I am on the Air I cannot locate within Finder the External Drive. I do see my time Machine but cannot figure out how to get my itunes data from the external drive through the time machine.
You still with me?
So, can someone help me understand how to go the next step. As I understand from reading this forum I would then go into my Advanced Properties in Itunes (on the Air) and choose to relocate where the iTunes sync occurs. Then I can use my Air for syncing as it wont be dependent on the limited space and once I've changed the properties location for where to find my iTunes data I wont be dependent on the Pro.
PS: Yes I've downloaded all of the newest product software updates (iTunes, iPhone OS, Macs) as of the date this is posed 3/20/2011

try this:
hold the option key and launch iTunes. at the prompt, click on +choose library+ and select the iTunes folder you copied to the external.
obviously, the external holding your library must be mounted on your desktop for iTunes to find it.
if the drive is connected but doesn't show up on the Air's desktop, go finder > preferences > general and check if +external disks+ is check marked under +show these items on the desktop+.

Using a Second External Drive For Time Machine Backup

I have been using Time Machine for almost a year and the external drive I'm using is almost full. Can I switch to a second external drive? If I decide to keep using the same drive is there a way to keep my original backup? Is there information that I need from that first backup that I did?
Thank you!!!

bvasel900 wrote:
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
I have been using Time Machine for almost a year and the external drive I'm using is almost full. Can I switch to a second external drive?
Yes, if that's what you want to do (see below). If you start "fresh" on a new drive, your first backup will be a full one; everything on your system. Or, you can copy your current backups to it via the procedure in item #18 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum. TM will then continue making it's usual "incremental" backups, and you can erase the old disk and use it for other things.
If I decide to keep using the same drive is there a way to keep my original backup? Is there information that I need from that first backup that I did?
Probably not. As Mr. Peck noted, TM will automatically delete your oldest backups when it needs room for new ones (unless you have the +*Warn when old backups are deleted+* box checked in TM Preferences > Options).
But unless you've been deleting things from your internal HD, counting on TM to keep it's backup copies indefinitely, you won't lose anything you need.
That's because of the "magic" of Time Machine. Each backup is an "incremental" backup, copying only the items that have been added or changed since the last backup. But by using "multi-links" to the backups of items that did not change, each backup is, in effect, a full, complete copy of your entire system!
So when TM deletes your oldest backup, all it will be deleting are it's copies of things you changed or deleted long ago.

Using the same external drive with Time Machine on new mac?

I recently got a new mac because my old one broke. Thankfully, I had a fresh backup on Time Machine ready to restore onto my new computer. But when I try to use Time Machine with my new computer, it keeps wanting to do a whole new backup. It won't recognize the latest backup to only add new or changed files.
Here's a breakdown of my events:
new computer
restore Time Machine on new computer at install
want to continue using the external drive with Time Machine from where I left off (only adding new files since the last backup) on my new computer
Time Machine wants to do a whole new backup
Question: How can I continue to use my existing external hard drive with Time Machine on my new computer, picking up where I left off (not a new, complete backup)?
My old computer was Snow Lepoard, my new one is Lion.

Bergers wrote:
new computer
restore Time Machine on new computer at install
That should have left a "trail" in your SystemMigration log, so Time Machine can figure out what happened and automatically "inherit" the old backups. But sometimes, obviously, that doesn't work.
Since it didn't, there's a chance you can do it manually. See #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Using a single external drive for both Time Machine AND for manual backups?

I'm new to Leopard and haven't launched Time Machine yet. I would like to use a single (500 GB) external hard drive to use with Time Machine, plus I would like to use whatever portion of this external drive Time Machine isn't using to keep some other files upon it as well--things that I can drag-and-drop manually and then trash from my computer's HD (avi files, etc., so that they don't take up space on the computer). Is there anything special I need to do with the external hard drive before I let Time Machine have its way with it, so that I can also do drag-and-drop manual file backups with it?

I’m not terribly knowledgeable, but I’ll tell you what seems to be working for me.
I also have a 500GB external drive which I had planned to use for TM for my MBP. I partitioned it (using Disk Utility) into two partitions. One I created nearly the same size as my MBP drive, the other I used for TM.
I used the smaller partition for a backup using SuperDuper prior to upgrading from Tiger to Leopard. Once I tested that I was able to boot from it and that all my programs seemed to work, I upgraded to Leopard and told it to use the other partition for TM.
It then created a TM icon for the other partition and, to the machine, it looks like a separate drive. I’ve seen no performance hit at all.
Just one man’s experience, though I haven’t yet tried to retrieve anything.
Good luck.

Using a wireless external drive to extend my iPad

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