Using an external hard drive to back up iPhoto
I have around 250GB of images and with the recent arrival of child number two, that figure is just getting larger and larger. I have a Mac Mini (2010 320GB) and I am about to replace my 6 year old MBP with a new retina one with SSD and the obvious small hard drive. Ideally, I would like to run an iPhoto Library from an EHD and not bother having any images on iPhoto on the MacMini or the MBP. My question is what is the best/slickest/easiest way to manage it? Also, what is the best way to back up the iPhoto library that lives on one EHD to another EHD?
I have three EHD's that i can use.
Many thanks in advance for all and any help.
1. As a MP Pro user, if I move my library onto an EHD, what's the best way to manage any photos that happen to sync with iPhoto when I am say travelling etc (iPhone or iPad plugged into MBP)? How to get them back into my master library file?
The only way to move all the versions, edit history, metadata between Libraries is with iPhoto Library Manager
If you've not edited, then simply exporting from the internal library and then importing to the external one won't lose any data.
2. Once I have my new library on my EHD, what's the max safe size of a single library? Do you recommend running multiple libraries - say one for each year or capped at 100GB a piece etc?
I don't recommend ruuning multiple libraries. They are inconvenient and usually unnecessary. The amount of disk space a Library uses is of no consequence to iPhoto - as long as there's enough space of course. What matters to iPhoto is the number of items. The latest version of iPhoto is good for 1,000,000 items.
3. Following on from Q2, if I then plug this EHD into the back of my new Time Capsule so I can access wirelessly, can Time Machine still backup to that drive plugged into the back of the TC?
About wireless access:
A strong warning: If you're trying to edit the Library (that is, make albums, move photos around, keyword, make books or slideshows etc.) or edit individual photos in it via Wireless be very careful. Dropouts are a common fact of wireless networking, and should one occur while the app is writing to the database then your Library will be damaged. Simply, I would not do this with my Libraries.
Further: See this article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
Note the comment:
“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”
Tha said, you can set Time Machine to back up external disks.
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Can you use an external hard drive to back up my movies in iTunes but still be able to access them or is there a device so I don't have to use a pc ??
You can store them on a separate hard drive, you don't need to keep them on your laptop's hard drive. On your computer's iTunes on the Advanced tab in Edit > Preferences there is a 'copy files to iTunes media file when adding to library' tickbox - if you untick that, you should be able to copy the films to a separate drive and add them back to your iTunes library (File > Add To Library) and it should then point to them on that separate drive and not copy them to your hard drive. When you are happy that it is what is happening and that they are safely on your external drive you can delete the films from your laptop's hard drive.
If you plug the external drive into a different USB port next time (assuming that your laptop has more than one) then it might get a different drive letter, so you might need to always use it with the same port. -
Does file vault effect using a external hard drive as back up
does file vault effect using a external hard drive as back up
weird_glasses wrote:
... as you can guess Im still on L plates ... -
I recently used an external hard drive to back up photos etc from my mac, I didn't do a full system back up. Since then a finder window titled 'client node' keeps popping up every time i hit the spacebar. Can anyone help me please stop this happening?
Click on it, choose Get Info from the File menu, and check the format.
If it's formatted as NTFS, reformat it as MS-DOS, exFAT, or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as desired, or install software such as Paragon NTFS on the computer.
If it's formatted as FAT32 or exFAT, use the Disk Utility's Repair Disk command on it; this may also happen for a flash drive which is about to fail.
If it's formatted as Mac OS Extended, click Authenticate and provide your administrator password, or change the permissions on that specific folder in its Get Info window.
(109318) -
Can I use any external hard drive to back up my Mac?
Hello,
I'm new to mac's but have seen Time Capsule. I'm a little confused...
Can I go to any shop and buy an external hard drive of say 500GB and then plug it in via USB and back my mac up with the Time Machine?
It doesn't have to be a 1TB Apple own product Time Capsule? Or, does it...?
Thank you,
Davidwild-weasel wrote:
And time-maschine really doesn't care, what else is on that drive, (It is not a jealous maschine) aslong as you have enough space left.
That's true, as far as it goes, but it's much, much better to partition the external HD, so Time Machine has it's own, exlusive space. See #3 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
And just for clarity, Time Machine is the software built in to OSX that performs backups; a Time Capsule is a bit of Apple hardware that combines a wireless router and hard drive. Sometimes folks can get confused if you use the wrong term. -
I told him "The information only goes in one direction: from your computer on to the external hard drive. Like water coming out of a faucet. It doesn't go back in." But that's not very technical. I need a technical answer to satisfy his worried mind! Thanks!
Making a backup will NOT affect the original data.
In fact failure to backup his data is more likely to result in data lost sometime in the future.
Disk drives are mechanical devices, and subject to failure.
If he is really paranoid, then he should be using the 3-2-1 backup method.
3 copies of his data including the original
2 different backup formats as one format is a single point of failure.
1 copy should be off-site.
If he uses an on-line networking backup solution such as CrashPlan, Mozy, Carbonite, Arq, etc... that would satisfy both off-site as well as using a 2nd backup format from Time Machine. The off-site protects him from theft and natural disaster. If not going to use an on-line networked backup, then consider using a cloning utility such as SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to an external disk and then take the disk to a family member, friends, or work. Several disks for cloning means you can cycle through the disks always keeping at least one off-site at all times.
Also a backup is protection against his own mistakes in accidentially deleting or modifying a file he really needs.
If he is really paranoid, he should be backing up Big-Time, not thinking of reasons to avoid backup. That is just asking for trouble. -
How do I use an external hard drive to back up my laptop? I bought a G Drive Slim from Apple.
I have a G Drive Slim external hard drive that was purchased from an Apple store. I need to back up my laptop. I've forgotten the procedure. It's not as easy as "plug it in and follow the instructions." Can anyone help?
It should be plug and play and if it isn't it is probably because your new drive isn't formatted for the Mac. Plug in the drive and run Disk Utility - it is in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. You should see the drive in the DU window. Click on the drive and look at the bottom of the DU program. You'll see a Drive Description and other information. The last item in the second column is Partition Map Scheme. If it says GUID Partition Table you are good to go. If it doesn't the drive needs to be partitioned to be GUID.
Partition the drive:
Select the drive device in the list of devices. For each physical drive you'll see a drive device and then indented under that you'll see a drive name. For example looking at DU on my computer I see two devices: Macintosh HD at the top and indented beneath it "Yosemite" then 2TB OWC Elite and indented beneath it "TM". I'd select 2TB OWC Elite
Choose the "Partition" tab that appears.
Select "1 Partition" from the drop-down menu (or more, if you have specific need for more than one volume). When you select a new partition layout from the drop-down menu, each new partition will be formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) by default, but be sure to double-check this by selecting each in the partition diagram and then choosing the format for it.
Click the Options button and ensure "GUID" is selected as the partition scheme.
Click Apply to save the changes.
Open Time Machine Preferences and click on Select Disk. Choose your newly partitioned and formatted drive. Make sure TM is turned on. That's it. -
Hello, can I use an external hard drive to back up Iphone without using computer?
I am trying to back up my husbands iphone directly to an external hard drive. Is this possible?
Or were you thinking of something more like this? http://iomega.com/about/prreleases/2011/20110104-superhero-iphone-backup.html
If he's running iOS 5 or higher, he can backup to iCloud. -
I was trying to use my external hard drive to back up my mac computer. It had files on it from my pc computer. Time machine erased all my existing files. (I thought it was only going to erase the duplicate files and rewrite them). Is there anyway to recover these files from my external hard drive. My mac has renamed the hard drive time maching and it will no longer show up on my pc. What can I do?
Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think? -
I used an external hard drive to back up my computer using Time Capsule before I bought a new one. I am slowly transferring information fromt he backup to my new computer and I want to transfer over my old font book. When I go into the Font folder on the hard drive the only fonts that show up are the ones that came stock with the computer not any of the ones I have downloaded over time. Could they be downloaded somewhere else?
The answer to that would probably be "Yes." If you don't remember where your fonts were stored, you may want to search your backups for any of the font files you know the names to. See where that takes you.
Ideally, Font Book and other font managers will temporarily store the fonts you "installed" into the System when you run the OS. When you shut down, etc. they are removed and reloaded on restart. The permanent place fonts reside is where you saved them when or after you downloaded them. I typically create a Resources folder on the root level of the computer and place a Fonts folder there. Then I install fonts from there, and they are available to all users on that iMac.
Perhaps if you did not have that kind of a strategy, perhaps many of them are still in your Downloads folder? -
I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?
In the Mac side of things, backups usually come in two flavors: clones or incrementals.
A bootable clone is a bit-for-bit copy of all essential files in the startup volume. If using the Lions, clones can be made using CarbonCopyCloner or just plain old Disk Utility. These backups represent the safest protection of your info, but take the longest to do. Recovery is an inverse process: you copy the clone back into the internal drive.
Incremental backups start with a complete backup of the startup volume and only copy whatever changed from the previous run. OS X includes the fully integrated Time Machine backup utility to do this. It is extremely easy to do and takes the least amount of time. Recovery is another matter altogether since you have to start with a freshly installed instance of the OS and have to apply all intervening backups to bring the result to the latest saved version.
As for where the backup takes place, the recommended media is an external dedicated drive or drives connected via the fastest interface available on your Mac: Thunderbolt, USB3, Firewire, or USB2. Network-based backups, wired or wireless, are attractive but may not offer the same performance and hence take longer. Also important to note that the entire drive need not be completely dedicated to a single backup. The Mac's EFI firmware infrastructure allows for an unlimited number of partitions on a hard drive and each can be used for either type of backups.
Holler if you need specifics on how to do each. This was just an executive summary. -
how do you remove back up data from the memory storage? my storage data states that i have over 80gb of data used for back ups and i dont know why as i use a external hard drive as a time machine .now my 250gb flash storage is nearly full.. HELP!
When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space. -
Trying to use my Lacie external hard drive to back up my iTunes library.
For some reason, I cannot send my iTunes song files to my external hard drive. My PC recognizes my hard drive (I formatted it) and it lets me save text files to the hard drive but it will not let me save my musci library to it. I am trying to transfer my iTunes library from my PC to my new Mac laptop and also just wanted to back up my iTunes library. Any help would be great.
You can Use iTunes for Backing up your Music, but I do not favor this mehtod.
It works fine for music files BUT: I prefer more control and completeness over my backup process. It is also very important to note that a large limitation of using iTunes to manage the backup is that the iTunes method does not create or maintain backups of the two meta-data files (iTunes Library.itl & iTunes Music Library.xml) where your Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts, etc. are stored. See: What are the iTunes Library files?
If you are heavily invested in your Library data (Playlists, Play Counts, Ratings, Last Played, Date Added, etc.), it is crucial that you also make and archive multiple backups of your ‘iTunes Library.itl’ file.
If your music is located under one common Folder (e.g.-‘iTunes’), then it is easiest to physically copy that folder and all its sub-folders in one simple process. It can be done quickly, and incrementally – several times a day, when necessary. In the case of any data loss, just re-copy your entire (or partial) music library back to wherever it was, placing it in the main Folder that the previous iTunes expected. Along with the ‘iTunes Library.itl’ metadata file, this completes a full ‘restore’ of your music to the time of your last backup.
Use of a backup software program will greatly help. It will allow you to easily perform incremental backups of only the files that have changed. WinXP has such a facility built-in. I use a free program called FileSync ( http://www.fileware.com ). There are many out there. Some use Zipped files or proprietary formats, others use standard file formats. I like FileSync as it uses normal file formats that can be viewed/managed via any Windows program or utility.
iTunes Files to Backup (anytime you make additions or changes to the Music or Library that you want to retain)
1) All music files in their current folder structure (usually located in and under the ‘iTunes Music’ folder)
2) The Library database file: ‘iTunes Library.itl’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
3) The Library XML file: ‘iTunes Music Library.xml’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
4) Any XML playlist files created for Playlist retention
5) The two iTunes.pref files (optional)
-- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes.pref
-- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer Inc\iTunes.pref
6) The XML file of Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played attributes saved from the main Library and created by Otto’s SaveRatings script (also optional, but recommended):
“Download this: http://ottodestruct.com/itunes/SaveRatings.zip . It's a program, just run it like any other program. Run it on the machine where you're copying the info from BEFORE you move the files to the new machine. Click the "Save Ratings" button and it'll create a ratings.xml file. Now when you move the files, move the program and this file as well. Then after you make your new iTunes library, run it again and click the "Restore Ratings" button. Voila, all your information is back in the Library. Well, most of it anyway, it's not perfect. It'll tell you what songs it couldn't figure out though, and there's usually not very many.”
Here's a list of possible ways to copy your music files from your main iTunes computer to another storage medium for backup purposes.
1) Use an External Hard Drive to store the complete iTunes meta-data files and underlying Music Folder structure and songs from your main computer. They are quite cheap now, for their storage volume. This is my preferred main medium.
2) If you have Two Computers:
2a) Connect them through a router
2b) Connect them using a Direct (w/Mac) or Crossover (PC/PC) Ethernet cable (See: http://www.ifelix.co.uk/tech/3001.html)
2c) Connect them via a USB-to-USB Network Bridge. See: here as an example.
Copy the files and folders from one computer to the other. Use the second PC as your backup repository.
3) Burn several DVDs (at 4.7+ GBs each) with the music data files and store them safely. Re-writable ones are good for backup purposes (if your DVD drive can manage these).
4) Burn 6x more on CDs (at 700MB each) than in #3 above and store them safely in more space Re-writable ones are good for backup purposes (if your CD drive can manage these).
5) Use a larger USB Flash drive (1GB – 4+GBs) to store the files only if you have a small amount ripped music or have multiple and/or jumbo USB drives at your disposal that will fit your music library.
6) Use the Second Internal Hard Drive (if available) of your PC -- not optimum, as you really want to physically separate the storage of backups from the originals, but good as a tertiary storage device.
By keeping only one copy of your music (other than on the iPod), you are not truly 'backed-up' and are running a high risk of losing your music. Music files on just the iPod and the computer is not considered having any backup. If you cannot store your complete music files on the computer’s internal HD, then create and maintain at least two external sets (any multiple combinations of ExHDs, DVDs, CDs).
You need at least two full sets of your music, not including what is on the iPod:
-- One full set on the PC within iTunes (on internal HD or ExHD)
-- One full set on an separate external backup medium (CD/DVD/ExHD/other)
-- One (full or partial) set on the iPod
It is a good policy to backup all your important data. It is a very smart policy to back it up on more than one medium. -
I use an external hard drive as a Time Machine back up, but I want to use another external hard drive to save movies, photos on it, but it won't give me the option to save anything on the new external hard drive. Nothing is wrong with the external hard.
Hi Clarkett99,
To use an external hard drive for your iTunes library, see the steps in this article -
iTunes: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
iPhoto can be used in a similar way, follow the steps in this previous discussion -
how do I save photos and their albums...: Apple Support Communities
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3744259
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L -
I recently upgraded my macbook to mountain lion. Before doing so I used time machine to back up my entire laptop with an external hard drive.
When I got my computer back it was clean....all pics, music, documents, bookmarks etc. are gone. How do I get these files off the external hard drive and back onto my laptop with the new upgrade?I recently upgraded my macbook to mountain lion. Before doing so I used time machine to back up my entire laptop with an external hard drive.
When I got my computer back it was clean....all pics, music, documents, bookmarks etc. are gone. How do I get these files off the external hard drive and back onto my laptop with the new upgrade?
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