Using iMovie to save project files to external hard drive?

I have a MacBook Pro with very limited space on the internal hard disk drive. I also have a few FireWire external hard drives.
A friend recently gave me his Hitachi DZ-HS300A mini-DVD camcorder so I could copy footage off of it, load it into my machine, edit it and upload it (several minutes) to YouTube. He can't do this because he lives in a remote area where there is no broadband yet.
I almost never use iMovie. I was wondering if there is a way to save the project file to an external FireWire drive so that there will be no large video files clogging up my laptop's internal hard drive. Can this be done? Is there an iMove preference I have to change?

You should generally leave the iMovie Project file on the boot drive. The Project File is mainly a small text file with in and out points.
The iMovie Event file is where the video assets are stored. You can store events to an external hard drive in two ways:
1) As you import from the camera, you will see an import screen. You can select the external drive on the import screen
2) If the event is already on your internal drive, you can click View/Events By Volume. Now you can drag and drop the event to the external drive in the Events SOurce List in iMovie.
For your external drive to be visible to iMovie, it must be formatted HFS+ or HFS+ (journalled).

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I'm starting the ambitious project of copying our family videos from 8mm tapes to iMovie to eventually making DVDs. since I don't have much disk space on my iBook, my plan is to put the iMovie files on an external hard drive & work from there. Here are the system specs:
Camera: Sony DCR-TRV520 (Digital 8)
Computer: iBook 800 MHz PowerPC G3, 28GB hard drive, 5GB available
OS 10.3.9
iMovie 4
Hard Drive: LaCie Eternet Disk mini 300GB (150GB available) format: Mac OS Extended
Problem: Open a new iMovie project on the external hard drive. Start to import the footage. After one or 2 seconds, the image freezes and import aborts.
Solution: Open a new project on the computer. Footage imports fine.
Problem: Can only import 1/2 hour or so of video before I'm in trouble. Files WAY too big for my itty bitty iBook!
Solution: Make a new iMovie file on the external hard drive & copy the clips from the computer to the hard drive. (this takes TONS of time!)
Problem: Open movie file on the LaCie. Import the clips. Clips show up but won't play!
Question: Is there any better way to do this? Why won't the project work on the external hard drive?
I teach video production at a high school and have done this many times on newer iMacs (iLife 6). We can't save every project on the computers, so certain projects I'll copy to an external hard drive. I've never had a problem working on an iMovie project from the hard drive. I considered uploading my movies on the computers at school, however then I'm stuck with iMovie 6 files on the hard drive and iMovie 4 at home.
Any suggestions -- other than get a newer computer?

Importing new footage from a video camera and working with iMovie with footage already on the computer are two completely different things.
At school, do you actually IMPORT video from digital camcorders directly to the USB drive as you said you were doing at home?
Because while you can indeed work on iMovie projects off a USB drive if you are not actually importing video, the whole importing process from a Firewire camcorder is sort of a streaming video type transfer and Firewire is used because it has a mode for this type of transfer. USB, on the other hand, can not import video from a camcorder straight to a USB drive reliably because there is way too much CPU overhead associated with USB transfers and it therefore can not keep up with the "streaming" video coming out of the camcorder.
If you want to find out more details, do a search for "isochronous" with Firewire. Firewire uses type types of transfers. Asynchronous transfer which is like USB uses where you transfer data, wait for the CPU to respond, then transfer the next chunk of data. Video transfer uses and isochronous process where, to put it very simply, the camcorder starts spitting out chunks of footage with a checksum and the receiving end receives it, calculates a checksum and if the checksums match, stores the chunk of data. If they don't match, the data is discarded and it starts to receive the next chunk of data. There is no ability to resend failed data so you get dropped frames in your footage.
If you import via Firewire from Camcorder to Mac then directly to an external USB drive, the transfer from Mac to USB drive will be too slow as the CPU and drive have to start doing their "did you get it?", "Ya I got it, send another/No, send again please", "OK here it comes" routine while in the meantime the camcorder to Mac Firewire transfer is just pumping out data at a fixed rate. Once the USB connection falls behind the process aborts.
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Hi jwgoldsmith - welcome to the forum!
Are you sure that the external drive is formatted for Mac computers? It must be MAC OS EXTENDED, not FAT 32 or such. If you need to re-format, make sure you have saved important files to some other drive as re-formatting erases everything.

Where do the MEDIA FILES live after I import them from camera to iMovie (Mac Mini OS X 10.9.2)? I need to MOVE MEDIA FILES to external hard drive.

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Hello bbryson68,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
From your post I understand you're wanting to move iMovie project and event data to another drive. I found the following information in the iMovie help that answers your question.
Copy or move projects, events, or clips between libraries or storage devices
Connect a storage device that contains the target library to your Mac, or copy the target library to your Mac.
Choose File > Open Library, and choose an option from the submenu.You can choose from recently opened libraries, locate an existing library on your Mac, or create a new library.The selected library is opened in the Libraries list, with the first event selected and its contents displayed in the browser.
In the Libraries list, select the event that contains the item you want to move or copy.
In the browser, select the item you want to move or copy.Tip: To select multiple clips or projects in the same library, hold down the Command key as you click the items you want to select, or drag a selection rectangle around the items.
Do one of the following:
To move items between events or libraries: Drag the clip or project to another event or library.
To copy items between events or libraries: Option-drag the clip or project to another event or library by first starting to drag and then holding down the Option key as you drag.
Work with multiple libraries
http://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.0/#mov3fa25bae7
Take care,
Alex H.

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Can I open an imovie project from an external hard drive on a different computer other than my own? If so how?

If you used the Finder to move the files, iMovie will have lost track of them. iMovie holds the locations of the Event files, and Project files contain references to those locations. If you move the files, iMovie has no way of knowing where they are.
If you can, first move all the files back to their original locations. Plug in the external drive. Open iMovie and move the files in iMovie's interface (help explains how, but basically, just drag and drop in the event pane).
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How can I save a project to an external hard-drive?

Hey guys,
I'm trying to clean out my computer and I want to move a finished project to an external hard-drive (while still being able to edit in the future if I choose)... How can I do this, and once I accomplish the task would I be able to delete everything that was on my internal hard-drive?

Use FCP's Media Manager to copy to the external drive. Once copied and you verify everything is OK, you can delete the original files.
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I am using Iphoto 11 ver 9.4.3 on mac using oxs 10.8.5 i want to export calendar projects to an external hard drive. my goal is to store them in an external hard drive so it doesn't use up memory on the mac hard drive. is it possible to copy the specific projects without copying the entire library? what is the easiest way to do this? i have tried export and import but it didn't seem to work.

What do you not understand?
You can duplicate the iPhoto library (command - D ) and delete everything except the project and its photos from the copy and move that
Or
However the calendar takes very little space - it is simpy database entries - it is the photos in the calendar that take space - and for most people you would wnat to keep those photos in your library
you can use a photo in 50 calendars and it still is only one photo in your library - as I explained calenders do not exist as such - they are simply database entries telling iPhotop how to display the calendar - they take almost no space at all
LN

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There is suddenly a lock icon on my external backup drive!
Custom Permissions

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I keep getting "error occurred while attempting to import file *******. The disc your are attempting to use is full." I have an external hard drive that I moved files over to, but apparently they're also still on my hard drive? HELP!

So you have backed up the content of the computer's hard drive, too?
That usually is a great idea since it is possible to lose use of the system
if parts of it have accidentally been removed or get over-written, or the
main system files get corrupted, when the hard disk drive gets too full.
If you have not trashed the originals of your created content, that remain
after you made copies on an external hard drive or other device, then
that is what you'd have to do to reclaim the capacity still in use by them.
What are specifications of the hard disk drive? The unused capacity
verses the used, in GB? If the hard drive has less than 15 to 20%
free or unused capacity, you could run into trouble. Mine are 40-50%
unused hard drive space, so ample room is available for automatic
Virtual Memory to use that capacity as temporary swap file space.
This is helpful when the computer could use more physical RAM
memory capacity, but doesn't have it. Or if the RAM is maxxed out
and you can't add any more. Virtual Memory is part of OS X and the
system automatically can use as much as is available, but it is better
to be sure there is plenty of resources available to include chip RAM
as well as unused or free hard drive capacity for use as VM.
If for some reason your files in Trash won't go away when you empty
it, you may have to restart. Be sure you have not included any System
files in the content in the Trash, or the Mac may not start up later on.
You may have to boot the computer from the install-restore OS X DVD
and run Repair Disk from its version of Disk Utility, to be sure it's OK.
I'm guessing that by now you know enough about the vintage system
in the older hardware to figure it out, so I won't write about it now.
In any event... hopefully you can simply trash the files, but check them
carefully, & you may need to remove (copy to archive first) even more.
Good luck & happy computing!

Can I save my movie projects to an external hard drive?

I am an elementary music teacher and often make DVDs of my students' performances. This is maxxing out my hard drive on my Mac. I have an external hard drive with a lot of memory, so my question is: can I somehow put iMovie projects onto the external hard drive, to free up memory on the Mac's hard drive? If so, how do I go about doing this? Conversely, would this be a bad idea, and if that is the case, could I move iTunes (also have a ton of music, as you can imagine) or iDVD to the external hard drive? Or iPhotos?
I'm not high-tech savvy, so need help in simple English, please.
Thanks so much!!!

Within the project library of iMovie you should see your external drive listed along with the projects stored on your mac. To copy a project you simply drag the project from its current position to your external drive. You will then get the option of copying just the project or project and events. As Bengt rightly states you should copy both project and Events. If you hold down the alt key as you drag the project you will get the option of moving rather than copying. I would NOT recommend doing this in case there are problems during the copying/moving process (I don't find iMovie to be the most stable of apps) and you might find the original project has been deleted without properly copying it across. Better to copy to the external drive, check it works ok and then delete original.
Hope this helps.
Russ

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Moving iMovie 09's library to an external hard drive...

Hi.
I have iMovie 09, but have followed this procedure: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1026 to move my events to and external hard drive. Couldn't find a similar article specific to iMovie 09... I assume they work the same way...
Well, this COPIED the events folder but left a copy still taking up space on my Mac hard drive. Can I just delete the events folder from my Mac safely? If the whole purpose is to save room on my Mac, why does this procedure "copy" instead of "transfer" the files?
I remember a similar procedure for iPhoto libraries, where you'd transfer the library file to an external hard drive then restart iPhoto (now with an empty library) holding Option or CTRL (can't remember) and a hidden menu asking you to point iPhoto to a library file would appear... Is there a way to do this for iMovie 09? even want my Projects to be on the external hard drive... and every time I import clips I want them to default to the external; hard drive iMovie "library"...

Thank you all for the tips.
Workflow that worked for me (might help others):
1. Make sure the little "hard drive" icon is active within iMovie (listing all hard drives where your events and projects are, on the left hand side). If you never had any events on the external hard drive you will see in the "tree" there but it will be empty.
2. COMMAND+Drag projects one by one from the upper left panel (where you see their thumbnails and information such as "Broadcasted to Youtube", etc... onto the external hard drive.
2.1 iMovie will ask you if you want to move related EVENTS to the external hard drive too so that the projects don't have missing data. DO THIS or the projects will be broken and you will need to redo them from scratch...
2.2 The step above will move both the projects AND the events they have clips from to the external hard drive to the newly created iMovie Projects and iMovie Events (these are created automatically by iMovie when you drag your events/projects to the external hard drive. You don't need to create those folders in advance. Try it with a small event/project and you will see what I am talking about.
3. Now that you moved all your projects+related events to the external hard drive you can:
a. move the remaining events that have no projects related to them to the external hard drive via Command+drag INDIVIDUALLY from the iMovie library itself OR
b. move all the events at once from Finder > Movies > iMovie Events >>> to the iMovie Events folder on your external hard drive's iMovie Events folder...
I did 3a. just to be safe... but as Sheryl or Appleman said here, it is probable safe to do 3b since there are no projects related to the remaining events that could be broken....
HTH...

Using iMovie to save project files to external hard drive?

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