What External Hard Drive should I be getting?

I am looking at getting an external hard drive...any model or brand better then others?
Also I need to transfer files from my PC to the apple powerbook. I was hoping to use this external hard drive to do so...will this work?

This can really depend on your needs, but I have had good luck with LaCie drives. I have a portable 40 Gig with Firewire 400 / USB connection, and a 250 Gig Ethernet disk mini. For general data backup, photo storage etc, they have worked out well. I mainly use a Mac, but occasionally transfer files to a PC, the formatting options will make them compatible for just about any OS. I'm sure there are other brands of equal quality.

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Going to upgrade to Lion. First have to back up computer. What external hard drive should I buy to back up computer using "time machine". Have 320 gb hard drive.

I am going to upgrade to Lion. First have to back up computer. What external hard drives should I buy in order to use time machine. I have a 320 GB hard drive. Don't have too much on computer.

patmc102 wrote:
I am going to upgrade to Lion. First have to back up computer. What external hard drives should I buy in order to use time machine. I have a 320 GB hard drive. Don't have too much on computer.
Buy an external drive 320G or larger (much larger is preferable). I do not recommend you use TM for this, instead download a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner and make a clone of your drive. Once this is done you have 2 choices, you can download and install Lion on your internal drive just as you planned or download and install Lion to the external clone, the 2nd method allows you to test the Lion install before committing to it. If the clone with Lion is to your liking then just clone it back to the internal.

What external Hard drive should I use for Final Cut Pro?

Hi:
I have a Mac Pro and I'm planning to work with HD. What external hard drive should I use?
PD: I have a NVIDIA on a PCI Express graphic slot.
Thanks,
Cabezon

You'll need to be much more specific; there are 20 or 60 different kinds of high definition. Some require nothing, some require superfast RAID, some require specialized hardware support.
bogiesan

I want to move my music and photos to an external hard drive from my iMac. What external hard drive should I get?

I want to move my music and photos to an external hard drive from my iMac. What kind of hard drive should I get? Will it remove it from iMac and only be on external hard drive?

How to correctly move your media:
iTunes: How to move the library to an EHD
iPhoto: How to move the Library to an EHD
It is important that the External Hard Drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled).
And also make sure that all is working to your Satisfaction before Deleting anything Off your Mac.

What external hard drive should I get?

First off, I hope I'm asking this in the right place; apologies otherwise.
So, I need a new external hard drive for my machine, but there are some constraints that are making it difficult for me.
- I'm on a G5 mac (power PC)
- I'm using OS X 10.4.11
- I'd like a firewire connection (800 preferably).
I've been all over town shopping and all over the net, and everything is either USB, or requires OS 10.5+. Does anyone have any good suggestions? Thanks!

On some issues such as chipset incompatibility it is a given that a problem will occur. On others such as the power source with LaCie, it's a matter of chance. I have a LaCie backup drive. Read the reviews from other owners and they are about 5/10. Personally I never had a problem with it in 5 years of using it. I took the WD drive out of it about a year ago and put it into my computer and it runs fine. With some it's a matter of chance and you can get a winner or lemon with any brand.
Another thing is, drive ratings change a lot. As I said before, Seagate used to be tops. I have several seagate drives >10 years old. 2 years ago I went shopping for new drives and people were warning against seagate at all costs. I'm not talking their enclosures but the drives themselves. Complete reversal.
Best thing to do is, spot a few models that interest you, then check online reviews from other owners. Read them to get a feel for the issues. All drives can have problems so don't let one or two lemon reviews sway you, nor people giving bad ratings because the vendor is not so great (go to a different vendor with good ratings). What are the issues? A drive may be rated as slow but if you aren't using it to boot then that's not an issue for you, especially if it is an archive drive (one you unplug and don't use for weeks at a time).
Post on the hardware forum too. Some knowledgeable people frequent there who never go to an OS forum. I bought my WDs based largely upon initial recommendations I read on the PowerMac forum and then substantiated with reading reviews on big online vendors (but bought from OWC in the end).

What size external hard drive should I purchase

What size external hard drive should I purchase? I'm not tech savvy, so please speak slowly. I'm looking at OWC Mini Stack Classic to match my older Mac Mini. Do I need 500 GB, 1 TB or more? Plus, I have to add memory to upgrade to Snow Leopard. How much memory do I need and should I have an expert install it ?
Mac OSX version 10.5.8
Mac mini 3.1
Processor 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3
1 Processor
2 Cores
L2 Cache 3MB
Memory 2GB
BUS Speed 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version MM3.1.0081.B06
SMC version 1.35f0
Hard Drive
Format MAC OS Extended
Capacity 297.77 GB
Available 238.69 GB
Used 59.08 GB on disk

Good points raised by all.
In my mini configs - both older and newer flatter model - I have kept their ministack external drive on top of the mini; with 3 or 4 little rubber feet added to the mini's base to give it a bit more elevation from the surface they are sitting on and a bit better chance to breathe. I'm not impressed by the very small air intakes on the bottom and the hot air that often comes out the back or how warm the case feels. Especially in the heat of summer.
I do turn the ministacks on/off as needed (primarily for backups once a week) as they're not entirely quiet and sometimes seem to have a low hum vibration. Nothing crazy. I just like it as dead quiet as possible sometimes. Plus the fan does not turn off even if the mini and ministack drive have shut down. The newer wide & slim model does seem a bit quieter than the older model.
Check through system profiler to see if your system has 2x1GB or 1x2GB. Most likely it is 2x1GB and you'd need to remove both to double your ram. On the off chance it has a free slot; a single 2GB stick would get you to 4GB. Check on the cost difference between the 2x2GB kit and a 2x4GB kit. I have an older core duo mini that functions fine with 2x2GB of RAM and 10.6.8. But, if you plan to continue to use the mini for several more years as a primary machine including upgrading the OS to Yosemite; it might not be a bad idea to just max it to 2x4 8GB. Yosemite really likes RAM to maximize performance.
Along the lines of keeping the same mini and doing upgrades. The biggest speed improvements are made by replacing the original internal hard drive with a flash drive. Of course this is a more technical upgrade, you really need to take the mini apart more and you have to weigh the cost of the upgrades and possibly paying somebody to do them; vs the cost of a newer system which would have a significantly faster processor and other improvements.

HT201250 I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was?

I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was? I want to make sure I will still have various important files on my new computer, like my songs in iTunes, my photos in iPhoto, etc, etc. Thanks so much in advance!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
When you turn on the new iMac for the first time, Setup Assistant will ask you to restore a backup, so connect the external disk and follow steps to restore all your files to your new iMac. Your new Mac will have the same settings and programs as your old computer.
In other cases, I would recommend to restore the whole backup without using Migration Assistant or Setup Assistant, but a Late 2012 iMac uses a special OS X build, so the OS X version that you're using on your old Mac won't work on the new one. For more information, see > http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

What is the best way to copy aperture library on to external hard drive? I am getting a message that say's "There was an error opening the database. The library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported".

What is the best way to copy aperture library on to external hard drive? I am getting a message that say's "There was an error opening the database. The library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported". What does that mean? I am trying to drag libraries (with metadata) to external HD...wondering what the best way to do that is?

Kirby Krieger wrote:
Hi Shane. Not much in the way of thoughts - - but fwiw:
How is the drive attached?
Can you open large files on the drive with other programs?
Are you running any drive compression or acceleration programs (some drives arrive with these installed)?
Can you reformat the drive and try again?
Hi Kirby,
I attached the UltraMax Plus with a USB cable. The UltraMax powers the cable so power is not an issue. I can open other files. Also, there is 500GB of files on the drive so I cannot re-format it. Although, I noted I could import the entire Aperture Library. However, I do not want to create a duplicate on my machine because that would be defeating the purpose of the external drive.
Thanks,
Shane

What external hard drive to you recommend to free up space on an old Macbook Pro?

My Macbook Pro is approx. 5 years old. I have since gotten an imac, however would like to use my old Creative Suite 2 on the macbook. When I updated it to "Lion" - it denied access to my creative suite apps. I have since contacted Adobe, and they have given me a solution to get it up and running again, however, my startup disk is just about FULL. Therefore I can't upgrade or really even open more than one app without getting the warning pop up about getting rid of some files asap or risk malfunction of the laptop.
What external hard drive do you recommend to get the most bang for my buck in terms of offloading a massive amount of photos to in order to be able to use the laptop again?

Your picture folder would have to be 10 times larger and then it would be close to 1 TB in size. I have an aphorism, 'one cannot have too much storage'. If the bank account can afford it, follow Ralph's advice and do go for the larger storage drive. Given enough time, you might just grow into it..
Now there is an issue that you should consider. Since these pictures will no longer be on your MBP, do you want to have them backed up? If so, you then are going to need an additional HDD to store the backups. All HDDs will eventually fail, you just do not know when.
Ciao.

Which external hard drive should I use to save my iTunes library?

Hi,
So I have collected so much music and movies in iTunes that my internal HD is practically full. (Library is over 500GB of 1TB and the rest is taken up with my apps and programs.) It's time to purchase an external hard drive to transfer my library to. Furthermore, I currently have a 2TB WD My Book for Mac that I am currently using for backup. The My Book is also full and Time Machine is deleting the oldest backups to make room for the current ones.
Here is where I need everyones advice. I am planning on purchasing a 3TB WD My Book for Mac. I am planning on purchasing more movies for iTunes. Which external hard drive should I use for what? Option A or B
Option A: Put my iTunes library on the 2TB external hard drive and use the 3TB for backup
Option B: Put my iTunes library on the 3TB external hard drive and continue to use the 2TB for backup
Also please give me your reasoning.
Thanks everyone for your responses!

Limnos,
So, let's go one step further with this. I read your reply to moving iTunes library to an external hard drive: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4594518?tstart=0 However, if I move the iTunes library, will this include all the movies and apps that I have purchased?
Thanks!!!!

I have a new Mac Pro computer and have migrated my files from my older computer to the new computer. In trying to open a Lightroom catalog on an external hard drive I keep on getting the message "lightroom cannot use the catalog named " " because it is

I have a new Mac Pro computer and have migrated my files from my older computer to the new computer. In trying to open a Lightroom catalog on an external hard drive I keep on getting the message "lightroom cannot use the catalog named " " because it is not writable and cannot be opened. I have fixed all the "permissions" and yet it will still not open. How do I fix this?

Hello Forum Members,
I figured it out. You have to select the actual logo of the Lightroom catalog and then click on "get info" and allow what ever your new user name to "read and write". That worked!
Henri Silberman

When adding an external hard drive, should you hook it up to your iMac or your Apple Extreme router?

When adding an external hard drive, should you connect it directly to your iMac or to your Apple Extreme router?

That depends on what you are using it for. The advantage of connecting it to the router is that you can share the drive over your home network and/or over the Internet. That can be convenient but drive access is performed at network speed - slower than when connected directly to the computer. If you need/want to share the drive, connect it to the router, otherwise connect it directly to the computer.

HT1751 when i have moved all of my data to an external hard drive should i delete all of the library files on my laptop/PC

i have moved all of my data to an external hard drive should i then delete the copies on my laptop

What are you actually trying to accomplish? Backing up the library, or moving it?
If backing up don't delete anything.
If moving did you move the library files as well? Ideally you would copy the entire iTunes folder out to the external drive then shift-start iTunes to connect to the relocated library. This method makes it easier to move the library to a new drive or computer later and keeps everything together for backing up. Rather than delete everything rename the iTunes or iTunes Media folder first (depending on which approach you took) and make sure the library still works before deleting.
tt2

HT201250 which external hard drive should I choose/use as I am setting up Time Machine on my MacBook Pro 15 for the very first time?

Which external hard drive should I use/choose as I am setting up Time Machine on my MacBook Pro 15 for the very first time?

Any of these SATA HDDs that are at least the same size as your internal HDD (preferably larger capacity). In addition you will need an enclosure, preferably one with a Firewire as well as a USB connection.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/
Ciao.

I want to keep my music on my macbook and my movies on my external hard drive how do i get itunes to recogonise my external hard drive.?

I want to keep my music on my macbook pro and my movies on my external hard drive how do i get itunes to recogonise my external hard drive.? so i can drag more movies across later. i am able to plug my external into my Apple Express to stream to my apple Tv arent i..???

Post your question in the iTunes area:
https://discussions.apple.com/community/itunes/itunes_for_mac

What External Hard Drive should I be getting?

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