When formatting a new external hard drive should i encrypt it?

I have a new 500gb Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Drive Drive that I wish to use solely for Time Machine. It is Formatted to MS-DOS (FAT) which I understand can also be used with with windows. Do I need to reformat it and if so what is it best to format it to? Also do I need to encrypt it and if so what is the difference?

if you are more of a secret agent then a person whos computer could and and wanting to salvage data from the harddrive if that was still ok
if the former encrypt away if later don't
encryption will only be relevant in terms of physical access to the hd it have no impact in terms of hacking or virus or the likes
if you own and often use a shredder to destroy paper document then do it!

Similar Messages

How do I format a new external Hard drive for Mac?

Simple question I know for many of you out there but I could do with some advice as I have never done this before. I would like to buy a new external hard drive to store my music and photos on. I will get one with firewire and usb2 connectivity.Could someone walk me through the steps needed to format and prepare a hard drive for use with my Macbook (if it is not already Mac formatted). Will any brand of hard drive work with Mac or are some better than others?

In addition to what Templeto Peck said, make sure that you select the formating to be OSX Extended.
As far as the best esternal drive, type into the "Search Discussion" box: Best external hard drive. This will bring you to several previouslly posted threads that discuss quite thoroughly your question. The following is extracted from one thread:
The best drives are those that use the Oxford 911 chipset. I like the Mercury Elite Pro drives from OWC, but there are plenty of others that use the same chipset.

I am trying to format a new external hard drive. It is attached via a USB 2.0 docking station. It does not show up in Disk Utility or Terminal, but does show up in System Profiler. How can I get my MacBook Pro to recognise it?

I need help trying to format an external hard drive. My Mac won't recognise it anywhere other than System Profiler.

The problem is that it is a Western Digital 3.5 inch internal hard drive housed inside a hard drive caddy. So the only way to connect it to my computer is through a dock.

I have 2 Questions on Formatting a New External Hard drive

Both questions are probably easy but I've searched and can't find the answers.
1. When I open Disk Utility there are two icons for each hard drive, one with the brand name (LaCie) and the other with the size and other info for the drive. Which do I use to format or run the disk permissions repair tool?
2. The new hard drive is formatted MS DOS which I understand will work but I think I need to change it to an HFS+ format, the options are:
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Mac OS Extended
Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive & Journaled
Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive)
I have no idea what the difference in these are. I don't plan to partition the drive as it's just a mini-drive to put my iTunes and iPhoto Libraries on.

1. If you don't plan on partitioning the drive, either can be used. To partition the drive, you need to select the drive itself instead of the disk.
2. The journaling option will keep a log of changes made to the disk; this may make it easier to recover data from the drive if you run into problems with it later. This option can be changed without erasing the drive again. The case sensitive option preserves the case of letters in filenames; for example, A1 and a1 are identical when the case sensitive option is off, but not when it is on. Changing the case sensitive option requires erasing the disk.
(12804)

I have moved all my songs onto a new external hard drive but it has wiped my iPod clean. Although when I connect my iPod it's starts teh process of sync'ing - so many songs in I get a pop up advising the siong could not be read or written to?

I have moved all my itunes onto a new external hard drive to free up space. It has wiped my ipod clean! I can still see the itunes on the new hard drive so I restored my iPod and tried to sync. Although when I connect my iPod it's in the process of syncing, so many songs in I get a pop up saying could not copy to my iPod as xyz song title could not be read or written. I click ok for this pop up to dissapear and then another pop up appears saying could not coyp to iPod because of unknown error.!!! Help I'm going crazy.

Did you go into iTunes to change the location of your media files? if not you will need to go into iTunes and click on preference and select the advance tab then click the iTunes Media folder location. Select the location of your on external hard drive.

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

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.

New Computer and New External Hard Drive - why do folders and photos not show up?

I replaced my desktop with a new laptop and external hard drive. I transferred photos from the desktop to the external hard drive. Lightroom 2 only shows the mapped hard drive, but does not show any folders or photos. Can Lightroom be set up to house all the photos on an external hard drive rather than using space on the internal laptop hard drive? Do the photos and folders need to be imported again into LR2? The photos are available for viewing when you search folders, but they open up in Photoshop not LR2.
What should I do to configure imports to be housed on the external hard drive? Is this wise? I will not be able to hold all the photos on the laptop internal hard drive. Photos used to be JPEG and DNG from D700. I am starting to see NEF. Does this replace DNG? Besides RAW I also need to have JPEG for other family members to access photos on other computers connected to the network. I am watching a tutorial DVD and slowly picking up how this all works. Let me know if I am not using the correct terms.
Hardware: HP laptop w/64bit, Buffalo 1TB RAID hard drive.

Lot's of questions here. I'll do a few.
Yes Lightroom can work with images on external drives. As many drives as you want.
I assume from what you said in your original post that you have had lightroom installed on the old desktop and now wish to transfer your catalogue and all files to the external drive and work from that.
So what you would do would be to transfer the entire contents of the lightroom folder on your old computer, except for any images, to the same location on your new laptop. This would include the catalogue files and any folders containing previews. Then you would copy all your image files to the new external hard drive. When you open lightroom you can then select the catalogue you copied from the old computer and open it. In the the folder pane in the library module you can then right click on one of the folders and select "locate missing files". Then you just need to point light room to the new location of your images. You may or may not need to regenerate all your previews.
I store all my images on external hard drives and I even run the catalogue and previews from the same external drives. I have backups of all my images of course. I have light room make backups of the catalogue to the C drive on my laptop so that the original and the backup are stored in different locations.
NEF is the proprietary file system for raw images used on Nikon cameras. DNG is a universal raw file format developed by Adobe. You can convert your files from NEF to DNG on import, but as Lightroom can read both types of files it is not necessary. At this point in time if you are using lightroom you should get similar results from either type of file.
To store imports on the new external drive you can you tell light room to copy the files to the new drive or you can manually copy the files to the new location and have light room import From the current location.
Hope this helps
Gordon

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up. I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up.
I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?
When I bought the new (used) iMac, I also bought an external hard drive for backups. It worked fine, but my husband stole it.
Then I bought a new external hard drive (Seagate) and it worked fine for three weeks, then died.
So I just got a new external hard drive, which was put together from an internal hard drive and a hard drive enclosure.
Time machine did the first backup today, and it should have taken 9 hours like it did on the previous first time full back up. Instead, it took 30 minutes. That can't be right. I want to start over and do a full backup to make sure everything gets onto my new external hard drive, but I can't figure out how to do that. Please help.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
tmutil compare -E
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.

Getting my backed-up photos into iPhoto on the new external hard drive

I managed to use Time Machine to restore the back-up of my external hard drive (that died) to a new external hard drive, however, while I can see the .jpeg images that were in my original (ext. hard drive) iPhoto library on the new Passport Drive, they are no longer set up in an iPhoto library. I might have confused the system because I had thought I needed a shell structure iPhoto library on the new hard drive, so I basically moved the new "budding" iPhoto library established on my iMac's internal hard drive to the Passport drive before restoring the Time Machine backup. What I see now is 1. a 4GB iPhoto library existing on the internal drive. 2. an identical 4GB iPhoto library existing on the external Passport drive and 3. a folder named Simpletech with the entire contents of the failed hard drive including all the photos from my original 54GB iPhoto library that resided on the old external hard drive, which are accessible as independent .jpeg files, but no longer organized as an iPhoto library.
Would love to know the steps to having just one iPhoto library on the Passport external hard drive that contains all my images without accidentally losing/deleting any images and messing up pointers. I would not mind eliminating the iPhoto library on the internal hard drive either, provided I could get all the images into the main one.
Angie in Charlotte

while I can see the .jpeg images that were in my original (ext. hard drive) iPhoto library on the new Passport Drive
When you enter Time Machine and go to the Pictures folder do you not see the iPhoto Library in it at different dates?
Click to view full size
If you used Time Machine to backup your hard drive then the iPhoto Library package should be in it. If you did something different please explain in detail what you did.
OT

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.

I need to split my iPhoto. I have a new external hard drive - can I just drag Photo events into the drive?

I need to move events from my iPhoto to a new external hard drive. Can I just drag events into the hard drive?

No.
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.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

New external hard drive doesn't back up

Hi All,
So I had an email from Apple stating my hard drive might be faulty and they will replace it free of charge. So, I went out and purchased a brand new external hard drive to use as my time machine back up.
I formatted my hard drive to use only as a time machine backup. Half way thorugh my first backup, something interuppted it and it didn't finish the backup.
So, I've tried many times since to back up my machine and everytime i get this message............
[IMG]http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad67/Deano1903/Backup.png[/IMG]
I am using OS - Mountain Lion 10.8.2

Hello:
It is not helpful to you, but I have never seen anything like that before.
Did you install any Seagate software when you got your new drive?
Did you buy the "Seagate plus for Mac OS?"
Since I do not have a Seagate drive, I think it would be best if you went to the Seagate web site (http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/) and have them shoot the problem. If that does not help, come back and I will try to guess my way through the problem.
Barry

HT201250 new external hard drive for Time Machine backup suggestions?

Ok, I have 3 external hard drives; unfortunately I've used them on my PC and they are read only on my iMac. So, I need to buy a new external hard drive for Time Machine backup. I'm a little confused; can I buy any EHD and them format it so Mac can use it or are there special EHD's I need to purchase?
Anyone have a particular EHD that is working well for you? Thanks, Blue

Bluehowler wrote:
Ok, I have 3 external hard drives; unfortunately I've used them on my PC and they are read only on my iMac. So, I need to buy a new external hard drive for Time Machine backup. I'm a little confused; can I buy any EHD and them format it so Mac can use it or are there special EHD's I need to purchase?
Anyone have a particular EHD that is working well for you? Thanks, Blue
Unless you need all three external drives for your PC, you can reformat in one of them in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for use with Time Machine. However, since Time Machine backs up hourly, you'd need the external drive to be running constantly. That means ventilation of the drive becomes an issue since some, such as Seagate, can get very hot in their sealed enclosures. Some drive manufacturers try to get around this by spinning down the drive when not in use, but I've read complaints that that doesn't play well with a Mac. So whether you reuse one of your current externals or get a new one, it's a good idea to keep the drive's ventilation in mind.

Project will not open when saved to an external hard-drive

Hi,
Well, as the title says, I cannot reopen a project when saved to an external hard-drive, it will however do so when I save to a local drive... Not good if you wanna work around several workstations, any ideas as to why?
Thanks,
Phil.

Are you using Final Cut Pro?
You should be asking on that forum. It would be beneficial if you provided some concrete information, what computer, what drives, how are they formatted, how are they connected, what exactly happens when you try to open it?

When formatting a new external hard drive should i encrypt it?

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