Questions on external HD to store iTunes media

[belarocks]

We have been using a 2008 iMac (upgraded 2 TB) hard drive as the media server for our iPads, Iphones, and ATVs. It runs 24/7 - has worked great and had no issues. We running out of room on the internal drive and are considering buying an external drive connected to the iMac via firewire. I also briefly looked at the NAS route and decided it wasn’t for us. The external drive would only be used for our iTunes library only.

Are there any issues with sleep/wake and external drive? Is there any lag time compared with media store on an internal drive? The iMac is in our kitchen – so noise could be a factor. Any other input or suggestions on implementing would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dynaflash]

Personally, its the best solution as opposed to say a drive connected to an aeb. I have the same basic setup and notice no lag, firewire especially is plenty fast to where the bottleneck would be your ethernet or wireless connection to your atv. I'd say let it rip. Just my .02

 

[From A Buick 8]

I use a 4bay drobo connected using firwire to our iMac and it works great. Runs 24/7 as well.

As with anything you should have a good backup plan as well, i just use a firewire harddrive dock and back everything up to a few 2TB drives about once a month.

 

[belarocks]

Thanks for the quick advice - We do have a Time Capsule, so I guess connecting the external drive to it is an option - My original concern was it would require using the usb port rather than firewire.

 

[Kabeyun]

Thanks for the quick advice - We do have a Time Capsule, so I guess connecting the external drive to it is an option - My original concern was it would require using the usb port rather than firewire.

That would be a mistake if you're going to use it for streaming video. TC external drive performance for video streaming is awful. Your first instinct was the right one. Don't know why you don't want the NAS, but a large Firewired HD will do fine. PLEASE be sure to carefully read Apple's info on migrating your iTunes media to an external drive. Do it wrong and you can end up with duplicates or iTunes that doesn't know where it's files live. Remember that the iTunes LIBRARY file will end up living on your Mac, but the MEDIA FOLDER will end up living on your external volume.

BTW, I do have an as-new LaCie 1TB hard drive I'm looking to sell. Let me know if you're interested. And no, this post wasn't a setup for that. Just fortuitous.

 

[jason.siegel]

TC external drive performance for video streaming is awful

It works fine for me, and I have a pretty slow setup. I have an external drive connected to the oldest-generation TC by USB, so it's 2.0. The external stores my iTunes video library. I stream wirelessly to my Air and then wirelessly back to TC & Apple TV. Although sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get going, once it does there is no issue. I figure when my TC dies, I'll replace it with a new one that supports USB 3.0, and the setup will become more responsive.

 

[GarrettL1979]

I have an external drive usb connected to our AEBS which houses our iTunes library. I haven't noticed any lag. It works great.