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External Hard Drive Setup on iMac

ghsDUDE

ghsDUDE

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 25, 2010
2,921
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I have this external hard drive.

I have it partitioned so 500GB is for Time Machine and 500GB is for free use.
Now my iMac has 500GB of storage but I recently added about 150GB's of movies into my iTunes.

Is there any way to move my movies off my iMac onto the external hard drive so I can have the free space on my iMac? Because my buddy doesn't use any of his iMac's Hard Drive and stores everything on his external hard drive.

Is USB 2.0 the quickest USB Mac's (iMacs) support? Or is USB 3.0 supported too?

Just wondering what the best/safest setup is?
 
F

flatfoot

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2009
1,010
3
johndoejohndoes said:
I have this external hard drive.

I have it partitioned so 500GB is for Time Machine and 500GB is for free use.
Now my iMac has 500GB of storage but I recently added about 150GB's of movies into my iTunes.

Is there any way to move my movies off my iMac onto the external hard drive so I can have the free space on my iMac? Because my buddy doesn't use any of his iMac's Hard Drive and stores everything on his external hard drive.

Is USB 2.0 the quickest USB Mac's (iMacs) support? Or is USB 3.0 supported too?

Just wondering what the best/safest setup is?
Click to expand...

USB 2.0 is the fastest you can get until Apple releases an iMac with built-in USB 3.0.

FireWire (even FW400), though, is way faster than USB 2.0 in real life.
 
Fishrrman

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,343
12,460
"Is there any way to move my movies off my iMac onto the external hard drive so I can have the free space on my iMac? Because my buddy doesn't use any of his iMac's Hard Drive and stores everything on his external hard drive."

Yes, you can just "copy them manually" to the "free area" of the external.

"Is USB 2.0 the quickest USB Mac's (iMacs) support? Or is USB 3.0 supported too?"

Currently, your Mac will only support USB2, and from checking the specs of your drive, the drive is USB2 as well -- that's all the speed you're going to get.

The new Macs introduced this year will have USB3, but it is not something to which you can "upgrade" an older Mac.

"Just wondering what the best/safest setup is?"

Well, the "safest setup" is to always have a copy of your important data in at least TWO places, not just one. Remember that if you copy the movies from the internal drive to the external (and then delete them from the internal drive), the data will be in only ONE place. That means if you have a problem with the external drive, the data could be lost.

By the way, I do not recommend using Time Machine to create your backups. You would do much better by downloading the free CarbonCopyCloner app from
http://bombich.com
....and then using it to create a bootable clone of your internal drive to the external drive.

The advantage of having a "clone" (rather than a TM backup) is that the clone is BOOTABLE (TM backups are not), and the files on the clone are in POFF (plain ol' finder format). Just plug in the drive, and everything comes right up on the desktop. If for some reason you can't boot from the internal drive, you can boot from the external drive and be up and running in just a couple of minutes (and then work to correct the problem on the internal drive).

The DISadvantage of having a CCC clone is that you have to choose to run it (rather than having it run automatically like TM). But if you are willing to do that, you will be much "better protected" against disasters by using CCC than you will by using TM.
 
B

Bear

macrumors G3
Jul 23, 2002
8,088
5
Sol III - Terra
johndoejohndoes said:
...
Just wondering what the best/safest setup is?
Click to expand...
You shouldn't have any data you want backed up on your backup drive even if it's in a different partition. If the drive dies, you lose the data plus you backup. Also, some backup programs won't backup to the same drive.

Your best bet is to use separate external drives for data and for backups. Also, make sure your backup drive is more than large enough to back up everything.

USB 3.0 drives will work fine, but at USB 2.0 speeds. I would still opt for the USB 3 drive so it will transfer data faster on a new Mac when they get USB 3.
 
ghsDUDE

ghsDUDE

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 25, 2010
2,921
740
Fishrrman said:
"Is there any way to move my movies off my iMac onto the external hard drive so I can have the free space on my iMac? Because my buddy doesn't use any of his iMac's Hard Drive and stores everything on his external hard drive."

Yes, you can just "copy them manually" to the "free area" of the external.

"Is USB 2.0 the quickest USB Mac's (iMacs) support? Or is USB 3.0 supported too?"

Currently, your Mac will only support USB2, and from checking the specs of your drive, the drive is USB2 as well -- that's all the speed you're going to get.

The new Macs introduced this year will have USB3, but it is not something to which you can "upgrade" an older Mac.

"Just wondering what the best/safest setup is?"

Well, the "safest setup" is to always have a copy of your important data in at least TWO places, not just one. Remember that if you copy the movies from the internal drive to the external (and then delete them from the internal drive), the data will be in only ONE place. That means if you have a problem with the external drive, the data could be lost.

By the way, I do not recommend using Time Machine to create your backups. You would do much better by downloading the free CarbonCopyCloner app from
http://bombich.com
....and then using it to create a bootable clone of your internal drive to the external drive.

The advantage of having a "clone" (rather than a TM backup) is that the clone is BOOTABLE (TM backups are not), and the files on the clone are in POFF (plain ol' finder format). Just plug in the drive, and everything comes right up on the desktop. If for some reason you can't boot from the internal drive, you can boot from the external drive and be up and running in just a couple of minutes (and then work to correct the problem on the internal drive).

The DISadvantage of having a CCC clone is that you have to choose to run it (rather than having it run automatically like TM). But if you are willing to do that, you will be much "better protected" against disasters by using CCC than you will by using TM.
Click to expand...

I just copied my iTunes folder to the "FREE" part of my external hard drive.
Now if I delete the iTunes folder off my Mac HD will it automatically read it from the "FREE" hard drive?

And since I just copied it over to the "FREE" Hard Drive how do I keep the "FREE" hard drive iTunes updated?

I have CCC...now what's the best way to run it? I like Time Machine because it's simple...but I've had to restore everything and it took HOURS! What's the best way to back everything up to CCC so if there is a crash or something I can restore everything?

Is this the best way? Because this keeps popping up?
I created 2 partitions to the hard drive...one titled CCC for it.

Edit - I Opened the Disk Center like it asked me. I created a Recovery HD on CCC. After that I cloned my Mac HD onto CCC. The "Following Concerns" pop-up didn't come up again so I'm assuming everything worked. Did I just write over the Recovery HD on CCC since I cloned the Hard Drive afterwards?
 

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Taz Mangus

Taz Mangus

macrumors 604
Mar 10, 2011
7,815
3,504
johndoejohndoes said:
I just copied my iTunes folder to the "FREE" part of my external hard drive.
Now if I delete the iTunes folder off my Mac HD will it automatically read it from the "FREE" hard drive?

And since I just copied it over to the "FREE" Hard Drive how do I keep the "FREE" hard drive iTunes updated?

I have CCC...now what's the best way to run it? I like Time Machine because it's simple...but I've had to restore everything and it took HOURS! What's the best way to back everything up to CCC so if there is a crash or something I can restore everything?

Is this the best way? Because this keeps popping up?
I created 2 partitions to the hard drive...one titled CCC for it.

Edit - I Opened the Disk Center like it asked me. I created a Recovery HD on CCC. After that I cloned my Mac HD onto CCC. The "Following Concerns" pop-up didn't come up again so I'm assuming everything worked. Did I just write over the Recovery HD on CCC since I cloned the Hard Drive afterwards?
Click to expand...

There are two ways to tell iTunes where the iTunes library moved to. Open iTunes, open preferences then Advanced tab. Edit the "iTunes Media folder location" field. The other way is to hold down the option-key while iTunes is coming up, select "Choose Library...", browse to the new location of the iTunes library.

To boot to the Lion clone, hold down the option-key while the iMac is rebooting, select the clone that you created. Another way is from System Preferences -> Startup Disk.

I have to agree with what others have said, it is not a good idea to have the Lion clone on the same HD as the Time Machine backup. External HDs are cheap these days. Go buy yourself a 500GB external HD and place the Lion clone on it.
 
Last edited:
R

robgendreau

macrumors 68040
Jul 13, 2008
3,465
329
You really have to settle on a backup strategy.

The different types all have advantages. Cloning might be overkill for certain uses, and versioning (Time Machine) has advantages over cloning and archiving.

Media might not require Time Machine unless you're editing that media, then it becomes very helpful and better than cloning. If these are songs or movies you just play then a simple strategy of copying them to different drives should work. If you suffer a loss of data you just copy it back.

If you use iTunes or iPhoto to manage media you have some build in safeguards. Both can COPY the media into its libraries, leaving the original files in place. So you could have a "Movie" folder on an external, but iTunes also copies the media from within that folder into its library on your boot drive.

Rob
 
ghsDUDE

ghsDUDE

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 25, 2010
2,921
740
Alright.

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

Now one more question...I noticed this and it looks new?
Do I need it? How can I delete it?
 

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Taz Mangus

Taz Mangus

macrumors 604
Mar 10, 2011
7,815
3,504
johndoejohndoes said:
Alright.

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

Now one more question...I noticed this and it looks new?
Do I need it? How can I delete it?
Click to expand...

That is showing that you have mounted a image somewhere, maybe your desktop. If you want to delete from the list just highligt in Disk Utility and then press the delete key. Were you installing the Adobe Flash player?
 
ghsDUDE

ghsDUDE

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 25, 2010
2,921
740
Taz Mangus said:
That is showing that you have mounted a image somewhere, maybe your desktop. If you want to delete from the list just highligt in Disk Utility and then press the delete key. Were you installing the Adobe Flash player?
Click to expand...

Yeah it must have been Adobe Flash which just updated.
I deleted it.

Thanks!
 
Fishrrman

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,343
12,460
Carbon Copy Cloner gives you the option of either copying or not copying the normally-hidden "Recovery Partition".

It's your choice, but my opinion is you don't really need to do it, because the entire CCC clone becomes your "recovery" volume.

If you're unsure, by all means choose to copy it.
 
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