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Jhingha

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 28, 2011
160
35
Hi,

because I don't have enough space left on my macbook (SSD, 250GB total, 60GB left) I was wondering if I could work from a Firewire 800 external harddrive on this project.

Or does this project must be on my SSD to edit it?

I know I can backup on a external drive, I've read all about that.

Thanks, Jhingha
 
I believe you can, but you're pushing video streams through a much smaller conduit: Firewire 800 is reasonably fast, but compared to SATA-III, it's slow. Don't expect stellar performance. Just save your iMovie projects to the external drive and import from that same drive.
 
In fact, it's recommended that you import video into iMovie and store it and subsequently edit it on an external drive. This prevents excess wear and tear on you internal drive due to the constant read/write activity during editing.

Although an SSD may not need the same precaution.
 
Thanks for the rapid replies!

Any of you might know where I can find a instruction or manual to do this?
 
Work from a external drive..
The onky option I come across to is to import the files into my built in drive.
 
Save you some googling:

http://help.apple.com/imovie/index.html#move7d66613

Note: "iMovie doesn’t support network-attached storage or external flash memory drives."

And: "If you choose “Move projects and Events,” the source video and other media you added to the project are moved to the new location and deleted from their original location, which means that you can view and edit the project in its new location without being connected to the computer the project was moved from. This also means that any projects still on the original computer that use footage that was moved refer to the footage in its new location. To view and edit these projects, the computer where they’re located must be connected to the hard disk the project was moved to."




https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3039377?start=0&tstart=0

Let me know how you get on with these.
 
I believe you can, but you're pushing video streams through a much smaller conduit: Firewire 800 is reasonably fast, but compared to SATA-III, it's slow. Don't expect stellar performance. Just save your iMovie projects to the external drive and import from that same drive.

Firewire 800 is still fast enough to provide the bandwidth for two HD video streams using the ProRes or Apple Intermediate Codec.
 
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Work from a external drive..
When importing video into iMovie use the Save/Import dialogue box and navigate to your external.

To move existing Events/Projects to an external drive, plug in the external and open iMovie. The external drive icon should appear in both the Project and Event Libraries. Just drag Events/Projects and drop them on the icon. When moving a Project, you will be asked if you want to move the associated Events as well. Say Yes.
 
When importing video into iMovie use the Save/Import dialogue box and navigate to your external.

To move existing Events/Projects to an external drive, plug in the external and open iMovie. The external drive icon should appear in both the Project and Event Libraries. Just drag Events/Projects and drop them on the icon. When moving a Project, you will be asked if you want to move the associated Events as well. Say Yes.

Thanks! :)

(omg, why have I never seen that option...)
 
Last edited:
But how to I START a project on an external drive?

Seem all these tips and links are for copying/moving a project. I simply want to initiate a project from an external drive and not have to use my internal drive for the assets at all.

Can I do this?

FYI I'm using iMovie 10, saw the post about navigating to an external drive when importing video, but I don't have that option. Maybe they removed it?
 
A related question --- I am trying to keep all videos on an external drive now. They were in iPhoto before, listed in a smart album called All Videos. I have them backed up on one external hard drive using Time Machine for everything, also backed up on a second external hard drive just for photos and videos. My goal is to erase all video files from my MacBook Pro.

My confusion is how to access those videos from within iMovie when they are on an external hard drive that has stored everything under iPhoto library. The Masters folder under iPhoto library has a huge mixture of photos and videos.

No I am assuming that I will have to save all videos in a separate folder on this external drive somehow. I have over 800.

Oh wait, I may have just thought of how to do this. If I create a separate iPhoto library that is only to be used from the external hard drive, then I assume that I can use iPhoto events from that library. Does that make sense? Then I could create some smart albums on that second library that divide up my videos in a logical way. Then I could do my import into iMovie from that drive in that way?

Thanks for any suggestions.
 
But how to I START a project on an external drive?

Seem all these tips and links are for copying/moving a project. I simply want to initiate a project from an external drive and not have to use my internal drive for the assets at all.

Can I do this?

FYI I'm using iMovie 10, saw the post about navigating to an external drive when importing video, but I don't have that option. Maybe they removed it?
This worked for me, move your entire iMovie Library into the hard drive and work it like a loop, it will import the files in the library which is located in the external HD
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203049
 
Its been over a year, but I just caught this thread. In the off chance you haven't figured this out yet fabian, move the library to the external and LAUNCH that ED library to start out. Then you can import clips from that same ED if you want.
 
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